SRINAGAR: Desolate for almost three months, the sprawling Hazratbal campus of NIT Srinagar came alive on Monday with more than half the new batch of students showing up for the start of their new semester, which also marked the resumption of classes across departments after a long period of uncertainty.
A fresher from Andhra Pradesh waiting for his turn to complete the first-day formalities admitted to being a tad nervous when he came in, but said he felt relaxed when he saw students milling on the campus. “Everything looks fine now. I am not harbouring any fear," he said.
A first-year student who arrived in Srinagar from her hometown in Rajasthan a couple of days ago said she was "relieved" to find the campus "as normal as it should be" and her classmates from Kashmir friendly and helpful. "Those of us from outside J&K have been receiving invitations from our classmates here to stay in their homes. It's been quite a revelation, really."
Although NIT Srinagar formally reopened on October 15, it was only on Monday that the first classes were held since the August 5 lockdown. “Of the 778 students in the new batch, 494 attended classes on the first day," Rakesh Sehgal, the institute's director, told TOI. "Students in their seventh semester also resumed classes. We are functioning normally."
The new batch has a 50:50 ratio of students from J&K and elsewhere in the country.
A third-semester student from Samba in Jammu said the NIT campus was mature enough not to encourage any us-and-them debate. “In the hostel. We don't discuss anything that has the potential to vitiate the atmosphere," he said.
As TOI went around the sprawling campus, it was hard not to notice the absence of police or paramilitary personnel. NIT Srinagar makes do with its own private security comprising personnel clad in blue uniform, which the institute's director said was a conscious attempt to eraRead More – Source
