I got a forwarded email from my brother, essentially describing the heights to which a college can go in curbing the freedom of expression among its student community. The college in question is one of the reputed institutions for engineering stream, in Bangalore - PES Institute of Technology. I would not have been that bewildered by this development in PESIT, which has a tradition of trying to make the lives of students miserable, if this had happened when I myself was student, 5 years back. But I was expecting things to have ameliorated with passage of time. Well, that does not seem to be the case. I cannot begin to fathom the reason for this, though. Either the students are becoming more complaisant, which is quite implausible, or the dogmatic standards have reached new benchmarks.
I am totally flabbergasted by the set of rules which, if violated by a student, would result in him being issued an infraction slip (card) under minor (green), major (yellow) and severe (red) categories.. and here is the "icing" on the cake - anyone with any semblance of authority in the college, starting from a lecturer to a warden, can issue the slip to a student, at their whim and fancy, even as their own personal vendetta. Having such infractions in the record may lead to suspension and black marks on the certificates.
The rules are totally absurd - wearing collarless T-shirts, cargo pants, flimsy dresses, sleeveless tops, low-waist pants could get you a card. Preposterous, is it not? Who is going to be the judge of what "flimsy" is? Why should a student now wear a round-necked T-shirt, with a pair of cargos, as long as it is perfectly comfortable to him/her? Who are these guys to tell them what to wear and what not to wear? It just doesn't end there. Styly beard, fancy moustache, punk appearance are cited as infraction as well. Just because they do not have any sense of fashion, it does not mean that they should curb the same among the youth as well. Bigoted, close-minded, tyrannical f****rs... There is a long list of such activities that are stated in the college’s "student infraction slip", with a final "any other (to be detailed by the faculty)". I have never been much of a rebel or a revolutionary, but even reading through them makes me want to revolt. For God's sake, if the kids are old enough to vote, don't you think they are old enough to make a decision regarding their clothes? These rules are totally absurd and outdated.
The principal of the college justified the decision saying that these measures were necessary to raise the standards of the institution - what a load of tarradiddle! Absolutely outrageous! Don't even get me started on the "standards" of the college. For one thing, if they want to elevate the standards of the college, they should start behaving like a professional institution, rather than a prison for mentally unstable, psychopathic kids who are waiting to jump at an opportunity to create problems. There are tons of ways to "raise the standards", that are currently minimal, to say the least: Hire the best talent in the industry to teach the students, make the kids want to come to college, than force them out of fear; Improve the infrastructure - just to name a few.
I am getting a feeling that this is a slow, but sure "talibanisation" - curtailing individual freedom of speech and expression. I could go a step further and say that these people are almost equivalent to, or on their way to reach the same "standards" as the a**h**es who call themselves the "moral police" (aka Ram Sena) of the modern society in India.
The parents should try to step in and make the college administration deviate from this path of annihilation of self-expression. This could hinder the overall development of the personality of kids of that age. Students should themselves rebel against this gross mishandling of affairs - maybe form a council and protest - something... anything - inaction is definitely not the way.
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20 comments:
A****les.
I would say this college has to either shift to dubai or afghanistan. Not fit to be in a democratic country like India.
Seriously... who do they think they are! Not joining the college is an option, but changing it is a much better one! USeless f****rs
For that matter PESIT is not only the college, there are several atrocious ,wretched colleges which is following this dress code,new procurement polices for each semester which bring aversion towards all these hedonist rules instead of bringing veneration towards it. I would like to say this hiatus has to be filled from school then comes to college
Hmmm... I guess so! Did not know of any colleges where such nonsense was the norm! I don't think that the school/college should have a say in dress code for kids > 18! For that matter, school uniforms are not that much fun, but I don't feel that revolted by them...
i am at a loss for words, can the professors wear such clothes? Can visitors wear them? next time when i get back, i would want to go to PESIT with a round-neck shirt :P and cargo pants n frenchie beard looking like the hulk. wonder how many cards i will get :P... another feather (oops card) to my cap....
lol... I was thinking of the exact same thing... childish, but fun! ;) Is that Sumeet? :P
PESIT been this crazy since ages. I guess we both knew during our engg days, this kinda stuff went on. I'm not too surprised with this new soccer mania (although on a different field!)
Its about time college authorities grew out of their hallucinations, mis-conceptions about clothes, fashion etc and let people do what is comfortable for them.
Banning mobile phones on campus is another case in point.
@Avi, I think the segregation of boys and girls followed at yashashwi was even more outrageous!. What was the reason back then? "The students will lose their focus and shy away from being good students". Is that right? I bet you know what I'm talking about :-)
Cheers
i agree with you that it's silly to try and control what students are wearing. but at the risk of sounding archaic let me tell u what i've seen in manipal.
people often walked in in spaghetti tops and shorts--mid rifs were exposed and so was much more.
cargoes and t-shirt are actually pretty decent when compared to the clothes i've seen.
what are students trying to prove by coming to college in scruffy attire? i guess students must have the independence to wear what they like--but they must also know where to draw the line between comfort and decency.
yes --things like the principal saying it was raising standards makes no sense--similarly banning cell phones or segregating girls and boys is an idiotic decision.
school uniforms are used normally to establish a uniformity among the children regardless of social and economic class.thats not a bad idea.
as for college--- yes dress code is harsh--but considering the types of clothes people seem to like to wear nowadays not totally unexpected.
@Ravi: Yea, that was equally bad! Any mentality trying to "control" people doesn't work. People ought to know that!
@Sruti: Yes it's true that some people take advantage of freedom. But again, who does it hurt if THEY wear what THEY want to wear! Unless they are totally nude (lol), people should be allowed to wear what they want. If someone does not like it, they may as well close their eyes. Also, I feel that Indians are not yet gone to a stage where they'd start wearing totally outrageous clothes, at the risk of being ostracised by their own friends.
This is heights.. I knew PESIT had weird rules always but asking people to wear colored cards is limits.. esp. coming from such a reputed institution. Hard to understand how students are actually living through this shit..
Also, are they doing this across their many campuses across Andra and Karnataka? I would think this is being introduced in only one campus just coz its in 'Bangalore'.. which just makes me angrier!
@Praveen:
Yea dude... it's just PESIT... and I think they are just handed the "cards", not made to wear them... lol... that's a hilarious idea, though! Thankfully, this hasn't spread to other colleges as far as I know... hope the kids do something about it!
hey Avi... nice effort to bring out only few of the many heinous activities carried out by that management... God knows how much more is actually is happening inside...
377 finds its way in your blog :P
"Also, I feel that Indians are not yet gone to a stage where they'd start wearing totally outrageous clothes, at the risk of being ostracised by their own friends."
ah! that very statement confirms that you have been away for a long long time.
i agree that people should be allowed to make dressing choices--but are all dressing choices sensible?
and u really can't expect teachers to close their eyes every time do you?
a friend of mine teaches in manipal
hez supposed to wear a tie but end s up teaching people wearing mini skirts and spaghetti's or torn t-shirts.
it's irritating to teach a bunch of scruffy , badly dressed people---and by badly dressed i don't mean cargoes and a t-shirt--which are still ok.
i'd say let people wear stuff they are comfortable in--- and it's difficult to believe that students are comfortable in ultra low waisted jeans and transparent tops!!!
i know i sound so------- well very old and fuddy duddy--but since i've recently graduated i know what people actually wear.
@Sruti:
Yea, maybe I do not exactly know what sort of clothes students wear "now" in India. But that's the whole point. I do not need to know. Personal choice is the way to go. Initially, the aim for these rules would have been to prevent students from wearing flimsy attire. Slowly, these rules get out of control and degrade to the stage where they can as well ask the students to wear uniforms.
Most of the things start off with good intentions, but deteriorate to chaos (for instance, socialism degrading to communism, degrading to dictatorship). Personal freedom should never be infringed upon.
This being one facet of the issue, one other side is that how does it really matter what someone wears. As long as your friend is able to impart knowledge to them, he should not care what they wear... right? Personal bias against what someone considers as flimsy, should not be a criterion to judge a student... right? Censorship may be good... but should be controlled (I'd say as long as they wear "some" clothes, we should be fine!)... and never at the expense of self-expression.
hmm--avinash
u seem to think some clothes are enough--but then aren't u making the decision that clothes need to be worn
what if for a few no clothes is a form of expression
maybe you should step into my friends shoes for a moment too
it very well to argue from one point of view----but then we could justify anything right???
a lots of professional colleges do have a dress code---medical colleges expect professional attire at all times as do business institutes
it's not always moral policing
and it's expected that when ur in a institute u'd follow it's rules
a lot of good restaurants in the world won't let u in unless ur dressed in a suit
what would u call that??
the army has uniforms too doesn't it.
All I am saying is people should have the right to express... what if some people misuse the right, and parade around naked? lol... they'll be the butt of jokes for as long as they live... well, they could be arrested for public indecency! What I am saying is that there should be a limit, but not at the cost of self expression. Army, medical colleges... I don't have any issues there - soldiers need to wear their uniforms for many purposes - camouflage, identification... doctors - cleanliness, aesthetics. But outside this realm ,they can be their own person - express themselves as they wish to! As long as it does not hurt anyone physically, it's okay.
Yea - it is expected that if u r in an institute, u should follow its rules... but what if the rules are, as described in this particular instance, meaningless? How long can one stay oppressed?
The whole concept of a "free nation" would be nullified if someone cannot even express himself/herself the way he/she wants... since such "rules" always lead to more rules - and finally degrade to oppression of some section of the society.
That's the reason such rules should always be formed by the legislature (though I am not too confident about that in our country! :P)... and since the majority can never be allowed to discriminate or deny the rights to a minority, the judiciary always has the right to overrule the legislature!
Hi, came here from 'Anubhuti'.
Article 'apyaayamanavagide' (sorry I could not find a word in English for this)
Looks like the school/college authorities are going mad, any authority for that matter in India!
Dhanyavaadagalu! By the way, sudhdha olleya Kannada upayogisi sumaru 11 years aytu... so, shud get "back to the basics" sometime soon!
:)
igle shuru madi bidi...
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