“Hima, are you in a mood to write something? If so, I need an article.” I have been asked by Hameed ikka two days back. For me this kind of works that comes up occasionally is a way to kill my boredom. ‘Semester loss at Delhi University – Missing campus during pandemic’. That was the subject….. Very simple! I should write about my state of affliction today, in retrospective.
I was thinking, looking out through the window in the room, Am I really missing college life? Yes, college was vast from the odious chor galli to the svelte ridge area (forest area). Vast and incredible in every dense. Missing from the hostel room to the class room. Anonymous questions to the extravagance of sleeps in desks. The loneliness under the yellow light in the art faculty to the midnight chatter at sudhamma. AZAADI slogans to the expected detention……
One whole night I was talking to Priyadarshini Ramachandran (PD) and Gopi about this. They were talking rhetorically, a flow of emotions. They were emotional, as the children who were getting worried as if they were lost their play ground. They add some portrait to my writing.
Never in my life had I gone through an academic year so far to be so politically contemporary. Withdrawal of 370 article, CAA, Delhi riot everything came to be an integral part of class discussions, somewhat as syllabus at times. Campuses are the echoes of Democracy. DU is one of those. Although many sideline it saying as one of the elite institutions. DU is a large group of Young people who have come to Delhi from many parts of Asia and across India to seek higher education. It reflects the presence of students from every strata of society, from top to bottom of the pyramid, which is also a sensitive end of togetherness.
From lingering questionnaire and debates in the class room to the round table in the canteen ‘ international discussion forums ‘. National, International seminar, uninterrupted paper proposals…… DU can’t breathe without these. From ministers to film stars, scholars to intellectuals they are the regular visitors here. You could hear the beat of drums and pitch of Azaadi at any social studies block or academic block. Here a bevy of students are always busy having intense discussions and debates on Ambedkar, Gandhiji, Nehru, Marx and the contemporary politics. Feminism or LGBTQ right would be the sanctimonious topic for some others. Others indulge in dance or song of their choice. I always find the pulse of a magnanimic campus here. JNU, Jamia and DU are often thought to be the Bronte sisters. Neither of them is alone in their internal matters. They find national attraction and cooperation of above three. It is no paradox that these universities being assaulted in the name of “anti-national or seditious entities”.
The ideological scourge of the anti national is finally legitimized through the process of paving way for a delinking of the best institutions from state financial support. The actions taken by these three central universities are bountiful whether in the matters of JNU fee hike, CAA, the supports extended to the Shaheenbagh protesters and the voluntary activities done during the Delhi communal riot both psychological and health trauma care. Campuses are the colossus of breathing in the wounded democracy of India.
Universities across the country have been closed as a preventive measure of Covid -19. Within this time period centre had arrested Ananad Teltumbde, Kashmiri Journalist Masrat zahra, Safoora Zargar, Meeran Haider and Umar Khalid pointing to the serious situation of ‘Lock down of Democracy’. The paradox of this period could be witnessed from the inhuman attitude towards that 3 month pregnant lady.
Here I am really worried about those people remaining ignorant about all these with the entry of certain stupid and useless stuffs like clapping plates and lightening lamps. Did it drown with the #productive quarantine efforts? Here it is evident that how much the fascist govt is afraid of the power of discussions in college, the power of student unity. Universities form the 5th pillar of Democracy; sometimes they are even the opposition.The online lecture programme in this COVID-19 era is a commendable move.
Being a first year, college is the choroivle of a lot of new experiences: living away from home, meeting new people and managing your own time. But it is rather difficult to every student for being away from campus and is supposed to run tops and hills to connect internet and being attentive in online classes, sharpening your ears to broken sounds of professors to draft notes and to chase before attendance. Inequality in the accessibility of internet is a university pressure. It has already shown that it might be untenable due to technical and financial reasons. However the initiative required some prerequisite investment to prepare the platforms for successful lecture delivery, but this was not done. The 1.5 mb data is woefully inadequate; thus the program might further impoverish the students who would have no choice but to buy more data to be able to follow the lectures in the cash crunch of this covid period.
Delhi University Teachers Association has been through an unprecedented crisis from the last semester. At short notice, the university made it clear that larger section of the teaching staff is being degraded, cutting their salaries short and, now their jobs are no longer secure. The teachers announced an indefinite strike which immediately made stronger impact on the university and the academic arena. Students too extended their solidarity to the faculty.
Since this unexpected break which is now proved to be an indefinite one, the platform for negotiations and settlement talks is far from practical. All those struggles and strains the teachers face while launching and carrying on with this movement also raises the larger issue of privatisation which has now reached a dead end. Once the college reopens, everything has to be restarted again, a seemingly improbable task of course. No wonder if we find hardly any traces of this strike after this period of lockdown.
Private airline companies made it clear that they do not refund the amounts to those who booked the tickets in advance. Alternatively, they offered to use the amount for rescheduling the flight. For obvious reasons, this is susceptible to changes if the ticket fare is increased. Being a personal victim of this injustice, I know how absurd this sounds. Airline companies are now in a position of advantage to improve their financial security at the expense of students who are pulled into this for a reason that they had no clear cut role to play.
As the discussions for conducting online exams are on the move, considerations are to be given respecting the situation of certain students who were forced to abandon their books and study materials back in their residences since there was hardly any air of probability for the mid semester break to be transformed to this lockdown period of chaos and uncertainty. The existing digital divide again discards the opportunity of the students to access online libraries and e catalogues. Thus if online exams are made to happen, it is indeed an obvious kind of discrimination inflicted upon this innocent strata of students.
Starting with a fee hike and actively participating with the protests, even if we did not contribute in a massive way, we have made sure that we were there in most of the protests. And this has been extremely draining emotionally. Our sense of normal has changed along with everything as well. For many, the pandemic is the biggest problem. For us we have been seeing it all since last September. Nevertheless we are just hoping to get our results and also complete this stage of life safely and comfortably, PD said.
