That's enough!

Well, all in all I've had a fantabulous day. Sharan, Sonu and Vini are 5 exams down and they would have been 6 exams down in about 8 days except... well, I'll get to that later. Anyway, so we had a bit of a shindig at Jo's place and it was awesome and I will post pictures and tell you more about it tomorrow. 

I came home pretty late, we got stuck up in traffic and I wasn't exactly welcomed home by a happy grandmother and to put icing on the cake, I read the newspaper. Always makes me angry. There's always something in the paper that makes me angry. What do I do with myself? Ugh. 

So what made me angry was that I read a piece titled 8 days for test, students await CET admit cards. Why does this make me angry, well first of all. This is so typical, nothing ever seems to get done on time in this country. It's as if we're taken by surprise every single time even if we've been doing the same thing year after year. Secondly, this exam, scheduled for the 5th of May is the reason why Sonu, Vini and Sharan and the rest of the Lit students and Econ students won't be done in 8 days. They have to wait for about a month. Because this CET exam was scheduled for the 5th and so the Arts students have to suffer because the CET students obviously get priority. This is India.

We talked about this (and other issues with MU) today. I wrote about it a couple of days ago and have been thinking about how we need to do something because while talking about it is good and therapeutic, Mumbai University remains incompetent and unprofessional. (I'm using nice words. The words in my head to describe MU at this moment are not so nice.) But again, what do we do? A protest march? Letters? I hate to think that so many of us will quietly "persevere" this and move on. Why? WHY? Why should we do that? We can't just let this go. Being quiet about injustice is as wrong to me as inflicting injustice.

Anyway, so I decided to write a letter to the editor of Hindustan Times but I'm so tired and I can't think very straight right now so I asked for some help and I'm going to post it here too. I don't know if anybody will even bother to read it but I know that if I go on being "quietly angry", I might just pop.

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Okay people, I'm all charged up and angry right now because I just read the paper (HT, Page 4) and they've written about the "poor" CET students who are now running around for their admit cards. Boo hoo (no disrespect intended). As if we don't know about that. But did any newspaper bother to write about THAT!? Oh nooooo. We're nobodies. Apparently you can only be news-worthy in this country if you're an engineering student or Lalit Modi. Bah!!! Anyway, so I want to write this to the editor but I have a headache and I'm not really thinking straight so this is going to need editing. So help!!! And fast. Thanks :P

The edited letter (Sharan added bits and edited for me! :D)

To the editor,

With reference to 8 days for test, students await CET admit cards (29 April), I just wanted to draw some attention to us: the TYBA students of Mumbai University whose scheduled exams on the 5th and 6th of May were postponed to the 1st and 2nd of June to make room for the CET students. I can definitely relate to these students, we have many similar (and worse) stories to tell too and yet, I do not recall that any newspaper bothered to cover our woes in much detail. Why is that? Are we not just as much entitled to fair treatment as the engineering students? I don't want to sound unfair myself and make generalizations, but this is so typical of the Indian mentality, when it comes to the perception of Arts as a subject. It seems like the only students that are worth caring about are the engineering students. We, the Arts students are struggling down there - in the sub-basement, and no one seems to be taking any notice of us. The bottom of the pile of priority. Seems like even the University thinks of us that way since when push came to shove, the obvious decision seemed to be: "Forget the Arts students, make way for the Engineering students."

It's one thing to deal with the University's evident indifference to our state -- the stories to tell are too many, too shameful. Some people haven't received their hall-tickets. Others are forced to write their exams in stores and restaurants due to power outages. Some of us have been writing these exams -- and will be writing them -- for a couple of months, because the University couldn't juggle the dates responsibly. But it's another thing -- an unbearable, terrifying thing because of the deep levels of cynicism that it fosters -- to have the public unaware of it. We students plan to do something, but we cannot do it alone, and we need your help.

So I would be highly obliged to you, if you could look into this matter and throw some light on it -- if not for the sake of your non-student readers, then for our sakes.

Regards,

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“Well-behaved women rarely make history”

-- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich