Finally, TERI University : The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

TERI and Around

I learnt about TERI University (Delhi) from a friend who was celebrating the success of it’s chancellor Rajendra K Pachauri*.

I wanted to visit a place that talked about energy conservation and environment preservation. My friend is a student here. And she is talented. And she is a she. It all added up to my desire to go to TERI.

While level-headed people would like to talk about the significance of such a university in the context of environmental hazards that are threatening the human race, others like me had a very basic curiosity. What does TERI mean?
I don’t know. Their website does not tell me. Could it actually mean ‘तेरी’ (your) university, implying that it is your contribution that would make the world a better place. Hardly. Or does it mean—and I feel I have solved it—टेढ़ी (twisted) university? In honour of the type of students who walk this place.
It’s difficult to find the information on the web. One article published in the Telegraph calls it ‘The Energy and Research Institute’.

TERI is situated in Vasant Kunj, near Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). It is an area under development. You wouldn’t want to leave your ferocious dog alone at nights out here. Buildings are under construction and it’s very quiet on holidays, as a local told me.

I went on a holiday; there were no students on campus. The security cabin was polite especially because I am from Mumbai. “We feel nice you are here. You will tell others about all of us”.

I had imagined that my friend would show me around the place. It never happened. I wrote to her a mail about the same but then I learnt that she was unwell. Darn Delhi heat.

TERI classrooms are air-conditioned and you have several drinking-water coolers. The water is filtered every day, according to the TERI people.
The library is small and appears incomplete. Not many fiction books. I am sure some student will swim through the environment journals and demand his share of Hemingway.

It must be enjoyable to sit on the stairs and the small garden and study or gossip. But missing the lectures must be difficult since it is easy to get spotted on campus.
And the architecture is modern; it is called ‘green campus’; a conscientious effort to make a compact structure. No wasteful space. However, it would be wonderful if the university could procure space for sports. I believe that every modern institution should have a big ground. A special lovers’ spot would add to the will to come to campus but who listens to wisdom these days?

The cafeteria was closed and so I can’t comment on the ‘green’ food, if any. They shouldn’t be serving non-vegetarian food with Rajendra as the chancellor. It has been reported that he is a strict vegetarian “partly due to his religious beliefs as a Hindu and the impact meat production has on the climate” (source).

I got some more information about TERI from a watchman of another institution nearby. The area is quiet and lonely, he says. “Most girls come in cars or autos. No buses here. Everyday I watch the girls run to TERI”.

Ahem.

“Girls are like Goddess Laxmi”, he tells me.
Then that naughty smile.

Now, there is no shame in watching The Goddesses run.

TERI University

Corridor

TERI Classroom

Long Walk to Cafeteria

TERI Library

Watching the Goddesses

*In 2007, Rajendra K Pachauri collected the Nobel Peace Prize as the chairman of the ‘Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’ (IPCC) along with Al Gore.
The IPCC “is a scientific intergovernmental body tasked to evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activity” (source).

Share This Story

The Young India

Finally, TERI University

on June 28, 2009

Comments

Elsewhere

Site Navigator