I had a terrific campus life in Delhi University. In Calcutta, that’s one thing I miss the most. So whenever the memories take over, I sit to watch the film Dil Dosti etc. The film takes a close look at life in Delhi University. Not that I completely identified with the characters, but I met those kinds often. Students from Bihar with political ambitions, liberated women and aimless rich kids for whom love is just a four letter word, were all around me. The only character I didn’t meet was the school chic whom Imad Shah dates with a noble intention of drowning her in his ‘white watered lake’ (safed paani ka jheel). It may be because I stayed off campus and didn’t get much time to trot around it.
To stay off campus was a very conscious decision which I both regret and cherish. I regret because I missed out on the hostel life of the university. I cherish because staying away made me see and learn a cosmopolitan culture very unique to Delhi. The decision of not staying in hostel was determined by my hostel days in school. Seven years, I thought, were enough to have a fun and carefree life. Now it was time to learn how to live life like a responsible man.
Since I was very regular to college, I didn’t miss the fun though. Traveling an hour in U-special bus to reach college, waiting one more hour for classes to start, having breakfast and lunch in our cool college canteen and then rushing back on U-special again were routine for me then and happy days now. In the final year, couple of my friends had shifted to stay in the campus, so I used to stay back at times. Walking through partially empty and wide roads during the evenings is the most awesome experience at the university which still flashes in my mind with a sweet immediacy as if it had happened just yesterday.
Coming back to the film, though it didn’t cover every aspect of campus life, it came very close with its real depiction of characters. Just the other day I was watching the film for nth time, a scene really came forth to teach volumes with its stark reality. Imad often visits a brothel in GB Road as he befriends a prostitute. One day he asks her,
“When you sleep with another man I do not feel bad. But if my girlfriend goes out with another boy I will feel bad. Why?”
After taking bakshish the woman replies,
“I do not choose the men I sleep with. It’s part of my business the way I didn’t choose you. But when your girlfriend goes with another man, it means she chose him over you. Matlab us ladke ne uski nahi teri le li.”
The line is true to every relationship that we nurture. Much of our pain is because of the choices we make and in turn the choices made on us.
