Beloved role model: How Miranda House remembers Dikshit

Sheila Dikshit maintained a close relationship with her alma mater. She enrolled in the English honours course at the college in 1955. Later, however, she switched to the then pass course.

A beloved alumnus, an approachable politician and a role model for generations — that’s how Miranda House college remembers three-time Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

In 1955, Dikshit enrolled in the English honours course at the college. She later switched to the pass course. (Arvind Yadav/HT archive)

Dikshit, who was 81, maintained a close relationship with her alma mater. In her autobiography — ‘Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life’ — released last year, she said, “I opted for Miranda House, the most forward looking institution for girls at the time. Although some neighbours tried to warn my mother about the ‘libertine’ tendencies of Mirandians, my parents supported my choice.”

She enrolled in the English honours course at the college in 1955. Later, however, she switched to the then pass course.

“I was admitted to the course of my liking, English Honours. I later switched to the pass course because I felt that studying literature was taking away the joy of reading for me.... We were among the earliest batches,” she wrote in the autobiography. Dikshit also did her masters in history from the same college.

India’s longest-serving woman chief minister, Dikshit had also laid the foundation of Miranda House’s new hostel building in 2010.

Recalling an incident describing Dikshit’s inclination to the college, Pratibha Jolly, former principal of Miranda House, said, “In 2010, the annual day was special because Sheila Dikshit came to lay the foundation stone of the new hostel block. We commissioned it in 2012. On a later visit, she was delighted to see how well it matched the iconic old hostel in grandeur.”

Jayashree Pillai, assistant professor of political science at the college, who has taught there since 1982, remembered Dikshit as an “approachable politician”. “She was not like a usual politician, but was very responsive. In 2004, the political science department was organising a three-day workshop and we approached her to speak about urban reforms. She was the chief minister then. Despite all her engagements, she accepted the invite without any condition,” she said.

The college’s acting principal Bijayalakshmi Nanda called her a “beloved alumnus”.

“She was also awarded with the alumni association achievement and excellence award in 2005. We will always remember her as one of the most beloved alumni,” she said.

Dikshit, meanwhile, described her college days an “experience beyond classroom” in her autobiography.

“My biggest learning in college was the discovery that studies were important but so was theatre, watching cricket, seeing movies, going to a coffee house or restaurant, being a girl- guide and having a crush on some handsome boy. For one without the other was just half a life,” she said.

And she did not live half a life by any measure. “Indeed, she was crucial to building Delhi, and is inextricably entwined with the history of the city, for which residents must be thankful,” Pillai said.