Of Strikes and Protests

There have been quite a few strikes occurring happening regularly in some parts of India. Some feel it is a strong mode of appealing to the government to change an unacceptable decision. Every time I see some such news, I am reminded about the only time when I was involved (involuntarily) in a strike.

This incident took place just few months ago when I was in the final year of undergrad at NIT Trichy. Let me explain the situation to you first. The food in the hostel mess was pathetic and awful. Quite a few souls like mine had quit eating at the mess. Getting up late in the morning, we generally end up skipping breakfast and hurrying all the way to class in order to maintain our 75% attendance. During breaks we used to go to the bakery, juicy or snacky to fill our hungry stomachs. Then came the hot afternoons. Tired of walking all the way from my department to the mess, I end up eating lunch at the Buhari restaurant within the campus.

Dinner was almost always reserved for the roadside dhabas. Almost the entire college used to dine either at the couple of dhabas just outside our campus or at one of the restaurants in the city. We only visited the mess in rare cases when we were out of cash. Of course there were quite a few guys who found our eating habits too revolting. They too were dissatisfied with the mess food but simply couldn’t give in to spending so much cash eating outside. Even though we didn’t eat at our mess we had to pay huge sum of money which was eventually gobbled by the administration.

Coming back to the incident, it was a hot sunday, when a few guys found some insects in the food. Of course, this was a regular occurrence, but this time these guys were really in a rebellious mood and decided to forcibly enter the kitchen and inspect everything. They recorded everything using a mobile camera in the hope of showing some evidence.

Then they sent some really long text messages to everyone in our batch explaining what was happening and so on. The message was soon forwarded in bulk by the placement reps and the class reps. The news spread first among the mobiles and then among people.

So that evening we were all asked to assembled at the hostel lawn. Some guys went room by room calling every final year guy from their hostels. Of course, not many were willing to give up their gaming and movie watching experience, just for the mess, the mess where we rarely ate. The student council president was off for a volley ball tournament. There were large groups formed each discussing some random theories and coming up with the random-est suggestions. Uninterested people like me and a few others felt stupid with every passing minute just standing over there. So we formed a group amongst ourselves and started some small-talk. Soon some of the naive guys started merging all the groups and began explaining their theories. They drew up a plan of what was to be done and expected our cooperation assuming that the united force of the students would make the administration fall on our feet.

The wardens were taken aback by the turn of events and notified the admin. One guy even came to threaten us all off. Determined we were. We didn’t move and he eventually left. Soon after that, the discussion went into a further level of complexity where the corrupt administration was ultimately responsible for everything. Some suggested protest by not attending classes. A few of the guys didn’t want to lose their attendance fighting for the mess. Some didn’t want to create a bad impression in front of their profs. So it was decided and academics and hostel wouldn’t be intertwined.(duh!) Those who used to eat in the mess decided that they wouldn’t be eating in the mess till the issue was resolved and they allotted a new caterer to us. I personally would have loved to see some good food in the mess. I badly wanted to eat  in a good mess with a decent caterer because I was making a hole in my pocket eating outside all day.

The group dispersed for the night. We went back to our routine of movie-watching and gaming. Others were still out there discussing. I’m damn sure that a few of these guys even contemplated a career in politics after that day.

Alas! To our surprise, the next day morning there was a notice written by a few students asking everyone to eat in the mess! (Of course I saw it only in the afternoon). The reason was that these guys were seen by the admin when the discussion was going on the earlier night. They feared some harsh action and asked everyone to return to their normal routine. What seems to have happened is that the administration had shooed of all the allegations and even threatened students. Am not sure about these too.

There ended the only pseudo strike that I have been a part of. Basically nothing happened. I may have been politically wrong in stating the occurrences of the day. Some might have some strong disagreements with what I’ve said here. This is just my version of the story. If you know more, you are always free to correct me, reject me or whatever.

NIT Trichy is a Desert!

With the blazing hot sun, the temperatures have shot up to probably its highest ever at Trichy. And NIT Trichy with its frequent power cuts and water shortages is nothing short of a desert! Often we have to walk quite some distance just to get some water. NITT has become almost uninhabitable. Whats the point in constructing numerous hostels if you can’t provide proper electricity and water to any of them? it wont be long before this place become uninhabitable.

Amidst all this I get messages asking me to switch off lights during the earth hour. I would have happily switched off everything if it was some other ordinary place. But at NITT we have earth hours almost throughout the year that such a concept is absurd here! As one twitter update said – ‘Asking Indians to celebrate Earth Hour is like asking malnourished kids to forgo a meal because burgers are making Americans fat’..

*The two hours scheduled  power cut was just increased in duration to three hours.!!!