These two words do a pretty good job of describing my state before I started writing this post. I am taking a small digression from the recent trend of writing about my experiences and, instead, will attempt to uncover a few issues that I read in an article (published in a leading Indian magazine a few years ago) a few moments ago. I strongly urge you to read this article before proceeding any further, so as to understand the points made by me.
The article starts rather promisingly, describing some general notions about IITians. For the uninitiated, IIT stands for the Indian Institute of Technology, a network of Engineering and Science Schools across India that seems to have gained substantial repute for the 'quality' of students churned out each year. The article then moves on to muse on whether the IITs have served the purpose with which Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of free India, envisioned these institutes. All seemed good and I thought I had come across a frank, sugar-free, no-holds-barred view on the ghettos of academic India.
What followed was a shocking self-contradictory diversion into a needless ego trip about how IITians are great and how everything about them is even greater. Passing an examination is equated with academic excellence, which makes me question the very meaning of learning that the honourable author seems to have committed to memory in high school. With colleagues as 'extraordinary' as the author claims he had, I am sure something went wrong later, given the nature of personalities romanticised.
There are simply too many instances to be taken apart and trashed. In fact, I am yet to catch hold of a better example of the narrow, ignorant viewpoints that I came across on multiple occasions during my student days at IIT. In the interest of space and time, I shall limit myself to a only a few more absurd statements made in the article.
IITians are proclaimed as being 'the chosen' ones. I am extremely interested in meeting the 'choosers'. Why did they choose what they chose, and what did they choose them for - tagging them away to farcicial lives, elevating them on the materialistic scale to seats of authority, voice and power (where such ludicrous articles could come from). IITians have also been said to graduate with 'tribal loyalties'. I am sure our respected tribals are better mannered, more cultured and have clearer perpectives in life. And what loyalties are being spoken about here, when cases of students littering their own campuses, cheating in examinations, and abusing faculty members are too many to be quoted.
The article concludes with shocking examples of immodesty, ignorance, pomposity and superiority complex.
It is unfortunate that such narrow minded views are expressed on a public forum. I can only hope that the IITians sharing similar views are a minority.
The article starts rather promisingly, describing some general notions about IITians. For the uninitiated, IIT stands for the Indian Institute of Technology, a network of Engineering and Science Schools across India that seems to have gained substantial repute for the 'quality' of students churned out each year. The article then moves on to muse on whether the IITs have served the purpose with which Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of free India, envisioned these institutes. All seemed good and I thought I had come across a frank, sugar-free, no-holds-barred view on the ghettos of academic India.
What followed was a shocking self-contradictory diversion into a needless ego trip about how IITians are great and how everything about them is even greater. Passing an examination is equated with academic excellence, which makes me question the very meaning of learning that the honourable author seems to have committed to memory in high school. With colleagues as 'extraordinary' as the author claims he had, I am sure something went wrong later, given the nature of personalities romanticised.
There are simply too many instances to be taken apart and trashed. In fact, I am yet to catch hold of a better example of the narrow, ignorant viewpoints that I came across on multiple occasions during my student days at IIT. In the interest of space and time, I shall limit myself to a only a few more absurd statements made in the article.
IITians are proclaimed as being 'the chosen' ones. I am extremely interested in meeting the 'choosers'. Why did they choose what they chose, and what did they choose them for - tagging them away to farcicial lives, elevating them on the materialistic scale to seats of authority, voice and power (where such ludicrous articles could come from). IITians have also been said to graduate with 'tribal loyalties'. I am sure our respected tribals are better mannered, more cultured and have clearer perpectives in life. And what loyalties are being spoken about here, when cases of students littering their own campuses, cheating in examinations, and abusing faculty members are too many to be quoted.
The article concludes with shocking examples of immodesty, ignorance, pomposity and superiority complex.
It is unfortunate that such narrow minded views are expressed on a public forum. I can only hope that the IITians sharing similar views are a minority.
1 comment:
give reference to the article if it's available online...wud be a funny read...
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