A slice of Delhi

Delhi evokes within you emotions and consequently conditions you did not know existed. Those emotions are so unfamiliar, that invoke would be the more appropriate term for them. In Delhi, everything is third degree, extreme. Limits are stretched to the point where you think you might just yield. Strangely, you don't. And therein lay the secret to the spell that Delhi has on its citizens. You are confronting facets of your personality that are fascinating because of their newness. In no other city, will you discover and rediscover yourself so often and surprise yourself; proudly sometimes. Delhi makes you stronger, if it doesn't kill you (which it so easily could). And also stranger to the rest of the country. Living in that city is a test of fortitude and tolerance. That bad word-of-mouth publicity it receives is not one bit exaggerated. It's worse.

For all its awfulness, Delhi has charms that only it has. It owns them. Those charms are home-grown. Gurgaon doesn't have them, nor does Noida. Gurgaon actually is Delhi stripped of all these charms. Creeps.

And if you aren't initiated into the ways of those charms early in life (precisely when you are a student) you will only recognize it later, never own or understand it. Watch two hard-core Delhiites talk and the chemistry that they share may seem cruel. The clever comeback lines, the double entendres, the uniform mangling of Hindi, the nonchalant go-fuck-yourself way of talking, beneath which lies deep care and concern, all following a code of bad conduct that you are not privy to. It’s not deliberate discrimination. Even if you try, you will find it hard to catch up or stay in stride. It’s a mastery of a way of life that requires devotion and a respect for tradition, however ignoble.

The laboratory where this way of life is practiced to perfection may be the universities in Delhi. Alongside “Old Delhi” and “Lutyen’s Delhi” it is the college campuses in Delhi that make Delhi bearable, even lovable.

So when Arnab Goswami was spewing venom yesterday night on primetime about SRCC (Sriram College of Commerce) keeping this year’s cut-offs at a ludicrous 100% (I mean????) and showed footage of awkward teenagers in jeans holding applications, I jogged my memory back to last year. I was covering those admissions for Education Times along with a clutch of other mainstream reporters. That’s the only time of the year when the Education beat comes to life and space (which in the TOI is $$$$$) is left for reporters to file their stories till much late in the night. The editor of Education Times spoke about it with the sense of urgency of an ambulance driver. If you saw how anxious she was, you’d want to believe that this was the last time the admissions were happening in DU.   

The first time I entered the Delhi University campus, the admissions hadn’t yet started. There were rumours in the air and the then Vice Chancellor Dipal Paintal was losing popularity. He wanted to introduce the semester system which was opposed by the DUTA (Delhi University Teachers Association). DUTA accused Dipal Paintal of being undemocratic and authoritarian while Dipak Paintal would call them lazy, in polite terms.

In one of the seminars organized by DU before the admissions started students were being instructed and all queries regarding the admission process were being answered, Paintal was physically roughed up by teachers protesting outside when he was entering. He huffed in panting as if he had fled within inches of his life. After a rousing speech he ended by saying, “hit the road to stay fit and not for protesting.” I found it all very funny, teachers beating up Vice Chancellor. One of the journalists from TOI even made a video of the entire tamasha.

I must say, the arrangements that Delhi University makes and the way it tackles the thousands of students who come every year for admissions is commendable. What one see in the news are some toppers with excess of 90% marks in their kitty. These students are already achievers and sensible (I am guessing) and don’t need much counseling. All top colleges would invite them.

But what we don’t see are thousands of students from all across the country. Jammu and Kashmir, the entire north-east, Haryana, West Bengal, Kerala, UP, MP. You name the state. Then there are the thousand quotas to be accommodated. SC, ST, OBC, sports quota, handicapped, refugee quota, Christian quota. And of course being India, everyone expects a little help. Let’s call it Grace quota. Then there are students whose parents have come from “far away.” To tackle this profusion of humanity, each with different backgrounds and demands, one needs nerves of steel. Nothing should seem ridiculous. Any event is likely. And of course there are the journalists ready to damn the university at the faintest hint of ‘injustice’ being meted out

They even have courses where students who aren’t from well-to-do families and have responsibilities thrust on them from an early age can get a graduation degree of DU.

It’s not possible to go into the details of my experience of interactions with principals from the various colleges. But it was wonderful to meet so many of them.

So if you are not from Delhi or haven’t been to Delhi, make sure you go to its universities. That’s where the real life of Delhi lies.