I don’t think it’s wrong to term “College Life in India” as the ‘ultimate freedom’. Drawing from personal experience I can safely say that whether it was a convent or a co-educational school, the claustrophobia was the same. Even the senior years were ruled by uniforms, punishments and a constant ‘big brotherly’ presence. I don’t know how it is today but back in the day, hair had to be neatly trimmed, nails had to be bitten down, socks couldn’t be rolled to the ankles and that awful perennial neck tie, it was hell. The only consolation was ‘friends’. Some of you reading this may have been super achievers, teacher’s darlings and the like but most of us just drudged through school only to get to the big, bad world of College. Thank God!
As luck would have it, I went to out of my hometown to study and the first thing to hit me was – I can wear what I want! For youngsters all over the world, the feeling of self expression is of utmost importance. The whole feeling of being ‘me’ comes from a style statement. It could well be just a bag, a braid or a BMW but we all want to stand out. I didn’t have any of those things but I did have a tool that surpassed all, attitude, and a healthy one! This is the high point of what I see in the campus life of today. The boys and girls are so confident and so chic. I don’t feel shallow in admitting that my most poignant moment in college was the day I left my hair open; after all it won’t be clichéd to say ‘college is the time to let your hair down”. Pardon the pun, I couldn’t help myself.
Student life in India is actually more than that. The residual guilt from school tends to stay on, so even though you can ‘bunk’ classes and you do ‘bunk’ classes, it just doesn’t feel right. Indian students are conditioned to work hard from day 1. There are no open book tests, no lockers to ease the load and by no means is there a provision to choose subjects before ‘high school’. This has long term repercussions that are very positive. Indian students know rote learning (not always a good thing), they respect their teachers (well at least they stand up and greet them before each class), they know how to burn the midnight oil and they know how important the values of school are to cope later in life. So it may not always be about fun and games, big deal, life isn’t all about fun and games either. This may be a good time for international students to check out courses available in India, may as well learn a whole new culture while you’re at it. Manipal University has superb Medical and Engineering courses and right here in Delhi University you can do your Bachelor’s and Master’s in any subject, language or stream. The world is an ocean for these young men and women and college is ‘lifeguard’ training!
No comments:
Post a Comment