Delhi's University is bustling again after two long years

On Tuesday morning, there is a steady stream of youths exiting the Vishwavidyalaya Metro station in North Delhi. Some are seated in small clusters on the patio, waiting for more friends to join them, while others swiftly pile into e-rickshaws or walk down to the adjacent colleges in Delhi’s University’s (DU) North Campus.

It is a sight not seen since March 2020, when a creeping coronavirus compelled colleges to shut their doors to physical classes for nearly two years. The return to normal was long due for students, and also urgent for vendors and businesses that rely on the former for survival and sustenance.
 

Dayal Yadav, who runs a stall next to the Metro station, says vendors in North Campus were left with no business during the pandemic. Even with the presence of administrative staff and the sporadic visits of students, at no point since the Covid-induced shutdown has he seen even five per cent of the regular crowd earlier, he adds.

Manoj Paswan, who has plied rickshaws for nearly three decades, had to return home during the first lockdown in 2020 and work as a farm hand in Bihar. He was back in Delhi late 2021. In the past couple of months, money was hard to come by. “I've been earning barely Rs 300-400 a day, but today I have made as much within two-three hours,” he says.

The mood is also upbeat at campus stalls and shops that are favourite haunts for students who are hungry for food and discussions.

At JP Tea Stall on the premises of Delhi School of Economics, students swarmed about ordering hot cuppas, iced teas and soft drinks. One of its employees says the stall had remained shut with no business during the pandemic and reopened days ago, anticipating brisk business with the return of students.

The hope of better times ahead is shared by the row of printing and photocopying shops near the DU-supported Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute. Yatin Sharma, the owner of a photocopy shop, says that in the absence of students, business has shrunk 70 per cent, with orders coming only from employees of private and government offices.

The owner at a printing shop, which also relies heavily on researchers and academics working on theses, points out that the resumption of physical classes would bring back outstation scholars and help recover losses.

Among students, the freshers are the most enthused lot. Ayush Kumar, a first-year student of physical science with electronics at Hindu College, says it is good to be in college finally even though he got admitted late last year. 

“Today was just an introduction, as classes will start tomorrow. But the teachers are great and it was overall a nice experience to step into college,” says the 18-year-old from Lucknow.

At many colleges, students had to show vaccination certificates and get past thermal screening as part of the new normal.

The fact that the university issued an order only last week announcing resumption of physical classes has meant that many outstation students are still to return.

A third-year physics student from St Stephen’s College, who didn’t want to be identified, says that out of 50-odd students in his batch, only half were in attendance on Tuesday. “It’s quite tough to find accommodation quickly for outstation students,” he says, adding that he returned to Delhi in October after staying at home for more than a year.

Many final-year undergraduates like him are eager to have the option of a hybrid model that combines physical and online classes.

A petition by final-year outstation students on change.org, pressing this demand and addressed to DU officials, has already had 40,000 signatures, he adds.

One wouldn’t be able to tell that by looking at the long, serpentine queues outside Vishwavidyalaya Metro station mid-afternoon by when classes on Day 1 were over.