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Jaihind College

 

Location:  Situated at the heart of Marine Drive on A Road, Churchgate, the college is housed in one and a half buildings located next to each other. Space constraints are many, but efforts are being made to optimise the use effectively.  Why Jai Hind? No one in particular seems to know why the college is called Jai Hind. But a good guess would be because it was established in 1948, just a year after India became independent. Incidentally, that also makes 1998 the 50th year of its existence and celebrations seem to be on full swing.  

Blast from the past:  The setting up of Jai Hind College seems to have been a heroic task. In 1948, the college consisted of just one room in the present day Elphinstone College and offered only Arts. A couple of years later, a laboratory was set up in an old bungalow at Peddar Road, and the college now offered science too. It moved into its present building only in 1952.  

Present status:  It is considered one of the better colleges of the city, but is constantly over-shadowed by it's more glamourous counterparts like Sydenham, HR and Xavier's. On closer inspection though, you realise Jai Hind'ites like it this way. They like to be low profile? Yup, they do. Students say they like keeping to themselves and have no hang-ups of not being known as the more happening crowd in the city.  

What about extra-currics?  There are several societies like the French Circle, Gujarati Seva Mandal, Hindi Parishad etc. But the most popular is the Students' Council which, in Jai Hindi is known as the Social Dramatic Union (SDU). It organises talent parades, plays, personality contests and all the other `Days' that colleges are full of these days. 

 College festival  Unfortunately, no. There was something called Panache in 1974, but the princi hasn't encouraged any other simply because of space constraints. Jai Hind'ites do participate in several other fests like Malhar, Kaleidoscope and Brouhaha. They even won the Malhar overall trophy the year before last. What happened to their performance this year is a different story altogether.  This Year onwards the BMS Students have arranged a festival only for B.M.S students which is know as Taalash.

 The Jai Hind Attitude:  Is damn friendly. Everyone seems to get along with everyone. Nobody has any hang-ups. What about the hang-outs? The most popular place to be is (hold your breath!) the front steps of college called the `Main Steps'. The bonnets and dickies of cars parked on A Road come a close second. Students say the canteen is one place in Jai Hind that hasn't changed for the past 50 years. It's too small and too congested. All this antagonism is gonna be short-lived `coz a new open air cafeteria is expected to open up shortly. 

 Cafeteria:  Well, the princi's just converted the walls of the campus to something resembling stadium seats, and the college junta has infested it already. The college compounds are now being coved by a ceiling of creepers. Trendy stools and tables below will now form the adda of many a Jai Hind'ite. Sounds cool.  What else? The college has also recently inaugurated a state-of-the-art audio visual centre on the 5th floor of their building. One look at it and you'll agree it's the most posh centre you've ever seen. A 60-seater seminar room is in the pipeline alongwith a computer lab with Internet facilities for students at concessional rates.  

Student-teacher rapport:  Is pretty strong. In fact a prof is chairperson of every extra-curricular activity in college. But they insist, it's the students' enthusiasm that eventually makes things happen. Profs are open with their students, but they are firm too. As far as attendance is concerned, Jai Hind hasn't had a problem since years.  So it's a pretty good college: And it seems to be constantly improving. Besides the rooms and the cafeteria, there's also the newly opened Centre for Information on International Studies for students who wish to pursue education abroad. Rumours have it that the principal even met with high-scoring SSC students personally in a bid to get them to join the college. There's tons of initiative from the side of the college - the results are what we're waiting to see.  Behind the scenes: Is the Hyderabad Sind National Collegiate Board which has given the princi a free hand. But as principal Shivdasani puts it: "This is just the beginning. Jai Hind still has miles to go..."