Begumpet Government Women's College

You can spot Begumpet Women's College from on the road itself, because, like all government colleges, the verdurous old trees of the campus will be sticking their necks out from behind the yellow, cracking walls. Established in 1971, this college too has expansive premises, plenty of trees, and thickets with their Latin names pinned on them. Amidst these immortal trees, claiming their space are the very mortal college buildings. With exposed bricks slowly sprouting patches of moss, and damp, peeling paint, they are in a sad state of dilapidation.

Then there are the students, all over the place, chattering away in their respective groups. These girls who look incredibly taciturn when they speak to the staff, transform into garrulous gossipers when you get with them in their groups. Not a college to impose a dress code, this women's college probably doesn't need one since the girls are almost uniformly dressed in modest salwar kameezes, a huge contrast from the neighbouring St. Francis.

They will tell you they have fantastic, well-qualified faculty who are extremely friendly and helpful, while the administrative staff can get a little irksome with their attention to detail! They complain it's rather bureaucratic, and that is putting it mildly.

There are facilities for Volleyball, Badminton and Tennikoit in outdoor games, and a well-equipped games room for indoor sports. Here, you also have a gym. Where the girls say they exercise when there are in the mood for some fun. While most girls look rather delicate, the gym has heavy-duty dumbbells, treadmills, exercycles etc.

The college offers scholarships for SC/ST students, and most purely government-run courses have a fee of about Rs. 900 per annum. The labs are quite contrarily well-maintained compared to the rest of the college. The computer lab looks impressive behind its glass door with a 'Hardware, software, but no footwear' sign on it.

NCC and NSS are big in here, with 80% of the girls doing NSS work, which they really enjoy. They proudly tell you how they cleaned an immense part of Osmania University campus a few days back as part of NSS, and did a great job of it too. The remaining go for NCC which is much more rigorous, has a uniform, and much stricter faculty supervising it. There is also a curious rivalry between the NCC and NSS girls! They do not socialize much, have arguments, and don't even exchange notes to help each other out. But the girls laugh about it as they tell you!

A small canteen offers a fairly simple selection of foods - dosas, idlis, tea, coffee, packaged snacks etc.

The college also offers certificate courses for computers, beautician, yoga etc., charging only Rs. 100 per annum for them. And the students often get free passes to go to cultural events in the city.

So that's Begumpet Women's for you. A college with its own peculiarities and inside stories, but the chirpy and voluble girls make up for it all!