Class Creators

It was a lovely morning on east-coast after night-long downpour.
Cool sea-bridge with freshness of washed flowers was flowing
through my spacious guest house. And I proceeded to dining hall
for breakfast- a formal one. Never, I'm used to it from childhood
- leave aside current days. I always find self in short of time
even after precisely planned morning destined to run for office
gulping a part of breakfast. But that day was special having a
couple of vice-chancellors on breakfast table. For me, if you
say or can say so, that is a luck or coincidence as I usually
keep away from power corridors. I find it suffocating formal,
probably for my upbringing in informal atmosphere in my village,
you can tell it my ..............

The issue I want to put before you is on the table talks happened
in that morning. I should quickly add here a bit on eating habits
many of us follow in India after accepting dining tables and discarding
our old habit of eating with elegant style of squatting. I remember
there were many formal procedures to be obeyed starting from laying
of asanas (small carpets) to spreading of food items on leaves. Now,
we don’t teach kids how to behave on dining table as we have no time
for it but for the idiot box. Now I remember- I developed distaste with
my the first job for its unbearable scenes in company canteen. I can’t
bear the sound of noisy chewing, sucking of all five fingers and throwing
of rice balls into mouths (seeing that, old coal engines come to my mind).
Near our dining tables, we don’t expect witty table talks. That morning,
I had to bear with some of those that I don’t like on dining table.

Excuse me, I have strayed bit of the main theme I plan to tell you.
That's, now the parameters of efficiency of a Vice-Chancellor is being
measured by the amount of money he could spend in his tenure, for building
thousands square feet of floor space and for recruiting hundreds of
teachers, for starting integrated courses/centres (as we have finished
many govt. undergraduate colleges) and finally for the number of shops set
in campus. One was vying against other reeling out their statistics.
There was a vice chancellor of a state university. Found, he was
keeping silent like one of the three famous monkeys but listening
to others in melancholy. The truth is only some central universities
corner so much funds proclaiming themselves as first runners. Ill
funded state universities are on life saving drugs, in shambles.
Many students from Odisha proceed to central univs at Delhi,
Pondicherry and Hyderabad. Seems, we are in the march of creating
a class of society trained at universities of different grades
created artificially by folly of potential of excellence!