In the name of …

I’ll try to keep this completely non-offensive and politically correct. The last thing I want is trouble. Nevertheless, these are my personal opinions on my personal weblog space (which I found out recently, recieves a disturbingly large amount of attention, but that’s the story for another day).

Over the past few weeks, there have been several drastic changes all revolving around “11 o’ clock”. First, the long-unenforced curfew at the women’s hostel was now strictly enforced, sometimes going so far as to lock the main door shut at the aforementioned timestamp, which has been extremely effective and has also resulted in a lot of inconvenience for those who couldn’t make it back in the right time.

In another incident, students with valid identity cards were prevented from entering the institute after 11 PM, and their Identity cards seized. Even students returning from their homes or from out of station at odd times in the night were flatly denied entry, despite having a boarding pass for proof.

At this point, I request you, please do not consider this as rebellion or badmouthing the institute. It’s understandable that all action was taken in the best interest of students, and I’m not popular(or mind bogglingly stupid) enough to be doing things outside the institute at that point of time, so I wouldn’t know firsthand, but you really shouldn’t be taking my word on the news in the first place.

Kharagpur, as usual starts to overflow with rumours, conversations over coffee linger on about the way things have become. Things have changed, and everyone has noticed it. After three to four years in college, we’ve started to worry about going out for a cup of coffee, or for a walk in the serene and safe surroundings are now threatened.

I for one, have two things to say, and I’ll say them short.

1. The first is, there’s no point punishing many for the crimes of the few. Yes, some students will take their duties lightly. I know because I was one of them, and I sincerely wish someone did something akin to this back then. An extremely large portion of the students will be harmed by these moves because of lack of access to the department, study rooms, etc at the time when it’s most critical. While it’s hard to remember major improvements to student welfare in the recent past, I can assure you that burning the midnight oil for a little while is absolutely essential for survival in Kharagpur, and yes, a lot of it is for academic work.

I keep reading news about how certain lawmaking bodies start to create rules in the name of terrorism, in the name of war on drugs, etc, etc. But more often than not, these laws hurt the innocent and the real criminals are seldom caught.

1. Yes, such measures might be needed. I for one do not have a wholly positive opinion about which, but yes, it’ll help prevent people from going off track. But there has to be compromise. For instance, the same blanket ban at 1AM will enable all of us to finish any work and return from the library, study room, department, etc. It will still fulfill the original purpose.

As an endnote, IIT students are hired and noted to a large extent of their personal development. While the intake has quadrupled over the past few years, the resources available, everything from tennis courts to bandwidth is strained.

It’s safe to say I love this institute, and owe a lot to it, I learnt outside the classroom as I did inside it(I said learn, not remember : ). and while I welcome change…

Update (11:55 AM IST, Aug 31st) : It seems someone else has written about this, in a slightly more liberal fashion, owing to stronger anonymity. While this is targeted towards an audience who’re aware of what happens inside the institute, the comments might be interesting to read.