A degree certificate is usually a moment of celebration- something a family waits for, photographs, and carefully puts away. For Ramesh Prasad Baranwal and Babita, however, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) degree they will receive this week carries a grief that words can barely contain.Their daughter, Shrutika Baranwal, 25, was supposed to be starting a new chapter of her life. Instead, her parents will walk up to receive the Master’s degree she earned before she died in the devastating Delhi fire that claimed 21 lives in June.Shrutika was among those killed when a fire engulfed a bed-and-breakfast facility in south Delhi’s Hauz Rani. She had travelled to the capital not for a holiday, but for the beginning of her professional journey.She had completed her Master’s in Water Policy and Governance at TISS and had secured a job through campus placement with the Rubber, Chemical & Polymer Skill Development Council. She was in Delhi on June 3 to complete joining formalities before she was to begin work in Mumbai.Now, instead of Shrutika collecting her degree at TISS’s 86th convocation, her parents will receive it on her behalf.
Shrutika Baranwal came to Delhi to complete the formalities of a job she had secured through campus placement.
The degree she earned, and the life she was about to begin
According to TISS, Shrutika graduated with a first-class result. The academic achievement is particularly poignant because the certificate will now serve as one of the last tangible reminders of the life she had built for herself.According to The Indian Express report, the family travelled from Jaina More in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district to Mumbai for the convocation.It is a document bearing their daughter’s name- and, as her mother Babita told The Indian Express, almost everything else that belonged to Shrutika was lost in the fire. Her phone, laptop and bag were among the belongings destroyed. The family is therefore left holding something that was meant to mark the start of Shrutika’s career, but has instead become a keepsake of a life cut short.
Shrutika’s TISS degree will remain a keepsake for her family (Photo courtesy: The Indian Express)
A testimonial that no parent expects to receive
There is another painful detail to Shrutika’s convocation. TISS will issue a testimonial recording her achievements and life on campus. But unlike those being prepared for her classmates, Shrutika’s testimonial will be issued posthumously.It is a distinction that turns what should have been an ordinary academic ceremony into an emotional farewell.
She had gone to Delhi for work
Shrutika’s presence in Delhi that day was linked to her new job. She had been selected through campus placement for the Rubber, Chemical & Polymer Skill Development Council and was in the city to complete the induction and joining formalities. She was expected to return to Mumbai and begin working there. That makes the tragedy particularly stark: she was not in the city as a tourist or for a long stay. She had come for an important professional milestone.Instead, the fire at the Hauz Rani accommodation turned fatal.Shrutika was among 21 people who died in the blaze, which also claimed the lives of people staying at the facility for different reasons, including those visiting relatives receiving medical treatment nearby.
From a campus achievement to a posthumous tribute
For Shrutika’s parents, the TISS convocation is likely to be filled with conflicting emotions. There is pride in knowing that their daughter completed her Master’s with a first-class result. There is also the unbearable knowledge that she will not be there to hear her name, collect the certificate or speak about the job she had just secured.The testimonial will similarly preserve a record of Shrutika as a student- her achievements, her years at TISS and the promise of a career that had only just begun.For a young graduate and their parents, a convocation is usually about looking ahead. For Shrutika’s parents, it will be about looking back.
A certificate that carries an entire life
There are moments when an official document becomes much more than paper. For the Baranwals, Shrutika’s TISS degree is likely to be one such document. It represents the education she worked for, the future she had planned and the professional life she was preparing to enter. But it also carries the weight of what was lost.On the day her batchmates step forward to mark the completion of their studies, Shrutika’s parents will collect the degree their daughter earned herself. She will not be there to hold it. Yet her name will be called, her achievement will be recorded and, in the most painful way possible, the institution she studied at will remember that she was once there- a young woman who had completed her education, secured a job and was ready to begin her life beyond campus.