＜First Day at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi＞

We had breakfast together at 8am in the dinning hall of the Delhi University International Guest House we are staying. The boys and Prof. Williams was there early, and was starting their breakfast. Ms. Ui Teramoto from Keio University also joined us. We had vegetable omelets, butter bread, paneer chapati, mango pickles, corn flakes, yoghurt, and chai all in tabehodai (buffet) style. We were all a little tired from the long journey yesterday but happy to have such tasty food from morning.
At 8:30am we leaved the Guest House and walked to St. Stephen’s College. It took around 15 minutes and then we reached the Assembly hall of the College and sat in the very first row. We met Kazuki Kira, Koharu Ogawa and Sakura Sugiyama who are Soka students studying in the college for a year and briefly introduced ourselves. Then slowly students came into the hall and the bell rang. Suddenly everyone stood up and from the center corridor of the hall, the principal of St. Stephen’s College Prof. John Varghese, the coordinator of our program in the college Prof. Renish Abraham, Prof. Williams and Ms. Teramoto came in and sat in front of us on the stage. The principal warmly welcomed us Soka students at the hall in front of the faculty members and students. He said that Soka and St. Stephen’s have the longest partnership in college and want the entire student to please go and meet and interact with us. He added by saying that interacting with the Soka students will enable student of St. Stephen’s understand how wonderful the country Japan is and our culture. After the short introduction of the principal, a student read a phrase in the book of genesis on god resting from all the work of creating he had done. It was followed by a lecture by the principal on the important of resting for students. He said that especially because this semester is hectic with activities, quizzes and competitions going on.
Stephanians are famous and take pride for the various activities that we have but we need to understand and ensure that we have an adequate life. He emphasized 3 important points: rejuvenates and refreshes both the mind and body, it helps us to do our work better and it makes us capable of getting fresh ideas and a longer life. Furthermore, he added by saying that agreeing to something and real life practiced are 2 different things and that we should take action to improve these points.

After the assembly went to the principal’s office where we introduced ourselves as he warmly welcomed and shook hands with us. He also encouraged us to be happy and be satisfied to make the work here that we can take back and use. Then we took a group picture in front of Samuel Scott Allnutt who is the founder of the college. He told us about how the college was established as a part of the Cambridge mission to Delhi. Also he showed us the pictures of people who contributed to the foundation of the college.

Then we moved to the Seminar room where we will have our classes during the program. There, Prof. Abraham gave us St. Stephen’s College pen, original notebooks and material that we will use during the stay. Some of us were a little surprised about the amount of material we had but was motivated by the pen and notebook that was gifted by the college. Then Prof. Abraham explained the schedule of the program. At that time, Prof. Williams gave us advice on how to attend each class. He told us to take notes on everything and write as much as possible during the class, which we realized that it really helped after taking the first lecture.

We received our ID cards went to one of the computer rooms of the college where Mr. Rakesh who was in charge of the Wi-Fi system, kindly helped us to get our Wi-Fi user. Since we had time before lunch, we had a short tour around the campus. We saw the library, church and the college stone with the motto Ad Dei Gloriam.

We went back to the guesthouse for lunch and by 1:30pm; we were back in the seminar room, ready for our first lecture by Prof. Rohit Wanchoo who is the head of the history department of the college. The title of the lecture was “Imagining India” and he talked about the impact of colonialism on Indian economy and society and the features and the legacy of the national movement. After the lecture, we went back to the guesthouse with him and had tea and reviewed our notes. We worked on summarizing the lecture and the assignment that was given to us that day until dinner.

At the end of the day, we had a meeting at the guesthouse lobby where we shared our thoughts of the day. We were all very happy to visit St. Stephen’s College for the first time and experiencing a campus full of nature and active students. The food is delicious here and we would like to make as many friends as possible to build stronger relationships amongst Soka and St. Stephen’s like the principal Prof. Varghese told us. We will also follow his advice that he gave us at the assembly today and have a nice rest. In the end of the meeting, Prof. Williams talked about how the tradition of St. Stephen’s College assembly and how it creates a habit in the beginning of the day that creates excellent personality. He said that things that we dislike, we can make it a habit and change our attitude and St. Stephen’s has a very powerful tradition of this. It all depends of how perceptive you are: to observer, be conscious and create a habit. We thank Prof. Williams of guiding us and supporting us throughout the day.
We will conclude with one phrase that we would like to share with the readers: that what is bitter is painful but poison can be medicine. Good Night.


Delhi Program 2018 Group Leader
H.Y.