On February 18 of the year 2021, I entered the dreamy, romantic, Bollywood-esque lawns of Hansraj College, University of Delhi (DU).
The classes for my batch had officially started way back in the wintery month of November wherein I spent most of my semester lazily wrapped in the blanket, trying to catch up on online lectures. February brought with it the incandescent spirits of the spring and the fresh faces of the lively people who were soon to become an unforgettable part of my life.
As a student newly untethered from the shackles of school life, let out into the open world to figure it all out on their own, I found college to be the most freeing experience ever. Just the relentless excitement of all the new people I was to meet, and of all the alleys I was going to explore these three years, was simmering beneath my skin.
Today, it’s been almost two years since that day. I stand at a place now, where those memories come back to me in bittersweet bundles, delicately wrapped in golden, like the sweet, sweet candies of life. In the almost three years that I’ve spent as a college student, I’ve seen myself change and evolve in more ways than one. That feeling where you stand on a sidewalk and watch as life passes you by, and you try to take it all in, try to revel in the fuzzy feeling that the remnants of time leave you with- I’ve felt this at its peak through my years at DU.
They say your personality has been fully developed by the age of 18. I’d say, come stay three years in the arms of Delhi University’s North Campus, and feel how the fiery, passionate warmth, and the rusty, familial cool of this place change you in the best ways possible. You meet people who challenge you to the most earth-shattering revelations of life, that, while making you question your entire existence, also lead you to a much-required path of self-discovery. Then there are others, who engulf you into their warm blanket of love, and let you just be.
If I count the footsteps that entered my life in all these three years and left an indelible impression on both my heart and soul, my life could very easily be compared to any famed North Campus fest. What started as an introvert hoping for at least one close friend to survive her college life, is very well now on the path of ending with an armful of beautiful souls that have touched me in more ways than I could have ever imagined.
Years hence, if I were to pass the small food shack near my college, that sold the most amazing Pav Bhaji, I bet I would feel the insane burst of flavors in my mouth like it was yesterday. But then there would also come the nostalgic memories of me and my friends, sitting around in a semi-circle (because that one friend was always late) and gossiping through the wafting smell of good food. After leaving college, I’m aware that no other cold coffee would feel as sweet as sitting under the shade of the coffee kiosk on the campus, talking about anything and everything under the sun, about boys, books, the mysteries of the cosmic universe, and whatnot.
My days in college took me by the hands when I was wavering on the edge, brought me face to face with my ambitions and fears, and now that I gear up to leave the frayed red walls of Hansraj College, the walls which have witnessed thousands grow from metaphorical baby cocoons to mature, intelligent and ready-for-the-world butterflies, I feel a deep sense of satisfaction. Only a handful of months remain, of my fractionally, yet satisfactorily poetic journey of college life, and while I still stand on the precipice of a crossroad, with barely an idea of my future, my heart finds solace in the fact that my soul found the satiation it needed in these three years. If I were to burst out today, in a passionate monologue of the story of my life here at college, I don’t know what the words would be or where the story would end, but all I know is that the reminiscence would be specked with deep reverence, for all that these years taught me, and all that I’d treasure in my life.