A week ago I was asked if I would contribute something …not more than 500 words to the college’s E-magazine. I hadn’t latched on to anything that would set me going …till my “sanskriti” soaked rickshaw driver provided me with an anchor of sorts.

Our most important stakeholders – students, right in the middle of their teens, come to us with all their vulnerability, idealism, hopes and fears well camouflaged by many under a brash of bravado and a surging sense of ego. For half of them “tradition” is like a red rag before a raging bull. For half it is a security blanket pulled right over their heads. Neither half is really engaging with tradition, but rather with their own emerging sense of self.

And so the labeling begins progressive VS hidebound; vernacular VS English; dalit VS non-dalit …grabbing at anything for a coat of amour …culture is reduced to dress-code, accented English is pitted against regional language and a chasm is created- Fergusson VS Fergusson. Even the “kattas” I’m told, have been claimed as territorial identity.

An inaugural issue is an opportune moment for all of us stakeholders to ponder over the question: Do we want merely to just “dress” ourselves up in “tradition”? Or work towards an inner life of discipline, and concern for others. “Rasta hamara baap ka nahi…sabhi ka hai”….and we are all fellow travelers on the road to self-realization.