get_well_soon_daiict

In any community, there are a lot of things which are taken for granted, added and socially reinforced. These rules and social customs are always emic, and always implicit. These customs and traditions are what make the society unique in both space and time. As time passes, these customs evolve as the society assimilates and responds to stimuli, both external and internal. But one thing that almost never happens is that someone talks about these things; as if this was Fight Club.

I am about to break that rule.

I love my college, and after three years and counting, it has been the catalyst for the discovery and making of myself. And usually I would list down all that is good and happy about this beautiful little microcosm of the world, but this is not that sort of an article. This is about the logical fallacies which are glaringly obvious in DA’s control structure and the appeasement seats and attention which is paid to the student government. So here I say we can do better and I am going to speak so that the students may know about the issues which I believe are plaguing our institute. This is going to be a long article, so bear with me.

I remember. I remember a time when the internet speed was enough, of a time when youtube videos, irrespective of whether they were songs, lectures or documentaries could be streamed without pause in 480p. As we teach ourselves about scaling of systems and web applications, we learn that as the load on the system increases, it needs to be scaled up to provide more resources for the ever increasing number of clients, or else it crashes. As of the publishing date of the article, the net speed has increased and seems sufficient, but it is worth mentioning that there was quite a long period of time in our institution- dedicated to Information and Communication technology -when the speed was such that even 144p streaming took time buffering on YouTube.

Recently, some student was caught in the act of pilfering of pirated material off of the internet; most probably through p2p seeding. As a result, there were chances of the Institute being blacklisted by the ISP, which would have been a disaster. The institute has and did protect the perpetrator from legal action and imposed a collective data transfer limit of 2GB per day per person with no downloading of files of size more than 500mb.

Now I understand the need and to be honest, accept, that something needs to be done to prevent copyright infringement suits and keep the internet in its native state, free. But the solution is not a limited but blanket ban; sadly one which has been imposed. The main problem with the limit aside from the concept lies in the upper limit and file size limit. Various OSes, their updates, installation of new mods and softwares was rendered nigh impossible due to the 500 mb file limit. There was a recourse though, if we want to download a bigger file, we go to the helpdesk in the Labs and ask them to do it for you. Now this seems alright, but for each and every update, especially with the upcoming windows 10, new softwares, etc. it seemed as though it was just a sham, to go all the way to the Lab every time you want to download something bigger than 500mb, which in today’s date is a lot of things. Even an album of DSLR photos reaches gigabytes of size. This has been exchanged for a new compromise of rules which have been imposed. They have (thankfully) increased the download limit to 10GB per day, upload limit to 2GB per day and no file size limit. This does not in any way solve the problem, but just makes the deal of accepting policing just a bit sweeter, kind of like appeasement.

Aside from the burden on the Internet, there is a marked increase in the stress on the DA infrastructure. The results were especially visible during the time preceding the first In-Sem examination when there was hardly any space to sit in the RC to study. The RC has a seating capacity of around 260 as mentioned on the Information Board over the issuing counter, though I’m sure they’ve increased it as much as possible. But with around 1143[1] students from BTech alone, it led to a lot of people not going to the RC because of the crowding. Another place where the effect is starting to show is the SAC. With the decision that the SAC will be closed after 11 pm, the situation is such that now there is hardly any place for the DAIICT Badminton team, let alone general student community, which has resulted in students having to resort to play in the streets outside the cafeteria. One of the official reasons given for this decision was the wastage of electricity[2] due to keeping the SAC open. I guess the 7200/4000 Rs per room per year[3] is used up in the lighting of a room with 2 tube-lights, 1 fan, 7 plugs and the collective usage of corridor lights and the water cooler. The other one was that students have classes in the morning the next day and would miss the lectures. Because of this ban, we all now go to all the lectures.

Such rules which affect the student community severely were made without any input from the SBG and they were informed once the rules were formulated and were going to be enforced. Maybe they needed the SBG to let the students know what was going to happen.

Since we are talking about rules and their enforcing, let’s talk about some hostel rules. Our hostel rules[4] state that no member of the opposite gender may enter an HOR, unless the parents are given permission to enter by the Warden.

We all know this is not true.

In our college, there has been a rule for parents not being allowed in our hostels, that no one from the other gender should be allowed in, be it your mother or your sister, or father or brother. There is an exception however, where they might be able to visit if they obtain a special permission from the Warden, who I think acts as ‘in loco parentis’, to visit their own children’s rooms.

This system is quite feasible, given that no one should be able to enter your rooms because you are a rational and legally an adult person who is a part of the Indian electorate and chooses the nation’s leaders. But, in our college, unknown workers are allowed access into the hostels in response to complaints, who come in at any time they please and sometimes go into the rooms without knocking, which is a problem, especially in the Women’s HOR.

This is just one of the plethora of problems faced, one of which was recently rectified. There is now an overnight canteen in the HOR-W which is a welcome relief; now they can finally soothe their hunger after 12 pm.

With both the genders confined inside the campus after 12 o’clock at night, I really don’t see the point of the girls having to be locked up inside their hostels till it is 6 am, since the threat of going out at night has been neutralized with no one being allowed to leave.

One possible alternative to the present system, in veins of equality, is that if there is a problem of space with RC, Lab and CEP being closed we can do an alternate day arrangement. Where girls and boys each getting 15 days of the month to be allowed outside after 12, or 3 days a week each and 7th for both. The point is that if everyone from the hostels went out (highly improbable but for argument’s sake let’s say they do) at say 12.30, there would be overcrowding in the Canteen. Another more rational and to be honest, equal option is to just allow them the option to go out after 12 any time, any gender. If it is the case that parents put pressure on the college to put their own children in a lockup; as has been described by many female students, allow people who get permission to leave.

It is the availability of options, of being able to go out at night for a stroll or a midnight snack in the cafe, is something which does wonders for the psyche.

Further in the rules, there are various Trojan Horses, hiding in plain sight, taking advantage of the apathy of the subjects, just waiting to be activated.

Rule 10 of Section 2 [5] states:

“Outside the rooms, the Residents will not be dressed in a manner that would offend anyone within or outside the Complex.”

I don’t have a problem with socially acceptable clothing and most of the students, recent or soon-to-be legal adults have a pretty good idea of what to wear. But when in the rules, an absolute statement has been made, here lies a possibility of it being used to enforce oppressive rules. The use of the word ‘anyone’ in the rule frightens me, as some people might find even an otherwise acceptable knee-length shorts unacceptable which has been worn by sportspersons for many years.

Similarly, many a times, ridiculous amounts of charges have been asked as reparation[6] for the damage during the furniture inventory of the room. Ignoring the fact that furniture, having a fixed lifetime and if not replaced with new ones, is bound to break over the years due to the stress of normal use; it has been stated that we can only be charged for willful damages[7]. Though I have doubts about the methods to find out if the damages were willful or even if they exist.

I am not saying that the said oppressive rules are enforced, on the contrary our institute is quite open and relies on the students to maintain social decorum, and for the most part it is. This is something I absolutely love about my college. As is usually the case, there is a but: while such rules are not enforced, they are like a hibernating virus or a sleeper cell waiting to be called in from the cold and start wreaking havoc. Such was the case of the enforcing of private traffic rules for the DA-IICT campus.

The government of India takes a fine of 50-100 Rs for not wearing the helmet, while we have internal rules of fines quantized as 300*#passengers, 1000*#passengers and 3000*#passengers for multiple riders[8]. There is even a possibility of a hearing in front of the Disciplinary Action Committee with possible expulsion from hostel as a consequence, for not wearing a helmet several times.

In a SBG meeting a suggestion was made which wanted to increase the price of the Canteen thali by a few bucks which would improve the quality of the food. Various students then raised the point that this would create problems for students who live on a tight budget and eat the cafe thali, which was a legitimate reason and I think most of the student community will agree with this decision of rejecting this idea. Now just imagine what would happen to such student’s budgets[9] if they were caught not wearing a helmet?

Putting up such internal rules is their prerogative given that DAIICT is a private institution, though I seem to remember that it still lies under government rules and directives when it comes to assignment of TAship, admission criteria etc. Herein lies a dichotomy in the nature of our institution, something which all of us students can relate to, given that our treatment also entails a dichotomy of being treated as a student and an adult. We are the proverbial Schrodinger’s Cat. But maybe the two are unrelated and DAIICT has a dual citizenship and does come under their purview.

But what cannot be ignored is that this fine is a flat fine, irrespective of the severity of crime, be it not wearing a helmet or 3 people on a bike or whether it’s a wrong turn at the LP. The punishment does not fit the crime. It is a one size fits all, which should be the case for all the perpetrators and not all the crimes.

Sometimes, the flat punishment is so nonsensical, that it defies belief that these people who are in control of the administration don’t see the glaringly obvious holes in the logic. A master’s student[10] who lives outside and works in the CEP was accosted and charged with a fine for parking his vehicle in the parking space behind FB4, citing that it is a space reserved for faculty parking. Now, firstly that space does not have any signboards indicating that it is a space for the faculty, I checked. Secondly, even if there was one, where would the students of the HOR-W and the Clubhouse park their vehicles as the whole stretch is one continuous parking spot? In the G-Wing parking?

These questions are besides the fact that it is absolutely insane that the rules state that he has to go park his vehicle in a space much farther away from his place of work, and that too in front of the hostels where he wasn’t given a room.

On being asked if the rules are applicable to other members of the DAIICT community, Mr. Jigar Yagnik said and I quote,“I take care of only the students”[11]. One other aspect of this ridiculously extravagant rules, is the fact that admin and faculty can go and do as they please, be it parking cars anywhere on campus or driving around without helmets[12]. Maybe the faculty and administration workers’ safety is not in question since they’re all adult and responsible; after all, students are in danger only from the students’ vehicles, especially since we have such a large student population density.

I remember in my first winter when there was no hot water facility, except if you got lucky and could get water from the Solar water heaters, but with approximately 1000 students, the probability of a hot bath was miniscule. This resulted in many students foregoing baths for several days, though some were just lazy, but when in single degree temperatures and you have to take a shower in cold water, even you’d get lazy. My father on finding this out, sent a long letter to the dean and the director. We got a mail saying there would be new geysers pretty soon. Now I know that the motion to do this was already in motion and maybe even without that letter to the authorities it would have happened at the same time.

Similar is the case of a student who withdrew the admission application after looking at the condition of the hostels and sent this information along with the photos of decay and problems to the Mr. Ambani himself[13], the repairs started; though rumours are that the repairs and additions are happening due to the NAAC Accreditation. Again, maybe the repairs were scheduled and would have happened anyway.

The TV in the HOR men has been down for the past two months despite several e-mails to the hostel supervisor, through proper channels of the HMC who have confirmed that the complaints have been forwarded to the authorities[14]. The issue still hasn’t been solved, though an ‘inspection’ was made; that too only when the registrar was informed by the SBG who apparently had no idea about the TV not being in a working condition and there being such complaints. Maybe the admin would have done it anyway in this week.

But then again, maybe not.

It seems based on these and other such observations; that to get anything of substance done, the administration usually needs a ‘push’.  We students like to call it if such is the case with one of us, a swift and sure kick in the ass to get things moving and get it done.

An example of this terminal lethargy and inertia our administration is the situation of the sports’ budget acquisitions, with several back and forth trips and written applications and quotations of various sports vendors; the result of which is a delay in the acquisition of the equipment has led to the DA sports teams being forced to practice in outdated and sometimes insufficient gear, and that too with the two major sports tournaments, that of IIM-A and our Concours just weeks away. Along with this lethargy in taking any action, there was an instance of bribery and covering for themselves which is and has been rampant in most Indian bureaucratic institutions. The process of ordering equipment whose budget has already been passed is to get a lot of quotations and send them to X in the admin, who will then perform due diligence and look for other quotations with a lower price. Based on these prices, he will then make the final decision of which quotation to send in the order proposal for registrar’s approval. This process seems reasonable enough and should flow seemingly without any problems. Little did we know, that under the table things were happening. For the past two years, we have been contracting Y, who requested to be anonymous to provide for sports equipment in our college. We have procured evidence[15] which proves that Y was asked for bribes so that his quotation will be included in the order proposal, or rather ‘gifts’ which were to be delivered in proper packaging. X was confronted with the fact but even after the confrontation was over, the person in question called and kept calling Y, through various phone numbers, threatening to refuse past and present payment because apparently, even after being caught X still retains the authority to make decisions regarding the payments from the DA funds, or at least one of the authorities. Thankfully, Y was then called by a higher authority reassuring him and allaying his fears about X’s calls. Here, there is potential for students to be brought up for such charges of not wearing a helmet or making a wrong turn, or even visiting the CEP; but such serious incidents apparently go unpunished and X, as he has in the past, still apparently looks after the annual purchases of approximately 12-13 crores of which the sports budget is a paltry sum.

This is what led to Y asking for anonymity, which we have provided.

“Who Watches the Watchmen?”

I do not say that oversight is not necessary. On the contrary, I believe it is essential, especially in an institution. But it doesn’t need to be or more appropriately, shouldn’t be oppressive and suffocating. The students should be given the benefit of doubt and be allowed to use the budget allocated as they please, as long as the spending is in the course of the fulfillment and betterment of their respective clubs/committee and within limits of their allocation. I have heard various stories, some first hand, some second hand and some just passing rumours, as I’m sure you all also have; but even those from first hand, confirmed sources, seem to remind me of my father’s and grandfather’s stories about a time before privatization when all the power resided with the government bureaucracy and a permit was required for any and all things which resulted in multiple round trips and a lot of paperwork to cater to the whims of the government agents.

With one of the faculty members speaking about club and extra-curricular activities as adversely affecting academic grades[16], to the impressionable first years who come from a system where teacher’s words are taken as gospel,  such comments might lead to first years coming to form an opinion that in college, to get a job or for further studies, all you need to do is get good grades and that cultural and individual development can be put on the back burner. According to me, the whole point of coming to a so called “liberal” college is to develop yourself, which is where the club and extra curricular activity comes in because personality development usually, or rather in most cases, does not happen in classroom. It happens outside of it, whether in the hostels, in the clubs, in the experiences you go through and your reactions to situations. The probability of a thing which influences and affects our personality being academic in nature is low, but finite. As has been quoted many times in classes, it is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition. Whatever others may say, I believe that getting a job or getting through an interview depends a lot on personality as well as the technical knowledge, not just the academic knowledge which most of our courses impart.

Similar to the argument against extra-curricular activities, the already low priority given to the humanities courses are being further lowered. The reason for the existence of these courses is never explained and that is one thing which I believe should be included in the ICT for fresher’s course, since most of the people don’t get what it is let alone why they’re being taught this course. These courses have helped many a student better understand the technical things that they are taught.

All of our students have in their college life been at one time or the other treated as a child and as a responsible adult who is accountable for their own actions. And these are students who are adults in legal terms in the eyes of the government. Here we live in a democracy where we elect, to take care of us and our interests, a student government, which is severely hamstrung and with hardly any powers of decision making. They are given seats in the decision-making apparatus, but they are equivalent to token seats. In the ones where they have a say, their say is minimized by them always being in a minority and except for maybe a few instances, they act as a pseudo-postman to deliver our requests to the administrators, who will then make the decisions.

College is the place where students learn responsibility and consequences of their actions. Such duality in their treatment is something which plays havoc in the development of the students, or at least it did with me.

There was a time, when I returned to the college during the summer and the first thing which popped into my mind as I watched the rays of the evening sun encompass the lotuses of the conveniently named Lotus-pond was “Honey, I’m Home!.”

With all that has been going on, it seems to me that DA-IICT is sick. Whether it turns out to be fatal or not, only time and tests will tell. But right now, all we can do, is go to her with some chicken soup and some antibodies.



I hope she gets well soon.