dear all,
this is for all my seniors who are attached to Gokhale and love coming back...it's great to see you guys doing that...
about my comments on Gokhale...well what can i say?
i am glad that all you guys have read my blog with so much patience and have commented on my view...that was my aim anyway..to start a dialogue..after all we are all from the world's biggest and almost oldest democracy...i am really so glad that all you guys want to stand up for 'our' institute...that's exactly what i have been trying to do for the last two semesters...
Gokhale is an institute with a legacy...it had humble origins...started for a purpose...to promote learning and reasoning and develop the art of questioning...the need to see things objectively...the man who started the institute had that vision...and he questioned the right of the British Empire's rule...the biggest testament however to that is the silent banyan tree that stood witness to several converastions between Gokhale and the man the world calls mahatma..about the indian national movement...and that was the guy who even quesitoned his own people and chose to had over the movement for a free india to it's own people instead of confining it in the hands of a few 'educated' elite...and it (the banyan tree) stands silent even today...but if only each of you who called me a 'bitch' for speaking my mind could see what it has to say...
unfortunately, today this institute with one of the richest legacies is at a juncture where it may die a silent death...just like several other research institutes across the country...only coz' it's students only see it as a passport to a great job or an opportunity to earn a degree...for all of you who say that i haven't dared to say it in the open...maybe you guys weren't there when i was in the open speaking my mind...a lot more like you called me a 'leftist'(as if it were a bad word) and some even 'intellectually unsound'...dialogue is possible only with people who dare to disconnect themselves from the object of argument and see it objectively...
each day as i spoke to people about the deteriorating quality of research and the waning faculty..all i got was, " why is she so concerned?" or " aa gayi samaj sudharak.."
:) to all of you...
for me Gokhale is not a passport to a good job...it was meant to be a way of life...and for me this place was my passport to my coming back to pay a tribute to all the wisdom that has poured out of that place...the place that dared to question the way we measured poverty for one...how many of us have even dared to read the original paper?
for all of you who think i am a bitch for speaking my mind about the hostel...(some of it which was purely out of humour) a lot of it is felt by my fellow batchmates...only they prefer to keep it to themselves...i prefer speaking it out...not just on this blog (which i agree is my refrain from the world outside)..i have dared to say it in the open too...
guys...it's most unfortunate that all of you who chose to leave anonymous comments (and of course dearest abhigyan...)can't see how much i love this institute for all that it stood for...for most of you memories are probably made of the times spent in the hostel...for the girl who spent most of her time in the boys hostel...am glad that you found love in gokhale...for a lot of you it was all about the parties and the late night staying up...
maybe i have grown beyond that..coz i have stayed in a hostel before and have had my share of parties and late nights...for me this place is about its beliefs..and its ability to make its students question...something i find sorely missing today...tutorials today are just about finding out how many pages to cram...lectures are just for bunking and giving proxies...subjects are chosen to make sure you have the 'best'(and the trendiest) list of optionals in order to impress the corporate world...for me gokhale was my reason to say goodbye to the corporate world...it was my reason to free my mind from everything that is put forth as the 'right things to do'in order to have a great life...
for those of us who make a different choice in this world...we are branded as 'mentally challenged' or as 'freaks'...it happened in gokhale too..with me...with a lot of my contemporaries...it's happening even now...but i am glad that it is happening...helps me separate the wheat from the chaff...
the hostel that all of you adore is the most culturally biased place where people who are not part of the so called "cool mainstream" (which ironically is decided by a handful of people) are made to feel like social pariahs...it is where i can hear and see tall claims of liberated young women and men...but i am yet to see their minds liberate...class is where i see students being jeered for having different opinions or for daring to question...
today as some of the brightest minds are leaving the place forever and lots more are prevented from entering it (thanks to the petty politics)...it's most unfortunate that its current batch and its alumni are choosing to close their eyes and make themsleves feel comfortable by seeking refuge in the memories of its past...
i am glad that this blog has found its purpose by bringing forth such emotionally charged comments...but honestly guys...reserve your emotions...wake up and smell the coffee...the place you guys have such fond memories of may not even exist in the near future...
while i am glad that we are having this 'dialogue' albeit in the virutal world...it is most unfortunate that none of you have kept aside your emotions and questioned your own beliefs...none of you have even dared to see what a majority of its current batch of students feels about this place...
the way i see it..students make an institute more than an institute making its students...that's what makes the iits and dse and jnu and even gipe what it is...
i am sorry to use this profanity on my blog, but to put it as one of you put it, " if any of you has the 'balls' break away from your memories of this palce and stand up to be counted and help this place from sinking into oblivion...if any of you has the 'balls' question your own contribution to this place that has tried to endow you guys with knowledge and those prestigious jobs that you so proudly display on your cv's...and dare to question what's happening around of you...a lot of you come back even now to meet some of your juniors...listen to some of those voices that you never heard around you and you will see a discontent brewing...some of your own friends claim to be dissatisfied with this place...i hope they are honest about it...there are all kinds of dissatisfactions...some matter to me..some do not...and i am no one to make a judgement..to each his own...some are dissatisfied about having to attend class...some are dissatisfied about taking so many tests...some are dissatisfied with the quality of teaching...(i am most concerned about the last dissatisfaction)...maybe this doesen't matter to most of you who are at climbing very rapidly the ladders of 'success' at your respective corporate jobs...coz all that you leanr at gokhale would never help you at your job anyway...an mba would have been better...but it does to me and a handful of others (some of whom have even taken a loan to study) who want to enter academics and are forming their foundations now...it does for us who want to someday be a part of the process that transfers all this knoweledge and have decided to be a part of gokhale willingly...we have chosen this place...not resorted to this place...only when you belive as strongly in your dreams and are as passionate about your beliefs will you have the guts to stand up and criticise a place that you love...
love and best
vibha iyer
p.s. am quite surprised that you guys never read the post that declared my love for this place and that stated that some of my best moments are spent attending class...maybe that was beyond you guys anyway
pps. to the rest of the world that posted on my blog...thanks for the good wishes...and the never ending vociferous support...i owe you one!!
posted by Vibha @ 7:20 AM
28 comments
28 Comments:
hey vibha. just to make the guessing game a lil more easy for u . i am the girl who spent the two years in the boys hostel.. now here goes on what i have to say on ur latest..
well all that i can say and feel and observe is that your attitude has taken a pivotal shift in this latest blog that u ahve put up.. maybe that is what i call influence or what i call is escaping the charges.. all that this reinforces that u are a coward and if there was anything that you could have done to save ur face was to not change ur view so drastically.. either u really meant what u said or u vwere painfully ironic on the issue.. i am sorry to say but then i failed to get the flavour of this peace of your writing...
where was all ur appreciation for the institute earlier.. not that i have noticed and i am sure my batch mates and the seniors agree with me on this till the last sentence that u have wrote about... talking about the horrible mess food and saying that the est converstaions u have is when u sleep.. is not something that i would term as appreciation u see..
i am happy that u have changed the way u see gokhale .. be it turning away from the problem or just playing along with sarchasm..it will be in your favour if u really meant what all u said till now.. more later .. and i am sure we will meet soon on this planet of yours..
:)
For Vibha.
From the (sadly) politically and (happily) grammatically correct.
well good morning Vibha, i am in office about to start my daily routine and surely am smelling the coffee, nescafe gold , black and very little sugar,
when we entered gokhale, our seniors told us it was our worst mistake joining.." the place sucks" thats what they said
they were cribbing about the same things that you are today, food, friday saturday tuts, profs, no placements.
they followed the same mundane life.
we took the stand what curt kobain might have taken 10yrs back...
only we just didnt burn out
we were not there just go spend 12 hrs in the lib, attend all lectures, come to hostel and finish the days reading , and wake up again to do the same.
not that we were great acadamecians , but we were no schmuk as well.
we were not research oriented, but alll at some point of time thought abt it. but then we slowly but surely realised we were not.
so what do we do in a research institute.....right, seek placements
secondly the movements we started of breaking free from the raccus..drinking before tuts, bunk sem end... find inovative ways to scratch..caught up with every body.
though personaly i have scratched only macro... but i was to drunk to write qs I maths
any way why am i sayin all this,
grass is always greener on the other side..
placements was upgradation for me..not degradation as u quoted,
well coming back to leftist: A word that has derived from ppl seating on the left side of the french parliament.. followers of Robert Owen (lot of us think Marx)
socialism was the concept of egalatarian society, where every body is equal (not the panjus being an infirior race)every body getting according to their needs,
and society was was a social responsibility.
but then everybodies responsibility becomes no ones responsibility....just as like absolue liberty means no ones freedom.
here is when leftist becomes negative.. in a country wherte there is no dignity of labour, where everybodies responsibility becomes no ones responsibility,
where the marxians have taste for Jhonnie who keeps walking, and goes england for face lifts. its a term that defines hypocrates in india, like one of our very good friend still wears his std 8 shirt which is in tatters,just tto show he is a grass root guy.. but likes top dine in swank resturants . hypocrisy
any way thats not the issue in hand..
it is matter of choice.. u want the wind of change..
go ahead...
but are you sure what u want every body wants..democracy..
or you a marxian single party dictatorship.. the choice is yours
float the idea .
call a meeting discuss and then be judgemental
regards
abhigyan
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
everyone has a right to "express" one's thoughts and ideas...that's what all of us agree upon..
vibha also expressed her views through "her own" blog accessible to everyone who "chooses" to read it..she has'nt shoved her ideas down anyone's throat..If nothing else, respect that.
Hi Vibha,
All that you have written in your latest blog, which is only an answer to all the anonymous comments you got to your previous blogs, is good. It was probably the very first entry among your blogs which made for interesting reading and also made me think. Not because you suddenly say that Gokhale is good.. but because you have put thought into this one. The previous things which you did write, though claimed to be in good humour, do not somehow emerge as humorous.
Why has Gokhale constantly gone down... why is it threatening to drain away into oblivion... because of every single person, more or less like you, who did not feel strongly about Gokhale to do anything.
We feel strongly about Gokhale. What have we done? Starting my year the placement cell started featuring in the list. Students, started getting jobs. You can see very well how it has only risen this year. Vibha, you have to understand that the day we joined Gokhale, it had already changed from the research background that it originally started with. What is the problem with that? As long as it is rising in a particular sector, it is fine. With more and more students going out into the corporate world, doing jobs however remotely related to Economics, the college will once again become known in the Indian job market. As a trickle down effect, the quality of faculty will rise.
Having parties, getting drunk is all a result of wanting to be happy. That is our way. Atleast... we have a way. What are you doing? If you stopped cribbing... or actually why stop... crib all you want to. But be happy otherwise. Go and tell the professors you do not like what is happening. Start a magazine in Gokhale to tell everyone how things are going on. But the rest of the times... be happy. The look on your face, the one I have noticed, suggests you do not want to be spoken to.
You are talking about cultural bias... have you ever thought what exactly that means? Fat punju kids qualifies for cultural bias.
For us, Gokhale was a passport to a job... not actually I hoped Gokhale would become my passport to freedom, which it did along with getting me a job. You say for you the place was a passport to coming back to pay a tribute to all the wisdom. Your passport was rejection from JNU, DSE and IGIDR. Saying that is a terrific way of showing your love for the place.
What we learn at Gokhale will not help us at our jobs... what we learn in a management institute will?? How does it matter... Gokhale is showing you a way of life. It is fantastic. It is bracing you for the entire world ahead.
You say there is corruption in Gokhale... is the world a clean place? The so called founders of the society are all set to screw up things. They are not letting research thrive neither are they letting people get jobs.
This is where we made a difference. Students got jobs through campus with no help from the college. Atleast 15 students in my batch left with happy faces, not cursing Gokhale and 15 odd students will leave the same way this year.
You can choose your path. You came to the foundation of research. The foundation does not exist anymore. We can ask the silent banyan to narrate tales to us and fall flat on our faces or we can create our own tales and see the niceness in Gokhale which does exist in reality.
shreya..... i quite like the way you are supporting vibha.. i would have done that if one of my friend was in trouble.. but one gentle request from my side..u see . its always been said that in a discussion if u have nothin to contribute then its best to keep quiet rather than saying something for the heck of it.. all that does is establish u as a fool in front of others.. what is important here is that the situation is also quite the same.. the discussion is on gokhale.. a place i am sure u hadnt heard of before ur friend joined in. and now that she loves that place.. so do u .. if u are such an enthu soul then why dont u even take an attempt and come down to gokhale, see the place, observe the people around you and then comment.. then will u know if ur dear friend is right or wrong...
well all this if u are not one of those who crib for all they get in life.. in that case dont bother taking all the pains and coming here.. it will not do any good to you.. gokhale is a place where all the easy going people can find a definate room for themselves.. not for those who do not know how to take things easy ..
when in school / college we had a kind of debate called turn court. when initially u either start against the motion and a bang y are favouring the motion.
you were against gokhale ... our comments were the bang .. u have turned court
sure you must be good, but did i ever see u in mood i???
Dear anonymous commentators, thanks for proving vibha right. the only thing that stands out of this dialogue is that she is right IF she says that GIPE is full of people who are naive, stupid and insensible. People who care more about the next ringtone more than about a wonderful institution, which has given them so much, fading into obscurity. The fact that you chose her b'day to blast her left right and centre without even bothering to read between the lines for her true feelings about GIPE leave little to say about you people (and the language wonderfully underscores the fact that some of you come from the self proclaimed 'cultural capital' of India). It shows how our society treats someone who is not willing to accept things at face value but believes in the old school virtues of questioning and dialogue.
The fact is in every society at all times 99% people are those who are willing to swim with the tide they are willng to accept without questioning whatever has been fed into thier minds. THEY FORM THE BEDROCK OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE and to them we owe the stablity of the system. But the remaining 1% people are those who are not afraid of swiming against the tide. Who have a mind of their own and are not afraid to use it. Who are not willing to live in an illusionary utopia and are willing to question the credentials that define the system in search for improvements. THE WORLD AS WE SEE IT IS THEIR CREATION. Without them we would still be primates. VIBHA IS ONE SUCH EXAMPLE.
you know what, maybe you are right.
ok so now this is turnin into a space of its own where all those who feel about GOKHALE are putting in their brains.. so lets see may be now we have to use all our brains not only to blast vibha on her views but also spend time in guessing who are the unwanted people who are comin in here and commenting on gokhale.. what is beyond me is that if at all comments on gokhale are to be entertained then it better be from those who have lived there to understand the system and not some random ppl who do not even know what life at gokhale is all about.. just hearing it from vibha's blogs is just not enough.. it is heavily biased...
i have always identified my self as one girl who has been fortunate enough to spend her two years in the boys hostel.. u can call me the super bitch.. at least i am proud of being called by that name..
if we are talking about having a mind of our own then my dear friends why is there so much debate in the air about all this.. i dont get it.. all of us have the right to say what we want.. i do not disagree with vibha only if the instances that she has quoted were right in the remotest senses... as far as i know and am guesseing vibha iyer is one of those who knows how to crib about things and has no power within her to speak her mind in front of people who matter the most in the system, those who have to authority to do something.. ask her how many times has our woman gone up to the director herself and spoken about changing things that bother her here.. be it the hostel or the insti.. what have been ur concious efforts in these directions..
not only do u crib about things but when it is time to stand up to ur views .. u have always taken the back seat.. shutting yourself in that lil room in the girls hostel and studying for god only knows how many hours does not really help u know.. whats more .. if u were so liberated in your idead then why the hell do u always hover around the teacher when the tut answer sheets are given out, just to get an explanation on each and every mark that he has cut.. why do u compare ur marks with others every now and then and why should it matter to u who has topped in ur batch and who has lost out in this race... all these examples only to show what is the reach of your thought process... according to me it is only limited in the strict sense of the word.. a students life is not about just hiding in that pile of readings... that would only help you to maybe get more marks.. hopefully now you see what we all mean by saying live it up!!
Try and give it a shot .. live ur life at GIPE.. you would never want to go anywhere else.. that place produces just the kind of person one wants to be.. look around and you will see no two similar people.. rest all is your call.. we have tried our best.. it is also true that u can retain all your thoughts and be reserved about GIPE as always..all these efforts to just let u help realise the true meanin of being in gokhale..
well the language from the cultural capital was bit less sarcastic and bit more frank..
but i wont be reprimanded for calling a spade a spade
regards
abhigyan/zico
just incase vibha you dony know .they are the same person
The world can live the way they want
how you want to live
its up to you!!!
awesome!!!!
honest and well written and extremely inspirational
maybe 2 terms combined that dont make sense
but perhaps i was wrong
i am shreya's friend
saw your link on her blog
just wanted to read stuff
wanted to fall asleep
but instead...
heartfelt and brilliantly articulated.....
one thing though..... start a dialogue all you want to..... but don't try to defend your views....they're supposed to be personal, right?
hi soumya
-yu no hu
just to clear some things.....i meant " don't try to defend your views on this blog"....
dear abhigyan,
Kindly note that my 'reprimand' was not for you calling a spade a spade. Instead it was for calling a spade by every other name exept spade, even denying its presence just because 'the spade' sits uncomfortably with your illusionary notions of the place.
rgds,
and dear soumya mahapatra,
Sorry but you dont get to decide who is wanted and who is not on someone else's blog and you dont have to live in a system to understand it. We may have never visited many places but we find that we have an opinion on them (e.g. kashmir, assam etc.) and we are free to express them. Similarly you dont have to live in GIPE to realise that it is a wonderful dream gone sour. The quality and quantity of research coming out of that place or the number of fulltime faculty is is an indicator enough.
well i hardly knew that soumya is so popular.. good going soumya.. well thw orld knows the two of us as super bitches.. they got one .. that is you.. this is for the great mind that guesses or knew it was soumya.. lets see if u can guess who am i ??
one little hint.. i am vibha's senior in gokhale and the one started reading vibha;s journal and responded to it.. it all started from here..
hey soumya and anonym 2
iam really bored yaar, its no more funn
i think this my last comment
love anonym3
hey soumya ,
Dont you think we have better things to do than trying to find corners of a circular room,
things wont change , and argument will continue..i thing even though we not real busy but not that vella either.
i am starting my day today.. its friday..i am really jealous of guys yaar.
u guys will be in pune.
also yaar can u pick my ray bans from binoys..
chal catch ya soon
may be my last post
Why are Vibha's blogs completely going out of the scene? I thought that is what this started as.
And I know exactly who.
To all the anonymous comments…. lemme clarify…. I am not from Gokhale… frankly speaking never heard about Gokhale till I met Vibha ….I am an ordinary run of the mill engineering graduate…and going from the past reactions I guess my comments are unwelcome…. … …. Jus a few questions run thru my mind…a student comes to an institute expecting a certain standard of education, learning, knowledge and facilities. If she has a reason to believe that her expectations are not fulfilled and there is lot of room from improvement…. is she wrong in expressing her views? Does trying to change things around you for the better warrant such strong reactions?
And being an avid follower of Vibha’s blog (in my limited verbal capacities) I don’t think that her views entailed such extreme and biased reactions. What the girl wanted to start was a dialogue…. needed and needs support to raise a voice against a system which could do much better….
Kudos to Vibha for trying to make a difference and being true to her beliefs!
hey vibhu, you're famous! despite the negativity, look how many people regard your views seriuosly. I always had a feeling that wit and itelligence, like honesty and courage, elicit a mixed response. so while some people get them, others don't.for them, where do you begin with the explanations? anyway, we love you, (i completely do) so you go ahead girl, say what you believe in and do what you have to. for every hundred people who dont get you, there'll always be us...!
joyie
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hain,
dekhna hai zor kitna bazuaye kaatil mein hain...
i mean i ate chicken, so...lets see
Hi all..
As this seems to have become a public chat room, I feel the need to address all of you & not just Vibha.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Binoy. I am Vibha's super senior from Gokhale (and ironically, also her junior from St. Xavier's).
Vibha, I must admit, when i first heard that you had written badly about gokhale, i was all set to blast you. But after reading thru what you had to write, i didn't really find it offensive at all. i quite enjoyed reading it to be honest. was funny in parts & i kinda agreed with alot of what you had to say. everything that you seemed to complain about, were about the same isssues that me & my batchmates went thru..the sense of frustration & hopelessness with the institute, the course, the professors, etc...oh & not to mention, the mess!!
The way we dealt with it, was simple...booze & party. that worked for us, it ofcourse may not be the course for you... so u will have to find your own way of dealing with it..maybe this blog is your way; in which case, all i have to say is Cheers!!!
i think there has been enough criciticism on your views on gokhale & i don't want to add to them. but i thought i could just offer you a piece of advise here.
for one, gokhale is not xaviers. there are only 2 types of people here; those who fit in & those who don't...u & i; we might have our niche back in bombay, in a college that was big enough for all of us to find our own. but in any place that is as small & as close knit as gokhale, u have to leave a little bit of yourself & your inhibitions & your prejudices behind, if you want to be accepted...& believe me then u will have the time of your life..
i loved my 2 years at gokhale; probably, maybe even more than xavier's...i dunno crap about gandhi or gokhale or the legacy of banayan trees, but i know alot about my freinds, the good times, & the legacies of the boys hostel..
don't take to heart what my nice "bitch" friends had to say. they just love a good fight & your blog was an opportunity to vent out so much that we have to keep aside ever since we left gokhale. but once it's out of our system, we are all quite harmless anyway.
Anyway vibha, whatever i said was not meant as criticism, but only my feelble attempt to bridge the gap between the gokhale lovers & you; cause essentially we are both the same kinds iof people; both trying to rationalize the choices we made.
If you do not agree with what I had to say, then no issues. forget it was ever said
Hope you have a better second year at gokhale. Hope to bump into you the next time i come to pune.
Adios
Binoy
Hey Vibha,
i don't feel you need to give these people any importance...in fact you can just delete their comments off your blog without even reading them once. Although there is no denying that there can not be a place worse than university of mumbai to study.... i've noticed that even there some losers in my class have formed a group amonst themselves and they seem to be having a very good time. When i see such groups it suddenly reaffirms my belief that somwhere someone's made for you. And i also know that it becomes difficult to adjust with a lot of people after you've been to Xavier's.....but again all people in Xavier's aren't good either....some are worst than the people you find at the university. I guess the above anon. is one such loser.
Dear Vibha,
I happened to view your blog about GIPE and i have posted my comments there too. I would like to know whether GIPE is good for research in economics and how the library and faculty are.
I am very passionate about economics. I finished my undergrad from loyola College, Chennai and will be taking up the entrance tests at places where you applied too.
Gokhale-i will be applying but i want to know how the academic atmosphere is. Do guest lectures take place often?
By the way i liked your blogs and keep blogging.
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