IITM’s contributions to racism and other idiotic acts

I recently heard from a friend (a trusted source, hopefully) that a hostel warden in one of the new hostels in IITM allowed a foreign student to have female guests till late night, besides letting him have a party which involved alcohol consumption. I would really like to know why this exception has been made (probably over and over again) only for foreign students. Is the reason that he was leaving the country and wanted to throw a farewell party good enough? Well, so are most of us (and is it even necessary to tell you why, now..) Foreign students are exempted from paying for the food in hostel mess too, citing the fact that the food served doesn’t ‘suit’ them. Who gave these people the idea that the food served suits us any better. I remember, how my Indian friends who were vegetarians, when in Paris, had to survive on French fries many a days, because the ‘restaurant’ there wouldn’t serve anything else they could eat. I never heard of any special exemptions made for them. And I am pretty sure that meat : vegatarian is way more serious than half baked rotis : European.

The institute puts harsh and senseless restrictions on students for no reason. And more often than not, they end up hurting rather than making any positive impacts. Think of all those fifth year Dual Degree students who don’t have any labs to go to ( I do :) ) or classes to attend, who have to sleep till 2 in the afternoon because the LAN is cut off till 2 so students attend classes and not surf the net. Dear Dean, or whoever you are, please check, students bunked classes not because they were sufring the net, but because they just slept off really late. And they still do, by the way. Moreover, any issue regarding the LAN ban has the same answer from the authorities: We provide you free net. We make the rules. The problem with this attitude is that it doesn’t make sense, because it doesn’t achieve anything, besides proving the point, that the people who make these rules know jackshit of what’s going on. Or probably they do. I don’t know.

When I went to Kanpur last December, the hospitality of the people was refreshing. The guy running the restaurant did not have a pathetic look on his face giving you the impression that he was serving you free food. I have no clue why they can’t throw Tiffanys out and bring more lively people! But then, this has probably got to do with the standard that is Chennai. Oh yes, it does. (By the way, I do like Tiffs, and Chennai too, but my cribbing mode spares no one :P)

The post must have sounded like I have serious issues with the institute (like it even cares). Oh and I do, but having said that, I have come to call this place my home over the course of five years. That’s all the more reason why such issues bother me so much. Is anyone listening?

*I apologize if I have hurt anyone’s sentiments here. That was not my intention (why would it be anyway..)

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sujith’s student

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south indian english

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Long Runs @ IITM

A few weeks back I went for a run with a couple of friends and professors. The verdant surroundings of the institute are at their best in the mornings. We started out at a comfortable pace and I thought, surely I can manage to run with the profs. But I was in for a surprise. The middle-aged lot outdid us and easily. They have been running for a long time and that was our only consolation for the huffing and puffing. And I thought to myself: I want to run this fast, this easily. It gives you the zest to conquer your physical limits, the feeling of being free, the sense of being able to run away from everything. It’s a form of expression intermingled with physical pleasure.
Here is our track from the last Saturday. I have been doing it for two weeks now and already feel like I have improved. Long runs help. Sticky has put together tips and tricks to do better. Here they are.

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super senior

I stop by the notice board, as has been my practice for the last three years. Extramural lectures, mess bills, etc etc. Routine. Events you promise to yourself you will find the time to attend, and lose track of somehow.

Then there were so many other notes scribbled in A4 sheets. Notices calling for volunteers for events , notices requesting you to attend the GBM. And I think, once upon a time, I used to write such notices, signing off as ‘AAS #111’ or ‘Coordinator # mobile number’. I used to list down my name for a Shaastra Volship or a Painting class in the Common Room.

Gone are those days. I don’t know when I came out of it and started looking at it in a detached way. That’s what fourth year does to you. Not knowing freshies’ names, not caring to find out. Stopping cribbing about the hopeless situation of the mess food. Writing funny things under notices concerning serious issues as if you know some greater truth.

‘Super Senior’. Yeah, I am a super senior.

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short films @ Saarang!

One really cool short film we got for SFM prelims.

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have you read this?

Yesterday we “had to” attend an emergency meeting by Dean Students. Now I am one of those people who don’t agree with all the rules and restrictions imposed by the Dean (or whoever it is who is responsible for them). Things like locking the Sharav terrace to asking people to stay out of the insti stadium after 10 in the night and the list goes on and on and on…

He did manage to get all sentimental about the placement scenario and the fall in technical knowledge of students (on an average ie…) But he made a LOT of sense on some occasions. For instance, he was talking about the task force report on the UG curriculum. He asked how many had even read the report. And as expected, only few hands went up. When he elaborated on the efforts that went into coming up with the report, some people thought that they should have read it. Girl next to me whispers, “where do I find it now?”

FYI, we have a very resourceful students portal for that. You can find it here.  And please don’t ‘pack it’ because you don’t know your login details. Username is your roll number, and password, you can easily retrieve. So all those discussions people have on smail, spamming everyone’s inbox in the process can be made here. And believe me, it’s more interesting to read than some arbit person’s orkut scrapbook.

I hadn’t read the report either…but I knew where to find it. :-P

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Tifanys

I climb the stairs, reading the ‘Thought of the Day’ pinned on the high wall. Above the green and yellow tiles. I hear the rising hustle bustle and i am greeted by the ganpati idol and the flower bowl kept in front of it. The place I would rarely visit and not without a reason. These are the many reasons why i never felt like visiting ‘Tiffs’ half a year ago.

TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT TIFANYS
1. The guys at the counter have a confused expression on their faces. They act as if we were asking for one plain dosa at a ticket counter on a railway station. Something like “How inappropriate of you to have actually done that!”.

2. When you ask for stuff at the main counter, they send you to another cash counter (the one near the coffee counter) What’s more, you reach the other counter and find no soul there. And when you look back for an explanation, you see that the man at the main counter has disappeared too!

3. You are waiting patiently for your Dosa, checking out Insti’s Who’s Who chatting with You-kno-who, when the guy calls out “your plain dosa ma’am”. When you are half way across, his expression suddenly changes to “Oh! not you..” as he hands out the plate to some one else. And there goes your dosa to another ‘ma’am’ who apparently was also waiting for one. The expression on your face is worth seeing then. The way a kid’s face becomes, when you burst the balloon he was playing with while you let out an evil laugh. Believe me, its worth a laugh. I have seen it many times before, especially when a guy with his wife, is made to return to his place and ‘wait till his turn comes’. Man of the house, returning without food. Total face-loss that is. Hehe.

4. The over enthusiastic guy! That particular over enthu guy! Now please, don’t ask me to appreciate his ‘eagerness to serve his clients’. It’s just creepy, the way he lets out both his hands and says “Yes ma’am, please come here and collect your dosa”. And you go there half suspicious half embarrassed. The way kindergarten kids go to the stage to collect their prizes. Scarred, confused, not so sure. But they want the prize u see! They have to face the spotlight.

5. You have to repeat any order at least three times before the guy gets it. I am not sure whether it’s my accent or his ears or both.

6. The guy at the coffee counter asks you your order when you hand him the pay slip. Earlier on, I thought he was illiterate. But one fine day, this guy saw the slip and went on to pour dark-brown sensuous desirable coffee ( I love coffee. Yes… to that extent. )into the ‘kutti’ steel cup. And the next day, you guessed it right, he again has that face-waiting-to-be-answered-to look, when I hand in the slip. took me long to realize that there are two people to do the job. one can read English, the other can’t.

7. They wait for somewhere between 3-8 seconds to take the slip when you forward it to them. Till then, you have to patiently hold it. Then they will take it, read the contents aloud, and ask you to wait for five minutes.

8. They don’t think it’s necessary to clean the tables after 11 or so rush in the morning, in spite of the fact that the grey marbelled tables are stained with dry dabs of sambar here and there, coffee marks and wrappers all over the place. Ok, now this reason sounded like the one out of the complaint register collecting dust in some remote khopcha of the cashier’s counter.

9. The man with glasses at the main counter, he has an expression like I broke his glasses. ekdum khunnus mein. Don’t know why. Maybe its because he got to know some how, that i crib a lot about tiffs. Maybe he does understand Marathi, coz i gen comment on his snail’s pace work to friends, right in front of him. How else can you spend your time while he figures out whether to return change or ask for it?

10. They bulb a LOT over math! They just can not do the hisab quickly. As a training program, these people should be sent for a day in an Udupi hotel. They will know there, that cashiers are supposed to do calculations faster than anyone else in the world, even the 11 year old child prodigy you saw on television yesterday who was ‘gen’ calculating 1123456*127859 and blurting it out in no time.

*As you must have figured out by now, my fav item on the menu is plain dosa.

BUT I STILL GO BECAUSE,

I do like certain things about it

1. Face it. The food is better compared to messssss (OMG can’t control the ‘s’es)

2. You don’t have to pick up the plate when you are finished.

3. The old Hindi songs playing in the background, while you sip your coffee lingeringly in the cool of the night ( Alright alright, the sticky sultry roasty humid Chennai weather at night )

4. And of course, running into my first friends in IITM, meta junta who claim that Tif is literally surviving on their donation.

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Scenes from a Stadium

Time: 6:50 am
Place: Institute Stadium
Composition: 70% profs, 10% students, 5% dogs, 5% kids god-knows-from-where, 5% couples god-knows-since-when, 5% women running in salwaarkameezcanvasshoes.
Weather: Can be described as cool by Chennai standards.
Most repeated actions: Sprinting for 50 meters and then suddenly stopping, panting, walking the next lap around the track.
Most fun moment: Over taking a guy for however short a time and make him chase you; male egos at stake and why?.
Slowest walkers: The couple and the dogs are in for a tie here. Did I just compare them?!
Most disgusting action: the taking-shirt-off-stunt. One guy does it every day…No, not exactly the kinds you would want to see ladies…
Thought of the moment: Go have your breakfast now.

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signs of the hostel life

Eating in the mess with your bag still hung to your shoulders.

Washing plates and glasses with a detergent meant for clothes and a plastic brush, in the wash basin.

Arranging and rearranging furniture in the 7 by 9ft room.

Counting a new doormat as an added accessory to your existence.

Framing up family photographs with paper frames, decorating them with sketch pens.

Treating the entire room as your dustbin, which gets cleaned up every Sunday morning, when the floor suddenly seems to have risen up by a few inches.

Striking a mutual understanding with your neighbor that while she uses your headphones, you give her your heater without making a face. After all, everyone can not have everything!

Inventing and innovating multipurpose devices, remember ID110?  E.g. A mug can be used as a mug, and a toothbrush holder and a soap container, then also for those rare occasions to trap lizards and insects.

Not cribbing on seeing an unclean toilet and heading towards the next one as if it were the most expected thing on earth!

Cooking up recipes which do not require cooking.

Please note: the list is not exhaustive…

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