Delhi University's North campus was abuzz with activity as thousands of students, fresh out of school, kickstarted their college life, with the rain gods welcoming them.
Delhi University's vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi congratulated the freshers on being part of "India's best known university".
"Most of you have waited with ample eagerness and excitement for today when you resolved to tie your life-boat to the DU's motto Nishta, Dhriti, Satyam firm devotion to truth. Today, as you prepare to dress up and make your way to the colleges across nation's capital, I can visualise a gigantic rainbow of talents descending on Delhi's geography. It calls for a celebration of lifetime," he said in his message addressed to students.
Tyagi said the students were "very special" to him.
"I cannot wait to tell you how excited I feel today to see the best and the brightest of India's youngest student pool donning the classrooms of DU. I am confident that your future is brighter than the stars shining in your eyes today. As the newest members of the DU family, you are already empowered in more ways than one," he said.
Tyagi cautioned the students about the challenges lying before them and asked them to seek every opportunity to "learn and empower" themselves.
"Our mutual past accomplishments augur well for us, but future shall remain as challenging as ever. On your part, you shall always seek and remain prepared and beholden to every opportunity to learn and empower yourself in many ways you can," he told the students.
While some colleges like St Stephen's College, Shri Ram College of Commerce had begun their first day of the academic session yesterday, most of the colleges opened their gates to the students today with orientation sessions.
Pratibha Jolly, principal of Miranda House, said, "We always look forward to the beginning of the new session. It was a vibrant beginning with a very large number of students. We had a lovely orientation."
Manmohan Kaur, principal of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College, said the orientation was held in two sessions and it was a full house.
"In the first session, I addressed the students and it was more of an interactive session where I asked them to pose questions. They were introduced to the various courses and the societies in the college. After a break, the department wise orientation sessions were held," she said.
Students could be seen clicking selfies, exchanging numbers with their classmates and sending Facebook friend requests.
"The first day proved to be very good. I was expecting the seniors to be rude but they were quite helpful. We had a friendly session with them where they shared their experiences of being in college," said a student of BSc physical sciences at Miranda House.
Students were happy with the pleasant weather due to the rains.
"Our college principal addressed. We were shown around the college premises. We got to know about the various societies active in college," said another student of Miranda House.
Abhishek, a BA programme student of Ram Lal Anand College, said he was quite happy about getting to study in a DU college.
Another student, Pratik Soneja, a student of BCom at Shaheed Bhagat Singh college, said, "The feeling of entering college after school was awesome. I prepared a lot for my first day of college. I did shopping, bought new clothes and other things. I am really happy on being selected in one of the top ten colleges for BCom as the competition is intense and cut- offs are very high."
Anshita Khanna, a student of BA (Honours) Economics at Kirori Mal College, said, "It was quite overwhelming. I met a lot of people from different cities and states. I got to know the college better as an orientation was organised for all the freshers."
A student of Miranda House, however, complained about the long queues at the metro station exits today.
Police had also put in place measures to ensure that students had an easy first day.
"Orientation was held today. It was a peaceful day. We had deployed our Anti-Ragging Squads in front of colleges. The station house officer of Maurice Nagar, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Civil Lines) and I were patrolling across the North campus to ensure that no untoward incident was reported," said Nupur Prasad, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North).
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