Yaadein: Semester 2 (JU)

For me, the second semester was possibly the least eventful semester in JU. Regarding the classes, there were two teachers most of the students immensely disliked- the electronics teacher Tapati Ganguly (TG) and the Programming teacher Abhijit Kar (AK). The first one was disliked because of her horrible teaching and strict attitude like a school teacher -like she used to ask questions everyday, while the second one was disliked because of his supercilious and arrogant attitude. While I had no issues with AK, I disliked TG thoroughly.

One real ordeal was the mass-bunking of TG's classes. Most teachers did not mind a mass-bunk once in a while, but TG not only reported every bunk to the CSA office, but actually went around the building to capture the fugitives. These fugitives mostly hung around the architecture lab and the corridors, and TG would walk up to these places looking for them. If she caught anyone, she would first reprimand him and then assign him the task of finding the others and asking them to surrender :-D. Another comic situation arose when she had caught Aveek writing a love-poem in class, and had even read it out to the class!!!!

Though the semester by itself had been rather short and eventless, there was a huge and long-lasting event at the end of it. This was the "Boycott of the Semester Examinations" by the student's council in protest against the suspension of 4 students who were found guilty of unruly behaviour during some protest held some 2 years in the past. Most of us, including myself, opposed participation in this Boycott, since we had no idea where the students were guilty or not- the incident had happened long before our admission to JU. Besides, we thought that boycotting the semester exam is hardly a sane and logical way of protesting. Nevertheless, we had to participate in the boycott as no one wanted animosity with the seniors/union leaders. It was really boring- we had to study and come prepared on all 6 exam days only to find huge crowds of students crowding in front of the department. We would stand there and chat for an hour or two before dispersing. 

None of the exams were held at the scheduled time, and were postponed to june. But just before they could start, the 4 suspended students went on hunger-strike. As a result, again the exams were boycotted. But this time, 4 days into the hunger strike, on the night of 10 june, a huge police force in battle fatigues swooped on the strikers and rounded them up after a massive "lathicharge". Many were injured. Though this ended the hunger-strike, the university authorities came under severe criticism from all quarters for the use of force. They finally decided to set up a review commitee to review the roles of the suspended students, and set up new examination dates, which were finally followed.

A lot of articles were published in the newspapers regarding the boycott. Many people heaped lavish praise on the participating students for throwing themselves behind the 4 students even "putting their own careers in jeopardy". The ultra-left union of JU hailed the "historic protest". Cynics suggested that the students of the current generation rise in protest only when their own interest are affected, and are otherwise aloof about the society unlike the students of the 70s. I had never really supported the movement, and found all these comments weird. I do not know the truth, but I feel that the Union called for the boycott because they were sure that the authorities would not take any action on the boycotters and arrange for an alternate date. And it was hardly spontaneous, most people participated just by following the mass. Most students had no reason to boycott as they had no idea whether the accused students were guilty or not; indeed if they were not guilty, why and how would the probing commitee single them out?  And semester boycott is an extermely illogical way to protest. With due respect to all, I still feel that the boycott was largely a gimmick.

Yaadein: semester 1 (JU)

The first semster of Jadavpur University started in July 2004. The first experience of college life. 8 students were joining the Computer Science department from my school. Of them Sayan and Arpan had my good friends for the past two years, and i also had speaking terms with Aveek,Dripto,Dhrubo and Debarshi. Apart from them, there was Haimasree, whom I was not acquainted to in school. In the initial days, during the ragging and settling-in period, the first seven people from the school stuck together though Haimasree, somewhat to the surprise of us, would hang around with a different group. Our temporary group had marked diversity- Arpan mostly talked with us and the seniors about career plans, GRE and CAT, Sayan talked about combinatorics problems and plans to go to US for phd, Debarshi talked about football (Euro Cup had just ended) and English movies, Dripto and Aveek talked mostly about the girls in the senior batch and Dhrubo....well forget it :-P.

One of the earliest memories in this semester were the games of cards. Debarshi, Dhrubo and Dripto were into cards before joining college. In the first few weeks, classes were few and far between, so to kill time, I also joined them. Arpan was furious at the irregularity of classes, but even he joined sometimes. We played "Call Bray" and "Hearts" in the classroom sitting on the desks, or in the A-C canteen, over coffee and egg chops.

The classroom ragging by seniors had happenned for the first 4 days, and I was the biggest victim in the class. However this ragging was only verbal, and nothing objectionable had happened. However I had heard horror stories of ragging in CET canteen from Aveek and on the central playground from Chiradeep. They used to narrate the stories with great enthusiasm, as though they wanted to face such experiences. But I felt scared. For the first 2-3 months, I never walked in front of CET canteen. We had a class in the Mechanical Engineering department beyond the playground, and I felt scared to go there. On thursdays we had Drawing class and had to carry the "T" on the shoulder. This "weapon" would give me some sense of security :-D.

Dripto's fascination for the girls in the senior batch, and his open flirtation with them had become a hot gossip in the class. Everyone from Karati to Arpan was talking about it. That was fine, but Dripto often kept on asking how I felt about different girls. I felt quite awkward when asked such questions, but Dripto insisted. Taking a walk in the campus with Dripto in those days was a real ordeal for me. Whenever a girl walked past he would ask me how I felt about her :-D.

The Freshers' Welcome was to be held in september. The freshers were supposed to perform- drama, music, dance, instrument or whatever. Dhrubo had prepared a drama which he thought, would please the raunchy-minded seniors. Most of us thought it would only provoke more ragging. The theme and dialogue of the drama were enough to scare away the innocent guys Souri and Swagato. I was offered the lead role in the drama. I was reluctant, and considered staying away from college on the day of the Freshers' Welcome, but Dripto convinced me that it would result in a much worse ragging on the following day. So thus I was persuaded into acting. We rehearsed for several days. I always had a thing for acting, and transcending my initial hesitation, got into the role. My acting drew arousing appreciation from the other dramatists and viewers. But on the D-day, the seniors were not impressed with the drama. They did not appreciate the over-raunchy theme, and stopped the play midway, much to the disappointment of Dhrubo and ... well, even myself :-P.

Apart from the theoretical classes held in the classroom, we had practical classes, called "Sessional" in the terminology of JU. In this semester, there were 4 sessionals: physics lab, drawing, workshop and technical arts. Almost everyone complained that these were completely irrelevant to Computer Science and engineering. But for me, the worst part was that the class was divided into two groups- A1 and A2. Most of my friends and acquaintances were in the A2 group, while I, by virtue of my advanced rank in the entrance exam, was in A1. I found myself clubbed with Satyajit, Sourav, Arijit Khan, Rajdeep, Biswanath- most of whom came from suburban areas, and initially I had a bit of problem synchronising with them, having studied in a posh urban school for 15 years. These sessional classes of the first semester were quite boring for me- not only because the work was boring, but also because I could not connect with the company that well.

Personally, the first semester of JU was memorable because of the great change associated with it. For the past two years there was endless pressure to study, and now all the pressue had disappeared so suddenly that I was quite confused what to do...how to adopt myself to the changed situation. I thought I would forget about the change and study by myself, but what to study?? I tried studying physics- the Feynman Lectures of Physics, but soon discovered that I was not really being able to commit myself into it, and was just wasting time- neither studying nor enjoying.

On looking back casually towards this semester, the first things that come to mind are the peculiar odour of machine lubricants in the technical arts lab, the games of cards in the AC canteen, the songs "saanso ko saanso me dhalne do zara" (Hum Tum) and "dhoom macha le" (Dhoom) which played all the time over the new FM channels, the hubbub of the freshers' welcome, the times spent with Sayan, Arpan and Dripto, and the confusion- to study or to enjoy...and if to study, then what????

"Yaadein" series

Ever since leaving school in 2004, I have spent 12 semesters of college life in 2004-2010. First 8 were in Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and the next 4 in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Each semester is associated with many memories... some good, some bad and some neutral. In my present life, somewhat uneventful and lonely, i often delve back into the past, and re-visit those memories....and try to re-live those days. A peculiar psychology of the human mind is that, while reminiscing, even the bad times seem to be nice. In the next 11 posts, I will try to paint this collage of memories. There will be one post for each semester, with the exception of the 8th semester of JU, for which there will be no post.

Do we really need politicians and political parties for democracy in India?

A lot is said about the gross corruption of politicians in india. It will be agreed by most people that most politicians in india today come to politics just for power and/or money, rather than any particular ideology. A large section of common people are angry with politicians, and even look upon them as enemies of the country. Others argue that it is unfair to blame the politicians alone for the rampant corruption in the country, the common people also have played a role in it.

Recently, there were elections in four states of india-tamilnadu,kerala,west bengal and assam. While the congress held on to power in assam and narrowly won in kerala, in West Bengal the TMC-Congress combine routed the 34-yr Left Front regime, and in TN AIADMK took the incumbant DMK to the cleaners. While I am not in a position to comment about the first two results, it is the other two which seem somewhat thought-provoking to me. When the people of WB and TN voted, did they vote for TMC/AIADMK or against CPM/DMK respectively? In WB, I understand that people were fed up with the arrogant and undemocratic rule of the CPM-led front for 34 long years, and wanted a change. I doubt they consider Mamata to be a good administrator, but they voted her because she was the main anti-Left campaigner for many many years. But in TN, Jaya and Karuna come to power in alternate terms. Both of them have had lots of corruption charges against them. This time, top DMK leaders like Kanimozhi and A. Raja were accused of corruption in the 2G spectrum case. Because of this, there was an anti-DMK wave and Jaya came to power. But she herself is no better, and had lost earlier for the same reason-corruption!! Then did the people really vote her because she was a better alternative? Or is it because she was the only alternative??

This actually raises a fundamental question- are there enough alternative political forces in India? A large section of the people are disillusioned with the current political system. While there can be no doubt that a multi-party/multi-view parliamentary democracy is the best form of government seen so far, is it really working meaningfully in india? If a disillusioned voter is to be  brought back to a polling booth, (s)he should have enough options to choose from. In practice, in every election there are two main camps, and parties/leaders switch frequently from one camp to another. In WB, TMC once goes with BJP, once with congress. In TN, AIADMK and DMK keep switching between NDA and UPA. In elections, the chief ministerial/prime ministerial candidates remain mostly the same year after year. Jaya had earlier been defeated for her corruption, but she again contests. Why should people at all be motivated to vote?

The parliamentarians/MLAs are supposed to be representatives of people. But in the current system, once they are elected, they work independant of the people for the rest of the term. There is no system of an elected member getting feedback/suggestions from the electorate, or being replaced for failure to deliver. Then, are they true representatives of people? And actually, is there at all any need for representatives of people? Is there at all a need for the concept of political parties and politicians in india? Cannot a parliamentary system function without them?

The main function of the parliament is to discuss policies of governance, and once decided, order the concerned departments to implement these policies. The discussion is suppossed to happen among the parliamentarians- the so-called representatives of the people. However, instead of having representatives, is it not possible to directly take the opinions of the countrymen on issues? With the rapid development of the Internet and social networks, it should not be impossible to obtain the viewpoints of a substantial number of people. Indeed good discussions on various matters of national interest happen on online communities in orkut or facebook. Of course, involving too many people will tend to cause confusion. So we will need a dedicated group of people to moderate the discussion, and identify the majority view. This group of people should be professionals.....just like there are IFS,IAS,IPS,IRS etc, we can have an Indian Parliamentary Service-whose job will be to conduct such discussions among the people. Any common person, irrespective of his/her social status should be able to raise a discussion thread or participate in a discussion. The service should have its own boards for management, promotions etc. And the different people will have their own views-some can be liberal, some conservative etc. Thus we will have a multi-view parliamentary democracy without a political class. Isn't it possible??