LOOT

Lets start with the goals of IIT Kanpur. The aim of the Institute as proclaimed on its website is " to provide meaningful education, to conduct original research of the highest standard and to provide leadership in technological innovation for the industrial growth of the country." In the era of globalization & liberalization it becomes difficult to limit the growth only to 'the country'. Where about more than 75% people lives below Rs.90 per day IIT gets a funding of about 80 crores a year from the Governement of India which means directly from the pockets of taxpayers. But being one of the premier institutes of the country and the high standards demanded the amount can be justified fair enough.

The students mainly coming from the middle class of the country enjoy the best of the art facilities which help us grow. But another problem starts growing .We become addicted to them. In all the wonderful college experience the IIT provides years that pass like wind. Time comes when the graduation day is near and the future plans take the front seat. As most of the time has already spent in bulla we do not get time to plan anyhting. As very few people know what companies or firms they want to join it becomes difficult for many of us to actually search or know about different firms or their application criteria. But as the time has evolved our seniors has devised a simple formula of tackling our problem and created a students' body for placements called SPO. Now the responsibility is given to it to call and bring 'as many as ' companies possible . A firm is invited to the college as long as it provides a good salary. As the constitution of the country provides for liberty,we can join any firm without any limitation to "technical innovation" or "industrial growth".

Now in the race to grab the highest of the packages available we forget to check what the company actually does or how does the company get benefited from us. It was painful to hear from one of my closest friends, " I will say yes to anything the company demands ". We even forget to check our market prices even while selling ourselves. Placements start at IIT campuses almost at the same time and the first to visit the campuses are all the foreign firms. Forget about the Public Sector Units, even the private Indian companies have to take a backseat because of comparatively lesser value packages offered. As the days pass by and celebrations start for being 'placed' at XYZ the tension grows among few. Because it was a race we feel defeated to see more and more people crossing the finish line. The stress grows to an extent where students suffer from sleepless nights. It is sad to know that even after seeing the list of 200 to-be-visiting companies in the campus and hardly anyone offering a job of less than 6 LPA some of us suffers from such stress.Those of us who are in the celebrating team still do not find time to check the working of the company celebrated in full details or thinking about if any other better option is available to us. Now the time comes of joining.

Withing a month the facebook starts telling the experiences. While some really feel to have struck gold , a large number feels cheated. There are cases when there is no facebook status springing up! Why??
Last year a firm called 'Surya Roshni' came to the campus and 'took' some students of Material and Metallurgical engineering. No details of training were given before. The students are taken to camps far from city where there is no office. For next 4 months they are not told about the functioning of the company. Not even once, the details about the job are mentioned in their 'training' period. Instead as part of training they are taught about how to live without food, without water, without talking to anyone. To the surprise of some they are lectured about Hinduism and the need of a 'Hindu-Rashtra'. Anti-islamic lectures are being given regularly by the 'scholars' of the society. They are given strict orders of not keeping cell phones with them or any communication outside the camp. The letters they write are all checked before submission. To more surprise students still keep practicing everything as they are given Rs.2000 at the end of each day! It was not the first time it happened. The same company gave the same training to the students taken a year before. The so called 'guiding seniors' did not care to even inform the coming students or the SPO about the training they underwent. The story of right wing fundamentalism penetrating so easily in the IITians' life goes unheard.

How and on what basis the company come to a government institute remains completely in the hands of the students. While every company symbolizes growth and development according to many, we fail on most of the accounts to tell HOW? How on earth does the famous trading company Future First contributes in any type of growth? The firm only works on the principle of finding the loopholes or the limits of a computed graph . The company recruits the IITians on the terms that they will get profit as a commission if they make huge gains but will be thrown out if their calculations or judgements make losses for some consecutive days. Though the company's principle may be justified but when the clock strikes 10 and the trading starts even if the guy wants to urinate he will find it difficult to leave the place as it may incur immediate losses. The continuous pressure of making gains in as many transactions as possible starts eating up his life. Why is it that we fail to understand the human costs involved?

As it is always the money that matters lets talk about that. The funding in IITs was made like an investment from the people for highly educating a few which would lead to engineers or leaders who would ultimately reap benefits for the society either by the production or by creating jobs. We will apply our best skills to answer the question and satisfy ourselves even when it clearly looks like a loss in the 'investment' we represent. Today forget about the high profits many of us would fail to show even a small return or care for the principal amount. Then we will say a Narayanmurthy has been produced and it is a lot!

After repeated asking for donations to the institute the overall contribution still remains abysmally low. It had been always followed in our traditions that instead of being forced a person shall be motivated enough to give back himself. But when asked about the opinion of giving back they would say it is one's own choice and he should be left free. These alumni are the topmost payed employees in the country- Analysts, consultants, managers, CEOs, top bureaucrats and various well payed jobs in the country and around the world. A 24 year old getting a job in London or New York would find tonnes of "Congratulations" on his facebook profile. Two decades earlier when we were criticized for "Brain-drain" we defended by saying the country does not provide ample opportunities or the money for a comfortable life for us. Today we would complain the Mumbai pot-holes or Banglore traffic. Why shall we be congratulated so much ....just because we made our package twice and life more luxurious which would hardly change anything for anyone else? Why is still a job in foreign country is regarded so high in our minds? Are we still bounded by the traditional inferior mindset of generations? Does that inferior feeling not undermine the huge success and potential of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, and Mumbai? If asked today we would again throw words like Globalization, Liberalization, New Right Philosophy etc etc. as if the world is today a global village and we are the only chowkidars of our "Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam". We believe firmly in Capitalism but would not give a thought on what social principles we got our education. When the world is such a global village why was our fees paid only by Indian taxpayers?

Today when after continuous persuasions for donations we fail to offload the burden on the institute and the Indian exchequer, the IIT council decides . They decide to ask the IITians to pay at least their fees and that too after they get a job or the employer who is getting a well trained individual for almost no extra cost shall pay on his behalf. Within no time the news draws criticism from the the alumni as well as the students of IITs. That shows how impulsive we are and how offended we feel that we do not care to give even some hours to think about the recommendations.

It is time we recognize what the country gave us when we had no money to get such an education abroad. It is time when we recognize it is not fair for a man earning 2 lakh per annum having his own family and problems to pay for our education. It is time we break the chains of inferior mindsets about ourselves. It is time when we become responsible. It is time when we stand up and accept wholeheartedly what we owe to the nation. It is time we give back at least what we looted from the country.

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