iMuse-2

An excellent Tabla concert. The audience in raptures of applause and the artist overjoyed at the praise for his performance. His emotions flow out in the form of words which apparently to his surprise and disappointment is met with loud boos. His mistake apparently was not his choice of words but the language he sought to express them in.

The Union of India when it was formed about 60 years back was born with an expiry date. Most external observers were of the opinion that a country with more than 20 different languages and seemingly a million cultures would never stand the test of time. It was Utopian-the idea of integrating so many different people into a single nation. Nevertheless India is today a nation to be reckoned with-having overcome every single threat aimed at its unity and sovereignty. But if there ever was one single reason that could be pointed out for the unexpected success of our nation, it has to be the idea of division of states by linguistic boundaries.

Language is easily the best unifying force among people reasons easily found- Language being the medium for the establishment and growth of civilization and again for cultural and scientific advancement. People who grow up reading the same literature, hearing the same songs and stories will obviously grow up with similar aspirations and outlook on life. This can probably explain why most Chinese, Bengalis and half of Kerala are followers of the Communist ideology. It is also a good explanation for the presence of regional associations in our college. Love 'em or hate 'em they are going to be a part of our college landscape for as long as we have people with Malayalam, Bengali or Punjabi as their mother-tongue. No amount of the "all of us are Indians, we should all be speaking Hindi and shun Asso-s" rhetoric is going to stop people joining Associations either. What can be done is to increase the tolerance level of people to other new cultures. A healthy respect for the language, tradition and culture of others is the need of the hour and these are possible only when you understand and respect the greatness of your own roots.

English and Hindi -for me atleast- are languages of convenience, the ones I use to communicate with people of a different mother-tongue. I take pity to the people who choose these over their mother-tongue in the delusion of imagined coolness. Know yourself before you get on to the merry-go-round of the latest iteration of what's up( wats up, wassup, ssup, wattup).I am quite happy when called a mallu, even if it was in contempt, they chose to identify me with what I speak than how I look or my social standing. They, probably in their ignorance identified me with a language , a literary tradition and intellectual worth probably much greater than his/her own. I cant figure out why some Gujaratis become uncomfortable and insecure with the tag of a gujju. The prejudices of the ignorant are not enough to drown out the richness of your culture.

The tabla concert was part of Mindbend. The maestro's over joyous heart poured out in Gujarati,the language dearest to him only to be met with loud boos and shouts of "Hindi,Hindi no gujju" from a rogue crowd of wannabe punks and first years impatient to try out their newfound freedom and advertise their hum-zyada-harami-hain status to the college. The graceful thing to do would have been to ask for an explanation from him after he had finished off in Gujarati. The artist recovering from the shock went on to speak in Hindi thereafter and the punks clapped in glee at their imagined victory. I hung my head in shame.

Editorial for Renesa

The last few weeks saw one of the best Mindbend that has been held in the college in recent history . There were loads of reasons for it not to turn out good- an extended holiday, the successful attempt at scuttling the rock show by some insecure representatives and general fatigue after a string of technical events. Yet it turned out to be a hit and how! The robotics show drew a great crowd and the workshops and lectures were excellent. The cultural nights were well organized and well received. Sparsh will have a lot to live upto but with big names like Mohit Chauhan and Gaurav Dagaonkar set to perform, it probably will be one Sparsh that'll be remembered for long.

In other news the TEQIP audit conducted recently concluded ( in line with the trend set by our representatives) that our institute deserves a high 9.2 which puts us in the league of the top 3 NITs. The college mail-ids are fully operational which is again good news although one does fervently hope that the Administrators put in a good Spam filter going by the number of “look at my pictures” mailers cluttering up the inbox. The Director has also been busying himself with sending us pictures of all the new hostels coming up but again one wishes every time that one of those pictures is the elevation of the Convocation hall that has been pending for long and is one of the more pressing needs of an institute of our stature. Its farewell season and it is time to yet again bid adieu to a wonderful batch passing through the hallowed portals of our institute. We have dedicated the whole center fold to the passing out batch. It is also time for a change of hands at Renesa and we hope the infusion of new blood will keep the spirit of Renesa burning bright and maybe even lead to a change for the better.

Inspite of all this, the year that went by will certainly not be remembered in any glowing terms. Rather it will be known as the year when the activities of the whole college was held hostage in the name of a petty scuffle, the year when meritocracy in leadership attained dubious distinction. The experiment as it is now being called is underway to find whether a committee of grade curve worshipers can actually run a college for a year without all the so called politics and its fallouts. Autocracy has found the sheepskin it was waiting for all along.

The issue here is not whether the experiment does really turn out to be successful. Maybe it will, most probably not. The issue here is whether all of this is good for the institute. Colleges have traditionally been bastions of free thought and free speech, places where rebellious young men and women cry out hoarse over every injustice,seeding grounds for the basic lessons of civil society and democracy. But when such measures as the setting up of a non representative student council are taken and attempts at censorship are made the question begs to asked? Is the college losing its spirit in its race towards technical excellence? Is there no room for personal freedoms in the pursuit of higher TEQIP ratings? Are kitsch new labs and mega hostels the only criteria for the growth of the institute?

SVNIT is an institute of young adults and one of the basic needs of every such individual is freedom- the freedom to choose what is good for him or her. A petty fight is never a reason enough for the democratic rights of a whole institution to be revoked. The decision not to trust the students to manage themselves was not necessarily the cleverest solution to the problem that was at hand. Nobody likes somebody else to make decisions for them and hence a democratic system. History has proven that autocracy has never been an ideal form of governance. All that it has ever led to is discontentment and violent revolutions.

Now is the time to decide whether we decide to label ourselves as an institute of higher learning or restrict ourselves to the rather narrow definition of a technical institute. Do we graduate as politically naive, submissive technical hands manning the back offices of first world nations or do we graduate as free thinking, creative and liberal minded citizens of the free world? Choose now, Choose wisely.

Adieu !

Kaun Hai Dumb???