To north campus, with love.

A few days back, I went to my hostel to pick up my notes. When I was in my hostel room frantically packing notes, something dawned on me. The next time I’m in this room, It’ll be to pack up my stuff and leave for good. It was a parting that I always knew would come, I just didn’t know it would come in this manner. In a way, I felt something was being taken away from me, something I never really cared for when I had it.

I have committed the grave mistake of taking it for granted.

I’ve been living on campus for 17 months, and I remember the day I moved in because for me, it was a big deal. Now I’m sure that some people know the campus more intimately than me. Truth be told, I still get lost in the old Gupta colony sometimes. I’m sure there are people just like me who want to spend the extra 3 months on the campus that have been taken away from them, and I can go on talking about the special spots of the campus and my memories from it, but that would be a bit narcissistic. Everybody likes different things about the campus, and that’s the beauty of it. It has something for everyone to like.

It’s a place of infinite acceptance.

I’m sure everyone has something they wish they could experience on campus again. Some might want to take an evening stroll in the ridge and look at the sunset. Some would wish to share Maggi with a friend in Dilli ki Sardi. Some would think of all the ice cream they’ll eat sitting in art faculty at night. Some would wish to have lunch at DSE again. Some would just want to share sutta with a friend at Patel chest after a long lecture. Some want to debate politics and economics while sipping on Sudama ki Chai. Some wish they could attend fests once more. Some just want to sit at VC lawns with friends and appreciate it this time. Some wish to go for momos after a rough day. Some just want to see their friends again. No matter who they are and what they want, all of them just long to return to campus once more.

And why won’t they?

The campus is a repository of memories and stories. Stories of heartbreak, self-discovery, acceptance, friendships, and fights. People fall in love here, and they fall out of it. It’s a place where life happens, not just around you, but to you. It’s a space of first and last. First kiss, first cigarette, first protest, first date, first relationship, first heartbreak and last lecture, last party as a college student, last gossip session, last debate with a classmate over something obscure, last meeting with acquaintances who will go their separate ways never to cross paths again.

I’m sure they’ll probably happen upon each other accidentally only in old photographs and stories of the campus now.

Campus changes you in ways you only realize in retrospect. I won’t say North campus is a place that liberates you, that you have to do on your own. But to paraphrase a friend – like Delhi, North campus lets you be. Whether you like to walk back to the metro lost in conversation with a friend or you prefer to walk back alone, with your headphones on. It won’t judge you.

It turns completely mundane things into something beautiful. A ubiquitous winter afternoon turns to a story worth reminiscing. It’s a place where you are not bound by your family’s convictions and values. Here, you have to come up with your own worldview, your own opinion. For the first time in your life, you’re expected to speak up, to have opinions, to express what you feel. It can be overwhelming at first, but with the time you fall in love with it. And just as the graffiti on the wall of the campus fades, slowly changing their color, so does your old self, and something new emerges. For the first time in your life, it feels as if you don’t have to fit in. You might’ve been independent before, but now you have a space to exercise your freedom. You’ll feel a lot of things during your stay here, but you’ll never feel abandoned. There’s a sense of belonging so strong that a walk around the campus on a bad day is enough to make you feel a little less alone.

North campus is what it is not just because of the institutions that are here, but because of the people that make it what it is. And I don’t necessarily mean friends. Sure, it’s fun to hang out with friends, but some of your most intimate memories of the campus could be the time you spent by yourself or among strangers. A sleepless night when you suddenly feel like snacking at 2 AM? Go to the nearest 24/7 and you would probably find someone just like you snack hunting thanks to munchies. It’s weirdly reassuring. There’s no judgment there, just a shared sense of belonging and irregular dietary and sleep schedules. For most of us, it’s the first step to adulthood, we learn how to search for flats, bargain with vendors, learn to cook and survive on a budget as the end of the month comes near.

It’s silly of me to complain about not getting to spend three months on the campus when the whole world has gone to shit. I mean, in the infinite oceans of problems and issues, this doesn’t even scale up to a drop. And North campus itself doesn’t care about me, or my batch. To it, we are just a bunch of students, like the thousands before us, and the thousands that are yet to come. Loving north campus is like loving the sun – it gives you warmth, it sustains you, but it would be foolish to expect it to care about you specifically. I don’t really have complaints or regrets about the time that I spent here. I mean, sure, had I known how little time I had left, maybe I would’ve gone out more, said yes more to plan with friends, appreciated the campus more, and took more photographs. But someone who takes things for granted doesn’t get to yearn for them once they are gone.

And I don’t really want much. I just want one more day.

One more day when I cycle recklessly to reach a 9 AM class on time. One more day when I sit in the lawns talking to people I love, as if, time is standing still. One more day when I look at that old car parked near the Roop Nagar Chauraha. One more day when I see the row of amaltas on bungalow road, that would’ve bloomed right about now. One more day when I am confused in Kamla, not being able to decide where to eat, finally just getting cold coffee from Bistro 57. One more day when I accidentally meet a friend while wandering aimlessly around campus. One more day when I impulsively decide to go to M.K.T for some La-Phing. One more day when I can go for a long walk and some ice cream post-dinner.One more day when I just sit in the art faculty, listening to music as life happens around me.

And that’s all I wish for, just one more day.

No matter where we go from here and what our stories will be, somewhere in the back of our mind, we will know the preface to that story starts here.

As Bashir Badr so aptly put:

हम दिल्ली भी हो आए हैं लाहौर भी घूमे

ऐ यार मगर तेरी गली तेरी गली है