Hindu College witnessed a celebration of sorts on 28th March 2014. The occasion was the Foundation Stone ceremony for the college’s new academic block and the girls’ hostel.
The Academic Block is a result of the increasing student population in the college. This new block would provide lecture rooms, laboratories for the science students and common rooms for both teachers and students. The girls’ hostel, however, has been on the cards since 2006 but due to approval issues from the municipality and other authorities it took the college 8 years to initiate the construction. The hostel is meant to accommodate 200 girls along with 4-5 female teachers.
Lt. Governor Sh. Najeeb Jung, NCT, Delhi; Prof. Dinesh Singh, Vice Chancellor of Delhi University; Mr. SNP Punj, Chairman of Governing body, Hindu College; Shri Desh Rajgupta, Secretary of Hindu College Education Fund and the Acting Principal of the college Mr. Pradyumn Kumar laid down the foundation stone first for the girls’ hostel and then for the academic block followed by the auspicious ceremony of breaking the coconut on the site to ensure its success. After this, they proceeded to the auditorium of the college where students had already been seated to address the gathering. The programme began to the tune of the national anthem which was followed by a speech given by Mr. SNP Punj where he talked about the culture of the college and the success it has achieved till now.
The stage was then taken by Prof. Dinesh Singh who reminisced his old college days when being a Stephanian he would come to Hindu for its “bun andas” and how he is so glad to see that Hindu is ready to build its own girls’ hostel and provide outstation female students with more opportunities to achieve their dreams. Lt. Governor Sh. Najeeb Jung, another Stephanian also talked about Hindu college with nostalgia as he was almost about to be a part of Hindu.
Finally the principal of the college took a hold of the mike. He relayed a vote of thanks to the esteemed guests and expressed his happiness over the project undertaken by the college. He then addressed his students in his famous sher-o-shayari style with the following lines –
“Unn rahon pe chalna hai,
jahan girna aur sambhalna hai
Hum hai voh diye auro ke liye,
Jinhe tufanon main jalna hai”
Isheeta Sharma