Life at IIT---
my views..(State of me when stressed beyond yield point !!!)


Breathless and eager to experience the paradise we have heard so much about, we sit in rapt attention inside the classrooms, anxious to pick up pearls of wisdom. But gradually it dawns on us that something has gone wrong somewhere. Bravely, we brush aside our apprehensions as mere figments of imagination. In our weak moments, however , we are ashamed to hear the groaning in our hearts: HELL ! THIS IS ENGINEERING ?
But we dare not speak aloud, even to our friends. Instead, we smile and pretend that everything is as it should be. Our job is to get on with the important business of scoring marks;everything else is secondary.During the class hours we are bombarded with all kinds of information, all of which must be surely very important. We slog through innumerable quizzes,assignments and whatnot. It is sheer wonder that we survive without losing our sanity.
We get hardened(immunised?) by the time we enter our second year. We laern ,thanks to our seniors, all the tricks of the trade required to survive and to beat the system. A great secret is revealed to us: it is not neccessary to understand the subject inorder to pass or even score well in the examination ! Morever,even those few who struggle to gain the fundamental understanding often end up with poor scores. We excel in the art of copying assignments,lab records and even test papers. However , inspite of all this , some of us end up failing in a few courses. Fortunately , IIT is kind enough to promote us to the next semester. We loose interest in studies, and the teachers all know it. However we are not too disturbed. It doesnt matter because everyone knows that ours is a world class institution.
Once in a while , we hear excited announcements about IITM being ranked 3rd or 4th in some asian journal. Some less informed people say that we are ranked 50th or 60th in the world. While we may be willing to concede a higher status to MIT or Stanford, we have some difficulty in extending this generosity to other technical institutions in india. India today publishes regularly a list of top ten engineering colleges in the country , and then when we find IITM ranked 4th or 5th , we feel sad that the public at large has been so cruelly misinformed.
We drift from semester to semester----in blissful ignorance . We undergo numerous courses, all supposedly very important. We get to see all kind of teachers- the good, the bad ,and the ugly. The good ones are too sincere and make us feel guilty of our own insincerity. The bad ones mumble something in the class, take attendance and run away. The ugly ones like to bully us and compel us to submit all kinds of stupid assignments. Most of us never stand up and ask questions in the class, because we may end up looking like idiots we suspect we are. This then can be acutely embarrassing , especially if its a mixed class, with the other sex around. All said and done, we try to have a good time in the class, giggling and fooling around. The teachers pretend they do not see us play.
After all this turmoil and confusion , it is immense relief to get back home at the end of every semester, and to hear the neighbours whisper,He's studying at IIT. He must be really brilliant ! It is like the sound of sweet music. We wish we could have it replayed (at higher volume)--again and again !!
Hmmmm, but all this hollowness man, there is nothing of what you think is there..
god save us all...