On Campus   Off Campus

Indian bathroom poster: “Cleanliness is next to godliness” i.e. use the bathrooms appropriately, flush afterwards, close the taps, even when NO water is running, and switch off the lights and fans when no one is present and at night. Do not become careless because others are.

• To apply for a hostel room before your arrival, fax to the DSW: 00-91-11-2619 82 34;

• After completing the admission, you can apply for a hostel room. Go to the Dean of Students' office and fill in the IHA-5 form. They are allotted to the first come first served, but all regular foreign students are guaranteed a bed (casual students get a bed if there is no shortage).

• Go to the Office of the Dean of Students and fill in 2 yellow forms with the study card. Write an application letter and state clearly that you are a foreign student and that you are staying outside the campus and are waiting for a hostel room. There is no separate hostel and no separate mess for foreign students; first take a look in a hostel and try a mess meal (see ACCOMMODATION - short term). Avoid rooms near the bathrooms (noise) or under the roof (heat). Subject to availability of rooms, insist on getting the hostel you prefer.

• Hostel life is a unique, rewarding and unforgettable experience, both for Indian and foreign students.

• The problems of limited hours of water supply (ground floors and Brahmaputra have usually always water) and of occasional power cuts may be a challenge; talk about the (dis)advantages of staying in a hostel with others.

• Living in a hostel keeps you in touch with what's living on the campus. Living off campus means paying rent, need of transportation, buying and preparing of food etc.

• If a hostel room is not yet available you can ask the DSW to recommend you for a temporary stay in a Guesthouse (see ACCOMMODATION - short term) or you can stay with a student in a hostel.

• Go to the assigned hostel and pay the hostel fee (form M I): the deposit, Rs. 1,715 (single) or 1,655 (double seater), of which Rs. 1,350 is refundable, the room rent, Rs. 350 per semester, and the establishment fee per semester varies between Rs. 250-400.

• Ask for the signature of the hostel Officer-in-Charge on the folios which you may have to ask back from your School / Centre and have your address filled in on your I-card. Ask a copy of the "Students' Hostel and General Information Guide" with extensive rules (e.g. Rule 3.6.9.: "Students should not waste food").

• There are some mixed (separate wings for girls and boys, common mess and TV) hostels, Sabarmati, Tapti and, Chandrabhaga, and one married students’ hostel (Mahanadi, old and extension).

• Both the girls' hostels ("Entry prohibited to gents"), Ganga, Godavari, Koyna, Yamuna (3 wings) and Tapti (1 wing), and the boys' hostels are called after an Indian river: Jhelum, Sutlej, Periyar, Lohit, Mahi Mandavi, Narmada (only BA and MA students), Kaveri, Chandrabhaga and Brahmaputra (a.k.a. Poorvanchal). The latter (old and ext.) has only MPhil and PhD students, and only single rooms.

• Yamuna is under direct control of the VC, whoever wants a single seater must apply after approval of the Dean and VC. In Yamuna the (one-time, refundable) deposit is Rs. 3000 and room rent 750 per month.

• Next to the new married students’ hostel (Mahanadi) are two hostels for post-doctoral students.

• Visiting foreign professors stay either in Mahanadi (old), Transit House (old) or Aravali guesthouse.

• Due to the shortage, MPhil students share a room with another student for two to three semesters before getting a single seater - unless boys want immediately a single room in Brahmaputra. BA and MA students don't get single seaters. The waiting time for a room in Mahanadi is about one year, depending on the queue.

• Make sure your furniture is available in the room: a bed, table, table lamp fixture and two chairs. You will have to buy your locks, mattress, pillow, sheets, blankets, bulbs/tube light (and a spoon and mug).
  

• MESS
  • respect the meal timings (tea ready at 7 am; breakfast 8-930am; lunch 1230 - 2pm; dinner 730-9pm);

  • you can get extra breakfast items (write it in the diet register);

  • you can order late/packed lunch or late dinner; (write it on the separate piece of paper);

  • three times a week non-veg dinner;

  • unlimited rice, chapatis, onions and dhal (pulses);

  • the food is spicy / hot but boiled food is available.

• MESS REBATE and MESS BILL
  • foreign students can fully withdraw from the mess;

  • lunch rebate is only possible for a month at a time;

  • up to 4 days you can get a complete mess rebate with a simple written application;

  • more than 4 days: chairperson/guide’s signature;

  • a mess rebate is only possible once a month;

  • extension of rebate when out of station by telegram or registered letter to the Mess Warden;

  • after return rebate is difficult, try the Mess Committee;

  • pay the monthly mess bill (± Rs. 1300) before the 24th of the following month (fine of Re.1 / day till the next month and then an additional Rs. 20).
  
  
  

• day scholars (“dayskis”) are students who stay outside the campus in private accommodation;

• they register with the Dean of Students Office (Day Scholar's card: passport / visa / LG details);

• ask where other students stay (Munirka, Ber Sarai, V.V. or Vasant Kunj) and what they pay (a single room costs between Rs. 3000 to 5000);

• rent conditions: is there hot and drinkable water? Are guests (boys-girls) allowed? Do the doors close at night?
  

• ask an Indian friend to do the negotiations with the landlord/real estate agent before you go; be cautious when you sign documents;

• you pay ½ month’s rent to a real estate agent after he found a room (tell him the rent limit!), the other ½ month’s rent should be paid by the landlord;

• Paying guest: in the newspapers (see Media) you find some advertisements for a guest staying in a room with a family; about Rs. 3000/month includes 1 hot meal/day.