St. Stephen's College Diaries:-
By: Prof. Neelam M. Singh, History Hons.1975 -1980 (M.A.), M.PHIL,1982, LL.B.
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Chandrachud
Hey friends, I laid my hand on such an excellent compilation on 'History of St. Stephen's College', by Ashok Jaitly, IAS, Chief Secretary, J.& K. Ashok is not amongst us now !
Salman Khurshid, Barrister & Sr. Advocate, Ex Minister for External Affairs, Commerce and Minority Affairs, Author
The ever spiritual St.Stephen's College Chappelle
As I write 'St. Stephen's College Diaries', I get a ripple down my spine. Flood waters of memories seep into my heart ! Am I crazy, that after 45 years of leaving St. Stephen's College, my feelings are still so passionate ? Many Stephanians told me, they feel the same way.
When the portals of St. Stephen's College were opened for young ladies in 1975, it was a revolutionary decision by Principal Rev. W.S. Rajpal and the Governing Council of St. Stephen's College. There was opposition by gentlemen. How can these women walk into our domain ?
Dr. Amrita Cheema, Poonam Saxena, Monica Dhawan (Karanwal), Rati Bahadur Singh, Mala Agarwal, Anuradha Dutt, Anjali Malhotra, Alka, Maya Kalyanpur, Renuka Ganjoo, Anita, Babli Moitra, Shibani Mitra, Mrinalini, Kiran Kapur, Neelam M. Singh, Zarin Davar, etc. were academically brilliant, topper young ladies, who entered St. Stephen's College in 1975. It was United Nation's; International Women's Year.
Neelam M. Singh
I came from a family of Kashmir with humble background. Most of the Stephanians were from politically, financially, bureaucratically powerful families.
I was a shy, lonely girl. Anjali Malhotra really cared for me, gave me support and company. Young ladies were terribly scoffed at, by senior gentlemen, who felt our entry to be a breach of their privacy. "Can Lady Shri Ram College, Miranda House, etc. allow admission to guys", was their jibe ? Many ladies in science faculty migrated to other colleges. We had to cope up a lot with the existing hostility against 1st batch of ladies.
Had it not been due to the tough disciplinary action taken by Rev. William Shaw Rajpal and Dr. John Hala, some guys were making it really difficult for us. Most of the young ladies were featured in 'Junior Statesman', 'Illustrated Weekly' and several other publications.
Do you know something ? I had'nt even filled up the forms of any other college, except St. Stephen's College ! Such was my belief, conviction and confidence of getting entry card to the College.
My favourite get-away was the College Chappelle and of course Cafe'. I was studious, withdrawn, while my friend Monica Dhawan and Anuradha Dutt were iconic bikers. We students were fun loving ! I liked Jatinder Hoon, Jai Pathak, my classmates. Anil Wadhwa, IFS, Foreign Secretary, soccer captain was my friend.
Ladies Common Room was created for us. Many a times senior gentlemen students would put objectionable posters against new lady entrants. I used to take it jokingly, but a few young ladies would get terribly disturbed emotionally. So be it! There was no residence for ladies in the College for several years.
As written earlier, none of us can forget the ice cream parties by Mrs. W. S. Rajpal and the love of Principal Rev. W.S. Rajpal.
Music Society arranged ghazals, band shows, that I loved to attend. Centenary celebrations of St. Stephen's College was an event, while we were in the College. I had participated in a debate that was attended by Kabir Bedi, Amit Khanna and several iconic Stephanians.
In first year of the College, attending morning prayer assembly, in the auditorium was compulsary! I'm not kidding, that till day attendance is also taken!
I really enjoyed and embibed a lot. The blend of several perfumes in the auditorium was mind blowing. The arrival of faculty members in flowing black gowns was majestic.The morning assembly inculcated in me the spirit of sacrifice and compassion for the needy, suffering and underprivileged sections of the society. I often participated in social charitable works arranged by College's societies.
Vijay Keshav Gokhale, IFS, Foreign Secretary, Yashovardhan Sinha (Yasho), IFS, Chief Information Commissioner, Alok Verma, IPS, Ex CBI Director and several ambassadors, chief secretaries were in our batch of '75. I can never forget Navdeep Singh Sarna, IFS, India's Ambassador to USA 🇺🇸 & Ex Secretary MEA, Satish Kumar Mathur, IPS: Ex DGP - Maharashtra, Mohit Talwar, business entrepreneur, Rajinder Amaranth, Kishore Lahiri, Advocate, Prof. Dr. Amar Faroqui, were my batchmates. Yasho was really endearing. Vijay Gokhale was so studiously brilliant.
There was no admission on 'quota' in our times. Every thing was on merit. Staff room was so inviting, when we had to search for our teachers. Hot tea was always offered to us by all my teachers. Dr. Kapadia took tutorials in the staff room itself.
The silence of Wisdom Tree near Sukhiya's Dhaba was a rendezvous.
I must have missed the names of many of my lady batch-mates. Please give it a let go !
It's like the red magnificence of the Mission College is inviting us to refresh the memories, by a visit.
We had a virtual reunion in December 2020, in which I participated online.
Dr. Amrita Cheema: 1975
Diwan Gautam Anand,
History Hons.1975-78
While 'Cooler Talk', Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP, ex External Affairs Minister, Parvez Dewan, IAS, Secretary Govt. of India's 🇮🇳 contributions to the magazine can't be forgotten, till date, the College magazine is a craze for it's pun and humour. 'The Stephanian' magazine has been so popular. Salman Khurshid, Congress leader, Ex Minister of External Affairs, Commerce, Company Affairs, my friend, was a regular visitor to the College after studying his Bar-at-Law from Oxford.
Dr. Hari Guha, Kanti Saraf, Mukul Keswan, Vinaysheel Oberoi ... were always positive towards young ladies.
Presently St. Stephen's College has majority of young ladies and it's an examplary co educational institution of higher learning. We, the ladies of 1975 batch were the revolutionary trendsetters! Most of us have been forgotten by St. Stephen's College authorities.
Sucheta Kriplani (studied M.A. History, St. Stephen's) Aruna Asif Ali, Joy Michelle and others, are Stephanians pre-independence and we young ladies were post-independence. I bow and salute to my batchmates who made, stupendous academic contributions to the excellence of Mission College. An important chapter in my 'Journey of Life'.
Best wishes and love for all Stephanians.
'Ad Dei Glorium'
Amen....
Neelam M. Singh
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Dr. Shashi Tharoor, greeting
Dr. David Baker at Rudra
Pleased to know so much about Stephanians...No doubt you guys had a gala time there...
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