Kakkar and his friends are having a reunion this week to take part in the centenary celebrations of Hindu College.

Kakkar, now the joint secretary of the Nehru Hockey Tournament told Express Newsline: ``Back in 1934, I would cycle to college every morning. There was very little traffic on the roads then -- no buses and scooters. Tongas were the most popular mode of transport''.

The now 100-year-old Hindu College was then housed in a dilapidated two-storeyed building with high ceilings, creaky doors and windows in the Kashmere Gate area. The building originally belonged to a Briton called Colonel Skinner. Around a hundred years ago, students in the Capital had little choice they either studied at St Stephen's College or at Hindu College. There was no other college in the city then.

When the institution was first set up in 1899, it was housed in a small building at Kinari Bazaar in Chandni Chowk. The total tuition fee collected from all the students in July, 1899, amounted to Rs 94, while the monthly salary bill of the staff came to Rs 254.50. College authorities actually had a tough time meeting a deficit of Rs 150. Now, Hindu College charges Rs 2,000 in annual fees from each student. Amongst the college's illustrious alumni are cricketer Prakash Bhandari and former Intelligence Bureau chief Arun Bhagat. Bhandari joined Hindu College in 1952. He had studied in an all-boys' school.

The college was his first experience with co-education. Says Bhandari: ``There were four to five girls in our class of 1952. I still remember staring at their baggy style shalwars and neatly plaited hair. Most of them wore shalwar kurtas. And there were some who came to college wearing frocks.'' Hindu College moved to North Campus from Kashmere Gate in the first decade after Independence. Bhandari who has attended classes both at Kashmere Gate and at North Campus recollects: ``The old building was home for the students. Things happened slowly. In the new building, it was different -- there were clean classrooms, straight corridors and lighted pathways. It was more like going to office now''.

Bhandari left college in 1956. Sixty-year-old Arun Bhagat still remembers his teachers at college. ``There was this particular philosophy teacher who was quite a character. Professor Gupta would come in a green chauffeur-driven car and always had a cigarette in his mouth. And he would never take class before noon. And after lessons in philosophy, he would take another class for people interested in investing in the stock market.'' From grey-haired alumni to young people, everyone misses the hostel. ``It was relaxed there,'' says Bhagat. ``My best times at college were those spent in the hostel''.

Alumni Dr Rameshwar Rai, faculty member of the Hindi Department, has been associated with the college for the past 20 years. Says Rai: ``Nothing seems to have changed here. The students still send freshers to the ghantaghar parathewala after midnight as a part of the ragging every year. Hostellers have dinner around 8 p.m. and are famished by midnight. Everyone has paratha then''.

Television personality Roshan Abbas is also nostalgic about the hostel: ``From philosophy to philandering, we discussed everything there. I also miss the butter chicken served in the mess. I used to bribe the cook to allow me to select the piece,'' he says. The college's other luminaries include industrialist K.K. Birla, cinema personalities Manoj Kumar and Vishal Bharadwaj, sportsmen Ajay Jadeja, Saba Karim and parliamentarians Omang Apang and Subramanian Swamy to name a few.