Goodbye Archives - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

Here are a few words by Anoushka Sharma, Editor-In-Chief, DU Beat, sharing the experiences which built her journey, as she bids adieu to this family. While this journey comes to an end, the memories last forever.

On 6^th July 2018, while scrolling through my Facebook feed, I came across a post by DU Beat which read “DU Beat is hiring Correspondents”. Back then, I was very hesitant to apply, but applied anyway and today I can proudly say that was the best decision of my college life.

I was recruited as a correspondent in July and soon began my love for writing news reports and covering protests. I remember talking to my Editor and giving her ‘live updates’ from the Delhi University Students’ Union vote counting day in September 2019. I remember being with my fellow DUBsters, walking in the heat all tired and hungry, covering every nook and corner of the place, and then leaving with a big smile on our faces because we had covered the vote counting day properly (even though the results did not come out during the day). I was soon promoted as a copy-editor and then began my journey of being on countless WhatsApp groups, calls, discussions, and meetings. It took me some time to realise that the two DUB WhatsApp groups I had on my phone were now nearly 12, and the mailbox which seemed empty, was now flooded with unedited articles, graphics, and photographs to be scheduled for the day. Antaragni, the cultural fest of IIT Kanpur was the most memorable event for me. It holds so many memories for the team. That was the outstation coverage which made me realise that this DU Beat is not just any organisation, but my new family. There are many instances like this, which I could probably talk about and not write, because if I start doing so, this goodbye note would not end.

Apart from being attached to this place to almost at an unhealthy level, this place has given me a family. DUB has made me a better writer, a team player, and most importantly, a better person. I can never be grateful enough to this organisation for teaching me patience, responsibility, time-management and the importance of upholding values. DU Beat has been the highlight of the three years I spent as a DU student. I have attended more Monday meetings than my AECC lectures and lost sleep on the countless cycles of print edits. I joined this organisation to improve my writing skills, I still don’t know when my passion for writing expanded towards for the organisation and its members.

My tenure as the Editor-in Chief of this organisation has been the most rewarding experience of my college life. The team has given me so many opportunities to learn and grow. The members of the team (who I also refer to as ‘my kids’) are extremely talented and creative. The team of 2019-20 has achieved newer heights this year- hitting 50K Instagram followers, interviewing celebrities, and being nominated for the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Awards, to name a few. When I joined DUB, I wasn’t really sure about collaborating with new people, but today, I can confidently say that I trust my team more than I trust myself. Over the last one year, this team became my support and my priority. With them, I learnt the importance of delegation and management. Teaching the team has been one of my fondest memories here and I think not a single day has passed by in my journey as a DUBster where I didn’t check the WhatsApp groups talking about new ideas and projects.

I have been fortunate enough to work with a team of departmental heads who have given their best to train the team and produce better each day. These six people have been the closest to me all throughout and this journey wouldn’t have been smooth without them. More than that, I am extremely proud of the copy-editors at this organisation. They are the most hardworking bunch of people I have ever had the opportunity to lead (though I troubled them by faltering on deadlines, and in fact my copy-editor had to pester me for two weeks to write this note). Copyeds, you guys will always have my heart.

For any person who comes across DU Beat, it’s just an organisation, an internship opportunity, a media platform, or a newspaper. But for me, DU Beat has been an experience. This is place where you get to work with the most talented bunch of University students who come together to take a stand on student issues, and define the truer sense of journalism. Facts, ethics, and credibility have always remained the guiding principles of DU Beat, the baton which I hope the upcoming batches will uphold with care. This place reflects the hard work of each and every person who works as a correspondent/designer/HR manager/ marketing executive/photographer/videographer/video-editor to report objectively and tirelessly round the clock to produce the eight pages of newspaper you see on Wednesday, and the content that is uploaded on our digital platform daily.

I wish I had the opportunity to tell all of this to every member personally, but with the Coronavirus pandemic, I’ve still not been able to get over my missing ‘lasts’ from this organisation- the last fest coverage, the last meeting, the last team picture, and the farewell.

DUB has been the primary recipient of my attention since the last two years and I haven’t regretted a single moment that I spent here. To DU Beat and all the people I had the honour of working with, thank you for everything.

Signing Off,

Anoushka Sharma

Editor-in-Chief 2019-20

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Features

The Incomplete Wish List: The Batch of 2020 Laments

By Sakshi Arora April 22, 2020

Plans were made and the wish list of the final-year students was set, but never did they imagine that they were marching towards uncertainty. The Covid-19 outbreak has certainly infected the plans of the outgoing batch, who need to keep peace with their incomplete wish list. Read on to find what the class of 2020 feels about it.

It was the beginning of March 2020 when everyone was dreading for the mid-semester vacation, to head back to our hometowns, do internships, catch-up on the pending studies, and rejuvenate ourselves for the next half of the semester packed with fests, internals, and of course our GRADUATION! Little did we know that our expectations would just move into the helix of uncertainty. It does feel now, that one should have attended that particular day of college they bunked or that particular society meeting for which they made an excuse, so that they could get a little more before things turned out such. While the University is shut amidst the lockdown and some of the major college fests have been cancelled, it is hard to believe the reality. However, the virtual world still keeps us connected and sane during these times.

Shivanu Prav, a student of the outgoing batch from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), says, “As we know that it’s the journey that matters and the people whom you meet along it. I am going to miss all my friends and the things we did, but what makes me feel terrible is that now we won’t be able to do those final things (roaming, bunking, trips, visit to teacher’s house, farewell and convocation) that we planned for. I will miss the glitter in everyone’s eyes by the thought of being graduates at the same time, a sadness of getting apart from each other. I will miss every inch of myself which I lived in SRCC.”

While many colleges have started with online lectures, few students are finding it difficult to cope with the increased screen time, while others have an issue of internet avilability. It only takes us back to missing our college lectures and the classroom environment.

Shivani, a final-year student from Miranda House, commented, “This long break takes me back into my three-year old self. Now I have started fighting with my brother again. I am struggling everyday with my eyes after Zoom lectures and long documented notes.

This is a big pause for me as an individual and the humanity as a whole. This is where we decide our course for this decade.”

Even during this uncertainty, the connectedness between the batchmates is what keeps us going. The plans we had, may not have come out in the way we wanted, however, it teaches us the importance of the memories we spent in the beautiful years of the graduation.

Aarti Rajput, another final-year student from Lady Shri Ram (LSR), adds, “There are various things we wanted to fulfil but I can’t believe that we are waiting for the completion of our graduation like this. We wanted to enjoy these few days of our graduation with our friends and teachers…But now we are sitting at our homes on the video calls. We are crying by recalling our beautiful days that we have spent together. I wish we could celebrate our farewell, graduation party, and attend those last classes which we have missed for no reasons.”

While the students would miss their college once they graduate, these few months were important for looking for the unexplored parts of the Campus, hanging out at Maggi Point, and spending the last few days with their friends and teachers. The graduating batch who had applied for further studies abroad are worried now, and some have even dropped their plans with the worsening situation due to the pandemic. DU has postponed the final exams “until further notice”, however final-year students are anxious due to their delayed graduation. It is true that we are the unluckiest batch. Because we don’t have any chance to live back those beautiful days of our lives, and create memories in our last days of college life. The only thing that keeps coming back to my mind are those lines from Shah Rukh Khan’s iconic song, ‘Har pal Yaha jee bhar jio, jo hai sama kal ho na ho.’ We are just hopeful that this too shall pass and the Class of 2020 would pass with flying colours.

Image Source: Sriya Rane for DU Beat

Sriya Rane

[email protected]

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Arts & Culture

Of Goodbyes and Partings: A Bittersweet Oxymoron

By Avnika Chhikara April 27, 2019

Goodbyes are meant to be cathartic, period.

The very first time I experienced a goodbye in my life was bidding adieu to my neighbour in Mumbai, to whom I was the closest to, as she parted to move to New Zealand. I was five and very oblivious to what a goodbye meant. A bye for me was customary to say when I parted with my friends, after an evening of playing with them by the swings; to kiss a goodbye to the elders as they would leave from their short stay at our place or to part from my cousins as we would come back home after the sweet summers. What all of these were to me were temporary, with an assurity of coming back. But the goodbye to my friend, as she went for a journey crossing seas, and starting a new life there, was new. The feeling never sunk in, of the fact that I will in fact never be seeing her soon enough and this is how the fear of a goodbye grew-because it grew so over bearing and emotional.

As we approach the time when we will be bidding adieu to many people- our beloved friends who will all graduate and go to different places, to our family from whom we will render away, and to so many other things which will come our way, because they are cyclical in their nature. For a beginning, there has to be an end. Everyone has a different sense of affiliation when it comes to parting. For me, it starts with the initial step of developing a sense of a slight fear, you know the one where you need to heave deep breaths and where you want to lure away into this whimsical land, as it is more peaceful than the reality next to you. It then starts with formulating skillfully crafted personalized messages, to each of the parting member, as you want that last proper conversation to mean something; after all we all value every single thing. The finality where you know this will be the present conclusion and then a dramatic vision of them fading away.

Why goodbyes are this bittersweet oxymoron is that they can be so sudden and they can be so drastic. The calculative element that surrounds a goodbye seems to get away into some other dimension. When I realised while typing this article out, this would be my last article for this workplace, a thousand ideas as vast and clueless as the seven oceans whizzed past me, and after keeping this one on hold for quite a long time, I knew that I needed to develop something which was ultimately, heartfelt. To peruse the thread, and not glide on to the hobby horse, i.e. memories for me; the keys started synchronising in a choir I half knew and half came magically as I scanned my brain for everything I did in the past ten months here with a calming bliss.

How does this upsetting feeling, feel better? Well, thanks to different arts of venting it out, for photographs which serve as a perennial memory, to the paranoia which will keep surfacing, but above all, to submitting yourself to Sinatra and lights out eyes closed feels, the realisation that the need to move on comes with a subconscious hope that we are moving onto something better. A supervisor of mine, from where I was last interning said, “The correct time to leave, will never really approach, but a point of satiety will. That is when you know to call it quits and move on.” From her verses, I gaze through my journey on so many different paths that I have crossed in these past nineteen cruising on twenty years. Every place you land on and are ready to take off from, remember to take the part of it you adore the most (which whilst explaining to people I say, “jaise kisi jagah ki mitti ko lekar aa rahe ho apne saath” as a touché’ souvenir), alongside a spiritual maturity you receive at every end.

Waving goodbye by FR Harper Image Credits: American Gallery — Waving goodbye by FR Harper
Image Credits: American Gallery

Its good and it’s a bye, it is bitter and it is sweet, paradoxical, but fortunate enough to depict us, this is what a conclusion to a current chapter in life is. The next battle is to move on, and while I cannot guarantee out of the two which would be relatively smoother, but the fact that when you will look up to the sky and realise every cloud has a silver lining, rise and shine to seize the new day!

And here as I will sign up for the last article, I thank every single reader, every single editor and team mate who has sailed with me for so far, and when I am here to place my anchor on the good shore, you will tread forward and I hope for the very best for you!

Feature Image Credits: Fine art America

Avnika Chhikara

[email protected]

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DUB Speak

This is a Farewell, Not a Goodbye

By Anushree Joshi April 24, 2019

Read our Print Editor’s words of gratitude to the friends who anchored her and made her grow up at the same time. Share them with yours, because letters never go out of style.

Dear College Best Friends,

I would ideally start this letter by recalling a fond childhood memory, or saying how the last fifteen years of my life would not have been the same without you. However, as shocking as it seems, we technically did not grow up together, but we did, in so many more ways than age could ever define the terms “growing up.” When I entered the dynamic world of being a university student, I had this preconceived notion about not finding anyone better than my school mates. I am glad you proved me wrong (for once).

To my college best friend whom I met in the first week of classes in the first year, thank you for being scared with me. First year was a rollercoaster ride in terms of emotions and to have someone to share the fear and nerves, was comforting. Thank you for being my cheerleader during my society auditions, for being as shocked to hear how much the academic structure was so different and advanced from CBSE (which seemed like the toughest thing we would ever tackle in life during twelfth grade), and for pretending to be grown up mature adults, when we were so naïve and foolish.

To my college best friend whom I met in the second year college, thank you for being reckless with me. Second year in college is the year for all the mistakes and you stood by me through all my phases. Thank you for being a shoulder to cry on when I went through that one (or multiple) breakup(s), for being my partner in crime (sometimes, literally), for being the person who discovered how much capacity I had in terms of intoxicating substances (you know what I mean), for being my cover in front of my parents (who love you more than they love me) when I needed to get out of the house, for standing up to the professor who hated me for no reason, and for never judging me or abandoning me through all the mishaps and my embarrassing moments.

To my college best friend from third year, thank you for being my support system. Third year, although it has not fully culminated yet, has been the scariest year thus far, in which, we have done the most “growing up.” Thank you for always taking my late night calls, listening and relating to my rants. You could not always give me the best advice, but the fact that you were there to listen to help me think out loud, meant so much to me that I could not possibly address it adequately in words. You helped me through countless points of existential crises, comforted me through multiple breakdowns, and held my hand through job / grad – school rejection letters.

Some of you, I have known for all three years of my college, and some I got the pleasure of meeting through my journey as a college student. But each one of my “best” friends has contributed substantially to the person I am today. From deciding our outfit for our freshers’ party to going shopping for our farewell saree, it has been a wild ride and I am glad I had you as my companion. Thank you for being the Siddharth and Sameer to my Akshay, the Avi and Aditi to my Bunny. This may be a farewell from the classrooms we have spent three years sleeping in, but this certainly isn’t a goodbye. I look forward to hearing your rants about your future colleagues / Master’s professors. I look forward to growing up some more, with you.

Dear college best friends, for you, I am eternally grateful.

Yours truly,

Bhavya Banerjee

[email protected]

Image Credits: Deepesh Varshney for DU Beat

Image Caption: Graduating Seniors of DUB (from left to right; Saubhagya Saxena, Sharvi Maheshwari, Vijeata Balani, Bhavya Banerjee, Akarsh Mathur, Kinjal Pandey, Niharika Dabral, Adithya Khanna).

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DUB Speak

Why Farewells are Good ?

By Kinjal Pandey May 4, 2018

Although farewells and goodbyes make most of us cry, especially when it comes to saying it to colleges which have been our home away from home, they are in a way very necessary to our existence.

No one likes to stay in a rut. If we were perpetually stuck in a place, no matter how wonderful it is, the thought of immobility would hamper our creativity, our hopes, dreams and the creation of any goals. We would be hanging in limbo, floating through time in zero-gravity, with no sense of direction. Goodbyes make it easier for us to manage our time accordingly, to do full justice to the present so that we can make a better tomorrow.

Come April and the lawns of the University are littered with decorations of the seniors’ graduation dinners and farewells. Endless speeches of regret, love, loss, ambition abound in our hallowed halls as each batch grapples with the question: After this, what? In a way, facing this question is extremely vital to our existence as healthy, rational, contributors to our world’s legacy. We need to come to answers to this question in our own ways, decide what we want and grow up. The process of becoming an adult comes to fruition at this moment.

Farewells also serve another important purpose. They make us treasure the countless memories of school and college life. As loss sinks in slowly and we realise that we might never meet some of these people again, we tend to be kinder, more cheerful and less angry versions of ourselves. Amidst the hectic churn of entrance exams, internships and applications for student loans and grants that all final year students face, they also have to come to terms with this realisation of impermanence.

Such a sense binds us all. And hence, we do more for our institutions, willing to leave our mark, we love more and we definitely, smile more. Like, Ozymandius, we leave our sculptures of bittersweet memory behind. In the process, we also leave a part of us behind. The part that would wander around the canteens, doggedly follow the teachers and think fondly (I know!) of assignments. Long after we leave, this spirit of loss and gain, past and present, would tie us to our Alma matter, our city and ultimately, ourselves.

Feature Image Credits: EAge Tutor

Sara Sohail

[email protected]

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