Country roads, take me home

 

I was extremely disturbed with the visuals that were shown on television over the past few weeks related to Jadavpur University. 

I was once an outsider in the hallowed corridors of Calcutta Girls’ High School. I remember the demographical shift when I walked through the maroon gates in 1992. The beginning was horrendous. My preparatory report card had a ‘Needs improvement’ next to English. People who know me now will laugh their hearts out, but yes some beginnings were such. 

My mother has kept that report card as a prized possession. Baba often reminds me of that report card when he hears Pink Floyd playing in my room, late at night. All in good humour. 

For many of my us who resided and studied in Howrah, an English medium education was a dream. However, one of pet peeves from childhood was people in school asking me - ‘Oh you hail from Howrah?’ and then the snigger. It was almost like - Oh you live on the other side of the bridge and that bridge is a chasm. Discrimination at its best. 

An incident which I vividly remember from school was a teacher pointedly asking me in a classroom of 50 other students - ‘Do you hail from a slum. Your father cannot buy a practical notebook for you?’ Imagine this being said in an elite school of Kolkata. Institutional harassment, anyone? 

The context was that my father, who held a very senior post in Eastern Railway couldn’t find time to buy the hard bound practical notebook specified by the school. I returned home & narrated this story to my grandmother, who told me how hard people living in slums work just to buy food. I had learnt my lesson on inclusion that day, aged 14. 

When we speak about inequality, I learnt from an early age that equality was only a  word thrown around in conversations. One of my favourite teachers in school once told me that in India we are often not taught to lose. In a country of crores, where every job has thousands of applicants, losing is not even an option for people who hail from economically underprivileged backgrounds. That in itself is harmful in the larger scheme of things.

In my four years of studying mechanical engineering I had often come across incidents of suicides in the campus. The  fact that victims at the receiving end of the torture, are mostly from economically underprivileged backgrounds, made me wonder how most of them survive the three or four years of graduation. There are no therapists to help through sleep deprivation and trauma, along with dealing with the pressure of studies. 

Most students from the interiors of Bengal aren’t able to afford living as paying guests, which costs almost Rs 5,000 a month in around Jadavpur. That’s why there’s always a high demand for hostels and perhaps also the reason why most students choose not to complain. Its either a choice between continuing your studies or dropping out. 

Whom can you blame for this mayhem? The institution? I certainly would. I would also blame every single person asking for police intervention inside the campus, because its not the police but counsellors that these universities need. Teach every student to lose gracefully.  Teach them that empathy is a part of the culture, wherever you go. Teach them to treat success and failure with dignity. Because at the end of the day, the number of zeroes in your pay-check can only buy you a posh apartment, a super expensive car, and the latest gadget. It cannot buy you love & happiness. 

To all those abusing the Leftist political unions remember there was a certain Gaurav Singh of Benaras Hindu University, who was shot dead by four boys on motorbikes in front of the campus hostel in 2019. Where were your Hindutva CCTV lenses? Lost in the transition to saffron? 

I am certainly not in favour of any form of ragging, or mental or physical abuse, but it is a recurring issue in most engineering institutions around the country and almost all institutions has fallen short when it has come to tackling this menace. 

If ragging is to be talked about, then the IITs are shining lights. According to the information given to the parliament, an average of 98 people commit suicide from these 'center of excellence' institutions of the country. Most caste abuse is tolerated. A student of Kharagpur IIT committed suicide a few days ago. No one dared to utter a word. Media houses will go crazy if Sundar Pichai's former organization is questioned. The access to capital that IIT has is enough to topple any government. And, of course where will we be without google? Pixelated vision, anyone? 

Do these media houses even have an inkling to how many students have committed suicide due to ragging, abuse by professors and caste discrimination in the rest of the country's universities including IITs in these fifty years and what steps has been taken? 

And finally, a special note to a certain lady anchor of a regional media house - I have never insulted a human being for her intellectual abilities or the lack of it or her alma mater. I will not do that in future. I understand the struggle it takes for a girl from Singur to be the face of a prime-time show watched by thousands in Bengal. I have also been alerted to a post about how certain students consume liquor inside campus premises to save the money of pubs & OYO rooms. My only answer to you is - not everyone is as lucky as you to be able to sit in pubs day in day out. As for OYO, I wish you knew a little more about a business. Get out of that psuedo elitist mentality, because it stinks more than the open dustbins in front of your alma mater. 

Ps - I am not a JU alumnus. In fact, I was among those who didn’t pass the entrance test