LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

“Agla station VISHWAVIDYALA hai. Darwaazay baai taraf khulenge. Kripya Saavdhaani se utarein...”

As the concerned digital voice commanded the Metro passengers, several left their seats & moved towards the gates. With a screeching sound (I love to hear that), the train came to a halt, and a flood of students moved out of it. Rushing towards the escalators, they concentrated more on their mobile phones rather than the spots to fix their feet on.

Rather than concentrating on my cell phone, or the girl standing next to me or joking over the instructions as to how to use the escalators, like several others, I paid more attention to the intoxicating feeling inside me…the feeling of being a FUCHCHA (I hated that word and found it super stupid)

At that time, I did not at all know what getting admission in THE UNIVERSITY OF DELHI meant. A feeling of awe arose in my heart as I was about to enter a new world. Another thing I was interested in was to figure out who among the fitness-conscious escalator users were freshers like me, just to exchange a few words though I knew I could not go beyond “Which course?” and “Which College?” (I was SCARED yaar!) But finding it an idiotic idea, I shelved it up & stepped off the escalators.

As I reached the gate no. 4 of the Vishwavidyalaya Metro Station, a swarm of rickshaw pullers attacked me & few others. (Come ON! Do I need to have a tag over my forehead that commands them to back off!!) But there’s one thing attractive about them, because I can never approach a girl with ‘ZERO’ approach anxiety & ask her openly “Kaha Chalogi?”

Ignoring the bee swarm, as I stepped on to the CHHATRA MARG and turned my head left, MY HEART SKIPPED A BEAT!! I fell in love with the place within nano-seconds. I felt like shouting WOW at the top of my volume. BAND BAJA BARAT, DIL DOSTI,ETC, etc, every movie that was shot here became my favorite. It was really a world class campus (My father used to say this but I never believed him completely, not till that very moment). The crowd was superb and just walking on the CHHATRA MARG seemed to be the biggest honor ever.

But as night follows day, the awesome feeling led to a negative emotion which said

“Crap! I’m here just for three years & where I had been all my life??”

I felt like interacting with each and every student there & ask him “Do you have any idea how much I’m going to enjoy it here??”

Dreaming and more dreaming, I was walking towards Hans Raj College and something broke my dreams….

TIME….it was 9.00 am

Superb! I was late for my first class….

What a kick start???

And I started walking faster than ever…..

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Palash Bharti is a first year Computer Science student, studying at the Hans Raj College. He loves travelling, playing Volleyball, solving SUDOKU, watching movies and socialising with like- minded people. He tries to convey through his write- ups the things that he observes in his surroundings.

BEING “SENIORS”

As I walked into my college, after a month long vacations and the god-forsaken exams, I noticed a sudden change. The change, not only in the air I took in, not only the new faces that I looked at...but also at the pace, style and the feeling of being a  “senior”.

Yes! Welcome to the world of Second years. The new “seniors”!!!!

We, the second years, are the people “hanging” in the middle of college life. We have seen enough and at the same time, we have not seen all. On one side, the freshers comprise of the curious and gawking lots ready to make new friends, and on the other side the third years are the most “experienced” ones, who stay in their minute groups and are rarely seen in the college campus. But in a whole different stream, we, the second years, are the ones who have to be friends and guides to the fuchhas and at the same time have a cool rapport with the “super-seniors”.

In our first year ,we were like the cute mice behind the holes, curious, shy  as well as ready to do all the work in the world to impress our seniors. The new found freedom, though gave us some wings, but we didn’t let them open.

But this year is totally different. This year, we open our wings and flutter, ready to fly. We get the comfortable feeling with our college. Amidst the hectic schedules and the boring classes, we enjoy, we explore and we live.

In the second year of our college life, we have the proficiency to get our ‘jugaads' done; we know the “proxy”routine. We know how to organize bunks. We realize the importance of being late in class. We understand that the books are to be bought a month before the exams, so no need of spending the money now. We have the resources of getting the notes of the “nerdy” people in our class. We know when to take a crash course and when to crash the course.

But in the whole ups and downs of life , there are those people who know how to turn their life around and know where they are going, and what they really want in life. The road being always two sided, there are also some people, who believe that we have to live in the moment and whatever life throws at us, we will drive through.

  

Yes! This is the life of us, second year “seniors”!!

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Kriti Anand is a second year student pursuing Economics honours from Shri Ram College of Commerce. She is passionate about writing and reading. You will find a good collection of books with her. She loves exploring new places, making new friends and loves chatting with them. She gets inspiration from the group she is surrounded by.

REMINISCENCE

Even today, I wonder how I survived the first day of my college. Standing in front of my college gate and staring all around, I had no clue as to what should I do. Being an introvert, I just went and sat on the first bench of room number eighteen, I didn’t have the courage to even look at anyone. After 10 long minutes a student came and sat next to me. I was happy that I was no longer alone, but my happiness lasted only for few minutes when I realized that she wasn't from my stream.

But as days turned into weeks, I made friends as well as some enemies(well being in a girls college you can't expect everyone to be your friend). Now one year has gone by but the difference is that now I dread the days I don't have to go to college.

Gossiping and bitching are the two most popular affairs observed in my college canteen or in front of the chemistry lab or next to the dance room.  'OMG what is she wearing?' to 'did you see her new hair cut?' to 'dude, she surely needs to get a manicure done' are annotate we have all heard or will hear. Back biting, back stabbing, not sharing notes, ' ‘meine toh kuch bhi nahi padha yaar’ , how will I pass in my exams?' and then scoring 80% are considered to be quite conventional in my college.

But the best part about my college is that one can wear anything that one wishes to, ranging from track pants to shorts to comfortable harem pants or patialas teamed with a nice kurti or may be just plain and simple jeans and shirt, because at the end of the day it’s a girl's college and there is no one to impress. But then again you will definitely come across girls wearing hot pants and pink tee-shirts with kilos of makeup plastered on their faces, carrying their hand bags at the rim of their wrist and wearing stilettos (even though they are dying  inside to wear floaters or converse). Once I made the mistake of stepping on one of such girl's foot while taking chole bature from the canteen.The scream that followed after that almost made me deaf and even today whenever I see her, I just turn around.

Last winter was one of the best times I spent in my college. When we had nothing to do, my friends and I used to buy steaming hot coffee or chips and find nice comfortable chairs from the bamboo room and sit under the warm sun, sipping coffee and simply gossiping, sharing ghost stories, discussing about our future or just listening to songs and smiling.

So from the first day to my birthday, submitting incomplete and copied assignments, studying for exams from ten different books instead of one and roaming in the library to passing the exams and finally completing one year of college, I feel so good. Exactly a year later, I saw all the freshers and there was a girl just as frightened as I was when I first entered college, standing in a corner waiting for her college life to begin.

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Pallavi Mukherjee is a second year student of Maitreyi College. She is currently pursuing her graduation in Chemistry. She likes reading, writing, watching movies, listening music, dancing and is trained in martial arts.

A JOURNEY WITH NO END

Someone has said it right “changes take place for the good” but I didn’t know that stepping in Delhi university would change my life for good and will prepare me to win the battle of life. But nevertheless I knew that getting in DU is a race, a race in which people getting 100% also participate and those getting 90% have no say. A race which does take place within the Indian jurisdiction, but has it’s own rules and very much ignores the concept of equality because this is the race in which many deserving students are left behind to see their future getting burnt down to ashes in front of their eyes, merely due to reservation. A race in which if you don’t impress you are out of the league. A race in which you wear something that doesn’t match becomes a fashion statement and finally but not the least getting in DU is all about a race which is full of young and enthusiastic people who participate in order to create their own identity.

Getting a course of my choice in DU was like a dream come true because I have seen people changing their dreams (streams) in order to get their “dream destination”. From fear to excitement, from nervousness to happiness and from resentment to enthusiasm, I have been through it all.

I remember how excited my parents were when I first entered my school that they actually made a video of my first day in school and how my dad wanted to repeat the same and how badly he wanted to capture my first few steps, and my mother narrating the background, in his camera when I got admission in DU (which obviously I didn’t let him do). As I got ready for my first day my mother kept on instructing me and gave me a long list of do’s and don’ts, and how every don’ts freaked me out.

I was so lost when I first entered the world of DU. The cold wind swept my hair and I was so numb. I couldn’t hear a thing. I had my eyes firmly planted on the ground and was walking checking each and every step. My heart beat increased with every step I took. It seemed as if everyone was looking at me, checking me out and probably laughing because I thought my expressions looked so dumb. But as I looked up, my fear ended because people or rather I should say my seniors and teachers welcomed me with their gleaming eyes and warm hugs. I couldn’t have asked for more. I realized that I wasn’t the only one who was getting jittery but many other “fuchhas” were going through the same feeling. Frankly speaking, the thought of sitting in a classroom, studying never excited me but the thought of sitting in the canteen, forming the most “hot and happening” group, hanging out in the coolest place, missing classes and exploring new places in Delhi and not to forget the new found freedom always kept me occupied and never let the other thoughts rule my mind. Now after spending a reasonable amount of time here in this institution I have realized that DU is not scary at all. It’s like a human body and every student is its heart beat. Without people like us, DU is lifeless and without DU as the platform our future is at risk. It’s an inter-related world and yes I am proud to be a part of it. So far the journey of DU has been incredibly awe-inspiring and the experiences that I have gone through are way too special and memorable that will stay with me forever because after all it is all about DELHI UNIVERSITY and the name says it all. 

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Bulbul Tiwari is a student of Ram Lal Anand college pursuing B.A. (Hons) Business Economics. Her interests include writing, dancing and acting. The explorer within her lands her at new places, where she likes interacting with the native people and trying out the local cuisines.

THE FASHION PARADE AT VENKY

The other day I was sitting with a few friends, some of them were DU aspirants, debating about the various issues related to DU. When it came to the college which had the most happening crowd, they all agreed that it was none other than Venkateswara – popularly known as ‘Venky’. Some of them said that it was because of the chilled out nature of it’s students, some said it was because of the smoking hot chics while some others said it was because of the super amazing and super-active choreo, music, dramatics and photography societies that Venky had, that kept up a certain level of Masti balanced with studies among the students.

After spending a whole year in Venky and observing the different types of people so closely, what I could conclude is that Venky has a mixed crowd, some people come to college only to study, some people come to flaunt their cat walk as if the college was the ramp of the Lakme Fashion week, some are so overindulged in the co-curricular activities that they make guest appearances in the classes, leaving both the teachers and the students confused and surprised and some of them just come to college to check out girls, hang out and enjoy the variety of delighted available at Satya Niketan. But something that is common among these four categories is their love for colours, desire to look their best, upgraded fashion sense and an attitude to experiment with different styles.

As soon as one enters Venky, the various hues and shades will definitely catch attention. From the very in shades of blue to very go green effect, the purple lovers started loving the colour even more with the opening of a Hookah parlour named after their  favourite colour, the pink panthers of Venky were surely inspired by their childhood memories of strawberry shortcake, the red Manchester United jersey and the very attractive red pout of Angelina Jolie made the colour red popular among Venky-ites. Black has been a favourite of all those who have put on a few extra pounds and don’t want to make it visible or those who love to look classy, while white, yellow, brown, grey are preferred by those who love to experiment with colours. With much variation in the preference of colours comes the distinctiveness in styles. The perception of ‘hot chics and hot pants go hand-in-hand’ is very much there among the Venky girls, who wear the hottest and (the shortest) possible pants to beat the summer heat and for the guys who get to see the most amazing and well-maintained legs. But apart from this, the casual look is also very much popular among the Venky-ites, a simple tee or  a loose shirt teamed up with well-fitted jeans, chappals or platforms is just the look for those who like to keep it simple yet stylish. Then the Kurti trend or the bit modernized traditional look of Indo-Western fusion is popular among those who love to look beautiful the Desi way. Then comes the Diva look, who love to dazzle in their celebrity inspired designer clothes and accessories, followed by those, inspired by scientists and musicians lost in their waves, who go in for the carefree look. Boys in Venky love the carefree look with ruffled up hair, ripped jeans or shorts teamed up with simple tees.

Upgraded with the latest fashion trends, love for different styles, carrying themselves well and the desire to look the best is what makes the Venky crowd most appealing in the entire DU-we talk, walk, eat and live our fashion!!

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Dyuti Bardhan, a second year sociology student from Sri Venkateshwra College, is an extrovert person who loves to interact with people. A trained singer in classical music, she loves to hum bollywood songs. She loves shopping, cooking, eating spicy stuff, writing diary,photography and is a complete fashion freak.