St. Stephen's as a deemed University

An idea has recently been floated by the St. Stephen's administration that the college strive for a 'deemed university' status by the period 2025-2050. This article is meant to question what value will this tag add to the college, and whether it is of primary import.

a 'deemed university' tag allows a college to set its own syllabus and admission procedures, its own fee structure and some of them are also allowed to give out degrees. Given that St. Stephen's already has a distinct admission procedure from the rest of Delhi University, and that its fees are also significantly higher than most other DU colleges; this move is meant primarily to enable the college to set its own syllabus.

How important is a different syllabus to an institution? India faces a perennial problem that the syllabus is very rote-learning oriented, and hence does not promote innovation. Again, this probably stems from our attempts to impart 'quality education' to all. If, for once, we acknowledge the impossibility of the task, we can impart 'good quality education' to a few (which will also run into millions, by the way), and provide 'life skills' to the rest. We must free not only St. Stephen's college, but other reputed institutions from the shackles of this attempt at mass quality education.

The only thing I am skeptical about is the undue attention that this proposal has received. It is true that this 'deemed university' recognition will give the college a lot of flexibility to do its own thing. However, there are still many ways we can strive to achieve that aim. For once, the societies in college can, for once, attempt to extend knowledge frontiers rather than just function for the sake of function. Of course, that deserves an entire entry by itself.

Trip to the North East

This post has been some time in the coming now. I got my datacard along on this trip to the North East with an intention to make daily post. Of course, like several other teenage intentions, this too failed. However, the least I can do is to post the details on my last day here, before I get carried away in the tsunami called the DU Jan tests.

First, let me get over the itinery quickly. We came to Guwahati on 29th December and the next day left for Shillong. On 31st, we visited Cherrapunji. On 1st, we left for Tezpur, visited Kaziranga on the 2nd and tomorrow, i.e. the 3rd, we return to our respective 'homes' - mom and dad to Kolkata, bhai to Mumbai and me to Delhi.

So, now to the more subjective components of this post. This trip was surprisingly devoid of hills and mountains, as one would expect from the North East. Of course, that primarily owes to the fact that we did not visit any hilly place, but confined ourselves to the valley and plateaus. So, the only uphill drive was from Guwahati to Shillong. Guwahati is like a typical small Indian city. It doesn't have many charms of its own, except for the Brahmaputra flowing through it.

Shillong was the best part of the trip, especially the drive from Shillong to Cherrapunji. Of course, I always knew that Shillong was on a plateau, but I'd never been on a plateau myself, and hence didn't know what to expect once I reach there. Shillong is so surprisingly spacious for a city at its altitude. It resembles (I suppose) the Scottish countryside, and is hence referred to as the 'scotland of the east'. I wish there were such a place closer to Delhi, because it would be an excellent escape from the city.

Cherrapunji is lacklustre, except for the ride. There is an 'eco park', which is nothing but a park on the edge of the plateau, and a cave. But the drive from Shillong more than makes up for it. I could constantly imagine myself driving on those roads on a lazy sunday afternoon. Oh, those roads! Meghalaya's roads were amazing even when going uphill, and were for most parts broader than roads in Kolkata.

Kaziranga was beautiful, and a good experience, except for that the biodiversity seemed to be extremely restricted. Of course, hoping to see a tiger in the wild is like living in fool's paradise, but what we got was one rhinoceros after the other. Even the wild elephants were shy! Hence, Kaziranga cannot, and should not, be the only destination for any traveller, or else you'll be disappointed.

Throughout this trip, something that was missing was the 'authentic' food. Towards the end we got a taste of it en route from Shillong to Tezpur. My brother tried pigeon curry, but I being as squeamish as I am, did not try to experiment. Assamese food hence seems to be rather bland by the standards of the Punjabi and Bengali food that I'm used to.

This is a rather lacklustre travel diary, I suppose. But I also suppose that the mark of a true traveller in life is to not have enough time to turn back and ponder.

Till then !

Subhashish

(in Tezpur)