An intriguing insight into Somaiya Vidyavihar

College life has always been the most enthusiastic of all lives. All that is moulded to shape our personality is mostly in college. We make friends, we understand friendship, we apprehend the world, we grow, and we are re-created. We step into the real world, into an independent arena for the first time (or at least get an entirely new ambience) to metamorphose into an important part of the society. We start grasping the crux of managing stuff and ambience. We participate in events, we administer fest, we get new ways to enjoy and new definitions of evolution. We are overall transformed from caterpillar to lepidoptera in the span of time that we spend in college. With the passage of time, we make headway and alter our nub.

While all this is important and the slow and gradual change matters, our college converts us into people that we then become for life, taking steps into this cruel world and affecting the society around us in our own little ways. Among so many colleges and group of institutions in India (and Mumbai specifically), there is this college named K.J. Somaiya Group of institutions a.k.a. Somaiya Vidyavihar that we'll be looking at to know the little things that make it different.

So, for those of you, who don't know, a lil introduction, K.J. Somaiya College campus is virtually an academic township that is home to most of the courses possible in academic curriculum and this has been acknowledged even by Mumbai University while granting the college autonomy, last year. It was established by philanthropist and Padmabhushan Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya in 1959 and has been expanding since then to become largest education campuses and a landmark in Mumbai. In words of Samir Somaiya, vice-president of Somaiya Vidyavihar, “It is the ethos we have created, the entire campus has evolved in character”.

You can imagine the prodigiousness of Somaiya Vidyavihar by the fact that among 129 railway stations in suburb of Mumbai, one (Vidyavihar) is entirely dedicated to this particular college and thus facilitates travel for students of Somaiya Vidyavihar. The maintained ambience in terms of physical beauty and architecture with blend of old and new gives it an entirely unique place in The City of Seven Islands. Race tracks, auditoriums, sport grounds, indoor game spaces, and much more along with other amenities make it a place to nurture dreams and turn them to lives that are lived then in a manner that the society most needs, as of now. Somaiya Vidyavihar bestows so many examples of students climbing ladder of success like Nishchal Dwivedi and artworks like The Running Man, Ganesha sculpture, etc. that add to the beauty that Somaiya Vidyavihar beholds.

Despite the fact that this township is huge and opportunities immense, the students around are as they are in all other colleges.
They enjoy mass bunks
They want relationships
They like hanging around
They like comparing their canteens
They want their opinions to be heard
They search for inspirations
All of this is being depicted by the polls that we had on SocialE, as shown below.

Many fests are organised in Somaiya Vidyavihar that have been there for as long as 20 years. Symphony, Utkarsh, Maker Mela and Melange are some of those. These are not just fests but are lifestyle for all Somaiyaites and have not only witnessed many innovative changes and a colossal crowd, but have also played host to some of the most eminent personalities. Among these, the most prominent one is Symphony which is not only popular among Somaiyaites but is an eminent event for whole Mumbai and has been hosted by popular faces such as Aayushmann Khurana, Eijaz Khan, VJ Jose Covaco, etc. Maker Mela is quite different from Symphony and is a premier event for grass-root innovations in India. It is a celebration of arts, crafts, engineering, science, the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset, and the Maker Movement. Melange, on the other hand is an amalgamation of cultural, managerial and informal elements.

Amid all the positivity spread around, Somaiya Vidyavihar has a few problems as well that are faced by students on regular basis and must be solved or at least taken care of. A little hearing of views by authorities might add up to influence the aura in a favourable manner and hence impact the decisions to be a little more radiant and make Somaiya and its students shine brighter than ever before. But yeah, these things happen in a gradual manner and while that happens, we must not stop speaking our views, who knows, we might leave footprint on the sands of time by our little deeds.