Ba Ba Black Sheep: Punishing Innocents
(On Nehru Hall GC Massacre)
Black sheep: noun – A member of a family or other group who is considered undesirable.
It was the happiest moment for Nehru Hall of Residence; they won all the three Golden Championships (GCs) that IIT 
Kharagpur offers for best performance in sport events, social and cultural events and technical events. They got over excited and showed off their joy in some what non-sober sense by entering into some other hostel and ridiculing them, which resulted in some dhishum-dhishum and few noses and few legs got broken.
Obviously Nehru-ites were liable to punishment, a punishment that reminds everyone not to enjoy happiness by break opening some skulls. So IIT barnstormers, uh sorry, brainstormers came up with two decisions – one, not give them any of the GCs; two, not to allot Nehru Hall to any of the new students.
First one is none of my concerns but still I think it is wrong. How easily can you scrap their one year’s fight and probably their future glory of winning three GCs alone just based on one incident which is very common in school lives? You, surely, can come up with a better punishment than that. You could ask them for an open apology to the suffered hostel or you can give them title of winner of three GCs but don’t give them the cups or give them the cups colored in black.
Whatever, it is not what bothered me much.
What made me think pity on their decision is the second part of it. No first year is going to be allotted Nehru Hall. What does that mean? To jury, it is probably a way to stop new talents going into Nehru Hall, but to second year students it is a pain spanning one year. Now, since no first year student will be allotted Nehru, more students will be allotted to other hostel. The problem is that all hostels already crumbling with students out numbering the rooms; and banning one hostel from taking new students means testing the collapse limit of other hostels’ facilities.
This decision will force more students to live with another roommate in a room optimized to live one student. (There is a possibility of putting four persons in double rooms.) Imagine a situation when one hundred and fifty students have to live in rooms which are not even sufficient for accommodating hundred.
I ask a question, who would suffer then? Nehru-ites, who are responsible, or first years, who think it’s a nice place to live…. and learn. Is it Nehru Hall which will suffer water shortage or other hostels who will have to carry one and a half times more people than the designed for?
The question is how long we will be treated as sheep? How many times will we be following the mob? Is there a black sheep (or lamb)?
© Copyrighted Nishant Neeraj. Ask before quote.
Disclaimer: Writer is a free thinker and the script is his personal view. His blog is Naishe's Blog
Genre: Real story based, Drama, Documentary, IIT Kharagpur
Type: Personal View
Language: English
Category: For ALL age group
Place and Time: IIT Kharagpur. April 21, 2007. 08:36 (PM) in evening.
2 comments:
A great logic put forward to advocate Nehru's cause. But I dont support the way you spoke against the first punishment. It is no more school days and no IITian is a "child" any more. IITians, the future of the scientific world are expected to act in a more behaved way. The way Nehruites broke into RP is anything but civil. They do deserve a punishment. Okay, if you want to honour their efforts, then declare them the winners, dont give them the GC cups, and atleast bar them from participating in the GCs for the next year or two to come.
As far as the hall allotment is concerned, I think its not only the "brainstormers" of IIT Kharagpur who are responsible. What would you say to the Hon'ble Minister for Human Resource and Development, who thinks that solution to each and every problem on Earth is to increase the number of seats in IITs? What has he done to facilitate a better quality of living in the IIT hostels? Also, setting up another senior hall is not easy. No sensible first year would like to live in a hall where they would not get to interact with seniors. And converting MS or HJB to a senior B.Tech hall would mean the complete seclusion of the first three or four batches from the plethora of opportunities IIT, and more so, the hostel life offers to an IITian. The only solution - be a black sheep and find a place in RK, RP, LLR, PH, AZ or NH !!!
I guess, there is no point in blaming the Disciplinary Committee for awarding Nehru what they deserved. It is objectionable today because of the space crunch, but was not spoken against when Patel and LLR missed numerous batches for their hooliganism. Its time we started thinking about the more pressing problem. The problem of accomodating 10,000 odd first years by the year 2010 (something promised by the Hon'ble Director on Republic Day 2006) !!!!
To Rahul Dasgupta:For most of what you say, I am agree with you.
Reply to para.#1
As for as your logic of punishment is concerned, I feel punishment should be a learning, not a zeal breaker. To a rational community, A black cup or no cup at all, can bring shame to the hostel and hence, MAY make them behave in future. If you think they are irrational ill-mannered people, then they can't be made straight by scrapping GC, anyway. Moreover, if you think this can teach them civil behavior,I would say they are not "child" anymore.
I am strictly against banning their participation, It is another way to discourage talent. I take punishment as a tool to reform, not to block talent.
Reply to para.#2
This is a subjective issue, you certainly have valid points.
I totally agree with your view on MHRD, but it is little off the topic. I do not understand how HRD minister's decision can affect the current decision by Disciplinary Committee? Isn't it true that banning Nehru will cause resource problem in other hostels? If HRD minister has gone mad, it is necessary to follow his footstep?
Reply to para.#3
I believe:
1. Nehru deserved a winner respect and realization of their mistake, both. What was done by DC, was snatching the former to achieve the later.
2. It was equally objectionable at the time of Patel and LLR, I still wonder why no one spoke. And I am still wondering why no-one can see the space problem that guys would be suffering!
3. 10,000 students!! Better create twenty five new IITs or revoke IIT Kharagpur's name from IIT list.
enjoy
Naishe
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