Every day when I pass the Gandhinagar to Hiranandani stretch along IIT-B....I curse. I simply curse, the traffic which only seems to increase every day, the authorities for the mismanagement and lack of planning, illegal shops that keep expanding their footprint, the Mood-I crowd that adds to congestion and all the junta who decides to take out their vehicle during peak hours. At times I have taken 40 minutes to cover a stretch that should ordinarily take only 5 minutes.
However today, I decided to go in the afternoon shift. On a warm winter afternoon as I passed that stretch, in the midst of moderate traffic, what caught my attention was the huge IIT campus.
Nestled in the lap of Powai hills and flanked by the scenic lake this campus is the cradle of the Indian brain...a place where the best brains in
On this winter afternoon the sun rays were being filtered through the trees, as I looked nonchalantly at the campus..... The sight was usual, pink buildings, the main gate ...the security guards, the SBI branch , and then the breathtaking view of the lake, the strikingly chic looking hostel courtesy Hafeez Contracter and the Renaissance in the back drop
Amidst all this what did strike me was the news that hit headlines last month. Yet again, another IITian ended his life. Reason stated: Stress. Low GPA. Inability to get a campus job.
This aint sumthing new, we have grown up reading such pieces of news. Such incidents happen, hit the headlines and fade away from peoples memory.
What I cannot apprehend is the mindset of such students. What happens? How can they feel so low that they decide to take such drastic steps? What is it that is lacking? Why are such brainy brains unable to rationalize the situation to identify their strengths and see the light at the end of the tunnel however dark things might seem? How do they succumb to pressures such as GPA or job? Are we manufacturing graduates who can analyze Quantum mechanics and its fundas but not the jeene ka funda?
I am sure nobody needs to tell them that even if they are the worst performers on campus, they are still better than the average students outside. If a mediocre guy from an arbit collg can make it big in the world, what stops a JEE stud from giving his best shot and come out strong?? Are the pressures on campus so strong...I fail to understand.
OR is it the other way round??? They know that they r the best...and with the best ...but still they don’t find any motivation to move ahead in life...don’t find any heroes whom they can look up to, don’t know why they are distressed.
And they realize that if this is how the best is then they don’t really want to see anymore? I am not really sure if this is the case....but just a remotely possible explanation that I am trying to use to justify to myself what these guys might be thinking.
Perhaps I don’t have a solid insight into what really happens on campus and mab my friends can help me understand better….Ending this post on an inconclusive note .....
12 comments:
OK, Forgot to add...this post had been lying in my drafts for over months...finally got myself to publish it when I saw some follow up in paper.
What I cannot apprehend is the mindset of such students.
Thats good. To be able to do that wud mean to be in their shoes. And, trust me, thats not something u want. I just hope you manage to keep this behind you when u start ur career in an equally competitive school...
Are the pressures on campus so strong
Yes. In one word. When all you see around you are successes, even a slight failure is enough to plunge you into the doldrums. Sometimes irrecoverably.
Another thing that doesnt help, is the lack of friends. In a competitive environment, most people have friends of convenience. Those ppl are never by your side when you need them, only when they need something from you.
So with no support system, it makes it doubly hard to be able to survive.
well, a couple of things,
1) one exam doesnt decide a person's ability/future. So passing the JEE doesnt necessarily mean that they r the best. They are good, I'll give u that, but they r not the best. And this realization hits them hard, for some ppl after a couple of years in iit and for some others after passing out of it. One of the reasons is the unbelievable hype that iit's/jee get, especially in north india. And more often than not, ppl who commit suicide are from the 'iit -graduates' producing factories.
2) In the same vein, after passing jee, some ppl think that their life is set, so put too much emphasis on passing it. Thereby, not acquiring any other skills before or after passing jee. complacency sets in. And then they realize, life is not just abt academics/one exam...
3) on a slightly different note, their family/personal issues also play a great role in the amt of pressure they take upon themselves. Lack of communication/misunderstanding/ lack of counselling certainly dont help either.
4) peer pressure is definitely there, but then, thats always there everywhere. So that alone cannot be the reason.
5) A lot of the reasons are case based, so doesnt help to generalize them.
6) And last but not the least, the media plays a big role in this. We always like to see the deficiencies and negative attributes in a good system, and criticize it. The media plays on this, and just because its "iit", they give so much undeserving coverage. There are suicides happening everywhere, but, they dont recieve as much coverage as iits do. Its sad, but its unfortunately normal. :(.
A nice post again. Most of the "IIT-specific" issues have been covered well by Raghu. Although on that i would like to add one more -- the insane amount of time an IITian dude spends on internet. This issue has been covered in media as well. The average amt of socialization has surely gone down in past couple of years which in turn affects the person's ability to communicate to someone abt his depression. Many students suffer from depression but very few even think about taking the unnatural step of suicide. The mental processes going from mere depression to taking one's life are surely difficult to analyze.
@raghu ....detailed analysis I must say.So r there really eople out there who are NOHINg but products of 'iit grads' producing factories !! I wonder how many of them manage to sustain the 4/5 yrs at IIT and then crack when they go out.
And I am also sure when you have proved yourself better than the rest and assured an IIT entry, teh pressure to perform would be more than ever before...... interestingly thats how it is in any phase.....the higher u r sitting...the higher are your stakes and the pressure.
@manas....Excessive Internet ....well tats one reasoning that has made way to news...Media has gone to the level of reporting that students dont even know who stay 2 rooms across...I m sure thats just been blown outs proportion.
Nevertheless, the outcome is that IIT has restricted net usage from 11pm to 8 am (or sumthing like tat), so that students do not indulge in night long streaming/chatting/surfing/downloading. Not sure if this wud work....students are not echoing the managements decision and reasoning though.
And interestingly, students frustration is finding its way out thru ...none oter than ..Blogs !!!!!
Ok now this article summarizes most of wat we have been discussing here
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=59705
well, am late into the discussion but would sure like to add my two cents. I agree totally with raghu's and manas' points. However, there is something the discussion has not touched upon which I would like to mention. Passing the JEE (whether or not it proves you the best) is sure an achievement and more than anything else, it is an inspiration to the feeling - 'I can do it!' Once in the campus, people find different ways to keep themselves motivated and in many cases, its not academics. It is natural for students to find that what they are doing as a part of their academic cirriculum is not what they want to do in life. That's because its merely your JEE rank that decides what you would be studying at IIT! Sad, but true. But the 'I can do it !' feeling is the one that drives them. So, imagine a student realizing that gaming is his passion in life and not studying aerodynamics. As a youngster, motivated by passion and excitement, he could spend most of his nights gaming. As long as he is passing his courses (his GPA could be 5!), he is fine according to me. But that is not what the system and more importantly the society thinks. For people, his success is judged by his GPA and the pay package he gets. Most people take up huge tempting packages without knowing what they want from life. But this guy, who has actually found what he wants in life, is considered unsuccessful, just because a number close to 5 is associated with him. Had it not been for the societal pressure, the guy who was a gaming stud (and frankly could have made a great career in the gaming industry, as a game tester, for example!) would not have ended his life (as was the case with the latest suicide at IITB). The point what I want to drive home is that the society, I feel is a highly influential factor in such cases and our perspective on life and success needs to be broadened.
“If you get bad grades- I assure you – you have no job, no school and no future; If you do well….the world is your oyster” picked up from Chetan Bhagat’s much hyped writing debut.
Guess that’s the range of consequences an IITian faces.
Though in my opinion the ‘no job, no school and no future’ is very relative since the comparison is with the 9 pointers…but again as I said …it wud be still better than a BE from sum God forsaken place.
@kads…agree to what you are saying…but it’s a very idealistic talk…..
Wanting to do sumthing and actually ending up wid sumthing…isn’t restricted to JEE and future….
It starts after 10th grade itself.
BTW...how did u manage to post a comment from office :) ??
I agree what I said is 'idealistic talk' and it may be 'radical' in some ways too. But legend says that reforms generally start with radical ideas :)
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