Why the IIPM story needs to be told over and over again

IIPM is again making news, of the wrong kind of course. Many thanks to Careers 360 for bringing to light, again, the truth beind the tall claims by IIPM.

Incidentally Outlook, also published by Maheshswer Peri, had banished the institute from its B-school rankings. But that didn't prevent IIPM from flaunting Outlook's ranking on its ads.

Though for many this wouldn't be news. Back in 2005 IIPM had brought in some excitement to the Indian blogosphere because of something similar.

But unfortunately this story has to be repeated over and over again. IIPM hasn't learnt any lesson, not that we expected it to, and continues making pompous claims in full-page ads on major national dailies (I doubt any of those would publish any negative news on IIPM) and students still fall for such arrogates.

Therefore it becomes a responsibility for people who are aware of the facts to disseminate the other side of the story at regular intervals. We might not have the resources for full-page colour ads but we have the strength of community and we should use it for the advantage of the unsuspecting and gullible students who spend lakhs of their parents earnings for a 'degree' whose worth is under question.

And here's the joke of the week:

Move over London, Wharton, Harvard here comes "The Greatest B-School on Earth" IIPM!



Arindam Chaudhuri's vocabulary seems to be limited to superlatives (and someone please fire his designer. On second thoughts, don't. I want my laughs.). Or he is a firm subscriber of the famous adage favoured by the Nazis "The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed."

I think people with access to Shah Rukh Khan should advise him to reconsider his association with IIPM. People tend to falsely add credibility to whatever a star endorses. I, on my part, have sent a tweet to the Twitter account believed to be Shah Rukh's.

And there's also Planman CHE (Centre for Higher Education) and the logo, you guessed it, the star on Che Guevara's beret.

Prospective students should be very wary of the ads published by institutes and always read the fine print. I happened to notice this on yesterday's edition of The Indian Express.



Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute University, Chennai, advertisess itself as "India's No. 4 University" but the fact is that it ranks fourth (according to a Financial Express study) only amongst the universities established after 2000. Though to their credit, it is mentioned in the ad, but something that could easlily miss the eye.

By the way, what happened to the multi-crore lawsuit fromm 2005? Only bow-wow-wow?

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Indian English Primer

What is the difference between an alphabet and a letter? Many people (including some editors) confuse alphabet for letter. 'Z' is a letter, not an alphabet. It isn't the alphabet Z, it is the letter Z. Alphabet is the complete character set - A to Z (or whatever, according to the script), letters are the elements within.

Here's a primer in the alphabet (with translations in Devanagri/Hindi). Note the classic drawing style, also found in calendar art and early movie posters. Reminds me of my nursery classes. Kids (and even grownups) were as a rule - chubby, reflecting the traditional Indian preferences, until anorexic models filled magazine pages and the boob tube.

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Bhopal Expressed

Bhopal usually reminds us Indians of two things. The first, the world's worst industrial disaster - the deadly cloud of methyl isocyanate that engulfed the sleeping city on the midnight of December 2-3, 1984. Between 16,000 to 30,000 people were killed and 500,000 injured. The second is a character from a movie a almost a decade older than the disaster - Soorma Bhopali from Sholay. Most Bhopalis are unlike the character played by Jagdeep, but a few are. You still get to hear the typical Bhopali tone in the older parts of the city. Bhopal and Indore are said to the Delhi and Bombay of Madhya Pradesh. Bhopal is the administrative capital, while Indore is more businessy.

Its been three years since my last visit, and on stepping out of the Bhopal Express (not the movie but India's first ISO-9002 certified train), I felt that the city hadn't changed much except for the expected addition of a few shopping complexes. But the Delhi comparison seems limited only to the broad avenues, the division between the old and the new cities, and the political activity. Bhopal hardly has any traffic jams (at least in the newer parts), the weather was much cooler with the consistent cloud cover (residents say it has been that way for the last two months) and yes, young girls zipping past care freely on two-wheelers. Some with their faces covered, what I initially thought to be a modification of the burqa, but later learnt that it was an effective sunscreen. They even wear gloves that cover almost the entire length of the arm.

Almost every crossing Bhopal has a bust or a statue of individuals of historic importance. In Delhi they seem to be more concentrated around the Parliament building. This activity is also bustling in other smaller towns and cities. Maybe this has a close conection with the idolatrous religion that most in the country practice.

Once, the guys at Times Response in Bhopal, asked me to compile and edit a Bhopal City Guide, and with that money I had bought my first mobile phone, from Yusuf Sarai, New Delhi. This is how I had described the city:

Indolent, voluptuous, mischievous and always surprising - this is Bhopal. A marvellous amalgam of history, scenic beauty and modernisation. The cliche - City of Lakes has stuck to its name. And why not. two of these at its heart provide the very lifeblood to the city. Its sublime mosques, magnificent palaces and gardens have earned for it the title of The Baghdad of India, and histiry has bestowed upon it the name - The City of Begums. Bhopal has a multifaceted profile, maintaining much of its old world charm in today's split second world, a harmonic symphony of the pristine and the present. The place pulsates with the Bhopali Spirit, something that makes Bhopalites go against all odds. Love it or hate it, but the City of Raja Bhoj never fails to entice you. Step into its magical realm.

Bhopal is fast developing into an educational hub, housing some unique institutions in the country, one is the Indian Institute of Forest Management appropriately located in a campus atop a hill and dense vegetation all around. Another beauty is the National Law Institute University, the view from atop the modernistically designed library and computer centre is accentuated by the lake formed by the Kerwa Dam. The calm in the campus is far away from the hustle and bustle of our courts. Another is the National University of Journalism and Communication named after renowned poet and freedom fighter Makhanlal Chaturvedi. It is said to be Asia's only university of journalism. But still has some way to go before being counted amongst the best of J-schools. Besides there is also the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology and the Institute of Hotel Management.

I occasionally wanted to be a teacher and that want was partially fulfilled thanks to a faculty at the Centre for Studies in Mass Communication, who asked me to enlighten his students on - blogging. And obviously I was more than interested. And my students, they also seemed to be pretty captivated (bad bloggers can make good teachers). After all that's the least one can do for one's alma mater. If the number of Indian bloggers sees a sudden spurt, you know who is responsible.

Habibganj Railway Station in New Bhopal is one of the better maintained railway stations in the country. I still remember the days, when we didn't have much to do or had some studying to do, the serene platform no. 1 was the best place to be. Our laziness or concentration only occasionally broken by the whistle of a passing train. The station is also disabled and wheeled luggage friendly - it doesn't have stairs, only an incline to the over bridge. When I disembarked at Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin this morning with a splitting headache and a running nose thanks to the air-conditioning vents working overzealously over my berth, and had to lug my baggage over and down the stairs, I knew what a bliss that incline at Habibganj was. I also forgot to get the soorma that I had promised to bring for a friend.

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Toxic Texts

We usually are under the impression that our elected representatives are a bunch of sly uneducated sycophants. The first and the last qualifications are usually undebatable, but the in-between is a little off the mark. Three-fourths of the batch that forms the 13th Lok Sabha have declared in their affidavits that they are graduates or post-graduates. Samuel Johnson said, "Politics is the last refuge of the scoundrel." Over a fifth of the 'educated' members claim to be lawyers by education.

So much about our learned leaders, now to what they deliberate about. One of the hottest topics is - education, of course! The old men and women (they are very few and are therefore demanding a third of the seats) are pretty much concerned about what the kids get to read in their schools and more importantly what they don't. The sciences are better off, the apple will continue falling to the ground irrespective of the political party at the helm.

Commerce is money, and who better than the politicos to understand that money is might and might is right. Hence, no arguments there too.

That leaves them with humanities or arts (as you like it). In Geography is as it is for the past many years, the only change that I recall was in the map of Indonesia (East Timor gaining independence). The World and India have different versions of our map and no longer do the customs officials seem to blacken the contentious areas in books imported from abroad. A few centimetre difference in the height of the Mount Everest is hardly deserves any concern. LOC is the Line of Control (notwithstanding what CNN-IBN's varied expansions of theabbreviation) and our neighbours are treated as squatters and everyone seems to be in agreement.

Economics always had a high stature since the days of PC Mahalanobis, and the present economy being on a boom no one really would like to play a bear in a bull stampede. Moreover the input-output models are mostly incomprehensible.

Since Sociology is the study and classification of human societies, something our ruling and opposition classes have been doing for long, especially the classification part for electoral advantages, they wouldn't like to meddle with something which seems (to them) of being one of their own.

Literature includes poetry and we all have witnessed the poetic capabilities of our politicians. Though there might be an occasional itch in the hands, but a politician, given a choice, would leave the matters of the pen to relatively powerless people. And much of literature deals with the matters of the heart and that makes for another drawback.

This leaves them with two potential targets. The first is History. Since his-story is always the one as it has been told. Different people tell differently, and different people hear differently. The attempt is always to match the frequencies of the teller and the hearer and do away with the existing frequencies which soundcacophonic to the right, left or centre or whichever aligned ears are in. After all stories have been rewritten, there's not much more to do, except for dozing during sessions. So what better than to make an issue out of the study that studies their practice - the science of politics (oxymoronish but acceptable).

When you can't find toxins in beverages, better find them in books. Anyway both make for 'good' news.

[This blogger will be travelling for the next couple of days, if there are any interesting tales to tell, you'll definitely find them here.]

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Living Life the Edmundian Style

[This was published a good seven years ago in the 1999 issue of the Edmundian - St. Edmund's College Magazine, which also happened to be the special platinum jubilee commemoration issue. The self-praise might seem exaggerated to others, but I wrote (somewhat amateurishly) what I believed in and am reproducing it here, unedited. Many batches have passed since, some facts may have changed, but the core remains.]

In this world there is always something which is better than others. We Edmundians belong to the better category. This is not only due to our academic brilliance but also due to what we call the "Edmundian living." It is this living life the Edmundian style that makes St. Edmund's distinct as it is. This philosophy may not be easily comprehended by someone who has not spent a few good years of one's life within its colossal campus. The Edmundian spirit can only be experienced and not heard, seen or read about.

To the outside world we people behind those iron gates and netted fencing may appear to be a different species altogether. Yes, we are a distinct bunch but at the same time down to earth humans too.

When a student first steps into this wooded mammoth campus he initially is in a dilemma in finding his way in and out but gradually he knows this campus as the palm of his hand, every nook and every corner, the many fields, the main five entries and exits, the numerous corridors and rooms etc... etc.

In its glorious three quarters of a century of existence St. Edmund's has produced thousands of successful individuals in every field of life and they will not disagree with me when I say that they had spent some of the best years of their life out here.

The main charm of being an Edmundian is not essentially attending lectures and sitting in the library drowned in texts. By this I do not mean that our lecturers are not good or our library is not up to the mark. In fact, our teachers are amongst the best in the field and the library is a wonderful place to be in and moreover we also have a gem of a librarian in there. These things are nevertheless important as they form the core of an Edmundian's life but we have varied interests in other fields too. To pursue these interests the time offered by off-periods and breaks are never enough, therefore more often than not we have to resort to bunking class. This indeed is also an art which most of us Edmundians have mastered. This includes calculating the amount of bunkable classes, proxy attendance and escaping 'unhurt' when accidentally coming face to face with the Principal or other teachers ... the tricks of these trades are highly sophisticated and are well guarded secrets from the administration. We are therefore able to get away with this but not initially when we are yet to learn the tricks of the trade but once it is learnt we become absolute masters.

We often fantasise about many things in the college. One fantasy being the thought of lighting up all those fireplaces in the older part of the college on a rainy winter day, another being playing the Edmundian Open on the concrete tennis courts and the third is, mainly of the students of the arts stream, to have females in their classes too.

Without trying one's hand at the handball alley and a few cricketing strokes in the adjoining field and the basket ball court and now buried under tnnes of mud, the so called Dhobi Field, one does not become a full fledged Edmundian as all these are a part and parcel of the Edmundian's way of life.

The library and canteen may be amongst the favourite hangouts within the college but their respective disadvantages being that in one silence is required and the other is located right at the heart of the college. Therefore, the outstation venues like Down Shop and Volga who take the cake in this category. Other hotspots within the campus being the triangular lawn besides the office (which I think should be given a name) and beneath the trees in front of the New Hostel.

One drastic change which has come most recently in the lives of many Edmundians is the opening of its wrought iron gates to the fairer sex. It has ended an era of male domination in one of the best colleges in this part of the country and therefore may have hurt the egos of a few but the coming of the girls brought about a variety in the campus and gave us guys an additional reason to be present in the college regularly and also cut of drastically our mandatory once a day visit to Don Bosco Square.

The vast diversity in the student population of St. Edmund's, their immense talents, their carefree and fun loving ways and the support of a meritorious faculty and its exquisite campus makes the Edmundian living the wonderful experience that it is.

***

Previous posts on St. Edmund's College, Shillong
St. Edmund's College - Since 1923
Goodies for Edmundians

Official website of St. Edmund's College, Shillong [www.sec.edu.in]

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Positively Discriminating

Many of us have reservations against (ignore the SMS lingo and the typos there) the very idea of reservation, while there are some who believe that it is the only way to undo the historic injustices which many sections of the Indian society had to undergo. During the Mandal agitation, I was just a kid, more interested in my after-school games than what percentage of seats would be available to me when I walk out of the huge wrought iron gates of Bhajanlal Kamakhyalal Bajoria School. But the image of Rajeev Goswami burning on the cover of India Today and the following inflammation of VP Singh effigies changed the simple games that we played. Effigy burning could not hold our juvenile interests for long. What lasted was that we identified and differentiated, for the very first time, which amongst us were from the 'reserved class.' Many years later someone happily announced that the caste that I was born in was scheduled as an 'Other Backward Class' in a different state. Only to learn little later that the impatient government withdrew the notification before anyone could reap any benefit.

When I prematurely ejected out of a postgraduation course that I was disinterestedly pursuing, a classmate said, "Your quitting also signifies that someone who might have done more justice to the course was devoid of admission because you chose to enroll, only to leave a vacant seat midway," inciting guilt in my heart. I had almost lost that sense of guilt but the ongoing reservation brouhaha reignited that.

The HRD minister says that it was due and the Prime Minister takes it a step further suggesting 'affirmative action' by the industry (does the term reflect the PM's American leanings, using 'affirmative action' over the more Brit and closer home - 'positive discrimination?'). Wasn't 56 years enough, or the undoing the doing of centuries will take equivalent time?

Reservation right or wrong? The debate continues and will. But one thing is for certain - for a short-sighted and unimaginative administration the words 'reservations' and 'quota' are the keywords which they believe would bring forth the desired results. The problem here is that the negative connotations also weigh heavy. Giving someone extra leverage at the cost of another well deserving one is not the idea of equality that I envisage. Worse is that, it is not a genuine urge for upliftment but the politics of votes which is at play here. Ingratiation in India has historically worked; the present ponderings of the government are no different. No political parties coming out against it only goes to prove the point.

I'm not against the idea of giving the less privileged some benefits in this unequal race. Instead of using the segregating policies of reservation and quota, a 'headstart,' policy should be implemented. By 'headstart' I mean that someone from a less privileged background (this should include the economically backward classes irrespective of religion or caste and exclude anyone who is economically better off) would get a benefit of 5-10 per cent in entrance tests backed by ample scholarship backup exclusively for the economically backward. This headstart should be limited only to entrance tests and entry level employment (in the public sector), beyond that only merit would help in upward mobility. In cases of 'other things being equal' the lesser privileged can be given the benefit. This will help in curbing the encouragement of mediocrity which reservations in their present form do and will also reduce the numbers of failures and dropouts. Though something similar is in practice nowadays, but it is only an element of the whole 'reservation package.'

With the focus on the politics of caste, what everyone prefers to be blissfully neglect is the pathetic shape of government funded school education in the country. If that part which forms the base is taken proper care of, there might not even be the need for positive discrimination at the tertiary level. Getting the basics right matter and the PM and the HRD Minister are very much aware. But why isn't anything being done? Simply because it would be too much of an effort, passing directives is so much easier.

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Cacographic

Many new specialised universities are coming up, but I never realised that it would become so specialistic that graphology would also demand an exclusive one.

Discovered this on the University Grants Commission's list of fake universities:

Handwriting University India, No 16 Church Road, Basavaugudi,Bangalor-4

Well there's also one online - Handwriting University International. But that's beyond the purview of the UGC.

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