Miranda House College B.A Review By Jhalak Sharma

Miranda House has a bustling environment and is right up there with the likes of Lady Shri Ram College and Jesus and Mary College. The common factor in Miranda House College and the other two that I have mentioned is that all three of them are top women colleges of Delhi. However, there are lot misconceptions about MH that girls of MH are man-haters, feminists, single, etc. There may be a few like that but each person is entitled to their own choices and I take immense proud in letting everyone know that MH taught us humanity. I am a humanist and the reason I am one is because I studied at MH. The first thing that we were taught at MH was compassion and the reason why students of MH are more sensitive and tolerant is because of MH’s teaching. Keeping all this aside, the college’s infrastructure which was a red nest of bricks have made all of us fall in love with it. Employment opportunities were less but the teaching was no less in any sense be it university course or much important life lessons.

Academics here were to make us strive for success because look none of us had Miranda House at first place to be honest. So academic wise put together the contribution of everyone from faculties to management to students it was amazing. All of them were tied hands in hand and that is why girls of MH score more than LSR girls at the university exams even though the girls here are not the toppers. MH had made history as people of various fields have been a notable alumnus of MH. People like Mouni Roy, Anjolie Ela Menon, Mira Nair, Anita Desai, and Sheila Dixit among many others.

Well, I am wondering was there anything that the faculties of MH couldn’t do and the answer is no. I will share an incident where the faculties where being felicitated and Chief guest who used to award them medals had to leave. So, the faculties asked the chairman do we have to wear medal ourselves and the reply was epic. Yes, you can do it all by yourself, as you look after the institute, you look after the students, you look after their progress, you look after their placements, so you can also wear the medals by yourself. Like these there were many funny incidents that we shared with our faculties as they were the coolest creatures on earth.

Victory was ours everywhere but not at the placements. MA (Hons) is not a desired course for many companies and journalism was one of our subjects which I did wholeheartedly but because not many opportunities were provided to learn the same, getting a job in that domain became tough. Though companies like Wipro, ITC, Infosys, and others came at the campus for placements but I am quite sure not more than 10-20% of students were hired. Creative people has very lesser industries that can value what they bring to the table and therefore everyone had to either change the field or do further studies to get a job.

Miranda House hostel was quite good as unlike LSR hostel where the girls are allowed at the hostel only during the 1st year, girls can stay here for all three years. The cut-off list of the hostel too was pretty high as the seats are less and the students applying are high. So, only the top merit holders stand a chance to stay at the hostels. I was a Delhiite and therefore there was no way I could have got admissions at the hostel even if I was the topper.

The college has two buildings as the new building has taken over the academic’s mantle because classes are now held at the new building. The old building has become a sight to see as it has staffrooms and one auditorium. Even the library has been shifted to the new block and hostel blocks were just behind the new block. There are two entrance gates as one opens at the hostel end and one at the front end. The college is big and boasts a lot of greenery and finding shade to sit with friends and enjoy our tea were plenty. There were as many as four canteens at the campus and we had to waste few moments to decide which canteen we should enter as all of them were amazing.

MH is a place where students can live on their own terms. So, because we were on our own terms, we broke the jinx and started going out in sun and play sports. One doesn’t see that often at girls’ college but at MH girls didn’t care about the sun and played almost all the sports that guys in general plays. Guys were not allowed at the campus but during TEMPEST, the annual fest of the college, only the male singers were invited and from Armaan Malik to Jubin Nautiyal all of them performed and entertained us to the core.