Sunday, March 22, 2009

RIP the irony of an elite institute

"Third year Electrical Engineering student, Rohit Kumar was declared brought dead at the Midnapore hospital this afternoon as he was being shifted from BC Roy Technology Hospital to Kolkata. Rohit succumbed to a head injury after he fell off a rickshaw on campus. As is well known in Kgp, Sunday being the “off” day for BC Roy Hospital and the fact that BCR is severely short of facilities to deal with injuries such as these, BCR authorities (or lack of them) refered Rohit to a hospital in Kolkata. As Rohit was being shifted to Kolkata in an ambulance, he passed away and was declared brought dead at nearby Mindapore hospital." says the story at this link.

Despite the huge backlog of assignments, presentations and reports, I take my time to write this cos this news has somehow affected me deeply. Over the 5 year period away from home now, I have seen first hand how these "premier" institutes of the nation have failed to live up to the expectations of young minds. Be it the gross shortage of quality faculty, the stupid bureaucracy of the power and commission hungry administration or the vote-bank-reservation politics; all are equal contributors to the pathos of society. Is it fair then to point fingers at those who seek greener pastures abroad? At places where hardwork and competence is valued and merit prevails?

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