THE USUAL GRADUATION pictures did not flood my inbox this year. Of late, even playschools have been holding ceremonies, complete with scrolls and gowns. Friends and family would proudly send me photos of the young graduates in mortarboards, gowns and big smiles. Then there is the usual flurry of congratulatory phone calls and messages.

But with most institutions holding their ceremonies online, this rite of passage seems to have lost its sheen. The end of the last academic year was chopped off rather brutally, and I feel for all those young women and men. The microscopic villain ate up those final opportunities to bid farewell to friends and favourite haunts on and outside campuses. Opportunities that will never come back.

This annual special issue on India’s best colleges comes at the start of an academic year like no other. While many other things—like going to a place of worship, shopping and travelling—can be optional, education cannot be. So, we have focused on how top colleges have focused on transcending the pandemic-induced crisis to reach out to their students. The solutions have been a mix of heart and tech.

While lecturers from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi, are walking the extra mile by coaching individual students over the phone, Loyola College, Chennai, has opened an emergency desk to assist students and faculty with everything from academic needs to sourcing food and medicines.

Not surprisingly, IIT Bombay’s education technology department is working on streamlining the inhouse process. Hansraj College, Delhi, crowdsourced ideas to zero in on a platform that was best suited for their needs, and if that is not democracy in action, tell me what is! Knowing Mumbai’s bumper-to-bumper traffic, I am not surprised that St Xavier’s College is seeing a great opportunity in remote classes—an opening to bring in guest faculty. So, yes, India’s best colleges are bouncing back in their own way, and that is why they have been topping our list consistently.

So, young reader, take a deep breath, steel your spine, look in the mirror and say, “This, too, shall pass!” It will, trust me. If you do not, trust Prof John Varghese, principal of St Stephen’s College, Delhi. He said this about his students, “They are smarter, more technically savvy and, what hits me in the face is that they are so focused. At their age, I don’t think I had this much clarity on what I wanted to do with my life.” This from a man who has spent more than two decades
in academia.

Once I had shared in this space my bond with an old college friend called KLD. A Lambretta scooter I inherited from my brother, when I joined St Stephen’s. By the time I left Delhi, KLD and I had clocked a few thousand miles together, all over northern India. When I savour memories of college life, KLD is always lurking in the background. So, young reader, I can understand quite well the angst you feel, bound to a screen and away from friends. As I said, this, too, shall pass.

Count your blessings. Believe. Be strong. Hold your loved ones close. And, persevere. I wish you the best of everything that life brings.