Was going through my Law College photos today…I noticed the wonderful smile that did not leave my face even once, and it comes back whenever I think of my days in college, and my stay in Delhi, all these six yrs, LSR, and then Faculty of Law. Two colleges, and one city, places which moulded me into what I am today, for good or for worse (the former is what my vanity would want me to believe though!!), is relative.

I can’t begin to write about my journey, without writing about the initiation, and what an initiation that was! Before I even knew it, I was in one of the Premier Institutions of the country, Lady Shri Ram College! With almost a flip of the coin, of the choice between St. Stephen’s and LSR, the latter was decided by the dictates of a decent Residence Hall. I think I should feel quite lucky since I had a brush with the best of both the worlds, attended classes in both the places!

When I first entered LSR, I almost thought it wasn’t the place for me…I wasn’t so high on confidence those days, engulfed with confusion and awe as I was….I was like a new born fledgling who had just seen the world through the tiny cracks of her shell. A tiny peep it was, and the world was waiting to be explored. Coming back to my first day at LSR, what enamored me most was the confidence with which these girls were conducting themselves! I wasn’t that big a nincompoop you see, but they were something else! There was another thing that I noticed right away- everyone there was almost a beauty queen! I mean, was this a college, or was this a gathering of the marvels of God’s creation?! If not before, now I certainly felt out of place! Absolute ordinary looks, coupled with a foolishly dazed expression, God, I must have looked such a specimen!!!

Day one on, a wonderful life at college unfolded. College was great fun. We were a small class of about thirty six people, so that facilitated a lot of interaction. But, the one part of my life within the confines of LSR that I remember with most fondness is the LSR Residence Hall. The friends that I made there are what are friends for life. Mallika, Rajdeep, Priya and Priyanka, we were a group of four, inseparable and always there for the other. Four friends I know I can trust my life with in a sinking ship.
Oh! The Hostel taught me a couple of other things too, like imagining that are u eating super delicious food, even when it was'nt remotely like it (Nah! Compared to the kind of food I got in my next hostel, this food sure was Heaven!), washing clothes all by yourself, till your back gave way, because the laundry for perennial empty pockets like ours was too much of a luxury to have, cooking Maggi on candle flame because the kitchen closed before you felt hungry again, and best of all, it provided the unparalleled enjoyment of watching the antics of the intoxicated mind!

My first year, as all subsequent ones in Delhi, as an independent soul, was invigorating. It was slightly tough initially. Commuting in those wretched DTC buses (which is another story altogether. My friends and I still laugh over it sometimes, laugh at me is more like it though!), reasoning and often fighting your way up, staying away from family, learning to live with people rather than simply sharing rooms, I think I was already learning the first lessons of life, life as it was going to be hence on.