Jun 21, 2004 06:42 AM
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(Updated Jun 21, 2004 07:06 AM)
This is the message the logo for IITM (IIT Madras) carries. Taken from Bhagwat Gita (Ch 4. Verse 12) it means ''a place where people can attain true knowledge - fast''.
There are in all 7 ''Indian Institute of Technologies'' spread through the length and bredth of the country. Among them the best known are the ones at Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur and Madras. There are three others but I will not mention anything about them.
I spent four years of my life- from 1998 till 2002 July- at IIT Madras pursuing a B.Tech in Metallurgy and Materials Science. The IIT's in general were instituted with the idea to provide the best up-to-date knowledge and experience to the best talent avaliable in the country (No Comments). One has to normally appear for an extrance exam written by approx. 200,000 students for a mere 3000 seats. Its surely not easy and these days there are quality coaching institutes helping students sail successfully through this exam. I guess if there had been so much initiative to train indian atheletes appearing in the Olympics then India would have been among the top five in the Medals Tally.
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The Campus
Today IITM has some 360 faculty, 4000 students, 1250 administrative and supporting staff. The institute itself is located in the heart of Madras, in Adyar- which is one of the posh localities of the city- just next to the Governors residence. The campus is situated in a sprawling wooded land of about 250 hectares. Its kind of a self supported entity. You have everything inside the campus- starting from student hostels, staff and faculty quaters to a hospital, temples, reteraunts, schools, clubs, banks, ATMs, an independent internal security, excellent sporting facilities and ofcourse a small market. Left to itself, this part of the planet has an altogether different world in it. This IIT campus is a declared national deer sanctuary, and you can find -atleast I did- all the kinds of deer to be found anywhere in India. There are around 2000 deer in all in the campus. So its like a co-existence of the deer and the human beings.
The instutute is itself situated some 2.5 kms inside the main gate. Hence no wonder that we have a bus service. On any normal working day there are 3-4 buses running exclusively within the campus at any time. In all though there are 7 buses named after various mountains in India (eg: Nanda Devi, Kailash, etc). The student hostels on the other hand (there are 13-14 of these) are named after various indian rivers like Alaknanda, jamuna, Narmada, etc. Its an irony because when you come to think of it the ''mountains'' (buses) move all the time whereas the ''rivers'' (hostels) are static. So much about the campus.
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The Education and the Educated
This is perhaps the most important single entityof this institute- its students. The campus is full of life on any normal working day. There are numerous enggineering departments, a humanities department, basic sciences and more. However the most important are the engg. departments.
IITM has some of the best faculty in their respective fields within the country. This does not however mean that all faculty members are equaly good. And for this reason there is an evaluation at the end of every semester for each faculty member. The students who credit/audit the course by any faculty can shower the person with either boquets or brickbats. And it indeed works. I have known some faculty members in my own department who threatened studnets with bad grades unless the students graded them nicely. Guess what happened??
The educational system in the B.tech (Have no idea about the masters prog.) is divided into 8 semesters. The first year or the first two semsters are a pain in the wrong place. The situation is something like this: you are either preparing for an exam or writing it. It somehow gets better by the end of the first year where you have more courses from your branch rather than the others. I shoudl say that courses in my branch were not so difficult. I remmember once a Prof. remarked in one of his classes, ''You have to work hard to enter IITs but once in, we push you out''. Thats to extent true. There are not many who have to stay longer than 4 years in this 4-year programme. The courses are supplemented with various lab assignments. After the end of the third year we have a compulsary industrial/academic training. I did mine in Max-Planck-Institute in germany. There are a lot others who travel abroad for this- and get paid. At the end of the seventh semester there is a common industrial tour. We had ours to Bhilai Steel Plant. It was way too cool.
So much about my own depertment.
I should mention neverthelss that the institute still lacks way behind reputed international institutes in the present day facilites when it comes to research.
However if we neglect this research part- no one really goes to IIT for a B.Tech to do real research (some might disagree)- then I shoudl say that you spend some of the best time of your life in this institute. Over and all you get to make some lasting friendships during this time. Staying away from home also brings in a much needed boost in confidence and tact- vis-vis the normal gentry. If you are a girl then there is an additional advantage. Given the very low percentage of the girls in the college you will have a fan following in the institute next only to perhaps Ashwariya Rai. Finally I should add that a student in the B.Tech program esentially''learns to learn''.
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What makes IITM better than other IITs?
This is an important question. Specially considering the fact that there are other good IITs around. The core advantages of IITM are as follows:
Situated in the heart of the city as compared to some other IITs (eg kanpur).When I spoke to some of my friends in IIT Kanpur and asked them as to where they went in their free time, this was their answer: ''We stay in the campus because this is the most beautiful place around''. Thats true because I have been to Kanpur and if you have been there as well then you cannot agree less with me.
IITM has a pronounced academic atmosphere lacking in some others like IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur and all. Some might disagree again.
For people from north india this a specially a good way to know a less known culture of south india. I found in this a nice opertunity to realise that south indians are much better behaved and mannered than we northies.
You will rarely find people taking drugs. In my four years in this college I do not know of even one person who took drugs. Compare this to IIT Bombay and Delhi.
Finally a lot of companies in the vicinity of madras visit this IIT compared to some others.
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The normal way for students to choose a college is to first narrow thier choice to a few top-class IITs, which are the four I mentioned before and then choose the branch they want to do their B.Tech in. In such cases the percentage who have chosen IITM is envious.
The oppertunites after completing the bachelor's or masters from any one of these four institutes is emormous and I guess I will not elaborate on this. I should however add that I am not a big supporter of the other three IITs (Kharagpur, Guwahati and Roorkee).
PS: A final word. No one really believes the India-Today survey on the top 10 colleges in Engg, which changes the rankings among the IITs based on wierd criteria.
