Cuckoo…Cuckoo..Cuckoo….. !!!
That’s not the rooster in the village cuckooin’ on seeing the sunrise. That’s my cell phone’s alarm bell going on in the morning at 8 am to tell me, “Dude…. Wake up, its time to get ready for yet another day!!”
And yes, I wake up only to say the day’s first words “Oh crap!! Its 8:30!! How the hell will I manage to get ready for the academic prison that is my not so lovely college?” L
As I hurry up to get ready a thought comes to my head. A quote. “LIFE REVOLVES AROUND NIRMA”. Yes, I study in Nirma University right here in Ahmedabad, arguably the best city on Earth ! As I put on my T-shirt I think about how my life has been turned from a beautiful square park to an atom whose nucleus is Nirma University.
As I now put on my jeans (forgive me if the image is summoned up in your mind) I think “Man, I didn’t realise it for so long but whatever I do, whatever I think, its insanely surrounds my college.” I have no life.
Well the realization that I just described sums the feelings of most people studying in my university. We have no life.
Think about it. 5 to 6 days a week we follow this schedule.
-> Wake up!!
- > Get ready for the college bus (most people come via the university’s own transport service)
-> Reach the “Temple of Learning” and (surprise)… start learning for 7 excruciating hours before catching the one hour ride back home.
By the time most of us reach home we are so hopelessly tired we can concentrate on only two things --rest and food (the food available in the university campus is an issue that cannot be discussed here as it requires a separate discussion altogether!)
Sometimes I personally question myself “Is this worth it?” I mean what does Nirma offer except a brand name (something that has assumed great importance in this day and age) Arguers can argue that it provides us with discipline, good infrastructure and “good” teaching. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest I would rank Nirma’s discipline as 5, infrastructure as 7 (I’m being a little liberal here) and teaching as 4 (liberalism is shown here too).
The reasons for such low ratings is shown below:
Discipline - Every employee at the university claims that the university emphasizes on discipline for its students as well as the faculties. That is where they are creating a problems. I am not a faculty so I don’t know what their problems are but being a student I can point out the difficulties we face. Nirma says that they emphasize on discipline but in reality they are running an authoritarian regime under the guise of of an academic institution. They try to regulate most parts of our life by imposing trivial and at times questionable rules and regulations. An example that comes to mind when you think about such rules is the ban of cellular phones in the college. Outside readers may like to know that this rule has been imposed only on the students and not the employees of the university. One may argue that employees may need the phones for contacting their homes and families in some situations. One may also argue that the reason for banning the cellular phones for students is that it creates disturbances in class. Agreed. I say, the students that create disturbances in the class by using their cellular phones need to be disciplined and fined if found necessary. But the question I want to ask is “Why are teachers allowed to use cellular phones in class? Does it not create disturbances for students who are concentrating hard in the class and have developed a link to what the teacher is explaining?” I call this a hypocrisy on part of the university’s policy makers. Absolute hypocrisy. Whenever a student makes noise in the class then he is scolded like a 7th grade student. But nothing is done when the teacher makes stupid and irrelevant jokes in the class.
And why do we forget the issue of attendance. The holy grail in Nirma. Everyone wants to keep their attendance in classes at least 80%. “Why?”, you ask. I’ll tell you why. Because, if we go below that level we get asked to come to the college on a mentioned day at a time fixed by the management with our parent(s) or guardian. Reminds you of the school days, doesn’t it? This holds true for post-graduate and graduate students alike. Our parents get a lecture from some faculty as if they were some Toms, Dicks or Harrys. The degree of how ridiculous this must feel must be obvious to the reader by now. Not to mention how humiliating and infuriating this must feel to the student and his parents when they are dealt with in they are dealt with.
And that’s not the end of it. The student is given a “punishment” in which they are given some “practice work”. Nothing much, just a few question papers to be solved and submitted before the end of the practical examination. It’s a different story that the student may be given as much as 10 question papers to solve in a span of 2 days. So the student can forget about preparing for his practical exams.
I said earlier that they try to regulate as much a part of us as they can in the name of discipline. I would not be surprised if the university “disciplines” me for writing this blog entry!!
Infrastructure - Nirma University has a big and lush green campus that would rival with a small foreign university. The first impression that you would get when you enter the place for the first time is amazing. Guards standing in discipline at the front entrance. A wonderful lush green campus, clean roads, well constructed buildings. Well the quality of whats on the list next is a small order. I would tell you here that the infrastructure that these guys have got is better than the other colleges in the state. But, being better than some old and dusty government college is no big feat. It’s a small feat when you consider the billions of rupees pumped in by one of India’s biggest philanthropists. While I think that the facilities are pretty OK they do not match up to labs found in developed nations. Plus they do not give enough Internet access to students and when they give it they make us feel as if they are doing you a big favour when in fact they are simply doing their job.
Teaching - The core competency of any university is the teaching that they offer to their students. Instead Nirma’s benchmark of success is the pay packages that their students get. They emphasize on “good education” but the faculties in the university come nowhere near being called “good”. They don’t even come close to the “satisfactory” level. The computers department is one of the premier departments in the university but its teaching is by far the most horrible in the university from what I’ve heard from a lot of students and from my personal experience. The only good department from a purely academic point of view is the Mathematics and Humanities department.
I cannot comment on the quality of teaching of specific faculties as I do not want to be “disciplined” (read victimized)
As I think about it and ask “Who is to be blamed?” I say it should be the people who have developed a culture very strict discipline in the university. Some may think that I am anti-discipline but I am not. I strongly believe that discipline is the cornerstone of any organized effort that aims for a constructive purpose (like education). But, at the same time it should adopt an authoritarian attitude that earns the strong resentment of students. The university conducts regular “feedback sessions” with students but the students don’t voice their real agony to them. The reason being the fear of victimization at the hands of faculties and management. I guess this the kind of behaviour which earns them a bad name.
As a request to anyone and everyone who reads this blog. Please voice your opinions regarding this issue in Nirma University. Your feedback shall only make my resolve stronger to report such issues.
Mitul Choksi
Saturday, 31st March 2007
8:15 pm Indian Standard Time
