The Hindu College's boys' hostel, a place of cherished memories for many former students, is set for demolition and reconstruction, evoking nostalgia among former residents, reports PTI.
The hostel building, which has housed countless students over its eight-decade existence, is too infirm to carry on in its present state and the college plans to "reconstruct" it, says Principal Anju Srivastava, states the report.
"The new building will be a four-storeyed structure with a stilt and will be ready by 2026. This will lead to doubling of its capacity to accommodate the growing intake of students in the college," Srivastava told PTI.
Regarding the historical context, she noted that the current building is approximately 80 years old, and considerable funds were invested in various phases to sustain it.
"We also got engineers to test the foundation of the hostel to check if it can take an additional two floors but the base isn't that strong. There's a huge amount of pressure on the hostel. Therefore, the governing body decided to direct the rebuilding of the hostel," she said, adding that rebuilding it would take two or three years.
According to PTI, the new hostel is set to shelter more than 500 students and will cost around Rs 50 crore to build.
The news of the hostel's demolition spread among alumni, leading filmmaker Imtiaz Ali, an alumnus, to share his memories on Facebook.
"I got to know that the hostel is being demolished and rebuilt during a NAAC meeting at my alma mater on Monday. It felt like a friend had died. I felt sad and nostalgic as I spent my youth in the boys' hostel. But the old order has to change to give path to the new. I am not going to stand in the way," Ali, an alumnus of the Delhi University college, told PTI.
"The construction and architecture of the college in general has not followed the best planning in terms of visual aesthetics. It's a very important thing to keep that aesthetic in mind when they reconstruct anything in the college," he said.
"Our soul still stays there. Talks are on with the other alumni and very soon we will give a proposal regarding this to the principal," film director Nalin Singh told PTI .
"Is demolition the only way out, can it not be renovation in the secondary thought? People like us have spent five-six years in that hostel. Our emotions are intact there," Mukesh Kumar, Director, Red Dot Entertainment, said.
Former Hindu College Principal Kavita Sharma pointed out the importance of balancing progress with preserving the memory of the old. "When I was the principal, people used to come back with their families to show them their hostel. With the new construction, this will stop happening. The current alumni will not be able to identify the building even though new students will make new memories. There is a need to preserve some part of the history. A balance should be maintained between the old and the new," she said.
The Hindu College's boys' hostel, located on Sudhir Bose Marg in the North Campus, was built in 1953, with numerous notable individuals, including government officials, political figures, artists, and renowned actors, passing through its doors.