Degrees of Separation

One impossibly large sheet of thick handmade paper, with the University emblem on the top right corner, and some printing and calligraphy is what it all culminates in. Three years in College – the first three years of adulthood, independence, adventure, heartbreak, friendship, ambition, exploration…three years that I know were mine and mine alone in all their folly and wisdom and learning; three years that scores of others shared, but which remain all mine, just as theirs remain all theirs – all condensed into one degree issued by the University on February 23, 2008, in a convocation that included four hundred thousand individuals, each of whom was awarded this same sheet of handmade paper, the only difference lying at the bottom left of the certificate, where there are blanks for Name and Division. Ultimately, all that distinguishes my three years from that of the next person, and his from mine, are those two blanks. For the rest, we are all students of the Bachelor of Arts programme, and I am one of forty thousand graduates with an Economics (Honours) degree in 2007. It’s so strange it’s almost surreal. I wasn’t carrying a bag big enough, and the weather threatened to turn wet, so I rolled the degree up and secured it with the scrunch-band from my ponytail, and placed it carefully between my readings for tomorrow and a bottle of water. And then I walked out of campus, my last formal transaction with the College office over; the essence of the most eventful, formative years of my life (so far, at least) tucked safely between a bundle of photocopies and an old Kinley bottle.



The ridiculous and the sublime.

I stare and my degree and think, Is this what it boils down to – 35 months that will always have a way of asserting themselves on my CV and transcripts, but more importantly, in my thoughts, perspectives, memories, personality and values? Is this what I came here for; the reason behind so many irreversible changes for the better and for the worse? I know the answer. But I am aware it’s all in a day’s work for the University of Delhi, so I come back to my room, unroll the degree, smoothen the creases, slide it carefully into an envelope that a wall calendar came in, and place it at the bottom of my drawer. Sometimes, it is all one can do.