<p>A student from a convent school is subjected to a routine that is similar to a military school.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Not a single strand of her hair should pop out from the braid, the uniform should be well-ironed, nails properly cut, shoes polished till they scream white and to top it all, a tattoo on any part of the body is a complete ‘No’. After enduring this regime for 14 long years when the girls enter a coed institution, the shock value is immense. There exists a section which actually experiences cultural shock. Being displaced from a sudden standard routine to a guilt free milieu can be unnerving.<br /><br />It took St Anthony’s Jisha James, now a III year student in DU, “One year to properly start talking to boys. I was shy and introvert. I was shivering when we were ragged on a college trip. Besides, there were so many extra-curricular choices unlike school that I did not know how to respond to which one.” In a convent school, girls move about uninhibitedly. They can gossip for hours without worrying about the reactions of the opposite sex. But college is a whole new ball game.<br /><br />Harshita Mittal realised this with a pinch of salt; “College students think mostly about their own needs. It is difficult to adjust with them. When a girl speaks to two or more guys she is deemed characterless while nobody questions boys.”<br /><br />Jyoti Nair, on the contrary, dedicates her rise in confidence level to the group of boys she hung out with; “From fests, canteens, classes and bus stop talks; there were no restrictions. I am more of an extrovert now than I was back in school.”<br /><br />A girl’s identity in school is often typecast as shy or very outgoing. Her interaction sphere is limited to counted people. In a seminary, every day is a day of building an image. A room of discipline, set rules and regulations is replaced with liberating and guilt free air.<br /><br />She is no longer haunted by a teacher’s nagging words of bringing an application for being absent on a particular day, nor is she prohibited from eating junk food.<br /><br />Clothes become the new language of expression. Being over-weight makes one conscious. Proper dressing sense is expected out of college fucchas or they are made fun of. Says Heena Singh, a Std XII student of Mater Dei School, “Girls put in a lot of effort into how they dress and behave. In university you will seldom be labelled a behenji for wearing a chic salwar suit. It is considered as ethnic Indian wear.”<br /><br />College teachers feel that it is a lacking in the education system that delays a student’s ability to gel with others. RK Verma, an associate professor at Sri Aurobindo College says, “Our system is competition driven. It doesn’t provide a platform where students and teachers can interact. We see each other as rivals. By late teens the student becomes an adversary of the other. It depends upon a teacher personal initiative to help them open up.”<br /></p>
<p>A student from a convent school is subjected to a routine that is similar to a military school.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Not a single strand of her hair should pop out from the braid, the uniform should be well-ironed, nails properly cut, shoes polished till they scream white and to top it all, a tattoo on any part of the body is a complete ‘No’. After enduring this regime for 14 long years when the girls enter a coed institution, the shock value is immense. There exists a section which actually experiences cultural shock. Being displaced from a sudden standard routine to a guilt free milieu can be unnerving.<br /><br />It took St Anthony’s Jisha James, now a III year student in DU, “One year to properly start talking to boys. I was shy and introvert. I was shivering when we were ragged on a college trip. Besides, there were so many extra-curricular choices unlike school that I did not know how to respond to which one.” In a convent school, girls move about uninhibitedly. They can gossip for hours without worrying about the reactions of the opposite sex. But college is a whole new ball game.<br /><br />Harshita Mittal realised this with a pinch of salt; “College students think mostly about their own needs. It is difficult to adjust with them. When a girl speaks to two or more guys she is deemed characterless while nobody questions boys.”<br /><br />Jyoti Nair, on the contrary, dedicates her rise in confidence level to the group of boys she hung out with; “From fests, canteens, classes and bus stop talks; there were no restrictions. I am more of an extrovert now than I was back in school.”<br /><br />A girl’s identity in school is often typecast as shy or very outgoing. Her interaction sphere is limited to counted people. In a seminary, every day is a day of building an image. A room of discipline, set rules and regulations is replaced with liberating and guilt free air.<br /><br />She is no longer haunted by a teacher’s nagging words of bringing an application for being absent on a particular day, nor is she prohibited from eating junk food.<br /><br />Clothes become the new language of expression. Being over-weight makes one conscious. Proper dressing sense is expected out of college fucchas or they are made fun of. Says Heena Singh, a Std XII student of Mater Dei School, “Girls put in a lot of effort into how they dress and behave. In university you will seldom be labelled a behenji for wearing a chic salwar suit. It is considered as ethnic Indian wear.”<br /><br />College teachers feel that it is a lacking in the education system that delays a student’s ability to gel with others. RK Verma, an associate professor at Sri Aurobindo College says, “Our system is competition driven. It doesn’t provide a platform where students and teachers can interact. We see each other as rivals. By late teens the student becomes an adversary of the other. It depends upon a teacher personal initiative to help them open up.”<br /></p>