The next stage at Stephen's

On a certain weekday morning in this month, many students gathered in front of a certain assembly hall in a certain college of India. After a while, they began entering the hall and occupied the seats that had been allotted to them. Their whisperings seemed to create a stir not just in the hall, but throughout the college grounds. Then, as the principal of the college entered the hall along with the other teachers, silence fell. It was when the principal began speaking and welcomed all his students as a part of the college family, a new period dawned in my life.

Our first day in College kicked off in the above manner. This morning assembly is, in fact, a very important part of my college. For the non-Christian students, its an affair for the first four days of the week. Not that everyone likes sitting through the long speeches every morning, but I feel that if the assembly is ever stopped completely , life here would somehow be incomplete. We, the Stephanians, are very proud of our family and like our principal mentioned on the very first day, I always try to walk on the Stephen's grounds with respect. The best thing about this place is probably its old world charm with its red buildings, high ceilings, black wooden doors and windows. Till now, my experience here has been very good because the people are very nice. And, that includes everyone from the students to the teachers to the non-teaching staff. Even the ragging part was fun. The most prevalent from of ragging here is introduction. I was all by myself in my residence room ( we don't say 'hostel') one afternoon when a few seniors came and wanted me to tell them about myself. Then, they asked me to guess their courses, which states they come from and what they aspire to become. So, I kept myself cheerful and made one of them the future President of India, and they too were really happy. Now, I'm on very good terms with them.

Life here is obviously different for the Resident Scholars and Day Scholars( I love the Stephen's terminologies). I'm a Resident Scholar, which means that I stay at one of the residence blocks in College. So, I'm a part of the routine here 24X7. One of the aspects of this routine which I really admire a lot is the dining. I feel that the dining hall resembles the Hogwarts dining hall(of Harry Potter fame) a lot , with its long tables. The way people sit together and enjoy their food even if its mess food, the way the food is served very neatly and the way people bond through the eating sessions thrice a day, is something so wonderful.

There's naturally more to the life here, but as of today, I want to leave the narration here. Actually, there's a lot more to discover about this place like the Chapel, the societies, more regular and proper classes and most importantly, more people from almost all the 28 Indian states. Till then, bye bye!