AND JUST LIKE THAT, another college year is upon us. But it all seems so surreal to me. I used to pass the Sacred Heart College in Kochi at least twice every day. Once in the morning and once again at lunchtime or tea-time. The road in front of the college used to be bustling, and the shops lining the road were full. The cool ones, the studious ones, the lovers, the loners, the girl with the guitar, the show-off biker… all these faces brightened my day even as they made life hell for my driver. And, suddenly, they vanished last year, leaving the road free to me and my thoughts.

Frankly, I would like to have them back, and I know they would love to come back, too. But, in the last 18 months or so, we have changed and become wary of everything from handshakes to a sniffle. When I look back to my days at St Stephen’s, the classroom scenes have faded but the times with friends remains fresh—like the paint never dried. And so, I wonder for my ‘friends’ from SH: What will remain of their college memories 40 years later? It would be very sad if it were to be just disembodied voices and flashes of a screen choked with matchbox-sized faces.

India’s top colleges know this better than me, and are trying hard to combat it. And it is against this backdrop that THE WEEK’s annual special on India’s Best Colleges is being brought to you.

Anagha Haycee Alex, a BA (Hons) student in St Stephen’s, told us that her class of 33 is divided into smaller tutorial groups with individual teachers in charge. Principal Dr John Varghese and his team are confident that the personalised approach would make the online experience warmer for students. Surely it is better than a transactional approach: You give us money and we teach you enough to get a degree.

Suman Sharma, principal, Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi, shared how the college started an online certificate course—Covid-19: The Psychology of Human Behaviour—to foster well-being among students. Trained psychologists among the LSR faculty have been reaching out to students. “This dialogue is immensely useful and fosters a sense of community even though there is no physical presence of students in the college,” Sharma said. I believe her.

I have a feeling that this year will be better than last year, which was a string of online experiments. St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, had taken its social involvement programmes and extracurricular activities online but had to stop after students complained about increased screen time. Principal Rajendra Shinde told us that suspending these activities “took away the essence of Xavier’s”. Again, I agree with him fully.

But, Shinde is not willing to give up. “In the new academic year, we would like to reintroduce these activities in a modified way,” he said. More power to you, sir.

All the academicians THE WEEK spoke to are sure that the hybrid system is here to stay. Even if colleges become fully functional, certain elements of online education will never go away. So, the trick lies in picking colleges that have done the balancing right. I hope this issue of THE WEEK will help you make an informed choice.

And, to my ‘friends’ from SH: Please come back. I can live with the traffic jam.