I fell in love with the bir bazar the first time we tried it the winter we moved to Delhi. Heaps of fresh vegetables in assortment of colors line the roadside, peppered with ironsmith shops, spice vendors, plastic basket vendors. It’s still humid and hot, not exactly the time to walk the length of Bir Bazar but we have been making time so that we can eat better than we have this summer.

The vendors now recognize us. I like to chitchat, ask questions about strange vegetables, and overall happenings of the day. Today was a good day. We found Vali bhaji (Malabar Spinach) at our favorite leafy veggies vendor at the end of the bazar. I have been looking for a cutting to start my own vine. Now I have one. We also found Desi varieties of pumpkin and white gourd. Expensive but worth it. Everything now-a-days otherwise is hybrid and huge. Other vegetables were expensive too. Apparently, flooding of Yamuna a couple weeks back destroyed the vegetable crops. I had read about it in the newspaper and had wondered if our vegetables came from these farms in the floodplains. It is a scary thought, given how polluted the water is.

Every year Yamuna crosses the flood line, policemen inform the basti to gather their belongings and move into the makeshift tents built on higher ground that the government provides. The news item said that the people were trying to save their produce till the water was almost ankle or knee high, risking their lives as the policemen urged them to move to higher ground. It seems it happens every year and Delhi looses chunk of its vegetable supply. Many of our veggies today came from Rajasthan and Haryana. After the river recedes, the riverside farms will crop up again and we will start getting vegetables in a couple of months, depending on what they sow. The cycle goes on in the same exact way every year.

It was very intersting how the vendors talked about the river reverently. “Yamunaji” they called her. Our neighbour Tauji also calls the river Yamunaji I remembered. Just the other day he was telling us stories of major flooding in 1970s when the water came as far as his house and the ground floor was underwater.

For the last year and a half we have been in Delhi, I have tried to stay away from the river. To me it is just a polluted stinking mess. Listening to the stories and the way people talk about Yamunaji, has whetted my apetite to explore more about the river and how the people relate to her.

I had a chance to attend the Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) Foundation Stone Laying ceremony today. CM Kejriwal was the chief guest but most exciting thing for me was being part of something starting from scratch.
The plans look impressive with zero carbon footprint. AUD with DDA is supposed to be the custodians of the existing wetland park. Hope it actually works out that way.

The huge stage had all the dignitaries you could think of. In addition to CM Kejriwal, there was Manish Sisodiya, the cultural minister. I know him very well because I get messages in his name about cultural programs in Delhi. The MLA of Timarpur, MLA of Burari (?), Secretary of Higher Education, PWD and so on. I was pretty impressed to see the Vice Chancelor Prof. Lather, only woman on the male dominated stage, holding her

The architects had a beautiful video with commentary on the design of the campus. Much of it was about the beautiful views and how impressive it is going to look. Would have been much impressive if there were a couple of points about the design wrt the main function of the space – teaching, learning, research.

The Timarpur MLA Pankaj Pushkar, talked about the relationship of Institutes of Higher Education with the society in which it is embedded, the skillsets needed and the pedagogical models that cater to it. He thought that we are still using the colonial /European models of education created for the Industrial age and universities like AUD (with its focus on humanities) were trying to answer the question of how education relates to self and society in which one is embedded.

Mr. Sisodia spoke well. I really appreciated his speech, especially after Mr Kejriwal’s speech that sounded more like an election speech. Mr. Sisodia talked about collaboration (??) between Government and the University. The talks he used to have with previous VC Mr. Menon and how it enlightened him and pushed AUD to increase capacity. He also mentioned the Delhi oral history project, a recent collaboration between Delhi government and AUD. He talked about AUD as their go to experts when thinking of new ideas and introducing education reforms. If the sentiments he expressed are true and not just a politician’s speech, I am excited to see how it all pans out.