College life is anticipated as the most fun, carefree, and chilled-out phase. The one stage where we are believed to be just having a good time throughout. We are just partying or planning out mass bunks, spoiling friends, and falling in love. The sad part is that most of it aren’t true!
We believe in things we see and observe around us. We misinterpret the idea of college and being a real graduation student because we are bluffed by Hindi cinema for most of our adolescent life. When you are at that age, where everything you see, hear or observe turns out to be authentic. It is not!
I remember I was 12 when Student of the year, directed by Karan Johar released. The moment I saw it, I had two things in my mind, first that I love Sidharth Malhotra, and second, wow, if that’s how college life is, I want to be in college as soon as possible.
The mere reason behind all of it was, that college life appealed so shimmery, with no worries. Who doesn’t want to experience that?
Are You “Student Of The Year” Or Just A Real Student?
If we talk about the introduction of the movie, it was more than grand! St. Teresa High School, Dehradun, is nothing but a great product of the fantastical world created by Karan Johar.
The number of facilities and the kind of resources and provisions they are using is far behind what a normal middle-class student would expect from their university.
Their college is nothing but a magnificently high-priced world full of expensive things and high school students with gorgeous bodies. Is this for real?!
While the whole plot of the movie, "Student of the Year" turns a blind eye to the rigors of daily life hardships of college students. Clothes, glamour, and the Gucci world become the heart of the movie.
"Student of the Year" is the story of a middle-class boy Abhimanyu Singh ( Sidharth Malhotra) and Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhavan), the son of a business tycoon who crossways for a competition amidst other things in the movie.
While there was nothing average or middle class about the mini-universe of Karan Johar, the tale of competition is full of other emotions like envy, regret, love, friendships, failure, manipulation, and heartbreaks.
Ready For A Reality Check?
Real life is called real for a reason. It is not always a rainbow-hued world, there are genuine adversities that a common man (student) faces. Bollywood does not talk about actuality because it is not glittery and aesthetic.
When we talk about the realities of being a student, the first thing that comes up is, education, doing well with that, and getting a career out of that learning. We miss that in movies and shows.
College doesn’t entirely function around your ability to make friends and fall in love while bunking classes and eating Maggi in your canteen. The sole purpose of an individual going for a graduation degree is to study.
You might be doing all these things, but you need to pull up your socks and build up a career from your degree as well.
Bollywood And COVID-19 Shattered My Dreams Of A Perfect College Life!
If you have read my other articles on campus life you would have got an idea of how much I love and respect both my college and its people. While my love for college has no limits, the time I spent there was quite short.
I had only spent a year i.e., eight months in the starting and three to four months of my last semesters. I guess we all know why it was such a brief offline degree, my sincere thanks to Coronavirus!
It was so perfect for me when I started my journey of graduation, I mean not Bollywood perfect but it was still kinda amazing. I was changing for the better, I had the most understanding and loving friends and supporting teachers.
The moment it was our time to explore Delhi university, its fests, and melas, it was the same moment that Covid-19 knocked on our doors!
Not only did we miss going out to fests and other cultural events we missed most of the practical skill-based fun of our own course. And we still feel bad about it!
We all were shattered, we thought it will just last for a mid sem break, sadly it felt like most of our college life was a break!
I miss my audio studio more than anything in college, I feel sad about not having enough time to learn, laugh, and record my voiceovers in the studio while giggling at my professor’s jokes. I miss it all!
Bollywood made me expect so much from college before I even began my graduation. I held my expectations so high that when it all went to vain I felt dejected.
On the other hand, now I understand that all of it is artificial in the movies, In reality, being a student is like carrying a heavy bag of hardships.
You have to work super hard to prove yourself. Mass bunks, love, friendships, fests, and fights everything is trivial, but how You do at the end of the day matters!
Fantasies are beautiful but they are not real. Be real! Be You!