Insight
IIT BOMBAY STUDENT MEDIA BODY estd. 1997
april 2014 pages 12
www.Insightiitb.org
YOU
volume 16 issue 03
RACIST?
Flexes. FB. GPO. Spam! 04 My Money. Your Gods. 08 ToI attacks, yet again. 12 Insight is the students’ newsletter of IIT Bombay. The views expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Students’ Gymkhana, IIT Bombay. Contact us at Insight@iitb.ac.in for permission to reproduce contents.
pShubhangi Salinkar
06
insight
What does a Secy do?
Chaitanya Potti, Chirag Chadha, Ishan Rakshit, Prakhar Singh, Saket Bhardwaj, Sayesha Aravapalli, Shoven Mehta, Tanmay Shrivastava, Yash Mehta
From a leaking bathroom tap to defunct equipment in the music room and from ice-cream not being served in the mess on the stipulated day to a volleyball gone missing, a hostel secretary is the default go-to man for all such woes of any hostel resident in general. While all the services one’s ‘portfolio’ demands are to be performed without mention, a hostel secy is also expected to work for PAF, the hostel’s fest and high-prep GCs like Main Dram GC – all of which is portrayed as a testimony to his ‘hostel enthu’. Be it helping make the prod setup or lugging stuff around before a PAF or assisting the participants during MDGC, a secy seldom gets time to catch his breath while these events go on. The question however is – Is the burden of work on the secy justified? Or should it be brought down? Who or what defines the duties and responsibilities of a Hostel Secretary? The Current (S)Election Procedure for Secretaries The current process entails heavy groundwork from seniors, not all being cakewalk. The basic grudge remains that not all of the seniors cooperate with your groundwork and campaigning and often these are marred by instances of lengthy “intro’s”. The survey conducted also resonated the same amount of dissatisfaction with the current election procedure, with only 24.5% considering it to be the best way out. Other than the irregularities in the process, Hostel Councils often put further restrictions on a candidate by making him/ her write things down in their manifesto that, technically speaking, won’t fall under his/her purview. Working for PAF, Valfi’s and during other high-prep GC’s are some of the examples of manifesto points that almost all of the hostels mandate candidates to put down. In case one refuses to do so, his/her candidature is likely to be cancelled. Expectedly, the current perception of a Secretary’s job description has primarily been defined by the annual passing-off of the duties and responsibilities carried out by past secys. Consequently, an astounding 70% of the current secretaries agreed that their job description involved both genre-related and non-genre-related work. PAF God Hota hai! (?) Among people who have never been a secy, there are almost as many who empathize with the secys as there are those who feel that their working for PAF etc. is alright. As for those who either are secys right now or have been secys in the past, at least three out of five people think that working for PAF shouldn’t be mandatory for a secy. Surprisingly, 84% of these current secys would still be working for the upcoming PAF by their own admission. It’s interesting to note that only 15% among those who contested for a hostel post and lost believe that their unwillingness to work for PAF pulled them down. Similarly, only 10% of those who never contested for being a Hostel Secy claimed that they shied away from the responsibility because of secy work – replete with work during PAF, high-prep GCs etc., as already mentioned – being too demanding. If these stats are to be believed, PAF, Hostel-Fest etc. might not be the only demotivating factors for Secretary work. SOP Box, Campaigning and the fear of losing out to a more ‘influential’ candidate are also factors to be considered.
pSahil Trivedi
What should a Hostel Secretary do? There doesn’t seem to be any ideal, well-defined function of a hostel secy with the expectations varying so much across the hostelites he/she is required to cater to. The lines dividing responsibilities among the council seem highly blurred. A Cult Coucillor needs his secys to work for him during the events and wants them to work as hard as possible so that the hostel flourishes. (S)he wants all his/her secys to contribute as much as possible and work over and above their stipulated portfolio. On the other hand, somebody who is not a secy just wants the events happening in the institute to be organized well in general and has a certain expectation from his hostel with regards to performance in GCs, PAF etc. He is unlikely to be too bothered about what the division of work is like within the hostel council and whether it’s secys burning the midnight oil to put an event together or anybody else from outside the council.
As suggested by the statistics, about 45% of the current secys and ex-secys took up the responsibility because they were genuinely interested in the specific work they took up. So, it’s not too unusual of them to shy away from the strenuous PAF work at the end of a year during which they’ve performed their own genre-specific duty with utmost sincerity and enthusiasm. Hostel Councils of most of the hostels, when contacted, couldn’t turn in any Hostel Constitution that might serve as a guiding principle. Even the Hostels with a constitution have an ill-framed one, not explicitly mentioning the responsibilities of the secretary and some of them don’t have even a proper structure laid out for the hostel council - a big reason why they are very rarely referred to. These constitutions are rarely updated and latest amendments date back years. In fact, the probability of your asking a random person if his hostel had a constitution and his responding in the affirmative must be one in fifty. Paraphrasing the function of hostel secys as per these so-called constitutions, he is a person responsible for conducting events in the hostel and ensuring that the hostel inmates are well-prepared and participate enthusiastically in both intra-hostel and inter-hostel events in case of Sports, Cultural and Technical Councils and is one responsible for smooth running of the Hostel Mess and proper upkeep of the hostel amenities in case of Mess and Maintenance Councils respectively. The constitutions are rather unclear on what the responsibility of a secy during PAF should be. While the constitution of one hostel says that the Dram secy and Dance secy should look after the dramatic and dance components of their hostel’s PAF respectively, there’s no mention of what the other secys are expected to do. The Hostel GSec’s whom we spoke to however argued that Councils, over the years, have been observed to function without major glitches by just utilizing their own intellect, and hence the fact that they’ve not felt a need to refer to their constitution is understandable. So, what’s the final deal? All said and done, the institute needs to see PAFs happen. At the same time, the hostels need to see their respective Hostel Fests happen. Also, the show of the GCs must go on to reward people who are good at a certain extra-curricular activity and to keep the healthy competitive spirit among hostels going. None of them being dispensable, it’s a matter of fact that you need as many(perhaps even more) people working to put these cultural and social extravaganzas together as there are now. But the way the work is extracted out of a secy could be modified so as to be convenient and enjoyable for the secy too. For instance, dividing work fairly among the council members and amicably asking a secy what he would like to do out of a list of, say, twenty things - both could go a long way in easing out the pressure on the secys and result in their performing better and with enthusiasm. It’s a loss to the hostel if a potential secy, who is actually good at and enthusiastic for a particular genre, doesn’t end up holding that responsibility just because he disagreed to promise working for PAF or the Hostel Fest. Without undermining the Hostel Council’s indispensability in PAF work, a hostel’s Literary Secy or Debating Secy, for instance, must know his own art well so as to enable him to organize and set events, teach that art to anyone in the hostel who is willing to learn etc. In case this doesn’t seem viable, PAF could probably have its own council to look after. The current structure of having PAF core teams in each hostel that extract work out of the Hostel Secretaries often leads to the hostel instating a dummy secy for a genre with eyes firmly set on PAF - which will only arrive after the hostel might have already lost out on a professional dance workshop, a well-written hostel magazine, a practice session for the Logic GC et al for a full year. Having a separate PAF team for each hostel which comprises of seniors and sophomore would significantly better the current scenario. Clear and fair division of responsibilities and selection of suitable individuals for different hostel posts are clearly the need of the hour. u
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Have you ever wondered how there are so many items in the canteen menu - almost as many as the number of items being served in Gulmohar or Laxmi? Were you not surprised by the sheer number of items available in your canteen, and how it manages to store and cook all that food in such a small space? Although it may appear that the functioning of canteens is relatively independent, and that canteens are private entities which can entirely decide what to cook and serve, the institute is indeed concerned about the hygiene and standards of the food we eat.
After the unfortunate incident of food poisoning at Hostel 13 two years ago, the institute is finally taking some steps to prevent its recurrence - albeit in a way that may prove less than popular with the student population. Canteens all over the institute (barring a few) will now serve only a limited menu, with around 15 categories of items. In the bi-annual HCU meet held last semester where General Secretaries of all hostels and the GSHA were present as student representatives, the matter of hostel canteens was brought up. The students pushed for an increase in the space available to hostel canteens, chiefly for the sake of hygiene. However, it was agreed that that a reduction in the number of items being sold by the canteens was the only viable option. For further discussing the issue and implementing the changes, it was decided in the HCU meeting that a subcommittee be formed in order to look into matters regarding canteens. This committee consisted of Prof Basanta Nandi (the Convener), Prof Arindam Chowdhury, Prof Pradeep Kumar and the GSHA, Abhijeet Mukhekar. The committee convened on January 22, 2014 to develop an outline that would help lay out the menus of each canteen, while simultaneously taking care of the hygiene and food standards. Insight spoke to Prof Nandi and Prof Chowdhury. The institute feels that students must have their primary dinner in the mess, which is offered at a socially acceptable time. Later in the night, if they suffer from an attack of hunger, they can go and have some hygienic food at the canteen. This does not entail eating roti sabzi in the canteen at say, 1 AM, as that is not something people should be eating so late at night; instead, some sort of fast food that serves the purpose of satiating their hunger.
Primarily, it was decided by the sub-committee that all the curry items will be removed from the canteens, leaving untouched most of the dry items which can be cooked without the requirement of a large kitchen and are presumably safer. The variety in other food categories like parathas, frankies, will also be reduced, but vendors will still have the freedom to offer different types of items on different days. That said, the canteens having sufficient space at their disposal will remain immune to these changes. Type A Canteens are those that have close to 200 sq. feet of area allocated to each of them. This includes canteens of hostels 3, 5, 6, 7 and 11, and consequently are allowed to serve from within a total of 17 categories, including 15 basic categories and a choice from 3 additional ones. If, instead, the canteen in question has a space of more than 200 sq. feet at its disposal, it is termed a Type B Canteen. Canteens of hostels 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 and 14 fall in this category. In addition to the menu permissible for Type A Canteens, their Type B counterparts are also allowed to prepare dry vegetables such as Aloo Jeera, Aloo Bhindi, Bhindi Fry and Paneer Bhurji.
e n e i g Hy ety i r a V vs
The Canteen Dilemma
The report is very specific in its restrictions on the preparation of curry items. It even goes on to specify a list of brands that the vendors should adhere to, in order to maintain standards in quality. Abhijeet Mukhekar, the General Secretary Hostel Affairs (GSHA), when asked about the implementation of the guidelines set out in this report said that he is all set to revamp the ‘Canteen Committee’ which existed a couple of years back, to look into all matters concerning canteens. The Canteen Committee will comprise of 2 or 3 Wardens, 2 or 3 Hostel General Secretaries, and the GSHA. Among other things, the committee will perform routine surprise checks at the canteens to ensure that the guidelines are being followed. The proposed changes are supposed to be implemented anytime soon. If all goes well, the modifications will be crystallized thereafter. In addition to talking about the details of the report and how they would ensure hygiene and better food standards for all, Prof Nandi also argued that the proposed changes would encourage students to dine at socially acceptable times in their messes. However, he also added that this decision was in no way intended to act as an infringement on the night life of students by curtaling the facilities available to them at odd hours. u Ameya Behere, Anant Kekre, Anshul Avasthi, Anurag Mundhada, Kshitij Jayakrishnan, Prachi Chavda
Type A Hostels 3, 5, 6, 7, 11 In the meeting held by the committee in January, the request for allowing an increase in the categories of food offered by the canteens was also considered. The final agenda for the impending changes classifies the institute’s canteens into two groups, based primarily on the space available to them.
Food Options 15 basic categories such as dosas, sandwiches, frankies, etc. will be common for all, while each canteen will also specialize in two additional ones Area 200 sq. ft. or less
Type B Hostels 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 Food Options Dry Vegetables preparations, over and above everything Type A canteens are permitted to prepare Area Over 200 sq. ft.
insight
EVENT PUBLICITY a necessary evil Anant Kekre, Anshul Avasthi, Arjita Kulshreshhta, Atul Gupta, Ishan Rakshit, Kshitij Jayakrishnan, Kush motwani, Palka Puri, Pallav Chaudhary, Prakhar Singh, Sidharth Prasad, Shreeyesh Shreekumar
Someone once remarked that there is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary. However, with the countless publicity means available at one’s disposal, one really needs to take a step back and critically weigh the worth and effectiveness of the way one chooses to publicize events. With the sheer number of clubs, IBs and student bodies on campus, there is a constant hubbub in and around the institute about various events, workshops and meets that happen every day. With a few thousand students as their target audience for most of these events, all bodies in the institute toil hard to publicize their best and to ensure that they don’t miss out on anyone. People are trying anything and everything to get heard. Flexes, unarguably the most dominant form of publicity currently on campus, reign right at the top of the publicity bucket lists for almost every club, student body and council. There exist some spots in the institute, now identified as customary publicity points, where almost no one likes to miss out on displaying their flexes, however small their event might be. Visibility stays the primary concern in publicity. With these ‘publicity sites’ flooded with flexes, bodies need to figure out how to make theirs stand out from the crowd. Through a recent survey, Insight tried to look into the pros and cons of the contemporary publicity methods used in the institute. We asked people to rate on a scale of 5 the media through which they come to know of
events. It’s not surprising that Facebook ranks right at the top, followed by flexes. Emails on GPO and word of mouth publicity score moderately. Publicizing through threads on Google groups seems to be the last resort for anyone craving for a large audience at their events, primarily because only a small group of already interested people are subscribed to these groups. When it comes to locations that grab the most eyeballs, hostel areas score the highest. With most of the students spending a majority of their time here, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. LCH stood a close second followed by Campus Hub and nearby areas, while Gulmohar/Canara bank fared poorly. The SAC entrance and the infinite corridor are two other locations that don’t appeal too much to the crowd. A huge chunk of the people did concede to the fact that ‘creative’ and ‘out of the way’ ideas have a critical role to play in taking them to the event. We have seen several instances of these in the recent past, with E-Cell investing a huge amount of manpower in putting up footprint stickers all around the campus footpaths for guiding the new organizers and coordinators to their ATM. It did turn out to be worth the effort, with the event getting a huge turnout, except that they were fined for not removing the stickers after the event was over. Kaladarshan’s ‘Lal-chasma’ venture created a wave around the entire institute, with everyone eager to get their own picture with the ‘lal-chasma’ on.
The other side of the coin Having seen this, are they really worth the time, manpower and money that are invested in them? Insight tries to have a look. How many of the flexes do we really care to look at? Not many. 78% of the survey respondents said that they do not pay heed to more than 5 flexes on any given day, while 67% are not too fond of them and believe that they have a negative impact on the institute’s aesthetics. They believe there should be some regulation in the number of flexes being put up. When it comes to whether the output is worth the cost involved, the opinion is equally shared. A considerable chunk of the entire budget of almost any club, IB or council operating in the campus is indeed spent on publicising their events and ventures. The sports committee, for instance, allocates somewhere close to thirty thousand rupees per year towards publicity. A major lump of that budget is invested into getting flexes and posters printed. A lot of time and effort is also spent for conceptualizing and executing both offline and online publicity. Coming up with a great design for an event’s poster can take anything from a few hours to a few days. The job of putting up flexes and posters across the campus demands somewhere between a half to a one man day on an average. When the target audience is not too large, the events are generally publicized through small paper posters put up on hostel notice boards. It is often the case that old notices are not removed and with time they start to clutter the notice board, forcing people to turn a blind eye towards all of them. That said, there are more serious consequences that come out of publicity through flexes. Nature has been kind to us, with our campus boasting of lush green trees, a lake, a hill and lots of greenery. Are we doing our part in maintaining the serene environment that exists in the institute? Probably not, as these flexes are non-biodegradable and pose a threat to the environment. Some of them are used for creating the PAF productions, though. Possible rebirth of ‘events’ mails Re-publicizing the ‘events’ mailing list on GPO and restricting the authority to post on it to, say, only members of the Gymkhana, is another step that can be taken in this direction. The 2011 batch was the last batch to be automatically subscribed to the ‘events’ mailing list. However, a large proportion of them have been compelled to drop out due to the stupendous amount of spamming that exists as a result of allowing everyone to post on it. By regulating its content and then asking people to subscribe, it could potentially serve as a centralized platform for online publicity.
To the left are posters designed by students on campus for events organized by Institute Bodies, reflecting the attention to detail and effort put into the design of publicity flexes. Photo credits : Syddharth Mate and Utkarsh Raut
5 www.insightiitb.org
Curbing Offline Publicity
Electronic Notice Boards
One possible solution that the SGEC has been thinking of, and which needs a consensus, is to limit the number of events that can have flex publicity. A particular space may also be allocated for these flexes to be put up. A decision through the SGEC could then put a blanket ban on excessive publicity.
Many contesting GSHAs have constantly promised to do something when it comes to Electronic Notice Boards. The first step was taken by STAB by installing one at Campus Hub a few months back. The next step is to extend the facility to every hostel and thereby hope to reduce the clutter on traditional notice boards.
Abhijeet Somani
Animesh Swain
Mayuresh Patole
E-Cell Manager, 2012
Techfest Manager, 2012
Mood-Indigo Core Group Member, 2013
“Creative ideas do create a buzz! Filtering emails on Gmail mailboxes is probably the most effective way to avoid spam. Social media is also a prominent medium for publicity. Some offline mediums such as mess table publicity should be banned as it involves both paperwastage and spamming. Having said this, other methods such as flexes are a necessary evil.”
“The publicity budget is not frozen. Before the fest, around 50 thousand rupees is spent on publicity. During the fest, the amount spent can vary from one lakh rupees to ten lakh rupees depending on the overall budget. Besides, t here is a constant rat race among the clubs and the IB’s on campusround-the-year and all of them toil hard to appear bigger than the others.”
“Since no part of the design is outsourced by Mood Indigo, no budget is allotted to it. The only exception to this were the maps made by an IDC student this year. We also successfully tried out a new website called Thunderclap for publicity this year. Online forms have greater reach while on-ground publicity brags more conversion rate. Neither of the two are expendable.”
v
v
v
Abbas Ali Bohra
Shashank Srivastava
Arpit P Agarwal
General Secretary Hostel Affairs, 2014-15
General Secretary Sports Affairs, 2014-15
General Secretary Cultural Affairs, 2014-15
“My major purpose is to ensure that the publicity doesn’t cross a particular threshold. The trickiest thing would be to define the threshold, such that it doesn’t lead to disfiguring the campus or wastage of resources, at the same time doesn’t curtail the creative intellect amongst us. There are simple solutions to such problems which can be discussed. For eg. if we make a guideline stating that all publicity material should be removed properly after completion of an event in a particular time frame, it would make Institute Bodies responsible to some extent. Electronic Notice Boards were tried and implemented at Campus Hub by STAB during the last tenure. Its implementation in all hostels is subject to approval from institute authorities and we may see them across the campus starting next January.”
“The publicity budget in sports has risen over the past few years on account of an increase in the number of events and is expected to increase further because our campus will be hosting the 50th Inter-IIT Sports meet. The medium with the most effective reach is probably word of mouth. Online publicity through social media is another effective way to publicize events without much effort and expenditure. Flexes are indispensable and are expected to dominate the Institute Publicity scene for quite some time. Mess fliers and washroom stickers are also effective but sometimes a nuisance. I plan to install news bulletin boards throughout the campus with the aim of reducing the number of flexes and posters. This plan has currently been proposed and should be executed during the summers.”
“The recent increase in print publicity measures on campus needs to be trimmed down because they have significantly increased the Visual Pollution. The SGEC is taking a call on it. I am introducing an Institute Cultural Design Team with one nominee and 6 conveners to take care of print and online media requirements of the council and various clubs, to reduce the effort of individual clubs in designing. Flexes cannot be done away with completely unless the digital notice board becomes significantly widespread since GPO mails do not enjoy large readership. A cult-specific android app and a chrome extension are being thought of and worked upon. Personalizing publicity mechanisms as has been done by Kaladarshan is also something that other bodies could try in order to reduce the overload of flexes.”
v
v
v
LCH
Canara
How likely are the following locations to grab eyeballs?
Infinite Corridor
SAC
Gulmohar/Canara Bank LCH
3.88
How many flexes do you actually see in a single day?
2.36 2.52
5-10
How effective are the following ways of media in informing you about events?
SAC
3.61
Out of
GPO Notices
5
3.21
2.89 2.78
H tel Area
0-5
Flexes
3.31
Hostel Area
Out of
5
3.68
10+
0
3.04
Via friends
2.95
Campus Hub
Gmail Threads
*Data based on survey conducted amongst 200 students.
“Creative approaches towards publicizing an event positively influence my chances of attending said event”?
No 30.2%
Yes 69.8%
Do you think the large number of flexes negatively affects the institute’s aesthetics?
No 33%
Yes 67%
In your opinion, is the effort and cost involved worth the result?
No 47%
Yes 53%
Ca pRajath Chandrahasa
insight
We don’t need
no segregation.
Akash Kishore, Anshul Avasthi, Charvi Rastogi, Chirag Chadha, Jay Mardia, kshitij jayakrishnan, Nikhil Allamsetti, Niranjan Jha, Nivvedan Senthamilselvan, Shardul Vaidya, Siva Chaitanya
T
he institute attracts students from all over the country who speak numerous languages and belong to varied cultural backgrounds. This plethora of social backgrounds leads to a fascinating diversity in the campus. When high school students having interacted majorly with people from their region, religion or otherwise come to a college being cosmopolitan in nature, it is but obvious that many issues can arise. Some interactions may lead to long lasting bonds with people from entirely different backgrounds while others can lead to groupism and/or discrimination against the minorities or people from other religions, regions, etc. We address in this article the pervading views of freshmen based on a survey conducted on issues such as region, language, caste, religion and gender.
Language/Region
Let us first delve into the issue of whether some languages dominate the institute, and how social interactions and academics are affected because of these languages. To gauge this, we asked freshmen whether they felt that the campus was Hindi-centric - and a majority of respondents believed that they indeed felt so. Students who are not fluent in English Academics in the institute are completely Englishbased. The medium of instruction in classes, the text in slides, notes, manuals, circulars, handouts are all written in English. However, all students had the option of appearing in the IIT-JEE in one of two languages - English or Hindi. Students from the state of Gujarat are even given the option of writing JEE in Gujarati. In the current freshmen batch, around 6% of the students wrote their JEE in Hindi. How well are these students faring in academics upon entering IIT-B? Not quite well, it was observed, and this is probably not their fault. The average CPI of these students is 6.96 which is on the lower side of the institute average. It is also worth pointing out that 80% of the students who opted to appear for the IIT-JEE in Hindi are from reserved backgrounds.
Out of the respondents who were not fluent in English before entering IIT-B, every third feels that their academics has taken a turn for the worse because of the current English-based system. The average CPI of students who responded saying that their academics have definitely been affected is 5.47, which is clearly a cause for concern. The Institute however does not make any sort of an effort in order to pave a path for these students towards an English-based education system. There is little or no encouragement for these students from the system. Currently, “Practical English Training” classes are taught by a few voluntary students and run only once a year during the odd semester. It seems to the authors that this is not enough to teach weak students enough English to bring them at par or even close to their batchmates. The general apathy of the administration to the plight of these students is a major cause of concern. Students who are not fluent in Hindi This is an issue which many are acquainted with. From the moment of joining IIT-B it is a conspicuous and pertinent topic of conversation. The main issue at hand seems to be the idea that students who don’t speak Hindi end up forming their own social groups and sticking to them throughout their stay in the Institute. Is the campus Hindi centric?
Yes 50%
No 44%
Yes, I had a tough time adjusting 6%
Are you fluent in Hindi?
No 17%
Lack of fluency was a social barrier 46% Yes 83%
As mentioned earlier, the survey found out that close to 56% of the respondents felt that the campus was Hindi-centric. Many hailing from South India find this to be a primary problem since Hindi, if at all spoken in their hometowns, is their second or third language. Not knowing Hindi can be a problem as it is often an informal prerequisite for entering various social circles or clubs. It is observed that in their first few days here they preferred to hang around with people from their region as they could freely express their apprehensions and problems to them. Of the freshmen who were not fluent in Hindi an intriguing 46% said that their lack of fluency in Hindi was a hindrance in making friends or is still a hindrance in their social circles. Of those who had a tough time adjusting in the campus due to its Hindi-centric nature, 89% come from South India, and 78% of them speak Telugu. One must also note that despite the fact that most, if not all, South Indians not fluent in the language were eager to learn Hindi as soon as possible, they still felt they might be made fun of. Since it was a new language for them, they were bound to make mistakes. Since the number of non-Hindi-speaking students in our institute is substantially large, they often do not feel impelled to go out and make friends from other cultures. This is quite a natural tendency - to stick to people who come from a similar linguistic background so as to stay within one’s comfort zone.
7 www.insightiitb.org
Non Telugu South Indians Based on the groundwork done by our panelists, one major positive seen almost everywhere was the fact that people on both sides of the language barrier were trying to learn the others’ language. Nearly all of those surveyed from the South said that they were trying to pick up Hindi and their Hindi-speaking friends were quite helpful in this regard. We even came across certain instances where non-Telugu speaking students attempted to learn Telugu. In fact, the Telugu suffix “ra” is commonly used even by others!
Region
We have described the issues faced by students from varied linguistic backgrounds. Now we analyze the academics and social life of students hailing from different regions across the country. Academics Amongst the respondents of the survey, 40% come from metropolitan cities, 35% from cities, 21% from towns, and the remaining 4% from villages. One would be surprised to find out that there is a definite trend in the CPIs of students based on their place of origin. On an average, CPI for students from metros is 7.46, for students from cities is 7.29, for students from towns is 7.17 and for students from villages is 6.67. Possible reasons for this trend can be: • Acclimatization to alien environment: IIT-B being in Mumbai, the life on campus is akin to living in a metropolitan city in many ways. Acclimatization to a metropolitan lifestyle can be tough for some students and may be one of the reasons for this decline in CPIs as we go from an urban lifestyle to a rural one. Of course there are students who excel in academics irrespective of where they come from, but one must note that we are looking at the average performance of students here. • Language: As mentioned above, there exists a considerable section of students who have written their JEE in Hindi, and 60% of these students belong to towns or villages. Our survey suggested that these students faced a lot of problem in adjusting to the English-based teaching in IIT-B. Coupled with the fact that there is little or no support from the Institute for this population, this is one of the reasons for the trend. Social There is a clear preference among student groups in choosing friends and this strongly correlates with where they come from. We look into a few possible reasons for the same: • Communication: Students from metros speak majorly in English and are sometimes perceived as elitists by other students. They tend to form groups amongst themselves, as do others who chiefly speak Hindi or Telugu. Often the latter kind are immiscible with the first two due to very little efforts by either side to bridge the gap. • Lifestyle: There lies an entire chasm of difference between the pre-IIT lifestyle of students hailing from urban and rural regions. It’s not uncommon for either side to have a culture shock in the initial few months. To make their transition easier, students hang out with peers who have had a similar lifestyle. The authors opine that after a semester, these divisions become quite superficial given that everyone settles into a homogenous lifestyle that defines our archetypal institute life.
Caste
The issue of a student’s caste is one that is seldom discussed in the open and is thus potentially capable of causing polarization between students. Hence, we tried to study the general sentiment of freshmen on the topic. We tried to gauge whether freshmen tended to agglomerate on basis of their caste, or if any other disparity existed between general and reserved students. 69% of the freshmen feel that discrimination on the basis of caste does not exist at all, while just 3% said they have witnessed discrimination first hand. The remaining 28% feel that discrimination indeed exists albeit in an indirect manner. However, from the point of view of category students, a highly alarming 56% of them feel that discrimination does exist, mainly in a discreet manner. As most of you know, for this batch of freshmen, the institute has undertaken the policy to room together students of general and reserved categories, in what may be an effort to bridge the divide between the two. In the previous batch, students of the same category were roomed with each other (as the allotment was performed JEE rank-wise) which led to formation of social groups on the basis of category right from word go, according to a sophomore. Once such a social group is formed, it becomes difficult to break even if tried. Such a segregation into groups has been less apparent this time around, as everyone has had to interact with people from different castes right from day 1, probably helping in overcoming any prejudices students might have had consciously or subconsciously before they came here. Hence, the move by the institute seems to have had a positive effect. The main divide, however, seems not to be due to any sort of negative sentiment, but due to the sphere of academics. The average CPI of general category, OBC and SC/ST students is 8.09, 6.6 and 5.59 respectively. 70% of reserved category students said that they experience more academic pressure than general category students, as they feel they lag behind the latter in academics. This was a demoralizing factor that hit them hard when they got their exam results. The conclusion that can be drawn is that the discrimination against reserved category students is not direct and open, but indirect and discreet. The major disparity between students of general and reserved categories is the extra academic stress perceived by reserved category students.
Gender
Gender discrimination is a rather sensitive issue, as many would concur, and the bias isn’t as evident as one might imagine. It could be anything from a quick glance that questions their competence without evidence to suggest inadequacy to a complete disregard of their capabilities, counting them out of the debate without any valid reason unless you count their sex. However, a majority of freshmen termed the campus as open-minded and non-discriminatory toward girls. The reason for it is an enormous and very visible change in people’s mindsets. For instance, one doesn’t hear any complaints about gender-specific curfew in public places becasue there isn’t one! This is probably why on being asked very specifically to state some problems they might have faced, the immediate response was a long blank stare from the girls on campus. It is troubing that ojectification of women has recently become a common problem on campus. Further, it also came to our notice that boys aren’t the only ones who are greatly disappointed with the number of girls in the campus. Several of the girls find that they can’t be as picky as they’d like to be about their friends in the hostel, simply due to the lesser numbers.
CPI of students vs their region 7.46 7.29 7.17
In the words of Prof. Sharmila from the Humanities and Social Sciences Department: Metros
Small Cities
6.67
Towns Villages
“If we think that women’s relative absence is the only issue at hand, we are probably overlooking something just as important. That women are here, within this institution. They are here as teachers, researchers, students, nonteaching staff, karmachari workers, doctors, domestic
helps and home-makers. It is almost always as though the women present are invisible and so men zestfully converse and transact business amongst them completely ignoring and excluding the women. At best women are talked about, rather than talked to. They are the subjects of conversation, rather than legitimate interlocutors/audience. And jokes, particularly, tend to target them rather than address them.” We leave the readers to make their own conclusions reading the varied opinions which have been presented above. Does discrimination against women really exist on campus? Or are we so used to it that we don’t think the subtle things that men do are wrong?
LGBTQ
The following is an excerpt from a freshman (who wanted to remain anonymous) regarding experiences as someone belonging to the LGBTQ community. “Being gay or otherwise queer and entering a new environment surrounded by completely new people is a daunting experience - Especially when many of them may not be aware of the intricacies involved in sexuality and gender. Having said that, I was very excited to come to IITB out of all the other IITs, because I had heard quite a bit about Saathi, and it was nice knowing that I’d have some support in the institute. The initial time at IITB was filled with ups and downs. I met some really amazing and openminded people with whom I could discuss sex and sexuality without restraint, but these were only a few folks who would explicitly support LGBTQ rights and who wouldn’t say homophobic things. I found all the sexism and the few homophobic jokes used in the freshie orientations very annoying. Overall, jokes referencing Saathi had become very common, and supporting Saathi publicly was, and still is, quite a challenge for me. I think the institute needs a proper discourse with respect to not just sexuality, but also gender. What I’ve observed is that homophobia is mostly superficial (I draw analogies to racist jokes and stereotypes in the Indian context) but sexism is deeply entrenched. Speaking of my hostel, I don’t know if my life would’ve been any different were I in some other wing, but my wing is quite supportive and open. I had gathered enough courage by the end of the first semester to come out to a couple of my wingies. Also I had come out in Saathi, and have made some very nice friends because of the group. Overall, I’ve definitely been much more comfortable with my sexuality and with myself after coming to IIT Bombay.” Some may be glad to hear that homophobia is mostly superficial, but it is alarming to note that sexism might be deeply entrenched within and around us. How do we overcome these issues, and more importantly, can they be overcome in a time scale all of us will live to see?
Religion
The issue was to try and figure out how secular or nonsecular the freshmen batch is, and whether minority religions face any undue bias, subtle or direct. The important thing to note is that this freshmen batch (and largely the campus) is homogenous to a great extent, religion-wise, with a major chunk of Hindu students. When asked whether all festivals are celebrated equally, approximately 50% people said that they feel that the festivals of religions other than Hinduism are neglected to an extent, while a 14% minority even felt that all religious celebrations should be done away with. When asked about an instance of unavailability of chicken, which can be viewed as a subtle religious discrimination that occurs across messes all over campus during Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, responses of students varied, with almost equal number of students condoning the practice and condemning it. A quarter of the respondents were unaware of such a practice until they were told about it. Hence, it appears that while religious polarization doesn’t seem to be an issue among the freshmen, this may be due to the homogeneity of the crowd rather than the presence of a secular sentiment that enables acceptance of others having different religious views. While the majority might not even take notice, the minority does face indirect discrimination and has to accept certain religious practices despite not being part of the religion celebrating the festival.u
insight that hostels mostly do not place restrictions or celebrate minorities’ festivals, are we not staring at majoritarianism? This sort of entitlement for the majority has the potential to be harmful in the long run. If the majority itself comes forward to celebrate with the minorities, won’t it be better for the social atmosphere in the campus? It is high time that we develop an understanding of such principles and improve the moral fabric of our community. The institute will definitely benefit from policies recognising all sections of the society. As its rightly remarked, ‘Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice’.
Counter-View
Festivals should be funded by Hostels Aditya Palod
IIT Bombay provides accommodation to students inside the campus, then how can anybody restrict people from practising their religion, since this has been their home for quite a few years? Celebration of festivals in hostels has been in full swing for many years now. It is one of the very few mediums left where people do connect with one another directly. They do not just serve the purpose of social networking among the students but students get a glimpse of the myriad religions and cultures that make up the rich diversity of India.
View
Festivals should not be funded by hostels Nasiruddin Ahmad
Every hostel council in IIT Bombay is democratically elected and is meant to represent the entire population of the hostel - the minority and the majority community alike. There is an onus on the council to not succumb to the populist idea of celebrating festivals. In a much larger context, we are also demeaning the basic essence of secularism, which is considered an important pillar in the diverse and democratic country that India is. It leads us to believe that it is okay not to recognise minorities and give them space in the society. The basic rights of the minority cannot, at any point of time, be taken for granted while doing something which the majority is interested in. Festivals, both cultural and religious, are celebrated with much enthusiasm and incur significant expenditure. However, almost all of the events pertain only to a specific region or religion. Given that funds from the hostel are used for such events, which in turn are collected from the students, is this justified given that the events are limited to that of the majority? Such traditions that have been established over the years demean the principles which are sacrosanct to the institution we are part of. Does this not raise questions about the moral values and tolerance that an individual will have? Moreover, the restriction of non-veg food for all students during the Ganesh festival is another contentious issue. The fact that the council unilaterally decides whether non-veg or eggs would be served is unjust. Insight talked to H1 warden, Prof. Sunoj who had a definite stand on the issue. “I have fundamental issues with the the way our campus operates. The minorities are not recognised by the majority.” In Hostel 1, he made the council conduct a referendum on the non-veg restrictions and a compromise was decided after consultation with the hostel wherein extra non-veg would be served after the Ganesh festival. He continues, “Do such restrictions mean that you will not serve food to anybody during the day during Ramadan? You should follow the policy of celebrating either all or no festivals”. When Insight spoke with the mess workers in Hostel 8 if they had any problems cooking non-veg during the 10 day period, the workers responded, “We have no such problems. We are ordered not to cook anything related to non-veg during the 10 days by the Mess Councillor.” When we spoke to the Gen Sec of Hostel 8, he apologetically remarked, “The Mess Councillor unanimously took the decision even without informing me. We are sorry for the inconvenience. From the next year, we will shift the idol to some other place such that the daily routine in the mess is not disturbed.” Placing restrictions on non veg food during Ganesh festival takes away a certain part of freedom. And given
The funds for such celebrations cannot be sanctioned from Institute and therefore in some hostels people pool together their money to celebrate or money is sanctioned from hostel funds paid by every resident of the hostel.
Should Hostels fund Religious Festivals? Aditya Palod, Ankit Jotwani, Kshitiz Swaroop, Nasiruddin Ahmad, Rahul Maganti
The views expressed by the authors of these editorials are their perspectives alone and do not necessarily represent facts or opinions endorsed by Insight or IIT Bombay.
As far as religious sentiments are concerned, every religion is getting represented fair and square. Like in Hostel 15 Halal meat is being used, Jain food is being served despite of them being the need of a small percentage of students. And also festivals from different religions and backgrounds are celebrated like Ganesh Chaturthi, Dahi Handi, Lohri etc. Generally the decision of which festivals are to be celebrated resides with the hostel council which is quite legitimate given that they are elected by the residents themselves. We live in a community and therefore we have some social obligations. While talking with hostel wardens about the same, they seemed a bit worried about the decreasing levels of tolerance of students in the institute. According to Prof MS Balakrishna “Such kind of issues can be solved with cooperation and understanding. And concerned authorities should implement some rules if serious issues crop up.” Somewhere in between Rahul Maganti
The solution for the status quo is to either not celebrate religious festivals, or to pool in the money from those interested in each. Apart from not only being a logistical problem, hostel involvement is also ideologically flawed. Secularism, as enshrined in the constitution of India, means, ‘The state and the persons who are mandated to represent the state should stay away from religious institutions and activities.’ The hostel is the analogous of ‘state’ and the group of persons mandated to represent the ‘state’ is the hostel council. The manner of celebrating the festivals should be more sensitive to the rights of the minority living in the shared space. Since not everyone is interested in a given event, the funds for the celebrations should not be provided by the hostel, but pooled by the particular group of people who are interested in organizing and celebrating the festivals. The council then may choose to not get involved during these occasions, let alone in organizing the entire celebrations. But then, this set of individuals who wish to celebrate a particular festival, shouldn’t in any way indulge in activities due to which any hostelilte or a person from the minority community gets neglected. The rights of the individuals should be given utmost priority, even if they are outnumbered by the people of a different ideology.
9 www.insightiitb.org
library of the
pShubhangi Salinkar
future In a detailed interview, Librarian Daulat Jotwani discusses what the library will look like a year from now
Anant Kekre, Anshul Avasthi, Kshitij Jayakrishnan, Paul Samuel
“Mission of the Central Library is to facilitate creation of new knowledge through acquisition, organization and dissemination of knowledge resources and providing for value added services.” In a world where digital media has far surpassed print in its outreach and visibility, one may wonder what purpose a library serves today. The Central Library not only provides us with facilities to issue books, journals and reference texts, but also acts as a place where all students can work and study in an environment conducive to creativity and learning. Indeed, looking at the vast extent of resources our library offers, we have the freedom and luxury to drink our fill from this reserve of knowledge. But not all that is old is gold, and the Central Library is trying to evolve into a superior version of itself, thereby hoping to better cater to the students’ needs. Insight has a look at what renovations have been planned. The library these days is surrounded by debris around what used to be the entrance, while the new entrance has been shifted to a side-door entry round the corner. Even inside the sitting area, bookshelves and issue counters have been rearranged in view of the renovations that the library is undergoing. Insight interviewed Mr. Daulat Jotwani, the Librarian, to get an idea of what exactly has been planned for the future. Why is the renovation necessary? Most of the library we see today was built way back in the 60s. The air-conditioned section was added during the 80s, and it needs major repairs in places. Ideally, constructing a new library building would have been a better proposition. But this proposal could not get
through due to various constraints including that of a suitable piece of land, and even the plan to renovate it, has been in the pipeline for few years. Now that the renovation has begun, it is expected to last a year or so. On completion, the building would be able to serve the Institute for another 10 years. Thereafter, we will need an absolutely new and modern building. Can you tell us what exactly is planned as a part of the renovation project? We have a lot of changes in mind. The new entrance will have a beautiful entrance lobby and verandah for displays and exhibitions. The flooring will be changed and the interiors reorganized with new furniture. There will be a compact shelving space in the basement which will store all the old books and journals - paving way for more and newer books to enter the main section. The new library will be completely air-conditioned, and the renovation process shall see an increase of around 200 seats in the building. Apart from this, CCTVs, fire alarms and LED TVs for conveying messages will also be installed. Also a part of the plan is an entirely new, lightweight floor that will be added to the building. With virtually nothing else but computers and around 120 seats, this space will serve as the new study room, it will be accessible by a separate set of stairs, making it possible to have it open 24/7 even when the main section shuts down at night. This new floor will also have what shall be called a ‘language lab’, which will contain tutorials, DVDs etc. for better English teaching. Meanwhile, the old study room will be shut down or put to administrative uses. Please give us a brief outline of the kind of resources the Central Library offers. The library has about 4.40 lakh items in print which includes books, journals, reports,theses etc. Library also arranges access to about 40000 e-journals, e-books and databases which can be accessed on the institute-wide network. In addition, the library can also procure copies of articles and/or borrow books from other libraries on inter-library loans in case certain items students need are not available with us. The Central Library attempts to meet all the needs for books or journals whenever it receives suggestions / recommendation from/through the faculty. Although we already house
many great works of Hindi and English literature, one can always make suggestions to have more novels and leisure books added to the collection - provided they are of a certain standard and quality. All this information, and much more, is available on the Central Library website - which also has been recently improved. The library also boasts a collection of most of the papers published by the institute’s professors, with close to 14,000 papers in the Institutional Repository which can be accessed on internet. Additionally, the library also maintains an online submission of theses and dissertations, accessible only to the residents of the campus. This repository has been in place since 1998, and seems to be the oldest across all IITs. Which people currently have access the Library and its resources? Do you think the set of eligible people should be expanded? Aside from being open for the campus residents and alumni from IIT-B, the library also caters to students from other IITs/IIMs/NITs and other engineering colleges. We also provide access, when required, to industry and corporate houses. The fee structure and rules for this set of people are outlined on the website. Apart from this, people from BARC, ISRO and similar government R&D institutions enjoy free entry to the library. In all, over a thousand people besides the campus residents currently have access to these resources. Although there is demand from many quarters to allow library access, due to space constraints and an apprehension about all the extra monitoring that outsiders entering the library’s premises would demand, this has not been made possible until now.u
insight
How healthy is IITB?
check on messes, we have not seen it happening so far. Associate Wardens are also supposed to visit his appointed mess regularly, which, too, rarely happens. When we looked into the mess tenders that mess contractors are meant to follow, we were appalled to find that certain hygiene regulations enlisted in the mess contracts are dismissed, such as: 1. Provision of paper napkins when fried food is served. 2. Provision of clean towels and soap near hand-wash areas
Aishwarya Chandrasheker Amuda, Aishwarya Rawat, Chirag Chadha, Deepak Dilipkumar, Leffin Christopher, Niranjan Thakurdesai, Shreerang Javadekar, Shreya Sridhar, Vikas Kurapati
Between running groggy-eyed to classes, preparing for GCs and other extra-curricular activities and, of course, the constant pressure of academics, an average IIT-B student barely takes care of his/her health. Simply a case of bad habits? Findings from our survey (with 428 respondents) show that a large fraction of students skip breakfast often. Where sleep is concerned, most get only 5 to 7 hours of sleep as opposed to the widely accepted figure of 8 hours. Coming to physical activities, walking or cycling to class is the most rigorous physical activity in the week for 41% of the students, although a reasonable 56% do indulge in some form of exercise. Here are the exact details: How often do you have breakfast?
Count of How often do you have breakfast?
Always Most of the time Never Rarely
How many hours of sleep do you get everyday?
Count of How many hours of sleep do you get everyday?
>9 1-3 3-5 5-7 7-9
What is the highest level you have achieved in a sport? Count of What is the highest level you have achieved in a sport? Casual Play I don't play sports Inter IIT National NSO/GC State
What a Mess! ‘You are what you eat’. Apparently, IIT Bombay is a boring, bland combination of the same ol’ dal-chaawal-sabji.
While most hostel messes have a nutritionist whom they are supposed to consult prior to making the menu, the nutritionist is neither consulted nor are the necessary dietary changes always feasible for implementation. Most good mess councils ensure that fines (as per the mess tender) are imposed when poor quality of supplies, unclean utensils, etc. come to their notice. Regardless of their best efforts, most residents can still find a spoon with the previous day’s kheer on it. Most students don’t complain and most complaints don’t make it to the complaint registers (which the mess workers themselves manage).
end of winter) as well as the vaccination drives that are conducted at these times. Mental health - it’s not as simple as it looks Insight had a brief talk with Mrs Amita Tagare, the student counselor at the Office of Dean, Student Affairs, about the factors affecting mental health of students. According to her, students find themselves stressed out quite frequently, as they are tested throughout the sem. It’s difficult for many to accept that they are not going to be near the top all the time, as opposed to their preIIT days. Add parental pressure to that and a student starts to withdraw. Also, in their freshmen year, several students start choosing from a garden of extra-curricular activities, neglecting their academics in the process. This neglect entails bad grades and consequently, anxiety and depression, which can induce a vicious cycle - leading to reduced self-confidence and deteriorating mental health over time. On the other hand, there are also family and financial problems, infatuation, heartbreaks. Socializing and communication is also an issue. How many cigarettes do you smoke everyday? Count of How many cigarettes do you smoke everyday?
>10
A look into the fines imposed on the Hostel-10 mess contractor reveals a rather sorry state of affairs. A total fine of around Rs. 50,000 has been imposed in the month of March 2014 alone, while the total mess fee collected per month from hostel-10 inmates (who constitute only half of the total strength of people eating at the Hostel-10 mess) alone is a whopping 9 lacs. Perhaps a revamping of the fine structure in the mess tender might invite graver circumstances upon mess contractors in the wake of their lackadaisical efforts. About diseases A visit to the IITB hospital confirmed that viral flu is indeed the most common illness on campus. Typhoid, Hepatitis A, MMR and chickenpox were also once prevalent and hence are hence compulsorily required to be vaccinated against. Incidences of diseases like malaria and dengue, though prevalent in the campus, have shown a decline since 2009-10 while the increase in tuberculosis cases is alarming. The skewed biological clocks of a vast majority of students are a cause of health-related issues like hyperacidity and indigestion. Body aches and digestion-related problems are commonly reported throughout the year. Mid semester and end semester times entail increased reports of issues like palpitation, anxiety, sweating and sleeplessness. Based on our survey, here’s what students think about their stress levels: Compiled on the basis of data collected from the IITB hospital, the graph at the bottom illustrates the frequency of students visiting the hospital in each month from 2011 to 2013. We can see that the number of students visiting the hospital shoots up during two periods : August-SeptemberOctober and January-February. This sudden rise can be attributed to seasonal changes (end of monsoons and
Most senior students tend to write off our mess food as tasteless. We ventured to find out if the messes are able to redeem themselves, at least in terms of nutrition and hygiene. Unsurprisingly, our findings were not very positive.
1-2 3-5 6-10 I don't smoke
How often do you consume alcohol?
Count of How often do you consume alcohol?
Daily I don't drink Once a month Once a week Only occasionaly
Excessive mental stress requires some sort of release, and some students find this release through smoking or drinking. Mrs Tagare talks about students coming to her for rehabilitation following alcohol abuse. Depicted above are some statistics about the smoking and drinking habits of IITB students. Conclusions The survey we conducted did, to some extent, validate the general perception that students on campus don’t bother about their health to a great extent. However, it is encouraging to see that some percentage of students do take exercise seriously. Addictions like smoking and drinking don’t appear to plague the student population to a great extent. Most of our unhealthy behaviour is encompassed in apathetic nutrition habits and erratic sleep cycles. While there is definitely room for improvement, the health habits of students on campus are not really unexpected in a late-teens / early 20’s college population. u
5000 4500 4000
AOnmess secretary from Hostel 7 do informed usinthat the an average, how many meals you have a day?
3500
On average, how many meals do you have in a day? 3000
1
2500
2 3 4 5
2000
Visit Stats
students visiting 1000 the hospital per month in the
only criterion for deciding the mess menu is, surprisingly, taste! Although many contesting GSHA have promised a special committee to conduct a nutrition
1500
Number of
years 2011-2013
500 0
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F
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A
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www.insightiitb.org
SUmmer Bucketlist Checklist
Staying back in the Institute? Here’s some things you should definitely give a shot: o Play catch, standing on different roofs of hostel 13. o Run like crazy in the rain during the monsoons. However absurd it may sound, follow it up with some hot coffee or dark chocolate at Brewberrys o Spend nights on the SAC field. In the morning, it’s a paradise of mist and cool air. o Pluck and eat mangoes from trees in your hostel, if your hostel has some. If it doesn’t, try Tansa! o Convince a professor to play a sport like badminton with you. If (s) he is very jovial and young, and if you find him/her interesting ask him/her for a dinner! o Game all day at the Central Library. A refuge from the scorching summer heat, the Central Library has air conditioning and cozy chairs so why not dish out a few CS/DotA games with your friends some day? (PS: Hostel 15 junta, check out the 300mbps wifi router in your hostel. That should be of some help) o After a night-out, head over to Maddu Mess for an early morning breakfast. o Play a sport under floodlights. The feeling is divine. Use your free time to explore the city of Mumbai and get to know the way it works. Here are some things to experience: o Sunrise/Sunset at the seafront. The popular spots are Girgaum Chowpatty and Bandra Bandstand o Sunset at the Haji Ali dargah. Hop onto a cab from Mahalakshmi Station o Ferry Ride to Elephanta. A must for those who’ve never experienced deep waters before o Longest bus ride in Bombay. The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) runs an AC Express bus service from Colaba to Borivali. The bus ride (A-76 Express) literally gives you a true flavour of what Mumbai is all about. Traffic jams, Mukesh Ambani’s $2 billion castle in the air – Antilla, the Bandra-Worli sea link, the Bandra reclamation, the jam-packed Western Express Highway, the airport’s fancy Air Traffic Control tower. Travel all routes of the locals from beginning to end. People might consider you a moron when you tell them about this; just do it for the heck of it. o Become a punter at the racecourse. Walk into the Mahalakshmi Race Course and bet on the horses. (P.S. Stick to lower denominations) o Spend a day at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Enter through Borivali o Catch a music concert at National Centre For Performing Arts (NCPA) or a play at Prithvi Theatre. The finalists of Mood Indigo’s Third Bell and Aaveg get to perform at these locations during the summer, and going for these shows with your friends can be a lot of fun! o Go to Starbucks, enjoy free WiFi and complimentary servings, and then walk away saying, “Adrak waali chai nahi hai”. o Ride an auto. A friend fluent in Marathi should come in handy as far as convincing the autowallah goes. o Take an overnight ride to Pune on the expressway. Have chikki in Lonavala on the way and if you have extra time visit Ambi Valley, Lavasa or Adlabs Imagica.
Chief Editors
Deepak Dilipkumar, Jivraj Karwa, Prakhar Singh, Rahul Maganti
Insti Stuff
o Social work: There are many NGO’s and groups like Abhyasika within IIT Bombay, who are working towards betterment of society in one way or the other. If you are someone who can relate to the poor and destitute part of the society and have the zeal to help people, this may be a good option for you. o Mentor
JEE Aspirants: A lot of JEE coaching centers, such as PACE, will take IIT students as teachers and mentors, both insem and during the holidays. A few hours a week can fetch you upto 20k per month, though the work is bound to be more heavy during the summer. It’s still easy money though.
o Paathshaala:
The Cult Council conducts Paathshaala classes during the summer, the most popular ones being Guitar, Drums and Vocals. A great opportunity to follow through on any cultural passions you may have.
General Stuff
o Get into shape: Two and a half months of burden-free time can be utilized to get into shape. If running is your thing, then try and train for a marathon. If not, then go and learn a new sport or simply start hitting the gym regularly.
o Learn to cook:
Learn a new life skill while extending a hand of help to your mother in household chores. Alumni who just graduated out of institute term this as a life- and money-saving skill.
o Watch movies/TV shows: Keep up with the culture of following
TV shows at the institute and tick some interesting series off of your to-watch list. In fact, make a marathon of it! Top it up with some snacks and cold drinks and you’re done. Next time onwards you might as well take part in the enlightening discussion among wingies about the intricacies of various plots.
Academic Opportunities for Freshmen
ITSP: A fairly recent addition to the institute’s summer activities, ITSP has been enormously successful. These projects provide a great opportunity to embrace (or bring out) one’s technical side with help from experienced seniors. Department Project (ISPA): Projects from professors, Technovation and TreeLabs are floated. The time period of the project can be worked out with the professor and some projects continue into the semester as well. A very effective learning platform, it’s certainly possible to handle ITSP and ISPA simultaneously. BioSynth: A student’s initiative backed by the Chemical Engineering department which focuses on Biodiesel production. The project usually lasts 4 weeks and involves lab-based research and plantbased implementation in Chemical Engineering. IITB Racing/ Pratham/ AUV/ Parinath: Some of these teams have represented IITB at an international level and have had a lot of success in recent years. Workshops and sessions held during summers serve as a good opportunity for learning some technical applications of the courses.
Anshul Avasthi Chirag Chadha Editorial Board Members
Anamika Agrawal, Anant Kekre, Anish Gupta, Anukriti Chaudhari, Ayush Kanodia, Deepak Dilipkumar, Hemdeep Padalia, Niranjan Thakurdesai, Kshitij Jayakrishnan, Kush Motwani, Prakhar Singh, Rahul Jain, Sashank Konete, Sidharth Prasad, Sreesh Venturumilli, Yash Tambawala team
Abhishek Khanna, Aditya Palod, Aishwarya Chandrasheker Amuda, Aishwarya Rawat, Akash Kishore, Aman Chaudhary, Ameya Behere, Ankit Jotwani, Anurag Mundhada, Arjita Kulshreshhta, Atul Gupta, Chaitanya Potti, Charvi Rastogi, Chitrang Bohra, Harshveer Jain, Ishan Rakshit, Jay Mardia, Jyotirmayee Sabat, Kshitiz Swaroop, Leffin Christopher, Nasiruddin Ahmad, Nikhil Allamsetti, Niranjan Jha, Nivvedan Senthamilselvan, Palka Puri, Pallav Chaudhary, Paul Samuel, Prachi Chavda, Prakhyat Chatla, Rachil Maliwal, Rahul Maganti, Sahil Vaidya, Saket Bhardwaj, Sayesha Aravapalli, Shardul Vaidya, Shoven Mehta, Shreerang Javadekar, Shreeyesh Shreekumar, Shreya Shridhar, Siva Chaitanya, Tanmay Shrivastava, Vikas Kurapati, Yash Mehta illustrations
Sahil Trivedi, Rahul Jain, chirag gander photographs
shubhangi salinkar design
utkarsh raut
From the Editor’s Desk Hello all, It gives us great pleasure to have finally published our first Print Issue as Chief Editors, which also happens to be Insight’s first-ever summerthemed issue. We think the color orange adequately represents the enthusiasm and energy with which most students enter this season. Our aim throughout the year would be to make Insight’s content as relevant to and as easily accessible by our readers as possible. To that aim, we intend to make leaps and bounds of improvement in how the content that reaches you is designed and presented - in print, and online. You can expect us to bring to you a lot more video content via IIT Bombay Broadcasting Channel (IITBBC). This season will also see us begin working upon the first ever Post Graduate Newsletter as part of our attempts to enhance our reach and to increase Insight’s relevance to the PG community. Next semester, we plan to launch ‘IIT Bombay Central’, a Chrome extension / Android App which will be the campus’ central node in the
Institute’s information nexus. With features such as an Integrated Academic Calendar, customized Mess Menus, details about upcoming events on campus and coverage of recently executed ones, IITB-specific offers and a whole lot more. We hope that the campus will benefit immensely from this initiative. For all of this and more, we owe thanks to a wonderful team that strives to making all of this possible. If you wish to join this team, want us to cover a particular issue that’s close to your heart or would like to give us feedback about our work, please drop a mail to Insight@iitb.ac.in. If you wish to stay updated about anything and everything on campus, you can do so by liking our Facebook page (Insight, IIT Bombay), or regularly checking our website (Insightiitb.org). Anshul & Chirag Chief Editors 2014-15 9833355238 | 8879006151
insight
62.5%
IITians say Bathrooms inept
A
a newsletter to possess since clearly India as a nation is obsessed with high performers and wants to know everything about IITians ranging from their sleeping and eating habits to what coloured boxers should one wear if one wants to secure a seven-digit salary. In this part of the groundbreaking survey, data was sourced on the number of footwear owned by IITians and also what clothes they prefer.
Fed up with criticism about their “poor hygiene” compared to previous batches, a group of IITians from the current batch had conducted a survey on the campus.
The study suggests that if you were to roam around inside IIT, you would find 1 in every 25 IITians to be barechested, reaffirming the theory that lesser the layers of clothes on your body, the more knowledge you absorb from the rumored all-pervading lecture-radiations IIT professors are said to emanate from the antennas in their nuclear powered pens.
Harshveer Jain | Times News Network
round 62.5% of Indian Insti of Technology Bombay (Insti) students claim that they do not bathe as their bathrooms do not manage to generate interest in them.
While a few showers have a nice flow of water, others don’t, reveals the second part of a survey conducted by the students’ magazine, Insight.
The first part of the survey focuses on why the standards of personal grooming at IIT-B are ridiculously low. It has revealed that unless they begin to stink, 43% of students neither change their clothes nor get them washed and cleaned. W hile more than 55% of students have managed to stay without a shower for more than 5 days, a staggering 64% refuse to apply even deodorants. An anonymous student, who did not want his DC++ nickname to be revealed due to ‘personal reasons’, and whose roommate is one among the 14% of people who shower only when they go out, had this to say - “Since I could not stand his body-odour, I had to make mine strong enough to overpower his.” From that day, the aforementioned student hasn’t showered and now tops the (believable) list of not having showered with an awe-inspiring 94 days under his belt. The second page of the survey focuses on the wardrobe of IITians, which is a very Insightful ambition for
At least 40% students claim to be brand conscious, with some even stating that “Shopping at fashion street is like watching Amateur.Craxx.Must.Watch.New.Huha when you have access to X-art”, while only 20% prefer slippers, making us re-think our stereotypes of your average IITian. Many IITians chose to type in their own unique hairstyles, ranging from, and maa kasam, this is true, ‘dipped in honey’ and ‘god gifted curly’ to ‘spiky like a hedgehog’ and ‘sleek like a geek’. There was one rather angry feminist sort who claims that the survey is discriminating against females as, in their words, ‘what do females answer for facial hair question, d-bag’. While the most popular facial-hair style irrespective of gender was clean, one in four male IITians prefer stubble and 33% females prefer to keep it clean. A good 60% of females refused to answer the question altogether, in what is suspected is a silent protest for the student newsletter’s consistent male chauvinistic piggy-ness.
There is a distinct difference in the female and male population of the college. While the average hair length of a female is more than halfway between the scalp and the waist, that of a male is half of that. The male population also owns an average of 3 pairs of footwear, which again is half of what the female population possesses. Only half the males comb their hair as the other half prefers to keep it unkempt - with several suggesting that they do not know the meaning of such a thing as a hair-style - while 85% of females like to comb their hair. The wardrobe of the two also differs. While 48% of boys prefer shorts, only 26% girls do so, while jeans seem to be the favourite of all with a 60% preference rate. What is heart-warming to know is that the taxpayers’ money is being well spent, as the students of IIT seem to be highly motivated to go to lectures; so much so that a staggering 90% say that they don’t give a second thought to their attire before leaving for a class, making it clear that the students at IIT are so enthusiastic about lectures, they don’t waste time on petty issues like decent dressing. With 50% students open to purchasing T-shirts designed by the students, 20% of their wardrobe happens to comprise of those T-shirts. Even as 75% students carry a backpack, IIT Bombay witnesses a colourful range of bags, with a few handful carrying ‘yo mama’s purse’ and ‘buckets’ to classrooms. Another pointless statistic about the college is that 40% IITians maintain an account of their expenditures on clothes and personal care items. Yet another is that 82% of IITians don’t bother taking care of their hair and skin. 10% of the respondents were alumni, predicting that the percentage of IIT T-shirts in the wardrobe goes up by 10 and the average number of footwear owned goes down by 1. That said, the alumni bathe better, as only 45% still refuse to take regular showers. Maybe the memories of their hostel bathrooms haunt them, or maybe it is just how the cream of the country are. The Director of IIT did not have anything to comment since he was not approached for it.n
Insight’s Response Aman Chaudhary, Anant Kekre, Anukriti Chaudhari, Chitrang Bohra, Jyotirmayee Sabat, Prakhyat Chatla, Rachil Maliwal, Sahil Vaidya
O pRahul Jain
n Monday, the 10th of February, 2014 the Times of Insti thought of publishing an article titled ‘62.5% of IIT-B Students say bathrooms inept’ (Link to the article not available since it never was really published). ToI, being on constant steroids when it comes to any sort of developments in insti would have claimed to have sourced their article from our article thread titled “Insti Ki Almari” that appeared on Insight’s Google Group and the inboxes of a few Execution Panelists sometime in 2013. We have been compelled to write this piece by the massive, and quite frankly, surprisingly enthusiastic response to a form we spent barely half a day working on. Our form was a product of mischievous inquisitiveness and aimless article meets fuelled by a lack of ambition and any journalistic responsibility whatsoever. We suspect this was precisely what attracted ToI since they must have felt a resonance with our lack of useful article ideas. In any case, well done ToI! You have managed to compile a piece out of what appeared to us a rather unnecessary survey. Do let us know if you are ever out of newsworthy material again. We will cook up another such survey which surely would be filled up by hundreds of our fellow net-savvy IITians. Later then!
While all the figures used in this article are real figures procured from Insight’s survey on “Wardrobe and Appearances”, all logos and trademarks used above are property of the Times Group.