India Online Journal, November 2001
Author: Jennifer Kumar

All photos and text on this and subsequent pages are property of Jennifer Kumar (unless otherwise quoted). If you would like to link to my site or borrow or use images from my pages, please contact me. More about me here. Thank you.
Day 7

Today was the day I could receive my hall ticket. It is such a strange process, of which you realize only as you are stepping through it. It is not listed out anywhere, what you need to bring or what you need to do. You find out when you begin and while it is happening (if you are lucky)! Luckily, I had started the process last week, so I knew the first thing I needed to bring was a passport size photo. So, with this photo, I went to the woman in charge and handed her the photo and asked how to get the ID. She said I first needed to pay five rupees downstairs and then only she could give the form for the ID. So, I went downstairs and somehow found the right counter to pay and the lady there issued me a handwritten receipt. Then I went back up stairs, handed the receipt over, and was told that I would have to fill out a form and paste the photo on it. The paper asked for my name, department, registration number and dates the exams the candidate was to show for.
This hall ticket needs to be presented in the exam hall for each exam along with the temporary ID. Without one or both pieces of paper, the student can not sit in the hall and write the exam.

After completing this, she took the form, put on college seal over my photo and the paper and the principal’s signature stamp on the bottom and handed it back to me. With this form, my temporary ID, I was able to go and collect my hall ticket. It is only with these two items that one is able to sit and write the exams. Upon reaching the exams office, the place to obtain the hall ticket, I approached the attendee at the counter, the place where the ID is usually given. The boy there said ‘Wait.’ Few others were indeed waiting in the exams office. The exams office also doubles as the exams hall, so there are about 100 desks inside there, and the front ones were occupied by some boys. So I thought there must be another way. I tried to see if I could see the coordinator. In India if you can’t get something the direct way, it is usually possible to get it the indirect way! But instead of seeing the coordinator, I saw a desk on situated in the open air hallway to his office. The desk was crowded by boys and two women on the other end handing out the hall tickets. Bingo!

This is one of three recipts for tuition, paid semesterly. Each semester the total fees totalled Rs800- Rs1000 (US$20 -US$30). 		I approached the desk, ahead of all the boys. I know very well in India, ladies can budge. Well everyone does, but ladies can get ahead since there should usually be a separate ladies line in most places. I thought it would save me time, as the lady handing the tickets took my temporary ID and started searching for the ticket. But she got side tracked, as is not uncommon, and made me wait for some time. Then a lady came out of the coordinator’s office, and told this lady to hurry and give the hall ticket to me so the coordinator could speak to me. I got it quite fast, and then went in to see the coordinator, who basically asked how I was, when I arrived and wished me all the best for my exams.
This may seem like a lengthy and drawn out process, but I am telling you this is normal policy at MCC. To brief how some other tasks are completed, I will list out steps in paying for college fees. Firstly, college fees are not paid in one lump sum for the whole year or semester as in US. Each type of fee is paid separately, at separate times and in separate places.

Tuition Fees
Tuition fees are paid usually at the beginning of the semester. The forms are given in your academic department. The students have to find out what fees are necessary to pay and fill up three receipts, each different colors. These receipts are then taken to the bank, where the students stand in a long cue and the teller takes the receipts and asks for correct change to collect your fees, then stamps all the receipts paid and hands one back to you. All this is done without computers, hence it is time consuming.
Exam Fees
Exam fees are also paid separately from the tuition fees, at a different time and even sometimes at a different place. The college will announce on a particular day the days which the exams fees can be paid. Usually students have an idea of the first day, but not all the time. The students who bring money on the first day can pay everything there in the exams office without hassle. The only hassle is in filling up the receipts. Elsewise, on the second to last day of fee paying period, the student has to go to the Bursar’s office, collect the three receipts, fill them up, along with a yellow form, which is an application, and a white form, which is a receipt the exams office stamps communicating they received all the forms correctly. These are all taken to the bank, where once again, the student has to stand in the cue and pay the fees. After paying the fees, the student takes the receipts (two) back to the exams office with the yellow application form and the white receipt and turns them to the exams attendee who stamps all forms and returns on colored pay receipt to the student and the white paper to the student.

It must be stated that most students wait til the last day to pay the fees, and on this day, most teachers do not hold class. College classes generally start at 8:45 am and go on til 1:40pm or so. This schedule is in flexible, it is like attending school, and since the bank is only open during these times, the teachers have no choice but to allow the students to go, giving them attendance.
Exam fees are also paid semesterly, about Rs 800.


Hostel fees are paid monthly. Fees generally ranged from Rs800- Rs1000.
Yes, most people in India spelled my name with 2 Fs and 1 N! ;)		 Hostel Feels
The hostel, or dorm fees are paid, again at another time and place. The student pays his or her fees in the hostel in which they stay, in the warden’s office on a monthly basis. There are no mixed hostels, boys are separated from girls. Boys are not allowed in Girl’s Hostels as is the same for Girl’s into Boy’s Hostels. There are only certain days of the year this is permitted, and it is big gossip, to which room this boy or girl will visit (it is permitted for only a few hours on that particular day of the year). Anyhow, on the day the hostel fees are posted, the student visits the warden’s room and meets the hostel accountant, to whom the fees are paid. There are a list of fees, one for room rent, one for mess hall (non-vegetarian food extra), electricity (fan and up to two extra outlets charged separately), and miscellaneous. For me, this usually came to about Rs. 1000 per month. The hostel also has an ayyah (servant maid) whom can wash our clothes daily (by hand), whom I paid Rs 50 per month for this service.

So, after collecting my hall ticket, I had to make some Xerox copies, so I headed toward the Xerox booth. There is a small stall located behind the English department where students can get Xerox copies for 75 paisa per copy. This is a bit more expensive than going outside the college gate, where it costs only 35 paisa per copy. But, In India,usually the more you pay for something, the better quality it is, hence this works the same. The outside Xerox comes dark with streaks, inside the college it is somewhat clearer. Also, in India, everything is done for you, which means it is not self-serve.

In some ways this is very good, because the attendant can adjust the contrast on the copy for you until it is right, and you don’t have to keep paying for that, or if the machine doesn’t copy the paper right or jams, you don’t have to pay for those mistakes. You pay only for the good copies. So, I handed the book to the attendant. Another nice thing is they are very good at making two sided copies, so I asked him to make two sided copies for me. This is something, if I had to do, would surely mess up, but he did like second nature.

Taking Xerox is a culture in itself for college students in India. For one, no one likes to spend money on text books, knowing they are usually used only once. Secondly, as in the case of MCC, and many other colleges, the college doesn’t have a text book store neither is there a particular shop to collect the books, one has to travel to many shops all over Chennai city for collecting all the books for one semester itself. Travelling is not easy in Chennai, over crowded buses, tilting full to the road, men hanging off the doors and out the windows, and sometimes, off the top. There is usually no place to sit in the bus or train and one has to stand on the tippy toes and hang on the bar on top of the ceiling of the bus or the bars on the back of the seats, simultaneously watching your bag, since it takes only one second for the poor beggar, a professional mugger, to cut your bag bottom or open a pocket on your bag and steal your valuables without your knowledge. Hence, many people put their money in all areas of their bag, some in wallet, some in a pocket, some hidden inside books. I have also adopted this, being silently ‘mugged’ twice. ON top of this, it can take one to two hours one way to get to the book shop, and it is only upon starting to search the shop you will know if the book you want is available. It is only the costly, western type of bookshops that may take phone calls and search for your books, but mostly text book shops are come in and see for yourself types of shops. Hence, if one classmate purchased a book and shared it with the class, it would be immediately taken to the 35 paisa Xerox, and after a few days we would have our own full Xeroxed and spiral bound copies to do with as we wished.
A very unusual sight -- empty bus stop and 'empty' bus!
Photo by C. Frank Starmer. Used by permission.
source page

Business card from LNC shop. Use this for your reference, and tell them that I sent you!
In some ways I prefer this method because you can write in the ‘book’ without guilt. I am an avid avoided of writing in original books. The problem in all this happens when your classmate or your department in college has only Xeroxed copies of the book you need, then taking Xerox of the Xerox can be hard on the eyes and spirit! From here, I went back to the house, ate lunch and slept til 5pm, at which time my friend’s mother and I went to west Tambaram to take me back and to do shopping.
Again, we went to the same shop I went with Amma last week, LNC. Today, we did more in depth shopping. Shopping for saris is an adventure in India, which never ceases to amaze me. I just love it, once sucked inside that sari shop, it is so hard for me to leave, surrounded by all the colors, fabrics, designs, and over zealous shop keepers. I like this shop a lot though, because Amma has been frequenting this shop for about 20 or more years, so they don’t really problem us too much in buying things. When shopping for saris, it is not like a western shop (a majority are like this, besides maybe expensive boutiques), where all the clothes are on racks for you to touch and browse without a shop keeper bothering you. Here most things are kept behind see through cupboards. It is not possible to buy saris without having the man take the sari out and show you how it is. One thing is a sari has two parts, a body and a pallu (the part hanging over the back side), and these two parts are usually very different. The body maybe very nice, but the pallu is just raunchy. For example, I saw a nice sari body, it was a flower pattern (like daisies) throughout, the middle section was yellow, outlined black flowers, and the border was a grey color, with yellow outlined flowers, but the yellow wasn’t yellow, it was more a bright mustard color. But when I asked the man to take it out and ‘open it’ to show the pallu, it was so gaudy! It was like this big black and brown dead looking flower on a puke green background. I just declined.
I learned that it is their job to take out the saris and show, and the show so many to one customer, and they may not buy even one. For example, today, they must have taken over 100 saris out and opened them for us to see, and behind is another man folding and putting away. I think many westerners feel very uncomfortable about ‘making the shopkeeper’ take out and put away many yards of unstitched fabric (same with choosing salvaar kamiz or many other varieties of clothing in everyday Indian clothing stores) without choosing one to buy. IN Bombay, three years ago, due to this guilt I not only got severely cheated (paid way too much) but ended up with a few dresses I did not really like. My advice, don’t feel bad, even if you make them take 1,000 saris or salvaar kamiz’s out of the cupboard. If you don’t like it or you think they are ripping you off, don’t buy it. Just walk out of the shop. In some cases (Not this one) if the shop is one in which you can bargin, walking away is good, because if the shop keeper really wants to sell it, he will keep shouting a lower price to you to lure you back.

The sari being held out has an attached blouse piece. Can you see all the saris sitting on the counter (there are even more under the sari being held out)? We asked to remove all these from the see through cupboards to view the patterns, borders, and pallus.
Totally, between my friend’s mom, myself and Amma, we must have asked the man to take out over 75 saris, cotton, synthetic, silk: pattu (pure silk) and varieties, and open them and fold them back to store away. Out of those, we kept about 20 in a separate pile to make final selections from. So, I had about 10 for my second round to make a final selection. This is really the hardest part for me. After browsing about 50 saris, now I made it down to 10, then now I have to make it down to two or three. What I usually do is take the saris next to a mirror and put them up to my skin or face and see how they make me look. The ones that make me look brightest or smartest, I choose them. Today, though I decided I would buy only one for myself, so I had two for that purpose, one of which I chose. That was the newest Diwali design, a black and purple checks design with a golden pallu. From the other eight, I wanted to choose two for my friend, so I put them up to my face, since she looks a bit like me. So I decided on a nice grey colored one with flower print and red border, and a forest green one with golden elephant border.

Some saris come with attached blouse piece also, which is convenient, but may be very transparent. Of the saris I chose only the forest green one had an attached blouse piece, but if stitched as is, would be very transparent.
Usually you can see people on the street with such transparent blouses. This is one thing that shocked me initially in India. Though only the back the blouse is showing, it shows the entire bra through it! So, to remedy this, I buy a lining piece to get stitched underneath it. For the other saris, I had to buy a single blouse piece. Blouse pieces come thicker and thinner (more transparent) I always prefer the thicker variety blouse bit (as they call it), and a bit larger piece so my blouses are a bit longer in the back than the ready made ones. So, instead of 80 centimeters piece, which fits only over my bra in the back, the 90 centimeters will make it 6 inches past that on the back, so it is not so revealing.

The other thing about buying a blouse bit, is the color. Getting the exact color is crucial. Once it was style to have a blouse which was contrasting to the sari, now it is more fashionable to have a blouse which is the exact color of the sari, either the border of the sari or the interior. But usually if the border and interior of the sari are very different, the border color is best for the blouse.
This is the inside of the cut piece shop. Notice all the variations of colors.
This was the case with the red and grey sari. IT would look a bit odd to have a grey blouse with a red border, so I got the red to match the border. The other thing about getting a blouse of the exact color, is just that, finding the exact color. It is not so clear cut as green, red, blue, etc. Some colors are very unique and don’t really have a name as such. There are two examples of this. Once a girl from U.S. came and wanted to buy a ready made blouse for her sari. She said the sari was black, but did not bring the sari with her to the shop. This was a mistake, while buying the sari blouse or blouse bit, once must ALWAYS bring the sari for matching colors exactly. So, it seems the sari looked black, but when she got the blouse back to the house and matched it to the sari, it seemed the sari was a mix between dark blue and black or a purplish black color. The second example was I was supposed to go to a wedding and I had borrowed a pattu sari from Amma. This sari was a ‘purple’ color, but not purple exactly. It was like a mix of purple, fushia and it was shiny.

This is how most sari shops look in T. Nagar. This photo was taken on Ranganathan Street in Tambaram.		 Finding the color itself was such a headache. We couldn’t get that color in Tambaram anywhere, in the 5 shops or so we went to. We had to travel all the way into the city (T. Nagar you get everything) to find that color, and at that, we visited about 10 shops to get the exact color. It may seem futile or very picky to do such a thing, but if one doesn’t wear the matching blouse, it just doesn’t look right, especially for a wedding.

This shop we were in today sells the saris and blouse and lining pieces, so there was no need to go outside, and they had the colors we needed. However, not all sari shops also sell the blouse pieces, it is only because this is a big shop, it had everything. We also bought some dhotis and lungis. Dhotis and Lungis are mens ‘wrap around skirts’ so to speak! In North India, they do not distinguish much between the two, but in South they do! A dhoti is a white unstitched piece cloth, either in ½ size or full size. Half size means it wraps only once with one fold in the front, full size means when folding in the front it has two folds. A lungi is always colored (usually a blue plaid design) and on that it is stitched into a circle, and the person wearing it steps into it and then folds it underneath the waist.
Usually in South India, Brahmins only wear dhotis, but my in one of my friend’s families the man is wearing a lungi. Another difference that some people have brought out to me, is the lungi is more a Muslim dress than a Hindu dress. That is why when you see pictures of the Muslims in the middle east, some seem to be wearing lungis.

After making our purchases, my friend’s mother went back to her house, and Amma and I went to the market. It started raining heavily, so it was difficult walking through the muddy passageways and market. My salvaar kamiz pant and top got mud on them. I have advice on this, if it happens to you wash this immediately. I washed it only the next day, and for some reason Indian mud will stain your dresses. This is not the first this is happening to me. Once I had a nice aqua green sari I wore out on a day it was muddy. The bottom full was mud and I soaked it immediately after getting home, and the mud never fully came out, even after soaking and using Rin Shakti (bar laundry soap) and rubbing it in with a clothes brush. If you are in India and have to go out when it is muddy have a ‘junk dress’ to wear that is nice, but you don’t mind much if it gets muddy. A dark dress is best. I have one grey dress for this purpose, but I also did not know it would rain that night.

Read this article about bus travel in India.
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