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There is a common feeling among engineering students who get into Jamia’s Faculty of Engineering that he has been wronged by society because given his caliber, he should have been in a more reputed engineering college than Jamia. During my initial days at college, every other student in my class told me about their academic brilliance in coaching institutes and ...

It is natural to love and get attached to people and places. My university, Jamia Millia Islamia is the loveliest place I have ever been in, and unsurprisingly, I have a great affinity towards the institution. The numerous buildings are surrounded by gardens and well trimmed plants. The guards, in perfect khaki uniforms, man the gates. There is this road ...

As I begin to type this on my mobile phone, I check the time and see that it’s around 6 a.m. on the morning of December 29, 2012. I have been awake all night. Sleep has evaded my eyes for over a week now. And tonight it was worse. Since early in the evening, news was pouring in that the ...

The worst part about feeling sympathy for a victim of a crime is that we sometimes think we can understand and feel their pain better than they can. I’ve recently come across such people. People who think that the girl who had been gang-raped and is fighting for her life in a hospital in Delhi, is a living corpse (‘zinda ...

On Sunday evening, a girl gets beaten and raped in a moving bus in Delhi. She then gets thrown off the bus; tossed on the highway like garbage. The girl had to undergo critical surgeries to survive. She is currently, on a ventilator, and can only communicate with her family and the police by writing. What can we do to ...

The big eyes, the angry voice and then came the threat: “You better learn your tables or I will thrash you” or the classic, “if you ever fail your exams, you will be sent to work in the fields.” These remained mere threats for I never did learn the multiplication tables and often forgot to do my homework. I managed ...

Although the Delhi Government has, on numerous occasions, notified shopkeepers and vendors against using plastic bags, things are only now being taken seriously. The law, however, naturally inconveniences me and fellow shoppers alike. This decision imposed on the common man is felt when one goes shopping for groceries and stationery–the shopkeeper politely refuses my request for a plastic carry bag. ...

If you live in the jungle and if you’re a deer, what would you do to avoid being feasted upon by the tiger? You would make peace with it, right? That is exactly what most celebrities had been doing with the late tiger of Maharashtra — Balasaheb Thackeray. Only a certain kind of pugnacity can spark a complete surrender of ...

Generally, women’s experiences of armed conflict are multiple, and may be classified as — vulnerable victims and associated with it is their experiences as survivors, peace-builders, and perpetrators of conflict. However, in all these contexts the effect is both negative as well as positive. Conflict may have grave implications for women while at the same time it may create new ...

Attending seminars and workshops has become a norm for me in Jamia. In one of the dozen seminars I attended, I had a moment where I thought I could not betray myself. I had to speak. I didn’t stand up from my chair. I just threw the question at the lady who had read some poetry on Kashmir. Paradoxically, her ...