Miranda House?

I go home for the holidays......short Puja Break. I get to meet Mom & Dad's friends once again. They ask me where I am........what am I doing...translate studying...which College? The moment I say "I am studying in Miranda House College", I invariably get the raised eyebrows looks with..."Miranda House?" Actually, I love seeing that look. It amuses me to see them scandalized on hearing that a girl like me (I am suppose to be a prim & proper girl, minding my Ps & Qs!...having studied in convent schools where the Nuns have done a good job on me) has landed in that notorious College and secretly wondering if I am now Wild & Fast!

Miranda House.........I don't know exactly when and how it got this wild reputation......but no other Girls College can claim "Holier Than Thou" Title too!

Getting ready

I remember packing my bags to leave for the hostel....to embark on my further education. We were to bring our bedding and so my favourite pillow along with my mattress, blanket, bed sheets, pillowcases were all packed into a holdall. I also had an aluminium trunk and a suitcase packed with my shoes & clothes.

While preparations to leave were going on, any opportunity when Mom would find me all alone, she would impart her advises..... “Concentrate on your studies...don’t roam here & there....Boys! Don’t believe them....they would say “I love you” just to take advantage....you know what I mean” or “Be careful of your belongings in the hostel....some girls would live off other girls...always borrowing and never caring to return...” I know where she was coming from.........she too was once my age.........she too had gone to a College & lived in the Hostel.

The day arrived for me to finally leave Home....all these years I have never been away from my Parents & my two younger brothers & our dog....till now. My youngest brother bought me a gift on this occasion....a small carved rectangular shaped wooden box. Don’t know where he got the money or where he bought it. I was really touched by this gesture..........it was real sweet of him......I still have it.

With a mixed bag of feelings............scared at the thought of living without my family.......excited, at the adventure which lay ahead?! my family dropped me off to the Railway Station where I was catching a train to Delhi. It’s about 3 hours journey from Agra to Delhi. Of course my Parents did not send me all alone.........I was chaperoned by someone from my father’s office.

The Admission

Being convent educated all through my school days..........my hope to go to a college where boys & girls mingled and had loads of fun....like they show in the movies.....were dashed to the ground when I was given ONLY, all Girls Colleges application forms to be filled in. Believe me....it’s true. I didn’t have much say as I only wanted to study in Delhi University........and being sent away to a Girl’s College was last of my worries.

Miranda House was to be..........where I would be for the next 3 years. I got the subject that I wanted to study....no, it was more like, the subject I was asked to major in....in the first go....my name was there in the First List selected from all the Applicants who had applied....again my name was in the First List for a Hostel Seat! I shudder to think what it would have been if my name was not there in the First List! Probably, gone back to Agra, the city where my father was currently stationed. The College Principal turned out to be the wife of Dad’s former instructor/colleague in the Air Force and this clinched it further as the right college... and thus finally, I got enrolled into Miranda House College.