Once there, I quickly changed into the ceremonial attire. My father came with me inside the hall and we tried to get mom inside too, but the bureaucratic officials refused, citing lack of space. This after seeing people enter with 4 invitations each! Entering the hall, there was a flurry of red and black gowns (with yellow hoods) all over the place. When we arrived, the hall was only half full; with people roaming around and taking photographs. You could really feel the excitement and the anticipation in the air. Everyone had huge smiles on their faces, probably because this was the last time they would be listening to any authority in the university. Eventually my mom also got in, with a little help from kind policewomen (what is that, does something like that exist in Delhi?)

The convocation was supposed to begin at 11 am, so there was plenty of time for me to roam around, help my father set the digital camera (the 3x zoom didn’t help much though) and in general chat with fellow medallists. Sitting behind me was a guy Nitin, who was getting a medal for DM and to the left of me was a lady who worked in Bharti Telecom, I think. Feeling bored, I decided to talk to them and introduce myself. And there I faced the problem faced by all NSITians while talking to people… what is NSIT? Telling the guy that it was earlier called DIT helped as he had given one of his exams there, he must have been pretty old. The lady/girl knew that because her boss was from NSIT (hooray!). So I educated 2 persons about the existence of my college  

One more thing that I noticed (and also communicated to the guy behind me) was that 80-90% of the medallists were girls. We guys were seriously outnumbered! I have seen this for so long now, girls outnumbering guys while getting prizes. Why this happens, I still cannot figure out. Does that mean that females are the smarter sex? Guess you cannot generalize everything based on a convocation so I will leave it here.

At 11, the procession (it’s a formal term) of the Deans, VC and the Chief Guest came. There were around 30 of them. This made me realize how big and diverse DU actually is. The deans wore red, the VC (and some others) wore purple and the Chief Guest wore blue. After a brief introduction to the Chief Guest, Sh. Montek Singh Ahluwalia (he’s the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission), the convocation ceremony began. Now the excruciating part began; my position was 92 after the PhD guys (around 300). But the university people were pretty fast and quickly wound up with the awardees. So in all it wasn’t that bad.

I liked the part at the end when the Chief Guest addressed the gathering. He gave an overview of what kind of world we will encounter when we enter our working life. The thing that I liked about him was that he supported all his statements with facts and figures and didn’t give any vague statements. He was also careful enough to say that we shouldn’t take the progress for granted and it is us who would have to work to create and take advantages of the opportunities he was talking about. The speech was truly great and insightful.

After the ceremony, there were refreshments for the guests (and also the police, staff of the college and anyone who managed to enter the premises). OK stuff, and the convocation was finally over.

I will leave you with a masterpiece that my father shot with the digicam at DU

The day before the Convocation, all students were asked to report for a roll-call/rehearsal at the Old Vice Regal Lodge at the University Campus at 11 am. Now, I had arrived at Delhi at night at around 1 am and was really sleepy. But then, I somehow managed to get up and reach the University along with my mom. We were both clueless abut how the whole thing worked; my mom had also not gone to her convocation and had the degree delivered home. We reached the place before 11 am, which I had seriously doubted. But Delhi Metro is amazing and took us from Central Secretariat to DU in around 20 minutes flat; neat! Once there, we beckoned a sight with lots of people standing outside the hall gate and trying to make sense of the proceedings. Remembering the old adage “When in Rome, do as the Romans”, we decided to go with the crowd. I saw people rushing to the nearby Anthropology department and getting the Convocation gowns and so decided to follow them and get one for myself too. I was vaguely aware that the red gown was for the PhD guys and so got myself a black gown with a yellow hood. It was the stuff out of movies and I wondered if people would toss their hats after the ceremony was over.

There was also a shady looking character who came to us as soon as we got the rented gown and asked for 200 bucks for a convocation photo and 300 bucks for a VCD. I know that the inflation is at an all time high, but this was preposterous! Also one of my profs had said something about these characters and I decided not to deal with him. Lucky me! During the rehearsal I came to know that this guy was indeed someone shady. Dunno if people caught up with him in the end.

The rehearsal was merely for telling us who the Chief Guest was, at what time we were supposed to arrive and stuff. Also the downer for the day was that passes for the ceremony were in a short supply and limited to 1 per person (though we came to know later that people were taking around 4 passes each).

Now regarding the ceremonial gown that I had rented from the University, I didn’t have the faintest idea regarding how to wear the hood, which side would be in front; so I spent the night googling around for people wearing their convocation attire, hoping that I would get a clue somewhere. So after going through various sites with pictures of students (or models) in the attire, I finally got some idea about how to dress for the occasion. The scarf-like hood was to be put hanging behind and was to be pinned to the gown in the front. So finally I got that stuff right.

For the convocation, I am supposed to reach at 9.30 am in the morning, but will have to reach much earlier if my parents are going to get any seats. Will post the day’s events in the next post. Till later.