Delhi University: The road to DU.

After more than a month of oscillating between periods of extreme workaholism and utter wastage of time (the latter eclipsing the former in both frequency and duration), I have finally decided to get back to the instrument of my salvation. This is one of the rare occasions where the mind is brimming with topics to write about. But the past few weeks have been very nostalgic with regards to the years spent in Sri Venkateswara College, or lovingly called as "Venky", University of Delhi. And all thanks to Facebook, the glue holding so many people all over the world together with their near and dear ones. The trigger seemed to be the uploading some of the photographs from the good ol' days in Venky, along with conversations and chats with many of my fellow guinea pigs. So here's an attempt to capture the best and worst of those days, while they are still slightly fresh in my memory.

Unlike most ambitious kids nowadays, I had never given much thought to what I would wanna do with my life after school. Yes for sure, there was the standard dream of becoming a doctor, given a keen interest in biology and total disdain for engineering. I had coasted through my years in school with pretty good grades without much hard work. I guess, that proved to be my undoing. I just couldn't get myself to put in the effort required to clear the onerous entrance examinations to get into a medical school. Very casually, after the board exams of class 12th ended, I indulged in all the delights deprived to me during the Boards, actually there was just one, watching television. I would eventually pick up the books, for an hour or so, just before going to bed. To me, that was more than enough. As for joining one of the myriad coaching institutes mushrooming all over, grilling students into entrance-exam clearing machines, it was out of the question. Hell, I'm too good for that! I was ashamed of even taking tuition for maths in 11th and 12th grades, though gave in to my mother's insistence. But that was as far as I'd bend. I stood my ground and staunchly refused to take classes for Physics, Chemistry or Medical entrance exams. Needless to say, each and every entrance exam was a zor ka jhatka, jo kaafi zor se laga.......! Still I kept up the charade of preparing for these exams for the two months after board exams. By the time I had realized that I don't stand a chance of clearing any of them, at least that year, it was time for the madness that descends on Delhi annually, the Delhi University admissions! Every year, from June 1st to 15th, admission forms are up for sale for the 80 odd colleges and numerous other departments and institutes that constitute the great University of Delhi (DU). Lakhs of students from all over India grapple for 60,000 odd seats in these colleges. And then from 25th June to 15th July the admission mayhem begins. This is seriously, one of the most entertaining phases in the year on Indian news channels. Their coverage of the newbie school students taking their first steps out in the "real world", some with their over-protective parents haggling along, while others trying to make it on their own, makes for an entertaining watch! Fashion trends are keenly observed, and college rivalries are played out at their optimum. Student Unions get into the act of impressing and attracting new followers and voters, and offer various sops and "assistance". Its an exciting time all around, as it was for me, making rounds of the South and North Campuses, attending orientation programmes, buying forms, trying to decide on the most favorable course and college option. It helped that I had secured enough marks in 12th to score a decent college and course. Like many others who appear for the afore mentioned entrance exams for medical and engineering colleges casually in their first attempt, I had a PLAN B - which was, not to waste one year, take admission in DU, (also can be read as, block some other kid's seat), spend that one year sincerely preparing for these entrances, and cracking them next year. It seemed easy and simple enough. So I took admission in B.Sc. life sciences, at Sri Venkateswara College, a five minute bus ride away from my home. It was an easy enough choice on the college, but not so much on the course. Though I was not severely inflicted with Decidophobia at that time, I was still switching from Life sciences to botany to anthropology to geology to english to history to chemistry. But keeping in mind my Plan B, I went for Life sciences, thinking it would be ideal for my medical preparation. So after a horrifying interview at St. Stephens, I took admission in Venky, and thus became a part of the elite DU alumni.

Laments of a ‘Sciency’

They say - great men do not rest on past laurels. Or something to that effect. But I'm not great. And I'm lazy. So here's an article I wrote way back in 2nd year of graduation at Venky, DU. I believe it's one of the best things that ever came out of my pen. So here it is!!!

First of all, for the uninitiated ‘Sciencies’ is a term often used to refer to science students – that unfortunate breed of human beings generally looked upon by others with pity, wonder and in some cases relief (as in, thank God I am not one of them!). Students, or for that matter, people generally associated with science are thought of as boring creatures continuously buried in books or lost in thoughts and their idea of fun is to win a quiz, ace a test or watch Discovery channel on TV. This is probably why science students (the serious ones, that is) have acquired the iconic status of a GEEK; well oiled hair, big spectacles, braces and the likes. The English language has recently incorporated a new word for them – NERD. Unfortunately, some of the afore mentioned allegations cannot be denied. Being a member of this breed (however, not sharing the afore mentioned anatomical features) and after having analyzed the social behaviour, conversations and general lifestyle of my fellow ‘Sciencies’, I have discovered (at the risk of generalizing) that this widely respected (and ridiculed) community, does deserve many of the stereotypes associated with it.

For starters, the incorporation of scientific terms, laws and principles in routine conversations (unrelated to science) and then very artfully diverting these conversations to science is a disease which inflicts a majority of this population. For instance, just the other day a casual remark on the size of the apple being eaten by a friend sparked a lively (and informative) discussion on global warming, climate change, its impact on the Indian subcontinent (and apple cultivation) and so on! You never know when and how a casual discussion on pets can turn into a vociferous debate on animal behaviour, brain and neuronal activity etc.

Another common accusation against us is the constant analyzing (some might say over analyzing), debating and arguing over each and every trivial matter and always trying to go to the bottom of the issue, one question followed by a series of others (usually without any fruitful answers) with no end in sight. Seriously if you come across a group in the canteen making a racket which will put a bunch of howling dogs to shame, be sure it’s a group of science students (don’t raise your eyebrows, yes we do pay that occasional visit to the canteen!). Everyone keeps on talking at the same time without really hearing what anybody else is saying.

The next allegation against us is that we constantly live within this impermeable scientific bubble which clouds our thinking so much so that it becomes too factual and objective and leads to a scientific perception of everything. This is probably what leads to constant diversions of conversations to science. this might not be so much of a trouble to us but for our unfortunate non-science brethren it often proves to be a pain in the neck as this one unfortunate lady discovered the other day at the hands of a couple of my friends while traveling in a DTC bus. After completing a strenuous three hour session of rat dissection, apparently these two were not satisfied and started discussing the day’s exploits right there. As these two went on nonchalantly with their exchange of views and successes and failures in their endeavors of tearing through the rat’s anatomy and meandering amongst its fascinating arterial system, this woman sitting next to them bore the torture in silence. But as the details got more and more graphic (and bloody) she got so disgusted that she had to cover her snout…, oh sorry! her nasal area with her dupatta. And here’s where the elusive fun side of the sciences kicks in; seeing this woman’s misery just spurred my friends on to give an even more enthralling and descriptive account of their foraging through the rat’s internal organs! I surely do sympathize with that woman who became the victim of my friends’ dark sense of humour. And unfortunately, this constant preoccupation with science (one’s subject of study), is no guarantee for success in examinations! In fact, most of us are inflicted with all these afflictions without any pleasure in them. They are like that abominable scar or mark on your face that will always be there. You just have to live with them.

Some people say that science students have very little knowledge about fields or subjects outside their domain or to rephrase, have very poor general knowledge. This allegation I am not very sure about, because it’s highly generalized. Anyways, we all are aware of the level of general knowledge in the student community as a whole!

The bottom line is, gone are the days when being a science student was an instant claim to respect and awe from peers and elders alike. Now it’s more of a cause for pity and ridicule. This much maligned community, though still a long way from extinction, is losing its shimmer and the alpha – community status. So hats off to the brave souls who still dare to plunge into this deep abyss and to those unfortunate ones for whom it’s a “pit or the well” or ‘where if not here’ kind of situation. But still, in our own little queer ways, we learn to snatch those hard to come by light moments from life or better still, learn to extract fun from work itself, and that is what is claimed to be the aim of all education nowadays. In fact, our teachers also try their best to bring in an element of fun in the classroom, and occasionally they succeed too! As for the conventional kind of fun like bunking classes to watch movies, or laze around in the canteen, go for frequent outings and so on, yes we do that too, though I think not at the frequency that might be expected from a regular college student. Knowledge of science provides another kind of high too and that is the knowledge of science itself. Some of us take pleasure in the ignorance of the ‘layman’ (the use of this term, for people not well versed with scientific principles, itself provides a great sense of superiority, though one might be failing their own exams) and then laughing at them. Some of us like to show off our knowledge to the ‘layman’, however inaccurate, wrong or inappropriate it might be with respect to the situation at hand. Though it might sound a little conceited and shallow, but can you blame us when we are always urged not to think like a ‘layman’ or are asked questions like “how would you explain XYZ to a ‘layman’?” by our teachers?

So saving this endangered species might require a humungous effort, even bigger than ‘project tiger’; with the popularity of professional courses increasing by the day. But to those brave-heart specimens found in the science block (not the ones found bottled in the laboratories) roaming in the corridors, or more appropriately, sitting in the classrooms, all I can say is - Hang in there!