Trending now : Young and responsible

While most 20-somethings are branded reckless for pub-hopping with friends and selfish for making their own decisions about everything in their lives, here is a breed of youngsters who commute for hours to college instead of leaving their parents to live on their own

Suhani Dewra

The youth brigade is infamous for aping the western culture be it for hanging out at coffee shops with friends or dancing at discotheques till wee hours or wearing spaghetti tops outside home or practicing risky biking stunts�the list is endless. But a tradition that seems to continue to stay with the Indian youth is that of the practice of staying with parents, even if that means long and tiresome commuting to far off places to reach college.

24-year-old Vishal Ram, a final year Mass Communications and Journalism student at Osmania University, Hyderabad, commutes for 70 kilometers every day from his home in Shamshabad to the university near Tarnaka. On a traffic-free day, it takes Vishal 50 minutes on his bike. "It has been two years, and now I am quite used to riding for long hours," says Vishal.

Anyone of Vishal's age would have preferred to move out of the house to rent a room with friends near the university and avoid the tedious ride. But to Vishal, looking after his parents was a priority. "With my brother off to a country abroad, I am the only support my parents can rely on. My parents like to live in the pollution free surrounding of Shamshabad. It would be selfish to leave them on their own in their twilight days," he shares.

Yet another student of Loyola Degree College at Alwal in Hyderabad shifted from his rented room close to college to his parents' house in Sangareddy district. When first year MSCs student, Abhishek Bakshi, had joined the course, he lived with his aunt in a house not far away from the college. In an unfortunate turn of event, Abhishek lost his mother and decided to live with his father so that he could extend support to him.

"I commute 60 kilometers to reach college and another 60 kilometers to get back home," he calculates. The journey begins at 6:30 in the morning with Abhishek changing the bus twice and taking an auto finally. "I board a bus to Bowenpally. From there, I take another bus to Suchitra and finally an auto to reach Loyola at nearly 9:30 am. Of course, the 120-kilometre journey is time consuming and terribly boring, but it is a decision I made to be there for my father whenever he needs me," says Abhishek.

It's not just boys who take the physically tiring exercise of commuting to college, Rubina Begum of St Francis College For Women, Hyderabad, who recently wrote the final year Foreign Trade exam, chose to commute from Ghatkesar to Begumpet, so that her parents would not be burdened with bearing her accommodation expenses.

A first year MBA student of Holy Mary College at Bogaram, Ritesh Reddy ride to which is 30 kilometers from his house in Malkajgiri. The idea of staying away from parents for a petty issue like commuting a long distance seems foreign to him. "How can I rent a room near my college when my parents are in the same city? I am supposed to look after their everyday needs."