I would be a complete moron if I had not written a blog about this house or if I had named it something else. My recollection of this one year would not be complete if I were to skip this part. This is where it all began and this is where it is ending now as I write this blog sitting in Alok's room with the final day in this house glooming over our heads. I took asylum on a couch in this house when I first arrived at UK. For someone who thought that life in UK would be tough, cruel and lonely, this place gave me a slap on the face and woke me up. Though after the initial week I moved to my own room, I had spent most of my time here. I was always welcome here (I think so...) as it is the case with any other Indians in Loughborough.

The inmates of the house - Alok, Satish and Praveen, impressed by my sambar on the first day, waved me an invitation to cook and eat with them. With that, the first thing I feared about life here in UK on eating alone had vanished. Walking here on every cold winter night for every meal was tough. But the fun in having a meal with these guys would blow it far away. The ordeal would start with the discussion on what to cook. After an hour with no solid decision, some frustrated mind would start with a bowl of rice. Another hand would join in and start cutting potatoes and onions as if being told to by some divine power. As soon as they are done, few more hands would dive in and start making magic out of mashed potatoes. Finally after four funny hours, it would all end up in one drooling meal.

With the cold winter winds beginning to blow heavily it became more and more tougher to tread the distance for every meal I slowly started cooking at my house. But the house found its new guests. With the winter holidays around the corner and with more Indians in Loughborough getting to know each other, the house became sort of a meeting point. Soon it turned out to be a party house and a B&B for few others. As the numbers kept increasing, the number '367' became a popular phrase and conversations soon began addressing 367 as a whole than its individual inmates. Whether it be a bad day, boredom to be beaten, an (un)invited party, a night out or a visit back to Loughborough there would always be an alien in the house picking one or more of the above reasons. The couch soon began hosting more and more happy occupants.

Parties come with pains. The enjoyments started taking its toll on the house and the inmates. Cleaning the house raised an issue. Expenditures on food skyrocketed. But still the happiness surmounted it all and the countless plans to quit partying were all disarmed. The partying continued and so did the pains and the breakdowns. It would be hard to point at something that has not been damaged either partly or entirely. The stove had to be replaced with miraculously the new being made to resemble the old one in damage status now. The microwave has a two-inch diameter hole on the top surface with only God knows how it was made. The heating, the bulbs, the shower and even the door-knob was not spared. But what is fun without a little adventure.

But now as we prepare to leave the den once and for all, as me and satish saw the couch being dragged and dumped outside, the kitchen being teared down for rennovation and us packing our bags and leaving behind the emptiness, we could only think of all the happy times, relish all the delicious meals, remember those joyous parties and pray that clubeasy doesn't charge us for breaking so many stuffs!!!

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