NISER’s meditation center. I made this using Inkscape during our ‘COVID break’.
After scampering home in the third week of March - a mere 9 months ago, I’m now back in NISER. I flew in today (11/12/2020) from Chennai and landed at Bhubaneswar at 8:30am. I was at the NISER gate by 9:45am and it took my almost two and a half hours to get into my allocated quarantine room. I am jotting down my experience so far with the hope that it will help you get a bit more clarity on what to expect and pack smartly. Also because I have little else to do.
The Procedure
Step 1: Document checking at the gates (~5 min). I had to show a printout of the Google Form and the medical certificate. They checked my temperature and asked me to sign in a “I-have-now-entered-NISER-premises” form.
Step 2: Waiting for the bus to take you to the Health Center (~60 minutes). There is only one bus which ferries incoming students to their hostels via the Health Center. This is puzzling to say the least. I had to wait for the bus for an hour because I got unlucky (the previous “batch” left when I was filling out my forms at the gate). Unless the authorities add another bus, the wait times are going to be touching 120 minutes very soon. In my bus, there were 7 other people.
Step 3: Filling in a document at the Health Center (~70 minutes). It only took me 10 minutes to complete the formalities. I was asked about my travel and COVID history. The official then gave me a slip which I had to submit to the security guard of the hostel that I was assigned. Our bus started only when everyone in my batch was done (my batch had 8 people). Weird system.
Step 4: Checking into the hostel (~10 minutes). I had to submit the form that the Health Center officials gave me to the guard. I got my room key, a (new) bucket and a (new) mug, and a few garbage bags after I signed on the hostel registry.
Some Observations
From what I understand, those who were in Krishna (DOH-1), will be allocated rooms in Yamuna (SOH-5). Yamuna is the second IIT transit hostel which is right in front of the new cricket ground (which now looks unkempt and… sad). Some of the residents of Brahmaputra (DOH-3) will stay in their rooms while the remaining will stay at Yamuna. I’ve heard conflicting notes about where the girls are going to say. One of the posters that was put up on the bus indicated that all of them would quarantine in Bhagirathi (DOH-2), but an email that one of the wardens sent out said that they would be quarantined in their own rooms in Mahanadi (SOH-1). I’ll update this once I get more information. Update: Looks like the girls get to stay in their own rooms in SOH-1. No fair :(
My room in Yamuna was cleaned and dusted when I walked in. It is about 3/4th in terms of floor space to my room in Krishna. No complaints whatsoever from my part. I do not think any of the rooms have curtains installed (mine does not even have the rods) so if that is important to you, get a curtain; even if there is no rod, you could attach it to the windows directly. Since the shelves are bare, it might be useful to bring a couple of newspapers to cover it so that you can put your clothes on them. Get a rag as well, it’ll help clean the food after you are done eating. This hostel does not seem to have the campus Wi-Fi, but the LAN works. I’m not entirely sure if this was only a problem in my room, but only one of the four LAN “sockets” is actually a port. The others are just holes drilled into the walls. I almost broke my cable by putting it into one of the non-port sockets and then having to yank it out of there. That would have been disastrous.
I’ve just had one meal till now here and, I never thought I’d say this about our hostel food, it was pretty good. Very generous portions of rice, dal and paneer; a not-so-generous portion of one of the usual potato curry; two rotis; some cucumber salad. They knock on the door and place the packaged food on your doorstep. Get a plate, the one they give is as useful as a plate as a newspaper. The non-veg people get the chicken thali, while us vegetarians get the paneer thali. We’ll get food four times a day: breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. I hope that they maintain this food quality over the next week and a half.