Surendranath College B.A Review By Sangeeta Chakroberty

Surendranath College holds prestige as one of the oldest colleges under the banner of Calcutta University situated in the heart of the city, giving the convenience of all kinds of transportations be it bus, metro, or train. It holds the honor as our great swami Vivekananda gave her first speech in the respective college after coming back from marking his spiritual journey in the Chicago conference. One of the reasons for me to join the college is The faculty of the English department which had some of the notable creative minds indulged in the field of theatre, rhetoric, literature, writing, etc. I being a theatre enthusiast, got the opportunity to spend my graduation immersing myself in the theatre work of the college along with studies.

The Bachelor in Arts course with a specialization in English has duration of 3 years. We were required to select the general pass subjects as well along with the honors subject. One could select any two pass subjects from a range of various subjects. I had Journalism and History as my pass subjects. There was a compulsory second language paper and Environmental Science paper that one had to attend in their first year only. The eligibility to get admission to the college was that the candidate should pass the class 12th exam and counseling for admission was done according to the merit list based on 12th marks. I had always been an avid reader and a creative writer and my passion for art and culture motivated me to take up the course but I realized during my tenure that the course demands much more than just passion or liking.

The faculty members were experienced and talented lecturers who had backgrounds in theatre, writing, art, recitation, and other forms of creativity. The theatre department was overlooked by our head of the department and he taught us with some exceptional knowledge about literature and other form of arts. The other guest lecturers were highly educated and skillful in the art of teaching and narration. They were not just well-learned but also knew how to engage us students in the process of learning. The literary insight they shared with us and motivated us to speak about our perspective is something I hugely admire in them as professors.

Although not furnished with lawns and gardens, our college campus has an old heritage building that accommodated huge spacious classrooms, labs, a library, a seminar hall, commons spaces for sports, a canteen, an administration room, etc. There were two sections of the campus available for classes taken during the day and the evening.

The college had several clubs such as the poster club, science club, theatre club, etc. Students could choose and be a part of any of the clubs. I being a part of the theatre took the opportunity to work for the production in the background. There were fests and freshers organized every year by the seniors. Ragging was strictly prohibited in the campus. The professors always had their ways for our engagement through different activities and it turned out to be quite informative in the long run.