A bit about the history of Meerabai Campus, DSEU

Michael Crichton wrote that not knowing history of a place is as good as not knowing ‘anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree’ and so a few years back I began my search for those precious bits about the past of Meerabai Institute of Technology as it was called before DSEU (Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University) decided to turn it into Meerabai Campus in 2021. The search led me to fascinating and revelatory discussions with a few stalwarts who have been associated with this place. One of these is Mrs Veena Jaitley, a former faculty here and a good friend. She is now leading a blessed retired life but had herself been a student of one of the initial batches of Electronics and Communications Engineering and while retelling a few stories she remarked, ‘Quite a few faculty here have been students of this college that was earlier a Polytechnic with the DTTE or the Directorate of Training and Technical Education under the Government of Delhi’.

Sports, Studies, and Skills

The perception about sports has changed a lot over time… but the affection for a game well-played gives as much joy to a sportsperson as it did in the past. Every game of table-tennis that I have ever played stays on in my memory. Is that all? No, it is what happens before and after a game that are just as important.

Let me tell you what happens to a player after a good game has ended… she (the player) has been focusing single-mindedly. It is this ability to focus that carries on to her other tasks later in the day and as far as I am concerned, this helped me dive into numbers and play with mathematics for longer hours. Even the time before a game has a role to play. It was a time to anticipate and think hard on all the challenging techniques that I had trained hard for… and as a student this helped me unflinchingly pick up difficult problems to solve. The same is true even later in life.

Sports Day at MBIT

Meerabai Institute of Technology, or Meerabai Institute of Technology as it lovingly known as, celebrated its sports day on 26 March 2019. I’ve used the word ‘celebrated’ because the atmosphere becomes lively when one sees students charged with unbounded energy for competitions. Friendly ties and bonds are developed among students while forming the teams with fellow students of various departments. Students are seen involved in practicing for the events even during lunch hours during the sports week when the heats and initial rounds of the matches are on.

It is said that sports doesn’t build character but reveal it. There is more unveiled on the play-field than in boardrooms and classrooms in colleges. Sports urge the mind and the body to run a better race and for a longer distance. We must understand that whatever we happen to be doing, the bridge between wishing and accomplishing is discipline. The concept is quite simple as it tells us that one moves up or ahead one step after another. Steps are not to be under-estimated because we know that the first step of mankind on the moon was hailed as ‘one giant leap’.

Selfies bring out the star within us

Selfies are the moments of life when one feels happy, enjoys more, and wishes to share this joy with others. The moments of happiness can happen even at times when you are alone and not surrounded by your friends or when there is none around you to click your pictures. So to say that selfies reflect the loneliness of a person or a self-centric person may not be absolutely correct.

Snack-n-Smile

‘Good evening! What a wonderful weather’, said Arvind as he had entered the living room where we all were sitting. We all had woken up to an overcast sky after an afternoon nap on a hot summer day. The moist and cool breeze had transformed that hot Sunday day into a pleasant and ideal Sunday evening.

‘It seems to have rained somewhere nearby’, added my mother-in-law.

The scorching and sweltering heat of summer has the ability to irritate any sane and rational person to an unimaginable extent. And an overcast sky, cool and breezy weather, that too on a Sunday, was like a lottery for everyone.

Honey in your diet

‘Have something’, I said and offered a platter containing some snacks to the teenaged daughter of one my old school friends.

‘No thanks, auntie. I am on a diet’, and refused politely and glancing towards her mother through the corner of her eyes.

I was meeting my friend after almost 35 years and obviously her daughter for the first time. Of course she was a little plump for her age and perhaps anxious about her looks and body like any other normal girl of her age.

‘She has recently joined a crash diet regime’, told my friend who appeared to be more concerned about her looks than the daughter.

Get – Set – Bolt

Summers started a bit early this year and the coolers and air conditioners came into action much earlier than previous years. Sundays in summers are usually spent without any activity as the hot weather just exhausts me and I have no energy left to do anything beyond the essential routine at home.

But the #BoltDrives activity to drive a #TataBolt to #NeemranaFort by #Blogadda seemed pretty cool and held a promise to bring me into action and I could not help but register for the activity when Arvind told me about this. Driving the newly launched Tata Bolt to one of the most sought after weekend holiday destinations near Delhi was rather exciting. That too, with a group of other enthusiastic bloggers.

The Mathematics of smiles

‘What do I have to do to become a Mathematics teacher like you?’

I still remember the time I asked this question to one of my favourite teachers who happened to be my best friend’s mom too.

‘What subject would you like to teach?’ she had asked.

‘Mathematics’, I had replied confidently.

She smiled. I smiled too. She had been teaching me Mathematics in middle school. It was she and her way of teaching that had kindled my interest in the subject which most children are afraid of.

PWD, Help us reducing our weight soon!

‘Biscuits?’ Arvind offered me some when we were having our evening tea after the day’s work.

‘No, I must seriously do something about my weight. I have put on too many extra kilos over the last two years’, I replied.

‘Even I have added kilos and I had never weighed more than 60kg. I always weighed between 55-60kgs’, he agreed.

‘We need to start our morning walks soon.’ I said.

‘I am always ready. You don’t wake me up,’ he said jokingly. He knew well why our walks had been discontinued.

‘Once we restart our walks, we will lose our extra kilos’, he smiled and said. He was as optimistic as always.

I sipped my tea silently and raised my head to #lookup to his radiant face brimming with hope and confidence.

A Positive from a Negative

There have been many times when I felt stressed and low. I am sure each one of us has such moments some time or the other in our life. It could be at a time when things are not moving well at the work place, or when the result card of our children shows their poor performance, or because of the illness of our loved ones, or some unfamiliar rules and regulations of an organisation that you have to deal with unexpectedly.

During such moments one tends to feel completely helpless and loses every hope of getting the situation transform for the better. But life goes on like a roller coaster and has its ups with these downs too! This I learnt only on retrospection.

‘How will we manage this?’ I had shown the letter to Arvind.