Autocracy @ IIT Kanpur

Last winters I had a chance to visit one of the professor's home. His wife was kind enough to prepare some tasty soup for us.While having the soup she talked to us about our hostel activities and our life here and we shared things frankly. Suddenly in the middle of our conversation she said, "Don't you think the Wardens here interfere a lot in hostel activities?" We and our prof remained silent at this, but internally I was thinking Yes Yes, it is true.Please help us by conveying it in the faculty community. She further told us about her hostel life in one of the IIT's and the freedom they enjoyed.

Last year I became a part of the system here and since then I have witnessed many instances which prove that how paralyzed are the hands of students and their representatives,here in IITK.One can easily suppress your voice just by quoting that he has more experience or emotional things like we are like your parents and think of your good or even shocking things like you are 6 or 7 pointer,hit a 9 and then come and talk. Recently the students of one of the halls here witnessed a great room allocation policy.None of the students were satisfied with it but the officials never listened to them. All the people who witnessed this clearly felt that it was a plan or may be even dream or experiment of an individual,which was imposed forcefully against the will of the students. There may be some logic behind this, which they feel justifies this act but we are still not convinced. We also have our arguments and questions, the most basic one about our freedom to live and choose. You can't provide us good food,its fine but at least don't interfere in our living sense. There were discussions about it of-course but the way they started was very unique."This policy is not going to change, now whatever you want to say-go ahead", was specified very clearly in the beginning of each discussion. We even contacted other faculty members for this issue, initially they seemed to be in our favour but gradually with time they changed or went silent. I knew this was going to happen. Suppose if you have a respectable position in a community and you suggest something but it gets over ruled by the decision of some other person, then your esteem goes down. I clearly felt this thing here, because of the obstinate nature of one person, no one came forward to interfere. It was a one man's show.

Now this is not the only case. When we tried to get a mirror for dance practices in our hall we were asked to prepare a list of CPI's of all the dancers. When I tried to organize an intra hall cultural event, I was asked to prepare the list of CPI's of all the participants and half of them were officially denied to perform.(however all the students were willing to perform). In another event for freshers,the three day competition was stopped after the first day because of complaint from one guy. The whole of the freshers batch signed applications that they themselves are willing to participate but the event was not resumed. The interaction sessions or the famous quads go on and off regularly. Anyone can walk in and stop things for any reason they can figure out. The meetings of students are adored by the presence of Wardens and Deans. Even small things like a bill of 50 Rs has to have a Tin No. on it or else it wont be accepted.Don't they know in a city like Kanpur, where the hell we can get tin numbered bills for all things.

On one hand they boast of the glamorous culture of IIT Kanpur and on the other they leave no stone unturned in making a contribution to ruin it. I don't know why they always consider us,specially the seniors that we are the wrong ones, our actions and activities are unhealthy. If we propose something ,then even if it has been happening in the hostel for years, it has to be defended logically and get approved. And even if one novice feels uncomfortable with it, it is stopped, the culture is given a halt. If you say its just one person,others are fine with it, they will apply all kinds of  political,economical theories to justify themselves. And if they propose something,then it is final. We may discuss,fight,weep,cry but nothing is going to happen.

Its not the story of one hall, its happening everywhere. The students representatives are frustrated but they cant start a movement like anna because we have many other things to do.

(These are my personal views on an informal platform and cant be quoted anywhere officially.)

Searching For The Monsters

One day I decided to go out in the city and find the monsters present in our society. Early morning I went  to the park,  people of all ages were there. I carefully observed everyone but could’nt conclude a monster,as they were so well behaved. Suddenly my eyes went onto the gardener,who was watering the plants. He had a big moustache and beard with white & black hair and was wearing dirty clothes. I got an inner feeling that he can be a monster.In the mean while an old man, who was walking over the wet grass slipped. That gardener went quickly to him, helped him get up, made him sit and brought some water for him. Ah! he can’t be a bad guy, I said to myself. I then went to a tea stall, many people were enjoying the morning tea in the cold breeze. And then I observed a group of young men smoking cigarettes along with the tea. These people who publicly smoke will surely be the monsters I am searching for, I thought. So to hear their conversation I went near them. Then I came to know that they were students of an elite institute in the city, and were smoking to keep themselves awake as they have studied  the whole night. They also can’t be the monsters. For the whole day I visited different places-malls, hotels,shops,offices, schools, observing people and their activities carefully. I doubted about some people being the monsters, but later was convinced that they can’t be , by some or the other reason.

After the whole day toiling, I could’nt even find one. Then how do so many crimes- rapes, abductions, eve-teasing , trafficking occur in our society. From where these monsters come, if they are not in our society, if they are not our friends, brothers and sons. Then I realized we all are the monsters, each one of us. We all have a little monster inside us, which grows in size when we get the required catalysts. This catalyst may be friends, drugs or even our fake ego. In the name of natural beauty or prakriti darshan, we never leave a girl without observing. Have you ever imagined how insecure and uncomfortable a girl feels, when a bunch of guys scan her from top to toe. It’s a matter of confession, we all do it. Specially when we are in a group, a sense of crowd mentality prevails and we forget our own morals. In order to show our courage/bravery/coolness/dudeness, we tend to do many things, which legally are a crime.  Most of the eve-teasing incidents are a result of such groups. One more thing which makes us a monster-is our fake ego. I have read many stories about a girl becoming a victim, after refusing some boy’s proposal, or insulting them or reacting aggressively against them in public. In the era of modernization when women are leaving men behind, these people obsessed with patriarchal mentality tend to bring  them down through their heinous activities. When they can’t stand on their feet, they try standing out on something else. These people think themselves as the custodian of Indian culture, I wonder sometimes, how wonderfully they themselves are contributing to it. And to those who hold women responsible for all this, their dressing sense and attitude. Have you visited Indian villages. Women there, still keep themselves completely covered, are down to earth serving the community silently. But still the facts show that the rape cases in rural areas are more than in the cities. Is the dressing sense and modernization responsible for this? No, it’s the men and their crude thinking.

Most of the crimes occur because we aid them directly or indirectly. There are sex video scandals because we watch, buy and promote them. Rapes occur because some people amongst us provoke and help our friends to do that, there are lawyers amongst us who fight for the wrong ones, there are parents who try to save their rapist son. We go to brothels and kothas, that’s why women trafficking and forced prostitution occurs.

Just think about yourself for a while, you’ll surely find a monster instantly.

Share it with other monsters and help them realize….