Feb 19, 2001 04:02 PM
3678 Views
A college that is a true symbol of national integrity, where there is no space for drugs, politics, police action, student clashes, State-wide student divisions, biasedness, strikes, class boycotts etc.
Provides ample opportunities to students who are really interested in studies. You get excellent support from professors, even from other departements. The college administration though slow, is good and do the needful. The college has got a good library, computational facilities (it even housed IIM Calicut for some months when it was founded). On the extra-curricular part too, it has sufficient resources. Needless to talk about Kerala's natural (truly God's own country, as the State's Toursim Department claims!!) beauty and the beautiful location of the college with a lot of greenery all around.
With a couple of good ancient temples, ponds and lakes apart from valleys close-by along with the aforesaid educational facilities, it makes an ideal place for studies. You could also relax at the foothills of Western Ghats which is about 25 km. from the college during inter-semster holidays.
On the negative side, those folks who hail from no-rain places of India, it pains to be in Calicut. There is a rain fall continuously for not less than 6 months in a year. You've to get to used one umbrella in hands, the books in the other and an anti-slippery pair of sandals to save you from getting drenched and slipping down stair cases or steps. You have to carry a torch light in pocket too. Who knows? You could as well step over a sleeping snake. Another major draw back is power shortage through out the year. With only one major factory in close vicinity (Grasim Suitings' rayon manufacturing unit), the state governemnt doesn't care about the electricity requirements here. So, make the most of the day before it gets dark. Let the clock tick 6.30pm, tubelights don't glow, voltage falls to as low as 90Volts, and you don't feeling like reading anything. The hostel gives you a 5-star comfort with only a candle-lit environment all around.
Though there were instances where student clashes took place, I feel it is the college management that should be held responsible, not the students. The clash stemmed from selling cigarettes at different prices at stalls set up by students from different States. No idea who the hell in the college administration if not express discouragement, at least did not object to settiup cigarette stalls well in the heart of the campus, that too close to the classrooms and the auditorium. All the hell broke lose and the college was closed within hours, asking all the students to go home within the next day. How the hell the college Principal thought will the students be able to go homes that are spread all over the country, with trains for such long distances available only at a frequency of once a week ? Who was responsbile for the course lag because of indefinite closure of college on such incidents that affected all the 1500 odd students of the college. I hope such incidents will not recur again.
Another concern though of low priority is food. It is good in atleast one way. If you have eaten in college canteen/mess for the whole duration of your study (you got to do it anyway, as the college is in such a location where you hardly have any hotels/eating places around the campus), YOU CAN LIVE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
Two major threats that the College administration doesn't seem to be bothered about. One, the smoking in the campus. It is a big nuisance to the whole lot who are non-smokers. Students, just like the illiterates, don't bother as to where they could smoke and where they should not. You could say the smoker and non-smoker student ratio is almost 1 to 1. More often than not, a student who has never smoked until he was in 1st year turns out to be a chain-smoker by the time he reaches the final year. I don't say smoking is a bad habit. You have no right whatsoever to spend the hardearned money of your parents to spend on cigarettes and boozing. Its the money they send you to meet your hostel, books, college fees and other day to day expenses. You should understand that.
The second being the promotion of one particular religion - Christianity. There are a group of christian students in the college who are actually there to convert other religion students into Christianity and not for studies. Kerala, where Christian community is not a minority, there are innumberable number Churches who get miilions of dollars from all over the world, towards expansion of Christianism. There are Fathers who become Fathers just because they make easy money and can make a living. All they have to do is do religious preachings. In the background, they exploit Nuns. Some students of the college are linked to such Fathers. So, decide for yourself, what have you come to this place for ? Fall prey to Fathers, cigarettes and thelike OR Study ??
If the girl students' of this college happen to read this review, one message to them:: Hey!! Many of you have come to this college from as far as Nagaland and Assam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka to complete your studies and not to hang around with boys and make a mess. So, don't be bothered about having your hostel bit far from boys hostels and facing a lot of restrictions from your warden. Take the positive side of it... After all, in any student community, you find girl teasers.
On the whole, it was a wonderful experience in life and I feel lucky to be associated with such a college.
