What a glistening mirage college life radiates! To each of those dreamy eyed ones, campus life is a gift wrapped experience of enthralling fun, persistent chilling, some really cool signature hangouts, and truly the incidence of “the best things in life” with a validity of three years! This picture perfect imagery might just be shattered with some mundane schedules and chores that we hate to get around with, but that isnt too much of a problem. Delhi University offers you some splendid locales, that would be just enough to reconcile all the pieces of the broken hour glass.
The more happening north campus has much to allure. With attempts to modify classrooms to student’s interests, what happens around in the haven of students is not worth the miss! It’s the ever so famous Kamala Nagar market that you will splurge on, you’d live to die for QD’s scrumptious delights. The more desi ones will take refuge in Chatte de Hatti and monsoon rains will pour on Kamala Nehru ridge, to all lovers’ glee.
The more popular colleges will leave you spellbound with blissful experiences. Whether it is the iconic sports complex of SRCC and the adored Irfan’s canteen or the ultimate café of St. Stephen’s, ranging to the unexplored ones like a supposed Bhoot Bangla, a Graffiti wall, SPIC MACAY’s Canteen and the Tibetan market, you would want to venture into every barricade and every locked iron door, simply because this place breathes youthfulness and freedom.
To satiate your drive to explore some more irresistible places, do not hesitate to visit all that south campus has to offer you. Lined up in Satya Niketan is an array of enticing cafes including student’s paradise QD’s. The elite Taj’ CCD is a host to a number of campus birdies too. Contrary to that is the incredibly popular Chowrangee in Satya Niketan which feeds you to your heart’s satisfaction.
Living up to the popular perception of Delhi’s malling culture, Delhi University students will never refrain from spending days together in malls like they were their second homes. Many of whom have attained nirvana in our favourite Select City walk. The ones in Vasant Kunj have supremely come up with the ice skating and bowling trends, which is truly GenY’s thing to do.
Delhi University is a world in itself and it’s unbelievable how seemingly short the time we have here seems. It has a myriad of joys to spread and heaps of experiences to retain forever and for life. So, cease this year here and set out on the journey to unveil new avenues. Hope you have a Xing on experience!
Picture Credits: Additi Seth]]>
Most people who take up History in college expect a lot from the subject. One can usually see enthusiastic first years say on the first day of college, “I want to do archaeology, hence I took up history”, “I like history as I love memorising dates”, and then one can also hear the clichéd line, “I want to crack the Civil services, hence I took up history”. Well, all first year history students should brace themselves for something completely different! History is not just about dates and wars, it’s a discipline that transcends all conventional notions of education. I am sure teachers must have already started giving out huge bibliographies to you all, which must have tired your wits out! It’s completely understandable, that after coming from diverse backgrounds and schools, you will find it difficult to initially adjust to the incessant xeroxing and fragmented readings. But like our NCERT and Frank brothers, we also have some base books for History (hons.), which will help you garner a good grounding in your subject.
But the million dollar question is: Which are the books that will help me sail my way through the first year? Don’t assume that I am creating a guide book list for all of you: this is just a preliminary guideline, to help you in your initial days through this indecipherable course called History (hons.) in Delhi University.
The first honours paper: Ancient India, seems like a very difficult paper in the beginning, but one book will save everybody’s souls and studying time- ‘A History of Ancient and Medieval India: from the stone age to the 12th century’ by Dr. Upinder Singh (yes, she is Manmohan Singh’s daughter). The name of the book may sound daunting, but trust me; it is your bible in the first year. Not only will this book save you hours of reading through subsidiary readings, it is also an excellent resource for the section on Harappa. But at the same time, it is also quite inadequate for a lot of stuff, so don’t do the mistake of reading this book alone! You can also buy R.S Sharma’s ‘Ancient Past’ if you want (but for those people who are content with buying Upinder Singh: it won’t be much of a loss). But the real joy of Ancient India comes through reading up lots of stuff, so please do not miss out on that. The paper requires a lot of debate, so make sure you read up as much as possible, so that you can substantiate your paper with relevant arguments.
The second paper: Social Formations and Cultural patterns of the Ancient and Medieval world (don’t worry about remembering the name, most of us forget it by the time we reach our third year), or popularly called, “Sofo”, can be cracked with the help of Dr. Amar Farooqui’s famous book (every student in DU reading history has read him once in their lifetime), ‘Early Social Formations’. This is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and detailed book on the subject. There is just one problem- in case your college teaches you Shang China, then the only person who can save you is K.C Chang. Otherwise, it’s Amar Farooqui all the way!
And as for the qualifying paper: Hindi, life would have been so much easier without this paper wouldn’t it? The only guidance I can suggest is guide books. They will be enough to make you pass with a decent grade. The second semester will hopefully be less hard for you all, as by then you would have learnt to navigate your way through this course and of course your college! And above everything, there are always teachers and seniors to help you all out, so keep them on your reference list too!
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