Colleges were decorated with flowers and rangolis (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna/ Miranda House welcome)As Delhi University opened its door for the new academic session on Wednesday, student groups are left no stone unturned to ensure that freshers feel comfortable. They welcomed the first years with great zeal and enthusiasm.
From setting up help desks to guiding the freshers through the maze of lanes and bylanes, decorating colleges to distributing chocolates, student groups have taken it upon themselves to guide the skittish first-year students through the nerve-wracking first days.
While some freshers were thrilled to be entering college, many were nervous. Several students were also accompanied by their parents.
Rangolis decked colleges such as Kirorimal College and Daulat Ram College while the main gates were decorated with flowers. Posters welcoming the freshers were also put up in every corner.
At Ramjas College and several others, volunteers of the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) assembled at the gates and showered flowers on the freshers before guiding them to their orientation rooms.
At the help desks, volunteers were seen informing the new joinees about the group and providing them with information pamphlets on the ABVP.
“We woke up at 4 am and prepared the posters. We have put up help desks in every college,” said the ABVP’s Ramjas College unit president Shivam Tiwari.
“We decorated the colleges with flowers and rangoli as we wanted to extend a grand welcome to the freshers,” he said.
Members of Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) and the Students’ Federation of India were also seen distributing pamphlets at Vishwavidyalaya Metro station.
“We are helping all the freshers. Our volunteers are guiding them if they face any problem,” said KYS activist Ambuj.
Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) welcomed the new students with flowers and chocolates.
“Students should not feel they are coming to an alien environment. Delhi University is a big family and we, as seniors, welcomed all the first-year students,” said NSUI leader Lokesh Chugh.
The freshers were also full of praise for the volunteers who “went out of their way to help them”.
“Seniors and volunteers were very supportive. We feel at home. They have provided us with every information,” said Ritika, a first-year student at Daulat Ram College.
Many colleges held orientation programmes to apprise the new students about the syllabi, societies and the committees.