The Spirit Of Stephania...

I am at home for the weekend. The weather is fantastic outside as it drizzles, as it has been throughout the day and as the cool breeze enters my room through the window. Its been long since I have been able keep the window open and switch off the AC, but today is different and even the tea in my blue cup tastes different.

Well, The Spirit of Stephania is one of contention rather i would say confusion. With people in out there whose credibility is far more than mine i'd not even try to explain what the Spirit is, I'd rather I provided how I see it. For one thing, the spirit cannot be felt outside the Castle walls of St. Stephen's. Why I call the walls, the walls of a Castle? Well, they are semi-permeable in some sense. A word of caution before I proceed, this post may not be understood by many who read this and specially who have not lived St. Stephen's. (There is no preposition missing between "lived" and "St. Stephen's".)

It took me nearly three years to understand St. Stephen's the way I see it. Unarguably, my graduating from college, moving-out and simultaneously moving-in contributed a lot but the realization was always there in the sub-conscious, built up each day by the Spirit itself. (A cherished quality of the English language is that you need not attach a gender to every single thing.)

I still remember and can actually picture the College Hall on the day of the orientation. 15th of July, 2006 it was, the Delhi summer heat as killing as it always is and the hall was packed with first years. I was too nervous then standing amongst aliens and many who am sure will leave their mark on history. Sharp at 10 did late Dr. Anil Wilson enter and behind him the famous procession of the "Senior Members" as they are called walked up the stage.

I remember rather faintly the exact words Dr. Wilson said but I'll always remember the message he was delivering. I think he said the all of us were standing at a glorious moment in history when a new batch of people were on the brink of becoming Stephanians. Being Stephanian is not being elite and looking down upon others but is elite in rather a different sense, said he. There were to be a spirit that'll bind us all together in the coming years and that would be the Spirit of Stephania. In what follows I'll elucidate the various aspects of College, that should bring out the spirit of the Spirit of Stephania.

Shashi Tharoor recently wrote in a news article that at other places you learn to answer questions. At Stephen's we learnt to question the answers and some of us even went further to question the questions. This is the foundation of college. There are no students and teachers at St. Stephen's but rather junior and senior members and each one of them command an equal respect in their own right and learn from each other. The flow of knowledge has never been uni-directional. You can see members in college sitting with each other in the cafe, the staff room, the dhaba tree at any time during the day. Every time I met my professors, in their houses, cafe or the staff room what followed was a discussion over tea or a lazy night walk outside the muk gate in the dim lights. Such extravagance of knowledge sharing is rare to be found.

I remember approaching my HOD at 8 in the night regarding a problem that was making me restless. He was cooking, so he called me in and we discussed over it in his kitchen. Wonder if this happens anywhere else. I remember having visited a reputed college regarding a paper presentation competition. Now as per the rules no one was supposed to cross question the participants. A senior professor of the same college who happened to be the judge went on to do the same with one team . When the chair tried to intervene, the lady on the chair got scolded because she had interrupted her teacher. Well, such does not happen inside the walls of my fortress, where the chair is always given its due respect, does not matter who sits on the chair. The chair is the chair and judges are judges. I might add that the lady had very cordially said that they should proceed to the next team. Listening to others is also something that is an inseparable quality of being a Stephanian. Every one gets a patient hearing at Stephen's even if you are not a Stephanian. The college through the journals and newsletter it publishes like the kooler talk and SOUL fosters the freedom of speech. Which sometimes contains humour that has to be taken in a lighter mood than normally and that can happen inside Stephen's. Putting up spices in college is a legacy and is always taken in the right spirit. Phrases like "ass-instant deans" and "The Blacksmith Song" could earn you a suspension the like back humour of the senior members resentment anywhere else. The practical joke week is something than can happen only in Stephen's other wise the maurince nagar SHO would have a rather tough time.

There are moments in your three years at Stephen's which are so Stephnian in their own right that describing them to others is not even worth the moment itself, let alone the nostalgia of it. The evenings light up the main corridor with small children of the karamcharies imbibing knowledge from the junior members. The respect that we get in return is invaluable. The college mochi (cobbler) sits still at rudra-gate which has been the unofficially registered property of his ancestors for over a century now. From British leather to the GK-2 jutties and from Gucci to the sarojini chappal his armour has tasted it all. The guy at the property counter at the library is the fourth in his generation doing it.

The mince and chai were invented in the cafe, has survived decades and yet has never gone out (the walls and over-time both). Junior members in Rud north and muk west have never responded to the dinner bell at the dining hall but to the solitary call of the dogs, who also are as much stephanians as anyone else. Because even they have been giving those calls since decades and through generations. Some times they even attend lectures when they feel like or see the classroom empty to provide some audience to the senior member present.

The SSL (Social Service League, the oldest student social service organization in the country) is in a very big sense the largest occupant of the Spirit of Stephania. Service before self has been lived upto by Stephanians over time and always with no one coming to know about it. Be it providing relief after epidemics, quakes or empowering the under-privileged, or the free eye testing and contributing to the country's blood bank, at St. Stephen's all of it is an annual festival.

Waiting for your class in the arched corridors, the moon lit courts when there is no power in college at night, the songs of the bats, warmth in the residence blocks when the winter fog encompasses college, the after dinner discussions with the IDG guests or just even at the traditional stroll, or at the 4p.m. tea, or at the after 10 meetings at the night dhaba or the society meetings at 1.15 sharp (which is always close to blunt), the late night informal debates in rooms which were perhaps once the shelter for the now world leaders are moments that go on to build the aura of college that forms the Spirit.

So elitism in college is not elitism in the worldly sense but becoming elite imbibing the Spirit is an integral part of being a Stephanian. Small activities like switching off lights and helping anyone in need form the core. But being instrumental in whatever you do and doing more for the society thereby is also elitism in the same sense.

At Stephen's there are two religions only, you can either be a "resi" or a "dayski", there is no other discrimination done and yet this distinction is huge. The "resis" traditionally have a tougher "first term" than the dayskis but they do live a more fuller life. The stephanian life beings only after the dayskis leave the castle. Being ragged by seniors to intelligible tunes and also the immense bonding that follows for the next eight terms is both unique and exclusive. The gwyer parathas at night would mean that Stephanians will continue jumping the gate of the principal's residence till eternity.

I still remember the first day when my teacher entered class and everyone stood up to wish him, he jumped back in fear as if facing an attack, and then came the reply, "This is Stephen's, all this does not happen here so chill" and I can assert this on every Stephanian's behalf that this has never lessened our respect and love for our teachers and all of us remain an inseparable entity of college. The block tea's and block drinks, late night discussions, the rather humorous and "naughtier" block tutors convert the hostel to a residence and so Stephen's becomes a home for you.

Memories drive me into deeper nostalgia. Bhaiyyanji will get you food to eat in the cafe not on your order but on how your face is perceived by him. So you get a chai if its written on your face, even if you order a maggi and still you are more than satisfied. Sitting and studying in the Andrew's court and not going to the library corridor post dinner is very dear. Harmony has and will always be exclusive. To those who oppose and want to enter the walls whilst harmony continues, I pose a questions. Answering which correctly will earn you an entry ticket for sure. Where is tree number 420? Or who wrote the Blacksmith song? or who haunts the well behind the chappel or What is so sacred about the Allnut lawns? or What is the difference between red and cambridge red? Trust me these are the simplest questions that you'll face at the quiz in Harmony. To those who are clueless still, Harmony is the annual college festival which is envied by non-stephanians for its exclusivity... but guys, you wont have a clue about what is happening inside unless you are a stephanian.

So I guess it is clear that describing and understanding the spirit is next to impossible unless you have experienced it but the spark of the spirit lives in any soul that is ever a part of St. Stephen's. And the legacy will continue no matter what laws prevail outside St. Stephen's. The feel of college, the aura of walking through the arched corridors, specially when they are haunting at night, the cafe and not the canteen, the dining hall and not the mess, the pleasure of the after 10 culture, the sitting in the Andrew's court post dinner or just lazying around, the relationship between a junior and senior member, the late night studies, gaining more knowledge through crosswords than attending lectures, the never attending 8.40s and missing the routine breakfast, and wazzup of college, and learing all outside the university reading list and the jan-test questions which never match the university questions will always remain ever so elite and exclusive that Stephanian's will always be blamed for being Elite and the Spirit of Stephania wont ever be understood by the world at large will always contribute to making Stephanians elite!!