The Dhaka University (DU) campus wore an unusually deserted look with students taking off for their homes as academic activities, including exams, were postponed till March 31 to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The hustle and bustle of students on campus, crowds and colours of TSC, cheerful youngsters on Aparajeya Bangla to Curzon hall premises, political debates at Modhu’s canteen, rush to catch the class in time or last bus home are all missing.  This is only the second time in DU’s history that the residential dormitories were vacated. The first instance was on August 21, 2007, when students had clashed with Army personnel during the caretaker government.

On Saturday, nothing moved on the campus except a few rickshaws on the TSC-Shahbagh road. The Udayan school road in front of SM Hall from Palashi intersection was all empty.

Several policemen stood idle at the gate of the vice-chancellor's residence. From there, the Arts faculty building on the left towards TSC and the gate of Rokeya Hall were also completely silent.

There were no students either in front of the busy Central Library gate and even no vehicles were seen on the busy Nilkhet market, Dhaka Medical College-oriented road from TSC to the Doel Chattar road. Morshed Ali, who has been plying a rickshaw on the campus for 13 years, rued the loss of income. “I have never seen such silence in the university. Yesterday, I could earn only Tk 170. Today, the situation is worse. If this situation continues, I don’t know how I will manage things in the days to come,” he said.

However, some official activities of the university are still on. Though many officials have gone on but, some are still stuck with their duties even during the shutdown. One such person is SM Abdur Rahman, the acting director of the pharmacy and biomedical research centre. “We are still working on making hand sanitizers. So far, we have produced more than 3,500 sanitizers and distributed them free of cost among students, teachers, officials and general people. We will continue doing so” he said.

Summing up the situation, a DU official said on condition of anonymity: “The holidays always feel good because work pressure is low. But this time, it seems too empty. There is an unknown fear working in the heart. One cannot exactly say when the problem will be solved and when the campus will open again. What will happen?”