The Great Indian Language Divide

"Language is the biggest barrier to human progress because language is an encyclopedia of ignorance. Old perceptions are frozen into language and force us to look at the world in an old fashioned way."
-Edward de Bono, Famous Maltese physician,originator of term Lateral thinking and author of best seller Six thinking hats

 During the second semester of my engineering degree, we had a subject(which we never accounted for) called communication skills. Though this was a subject which one could clear with relative ease(when compared with mother of all horrors, Mechanics), I took time to mug up one answer, "Barriers to effective communication". One of barrier which holds true in the Indian context ,is Language.

I wrote a few blogs in the past one year which showed how a constant bias is being developed against speakers of one language(Hindi) by others(namely tamil and marathi). What I saw is what I wrote. But what is the reason for such a huge prejudice and bias? The rivalry of Indian languages goes back a long way in our very old history.

 1000-1500AD: The Arrival of Muslim rulers in India

  The Islamic era of India is something we owe a lot of current tourism revenue to(read Taj mahal). But one thing which this era gave us was our official language. Surprised? Yes, Official language of India, Hindi was not in existence before the Muslim rulers came to India. We had Brij bhasha, Maithili amongst others, but not the khari boli dialect. The Muslim rulers who arrived in India spoke persian and arabic. To gain ground among the locals, the rulers adapted ,and with mixture of persian and brij bhasha came the khari boli(Urdu/Hindi). The father of this khari boli movement was Amir Khusro, famous poet of 12th century, who had mastered brij bhasha along with his own native persian language. Following prose gives us a fair idea of his mastery of the two languages,

zihaal-e-miskeen mukon taghaful (Persian)
doraaye nainaan banaye batyaan (Brij)

The development of the khari boli went on for a long time and not surprisingly, it is still under development(more on that later)

The British Era:-


The Britishers, taking a cue from the previous Islamic rulers, made Urdu the official and national language of communication in India. Almost all the literates of the North Indian belt could read, write and comprehend Urdu, so not surprisingly Urdu was made our national language. What the Britishers did not account for, was that a language could be associated with religion. After the 1857 rebellion, the Hindus started distinguishing themselves by calling the language they speak as Hindi. The very same language, developed by Amir khusro et al, written in devnagri script. This was the first seed sowed for the communal tensions which were to develop between two religions which had so far lived in peace. In response to this, Sir sayyed laid the foundation for the now prestigious Aligarh Muslim university, focussing on educating the Muslims in Urdu, as a counter response to this,  the foundation for Benaras Hindu university was laid. The offensive and counter offensive went on till the year 1900, which was a significant year in the history of languages in India. That year, Hindi and Urdu were accorded the equal status. Two dialects of the khari boli, which when spoken colloquially had no difference, were given a status of two official national languages. The Hindus rejoiced, finally they had an equal standing with a "foreign language imposed upon them". What they did not realize was ,the language they were rejoicing for, was given to them by the very same foreign rulers. From that year, the supporters of Hindi, to make it distinct from Urdu, increasingly 'sanskritized' the language, while, Urdu was constantly drawing from persian. And this is what I meant when I said, the Khari boli is still evolving, because even till today, the languages are getting influenced. When the demands for the creation of Pakistan was raised, Gandhi, Nehru amongst others, propoganded the language Hindustani(the khari boli, Hindi/urdu) and even assingned the famous Hindi and Urdu author Munshi Premchand to compile his work in this common language. They wanted Hindustani to be the official language, which could be written interchangeably in Nastaliq(script of Urdu) and Devnagri. But it was too late, to save the language, and to save the unity.

Post Independence: 
The very same congress, which proclaimed India to be a secular country(which fortunately it still is), and propoganded the use of Hindustani, made Hindi the official language of India(not national), along with English as a defacto official language till 1965. Every effort was made, to increase the reach of Hindi to everyone, sometimes by words and sometimes by force. The Hindi, which liberally used words from persian language, was being 'sanskritized' at a faster rate. Meanwhile, our neighbors left no stone unturned to make Urdu increasingly 'persianized'. Hindi and Urdu which were like conjoined twins a century before, looked like non-identical twins now.

Anti-Hindi agitations in Tamil Nadu:
Apparently, Urdu wasn't the only nemesis for Hindi, bigger nemesis for propoganda of Hindi was the dravidian states in south India. Anti Hindi sentiment in Tamil nadu goes back to 1936, when the then congress govt led by our first governer general C rajgopalachari, made Hindi a compulsory subject across all schools in Tamil Nadu. This came as a bolt from blue to Tamilians. They were forced to learn a language which was a polar opposite of the language they spoke. They felt no need of introducing a new language, when just tamil was enough for administration. Instead of addressing their concerns, the chief minister of Madras, used brute force to quell the agitation. But the agitation did not die down and the Congress govt resigned in 1939. After Independence, Congress decided to make Hindi a National language, which would mean all the communication hence forth would be in Hindi to all states. It was only after the threat of secession by the Dravidian states that it was decided to keep Hindi and english(defacto) the official language and not National language, while a scheduled list of 22 national languages would be maintained. English would be the defacto official language only till 1965, but all attempts in the year 1965 to remove english as the official language were quashed by massive protests by DMK and their landslide victory in the state polls(Trivia-Congress has never managed to come back in power since). This prompted Indira Gandhi to make English defacto official language indefinitely. Agreed, their was a hint of linguistic chauvanism in the protests in Tamil Nadu, but the use of force to impose Hindi only increased the Anti-Hindi sentiment in the state. Though the Anti-Hindi protests led to English being made a permanant official language, which is now the source of the Service Industry boom in India.

Current Scenario-
The linguistic chauvanism has reached heights never seen before. The Anti-Hindi sentiment is gaining momentum in Maharashtra and West bengal is not far behind. Their will be no dearth of parties like Shiv-Sena, MNS and DMK for a long time to come 


The country which feels proud of being a land where language changes every mile, is suffereing due to the very same reason. The Hindi language which was envisioned to be a uniting factor for all Indians has instead ended up dividing the nation.One solution to this can be going back to the colonial ways by completely adopting english. But for a problem as old as a millenium, I am no one to offer a solution. I only believe in what is said by Abhishek bacchan in one of the ads for a telecom operator,

                         "Language needs no words"

The phases in life of boys-With girls II

Almost a year after writing the first part of this blog, I am here with the much awaited sequel( pardon me if it sounds like a line lifted off from one of the movie promo). In case people are reading this without reading the first part, Please stop right here and go read the first part. Ok I know you still did not read the first part, so all those lazy bones like me, I would give a quick recap of what happened in the first part.

I spoke about how guys behave at various stages of life with girls. Right from hating them( The school days) to using them( The dark college days). In all these stages, guys share "love me, hate me, but can't ignore me" type relationship with girls. But after all this, boys come to office, and here starts a new adventure.

Phase VI-Bachelor at work 

Before starting of with this phase and before you start to relate it with youself, I am assuming that there 'are' girls in office(sorry mechanical civil and govt job guys, no donuts for you). I also assume that you are not a workaholic.So lets move on.....

It was the night before my first day at work, when I was very excited. I was excited about having my induction at a 5 star. But more than the place, I was excited about the crowd that was to pour in the next day. If the word going around was to be believed, for this batch the company had hired lots of 'chics'. Dressed in the best possible clothes I had(read-First Impression is the last impression), and a mind full of anticipation I entered the hall. Immediately my eye-brain coordination got down to work, my eyes started to scan for vacant seats near any hot chic seated in the hall. After a lot of hardwork, I managed to get a seat next to a chic.

   "Hi, I am Abhishek", I said ,extending my hand for a shake
   "Oh, Hi I am Anjana", she said,taking my hand shaking it.
   "So you from which college? I am from LT by the way, heard of it?", After I said this all in a single breath, I cursed myself, how can I just behave like just another wannabe?
    "I am from VESIT, and yes, I have indeed heard of your college, I stay right next to it" , she said , half gigling half smiling.
    "Oh thats nice, So you have any friend with whom you have come?" I said, anticipating an acquantaince with one more hot chic.
    "Yeah, My BF is also here today, his name is nishant, you must be knowing him".
    "one down" I said to myself referring to a chic being out of list, for the moment ofcourse
    "Hey abhishek, meet nishant"

Seeing that guy made me realize one thing, If guys like Nishant were to remain around, I will be having no girl around me for a long time to come at my work place. When I say long time, a perfect parameter for this is the fact that its been 10 months at work and I still am yet to find a 'chic' who is 'single'. During my entire course of 10 months, I met many Anjanas and almost everytime I met their Nishants. Even the girls, a notch or two below the Anjanas I met, had a Nishant for them. This gave me the inspiration for the sequel that I am writing. This phase of boys is of eternal search.

Tired of either being a nerd at college or a casanova, the guys come into their work life, expecting to find the right girl. A girl who is independent and earning(aah, thats important as well, chances of your wallet getting empty on an outing become less). A girl who would stay around for some time and would understand your need of spending time at work. A girl who herself would be so busy the whole day, she won't get time to get possesive about you. However the biggest twist in a guys life here is, that most of the girls come into office with their hearts truly committed.They don't miss an opportunity to proclaim their commitment to the world, in every gesture, they smell of commitment. They can't stop going gaga over their guys, which makes you feel more envious every passing moment.Those 'good' girls who are fortunately not committed are so immersed into work or career or family or friendship with you(The "just friend" types rememeber?), that chances are, she will surely not fall for you. Whether or not a guy admits it, he invariably joins the long list of waiting guys, the so called waiting list of guys. This list reduces at every break up of a girl. The girls, whose guys are not in the same organization start to feel the heat and here comes in the cracks, which are amplified by none other than the waiting guys.

 The wait list here is indeed analogous to the one for railway reservation. Those who get a reservation travel the distance, those who don't, have to catch the next train. If you could't do anything serious in college, you lost it, its too late to board the bus now. Those who are committed , won't get committed to you, unless of course you do something la "My best friends wedding". Those who are not, chances are, they may not get committed to you. This is one of the saddest and mostly lonely part in a 'single' guy's life. At work, their will always exist a lucky minority of Nishants and an unlucky of majority of people like me. The only hope left for us, is our parents. Only they can "arrange" for a reservation now.Mom and dad, you are my only saviour.......

The next part will take a few years in the making(c'mon I am only 23, it will be sometime before my parents can arrange for a reservation). But I do promise to come up with the next part.   

Phase VII-Married at work,Horrors of working in same office as spouse.

A land of thieves ,beggars and snake charmers.

Cursing the Mumbai university I boarded the BEST bus from university campus and sat down on one of the seats. I did not notice an American girl sitting next to me. She politely asked me if i could speak english, to which i nodded. She had been having problems comprehending what a lady was asking her in hindi. I was very glad to help, more than the 'atithi devo bhava' thing, it was the cuteness factor of the girl which did me in. Not a man to miss chances I striked a conversation with her, asking her about her city and country and about her pupose of visit to India. She turned out to be an urban planner and surprisingly she had done extensive research on this country. Amused, I probed her further to check if she had the stereotypical image of India like every other westerner has. It turned out, she did have the 'slum image' of India, courtesy 'Shantaram' and "Slumdog Millionare". I started with the "Namastey London" dialouge. I proclaimed India has more people speaking english than the US and UK put together. I went on 30 mins and told her every postive thing about India which I could recollect. I told her to visit bangalore to see the real 'Intelligent' India. She seemed totally convinced with my arguments. She said this,as a departing note

"It seems I need to correct my friend who thinks of India as a land of thieves ,beggars and snake charmers".

 "You better do" I replied with a faint smile.


 I was patting my own back for a job well done. At least one American got her facts corrected due to my efforts.  But, was the correction correct? Aren't we actually a land of thieves and beggars? Some observations in past one year has put me in self-doubt. Whether what she thought of us was correct?


 Unlike New Delhi, road infrastructure is pathetic in Mumbai. To travel from Eastern suburbs to the Western suburbs is a big pain. When the actual distance on the map is just 4 kms, one has to take a detour of 10 kms to reach the same place. To solve this issue the state government in 2004 decided to make an elevated link road from one suburb to another. Such was the marvel of the plan, that it was featured in NatGeo's Megacity series. The deadline set for this was 2007.
 Current status-50% complete.
 Revised deadline-dec 2011
 Original cost of Project-Rs 100 cr
 Revised cost -Rs 300 cr

 The reason? The same old Indian problem, Slums. Relocation of slums for the project was stuck in the high court, until state govt. used one of the old laws to forcibily move them. Their demand? they wanted a 450 sq. feet home instead of the 300 sq feet home being provided to them. The ground reality is that these people are currently staying in less than 100 sq feet shanty. How ironic it is, when these people even dare to keep such demands.

  It is said , making a home in the city of Mumbai is a dream achieved by a lucky few, I say, it is achieved by those acting smartly.Modus operandi is very simple. To make a house in mumbai, all you need is an investment of Rs 10000 and lots of patience. Make a shanty on one of the govt land and wait till govt plans a project on that land. Now you are a citizen of the city and cannot be just thrown away for a 'petty' project. The govt promises to rehabilitate you to a "better place" to live in. If you are a bit ambitious and daring, you challange the govt and demand for a bigger place to live in. It won't make any difference to you because the govt will be using the tax payers money to move you to a "better place", so why not try your luck in bargain. Till the time you get a "better place" to live in , you easily use the open spaces for daily chores like washing and bathing among other things, the govt will take care of the cleaning from the tax payers money. You can also freely watch your favorite TV program , all you have to do is put a plug into the wire going to one of the "permanent home" nearby your acquired home and get the electicity for free of cost, so what if the poor tax payer is footing your bill without him knowing the good deed he is commiting.

One can be easily mistaken, if they think that people who are "poor" tarnish the image of this nation. When the CWG OC can purchase $89 toilet paper rolls and rent a treadmill at Rs 100000, all again from tax payers money, then it is grossly unfair to give all the credit of discrediting the tax payers to "poor" people alone. It is also heart warming to see that the CWG OC, politicians and the "poor" people have a lot of competition from the corporate world. When a certain famous contruction company supposedly quotes an escalated cost of Rs 1600 cr for a sea link made just at Rs 600 cr, it is unfair to leave them out.


 So this is the story of the great Indian stealing circus. I really hope, the girl whom I supposedly corrected, is not cursing me, seeing the state of the CWG and the IPL expose.

I think its time to coin a new statement for the social status of India

"The rich gets richer, the poor gets richer, and the middle class gets poorer"




       

Love for Friend,friend for love.........

           First Sunday of every August is celebrated as World Friendship day, and here it is, the first Sunday of august. The site in any gathering of friends tomorrow will be similar. Friends will be tying friendship bands to each other, sobbing, hugging and laughing aloud together. Although some may say that friendship doesn’t need one particular day to be celebrated, it is something which should be celebrated every day and every moment, true, but none of these arguments can take out the enthusiasm out of that one day, where we find more reasons than one to celebrate the togetherness.

          I have always been blessed with great friends wherever I have been (including the kinds who screw you at every given opportunity in sight). But I have shared a very strange relation with one friend. A relation, which I find it hard to describe in words.

         “I love you for this abhi”. She had said when I had resolved her issue with a common friend who had turned a jilted lover. That was a start of this strange relationship. She is a year older to me and one of the most chilled out girl I ever met. Although amazingly beautiful, I always saw a great fun buddy in her. It was not these lines that changed it all, it was the way she poured her heart out to me when she wanted to get rid of the mess. I came to know her better and knew that there was more to her than just being a fun buddy. I developed a feeling, which I knew was not love, because I had been in love and knew this was not love, but still this feeling kept dragging me towards her. We had a lot in common and shared same ideas about a lot of things and we often joked that we would make a great couple if we get married. Every time such a discussion happened, my heart raced and I found asking myself about this strange bond and attraction that I have for her. And deep down in my heart I knew we would make an amazing couple and knew that we would be happy together, but the feelings which lead to this conclusion were simply unclear to me.

        “Abhi” she said in a soft but a very disappointed voice
        “what?” I said, alarmed at how a usually cheerful girl was so dull
        “That guy screwed up my life, he really played out a jilted lover’s role” she said referring to the common friend who was smitten by her. “He called up my place and told all bullshit about me to my parents , although they didn’t trust him, but this has lead to hastening of marriage proposals and as a matter of fact I am being married off to a guy 8 yrs older to me living and working in a small city”.

       “What!!!!!!!!!” I repeated the same statement again with much more intensity than last time. “that damned guy is 8 yrs older to you dear, and for god’s sake you are an MBA, and he works and lives in a small city and I am pretty sure that his salary might be only half as yours”. I said, trying to sound as rational as I could.

      “I can’t do anything now, my parents are hell bent, and you know they really liked you……” she said laughing and crying at the same time.

     “Then I’ ll marry you” I said in ‘I-mean-it’ tone

      “Too late, you will take 4 more years to marry me and my parents just want it right away “



            After she hung up, I could not draw any sleep, I did not know why I said that I ll marry her, was it actually love? Was this the way love felt like? I closed my eyes and left everything that was running in my mind. I wanted to feel lighter, free from all the thoughts. I felt afloat in the nothingness and then it struck me.

           All my confusion in the last few cleared in that one moment. Was it love? Yes it was. Was it friendship? Yes it was. She was a friend for love. It was not a lover’s love, it was a love you have for a person you always want to see happy even if you have to take the world on. When I said I will marry you, I said that because I was unable to see her pain, I could not see her life getting ruined and I knew, I may not love her like a lover does, but I could keep her happy. The feeling which I could not decipher in months was clear to me now. It was love indeed, and she was the friend I loved, beyond myself and beyond anything. And she was a friend indeed.


                She will be married in a few months and all I still hope and pray for  is that she finds some happiness in the disaster which awaits her.

                                Love you my friend




               

Used and Thrown?

    "  Help a girl when she is in trouble and she will remember you.............................

         When she is in trouble again"

These are the messages and emails which always float around mostly within boys and sometimes as a rareity within girls as well. One Email along with this message which comes to my mind is the one which classifies boys in the scheme of things of girls, like friend , best friend and bestest friend and so on so forth, But never a boy friend(mind you!!!!!) and advices boys to switch from best friend to boy friend.

    So after much deliberation and personal experience(yes as always) I decided to analyze why boys do it? 

      Lets take a very simple example to this effect, Boy likes a girl who is( with or without his knowledge) already committed ......

SCENE I

     Boy- "Hey nisha coming out for a movie, its been a long time"

     Girl- "No, Rahul today after a long time swapnil has agreed to come out for a hindi movie with me, Just imagine(exclaiming)"

     Boy-"No issues"(Sorely disappointed)

SCENE II

     Boy-"Hey Nisha stop crying, c'mon I can't see you cry, its not worth spending your tears on a moron like swapnil , you deserve someone better"

   

     Girl-"You are right, he is such a moron, I am wasting my time with him"

                                                 .........

                                                   .....

                                                    ..

                                                     .

     Girl-"I really wish Rahul that my BF was like you"

                                                    .....

               After 'N' such conversations and praises for Rahul by Nisha which makes rahul go on cloud nine, one fine day( which usually happens to be in a day or two of Nisha's so called break up)

     Girl-"Hey Rahul guess what"

     Boy-" What!!!!!!!!"( thinking he is in for a proposal)

     Girl-"Swapnil is not a bad guy after all, you know he sent me a sorry card and a bouquet"

      Boy-"Yeah"( In as low a voice as possible)

     Girl-"In fact I think he still the sweet heart I loved, thank you Rahul for all the support you gave, I will always remember that!!!!"

   The boy hangs up the phone assuming that the girl will always remember his good deeds and the girl hangs up the phone knowing that she will have the boy when she is going through a bad phase.

               Now all those guys reading the blog might agree in unison and all the girls reading this may label me as anti-feminine, but don't jump to conclusions like rahul did in my story about being proposed. As an epilogue to my story the girl keeps on calling the guy with similar problems and apparently only when she is in trouble and after sometime the guy gets pissed and moves on or blasts out his feelings at the girl leaving the 'poor' girl to believe that all men are pigs and opportunists.

              So lets start with the analysis. Boys first(for a change). The boy has every reason to believe that he was used, but does he ever think why he was used? And does ever bother to think that he may not have been actually used? Having feelings for a committed girl and then even nurturing thoughts that he may actually stand a chance of relationship with a girl is like a wild goose chase. The goose may come right within your grasp and then slip away from right under your nose. He will give all the suggestions,mercy and shoulder to cry to a girl when she is in trouble and when she is out of it he expects the girl to be the same cry baby and always use his shoulder. In short he always wants the girl to be in trouble so that she comes to him crying always. My suggestion to all such boys, avoid any such notion and expectations and you will be saved of lot of heart break.

            Now about the girls. If the guy in question is to be blamed, girls can't go empty handed can they? It will be so unfair if that were to happen! If anyone were to say that the girl is unaware of the guys feeling for her then I will disagree with those people hands down.She knows he will be their for her when she needs him because she knows he likes her. Meddling with the fire that cooks may lead to burning of hands. The girl has two options, Don't use the help of a person who likes you, especially emotional help or else if you are using his help then don't drop the help machine once it has been used. Keep using this machine or it will catch rust and would be useless for use next time.

                Last word to all the rahuls out their, Don't chase a wild goose and rather become a wild goose or else a Brahmachari, and to all those Nisha, Their are people beyond swapnil and in life whom you need to look after,or stop using any help.

                             

To be or not to be-On bench

Bench-A piece of furniture, which mostly offers several persons seating


In our life, all of us must have sat on bench, I am no exception to that. I have had an interesting relationship with bench. When i was in kindergarten, i hated being tied up mentally on bench by the stick our teacher used to carry. This hatred carried on till the day i got my 1st punishment,kneeling down for 30 whole minutes made me realize the importance of bench, how people were cozily sitting on bench and teasing me in whatever way they can.This punishment which i got in 1st std started my love for bench,because i never stopped getting punished and my love for bench just went on increasing day by day. Add to this those boring assemblies,where we had to slog it out in scorching sun and chilling wind.Bench was the comforting factor then.




                                     This love for bench stopped abruptly when i entered engineering. All over again after my kindergarten i hated being tied up on bench,this time with the fear of attendance shortage or some scheming profs who were hell bent on cutting your term marks on every single % shortage in attendance.I used to think of ways to get punished(after signing attendance sheet), which no longer meant being on knees,rather it was more like go out of class.These acts of mine reached a crescendo in final year when i along with my friends virtually became an expert at it. Finally i was done with engineering,i sat comfortably at home(mind you on a sofa and a bed and never on bench) and then i joined an IT company..........




                                     In an IT company the wikipedia definition i gave above doesnt hold true officially but unofficially it means the same.Bench is a state of a person who gets the same salary as others on project but for doing nothing. Now how people perceive this "doing nothing",is a different question altogether. With gleaming eyes  I got trained for Java  and the day my training got over i geared up for projects, but to my surprise despite recession being done with, i could not get my hands on any project. And hence i was transferred to "bench" , now this bench was a lot different from what i have been on, here i got an internet connection , a nice cozy chair and a landline to fiddle with. Suddenly i started enjoying bench all over again, no work, no time constraints and loads of parties. This went for a month, people started getting projects and my frustration on not getting project started increasing, and one fine day i got a call for project....


   "Am i speaking to Abhishek" interviewer asked 
   "yeah" i replied
    "Hi this is Anup from XYZ project, is it the right time to take your interview?"
    "yeah absolutely" i said almost shouting with excitement
    "Tell me something about yourself Abhishek"
     "Ok I have done my engineering from LT college and trained in JAVA, and currently on bench" i said
     "Did you just say bench? Look Abhishek, bench is not the right word, you are just a part of inter project talent pool, you are undergoing trainings in advanced java right? So how can you call it bench?" He said in a lecturing tone
     "Yeah Anup you are right" i said in a low voice




    Two days after the call i got into the project and my period on bench was over, finally my frustration was over, i was doing something now, i had a project team, a team i could call my own, but with this team of my own, came the perils. The work load, the release date fears and many other things.And now while i am writing this blog i wonder if in my life of almost 23 years, i love this bench or i hate it? Enough reasons for me to love it and enough for me to hate it. I guess as the saying goes, you can love it or hate it,but cannot ignore it.





                

Education for all

As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams, so long must we take this examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment was contrived, much so-called education would disappear, and no one would be a penny the stupider. 
- E. M. Forster 



This is quote given by Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970),  he was an English novelist, short story writer and essayist. 


  The quote obviously meant that by learning a person can connect to earning, but it seems a century after this quote was given the meaning has changed entirely. What it means now? Isn't that the question that arises in your mind? Of late I just love keeping suspenses, so wait for two minutes( that i hope is the time you take to read this blog, not doubting your reading skills!).




        Lets go back into time to year 2005, month July. I had blown up on common entrance test big time, before the CET, Dad warned me to work for engineering and i ended up preparing for medical, result, Medical CET- Good but not good enough for admission, Engineering CET-Bad, but still good enough for me to get an admission. So here i was, standing in a newly built college, standing in a hope of getting admission at least here!. Forms filled, armed with a folder full of certificates and mark sheets I waited. And bingo, I got a call on by the clerk to meet the principal of the college, Excited i went in.....




  "Sit down son" , principal said in a soft spoken voice.
  "Thank you, these are my mark sheets sir" ,i said, as politely as possible for me.
 "As I see it, your marks are not too great......
  "yeah i prepared for medical sir", i cut in before he could complete
  "That shouldn't matter to me,because this is an engineering college" he said in a little stern voice
  "Thats true" i said nodding in agreement
  "The marks you have secured, are not enough to fetch you admission in this college" he said
  "oh, My PCM marks are good sir, that can be considered, please" i said in a pleading tone
  "Thats true, I can consider you , but along with PCM marks you have to make certain contributions" he said
  "I am not sure if i get you" i said with a quizzical look on my face
   "The college is newly built and needs contribution from its students to develop further, and hence your help is neeeded" he said in a soft reassuring voice
   


             I headed back home and wondered if he indeed was the principal or the marketing department head for the college. I didn't take admission in that college anyway. And this brings us to the biggest known unsaid thing in this country about the education system, the donation.


            We always take it for granted as part of our education system, but never really bother to know what are the reasons for it and what can be the consequences. The professional education is going for a toss in our country. India is an assembly factory for engineers yet the number of colleges are not sufficient. Every year country puts out around 3 lac+ engineering students, but is this number enough in country of more than 1 billion? and out of this 3 lac figure, how many are from quality colleges? very few!. So lets see it from a student's point of view. If a student is only little about average, he can forget about his dreams for a technical degree, If he is fairly good, he can think of some nondescript college, and only if he is very good, that he can think of good colleges. And not to mention that only geniuses can get into IIT. Their is one more way around, he can have any quality of brain but his dad's pocket must be full of money, the money can always compensate for the lack of brain. In all this, it would be foolish of me to even start writing about medical education. One has to be a genius or a millionaire to study medicine. This great country of India doesn't need doctors. We all believe in god and he is the true healer, isn't it Mr. Education minister?


         Why does this happen? Why is IIT reserved for geniuses, why cant we have IIT like quality education for non-geniuses? Why is there only one AIIMS with just 50 seats in a country of 1 billion people. If at all the budget for education was even 10% of the defense budget, we would have had 5 IIT's in every city. In the good 'ol  British times, it was said that technical and professional education is only for the elite, however Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru said, In a free India education is for all. However it looks like as times pass, governments are getting Nostalgic about the old British times. Otherwise how would you explain the 5-10 times jump in the fees for engineering and medical college in last 7 years? The organisation controlling the fee structure is appointed by the government.


        Questions are many answers are none. Better we start asking them, otherwise my and your children would not be even able to think of a technical education. But before i sign off, i will answer one question, i am sure you don't remember the question, i remember my promise to explain the current context of the quote,


"as long as learning is connected to earning "by colleges",as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams"given in colleges".so long must we take this examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment was contrived, much so-called education "in colleges" would disappear, and "colleges" would be a penny the stupider."