DU Special

There's just something about this time of the year in Delhi. There's a flavour in the nip in the air and a blanket of winter memories from the years gone by that weaves itself around all bonfire flames.

I clearly remember my first winter in North Campus in Delhi. The college festivals,the competitions, the jugaad for passes,the late night coffees at Barista in K-NAGS and the chai by the roadside :) There was always someone who hadn't eaten enough dinner and if the maggi magic wouldn't do the trick we happily walked to the carts selling boiled eggs or to the overnight tea stall whose TG was primarily hungry folks like us :) Our other nocturnal counterparts comprised a mix of students from all colleges with conversations and topics that beat even the number of colleges in DU and that is quite a few. These were the unofficial DU debates which neither had a prize nor a judge but the participation was overwhelming. The only interruptions were shouts from someone who had either too much sugar in their roadside coffee or none at all.

There was so much that perplexed us right from who would pay the bill today and to who had paid it yesterday, to the grouses we bore our paying guest landlords, to the angst of broken hearts and hearts that were brimming with unproffessed love, to classroom talk to discussing which college would have been a better option in terms of hotter crowd ;)

There was this self selection criteria which had catapulted people into groups - the hostellers, the day scholars and the DU special bus buddies (how sweet!!!).

No matter how empty the pockets they were always full, no matter how much the pressure there was always time to 'chill maro' and no matter when you studied or if you did at all...it all worked out :) Right from the farewell parties for senior batches to the fuccha parties for the first year's we just looked forward to an excuse to pose for photographs. There were these long practice sessions before any fest. with tempers and hopes both running high, the fights , the patch ups, the canteen hopping...life was so simple or maybe we were :)

We have come a long way but the cold winters we shared together will forever be warmed by the cherished memories of those times.

Dedicated to all at DU esp. my friends.

Sanchita Johri

On Second Thoughts

So you obviously haven't forgotten the competition where you were awarded the 2nd prize and the judges consoled you by announcing that it was just by a few points! You would also still remember the time when you came second in that bet...but then there were only two people competing ;) Remember that colony aunty ji who always compared you with her Bablu who always came first in well..uh. everything! You surely recall the pain in your chest when the love of your life stood posing with the winner and not you, as again as usual you were second :) So there you were ready to take on every Bablu and every Auntyji who would ever mess with you a.k.a beat you to first place!
You now of course are in first place and didn't let anyone beat you or get ahead but someone did beat you. All the auntyji's and Bablu's were always ahead of you...no not actually but in the space you gave them in your heart and mind. They made you forget how to throw your head back and laugh like there was no tomorrow,they made you forget your individual journey, your own race track which you could have created and been the sole runner on, they made you run and that too right into the rat race! Sometime's wanting first place becomes more a function of defeating those we dislike than pleasing those we like including ourselves :) Stop, pause you can read this at leisure,that is of course if you choose to take the time. It isn't for nothing that they say - EVERY SECOND COUNTS :) and it always will...only if you want it to...
Sanchita Johri

A Balcony View

Sometimes it feels good to just stand in the balcony and hear either the silence or the world whizz by. Looking up at the night sky with the crisp nip in the air and the occasional sound from the tampered silencer of someones bullet going past, the master calling the name of his dog out on an after dinner walk and sounds of several footsteps making their way home trying to beat the pace of the dark.There's so much activity yet so much calm, there's a different melody to each night and yet there is a quiet.

The trees cloak themselves in the colours of the night and the lamp posts express themselves with shadows which if you look at long enough sometimes seem more real than the objects from which they stem. They seem to me just like the thoughts, the dreams, the nightmares which seem more real than reality...then I look away...from the thoughts and the shadows. So much transpires in a day and so much more just in our head and heart. There's so much more that we have lived,more than we realise... for there's a real world on the road, another inside our homes but all of us have a world that exists only in balconies even if the balcony isn't real at times... however the thing to remember most importantly is to always look up at the sky :)

Sanchita Johri