A Fresher’s Perspective

It is an exciting prospect, isn’t it? To be accepted into one of the most esteemed management institutions in India?

Well that’s exactly what overwhelmed me, a wave of unidentified inspiration to embrace the much awaited, youthful concept of “college life”.

It is characteristic of young blood, a domino effect-thought structure. One thought leads to another and you begin to venture into a world bricked with optimistic expectations, painted by imagination. I pictured entering a world that would be defined by independence, professionalism and a more practical learning environment.

With head held high and hopes held higher, I stepped into a University ranked highly for the course I was to pursue. Considering we were adults now, I assumed we would be treated that way; that was just the first of the expectation versus reality hiccups I faced.  Well, a defined structure with set rules, is necessary, but I understood that merely maintaining attendance was considered taxing rather than something no one would worry about. I can’t remember students at school scraping through to surpass the minimum attendance requirements. Attendance is just an example of the many things at college, I wish to make it a symbol of my constant struggle of expectations versus reality at college. Ideally, higher education must be one out of choice and will, but then what is really normative in today’s society?

Fitting well in a maze of rules wasn’t a big struggle. Remember those high hopes? A small hiccup wasn’t going to crush those. I looked forward to my first month in college…

 History is an essential subject. But this History was different, this History was more like we are part of this History, the History is the present and that is what we are learning. I felt like a wind in reverse took me abaft. Even after deep introspection and deferred conclusions, that the college must teach us the basics of every subject, it was a mammoth task to convince myself that more was to come. The curriculum hadn’t seemed to move ahead with times, and make room for, along with basic topics, newer methodologies. I wasn’t learning anything new; it was same old-same old.

Have you ever come across people who look for the worse in everything? I mean, no matter what the job at hand is, it is definitely holding a problem within? Personally, I know a few people who possess this trait, and I soon welcomed a new friend, my course plan. This may be pertaining only to a few subjects, actually just one. Literature is my favorite subject and when I saw that we had English in our course plan, my hopes shot up a notch. Only to come crashing down. I feel that it is becoming a stereotype, to associate poetry and stories with societal problems. Poetry is an evocative path to convey the poet’s message. There is an immense amount of knowledge and information one can attain by reading poetry. The poetry I read spoke only about women issues, poverty and the multitude of problems that haunt India. This collection has been justified by saying that it is to enable us to think and introspect. No denying that a solution to these problems is to be formed, but are there no admirable things about India? Why is that we must always be clogged with negative perceptions about the country and be taught only that? I call for a broader view of our country through Literature. Through our struggles, there have been a plethora of successes and we have come to ignore.

 University is when you move on to the real corporate world, you say? I am yet to experience that. From my short experience in college, I feel like this is no different from a school, in fact, I am flooded with a feeling that “school life” is more appealing. I say this not for nostalgic reasons, but for the environment, at least my school successfully created, to form one’s own opinions, to be open minded and respect different opinions. The notion of “college life”, either is just a notion or maybe I am yet to embrace it.

I say this when I am only a semester old, those high hopes though not so high, still remaining hopeful.

Disclaimer: The blogpost is an account of a student who wishes to remain anonymous. It is merely a personal experience and not an attack on any institution in particular

Reported by Radhika Sethi

http://www.beyondthepanorama.com