Exams and experimentations

My brother just got rid of the 12th standard board exams appearing from the MH state board, wondering if it was worth the effort he had put in while on his pursuit of an engineering degree. With the engineering CET exams and other competitive exams coming into the scene, the impetus of the boards has greatly reduced , no doubt about it. I mean its still relevant , but in fewer places... say family gatherings for example, where oldies brag about their grandchildren topping the merit list. Sure, it also helps those unfortunate souls who have to rely on their boards marks for a decent higher education opportunity. But one has to agree, such people are a handful.
The CETs were introduced a few years ago to bring in a competitive spirit and to raise the bar of the merit of the students getting admitted. The trial did fail in certain states such as Karnataka, these are one-off examples affected by other seemingly 'non significant' things. Since the introduction though, people have accepted it as the de facto means of securing their favorite seats.
But has the administration accepted it , in spite of the fact that they were the one's who introduced it?
The fact that they are still clinging to the age-old system suggests the obvious . I think that's where our education lacks. And perhaps even we as a nation lack. Changing . We all are too content with the way things 'take place'(and not 'are done') , whether it's the non-existent queue at the station counter or the 'immobile' file at the babu's desk... whether its the night lamps we burn to top a inconsequential exam or the deal at the Center that never went the right way.
Perhaps once we start accepting change, we'll improve as a nation. But the irony of the situation is that for that to happen we ourselves must change. May be that is why the phrase Be the change is so relevant today.
Lets change so that old aunties speak about the right things.

Came across this post in the blog: http://unwindingthemind.blogspot.com/ maintained by certain Vaibhav Kamat

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10:30 AM on the VESIT 4th flour

At 10:30 the bell rings, its break time .But no break for SCR(society council members)
Students looking so pathetic in the lecture , suddenly are the men of action.
Some run, some jog and slowly the random mob seems to forming n-sized groups . while few
still like to run dodging the fellows . In the pretty confined space of the corridor SCRs manage space , after all managing is their job. Discussions are in the air and the sound waves superimpose and distort.
Many time their are announcements and the SCRs force their way in a class , sometimes the students/SCR ratio is embarrassing , but adjustments are made persuading the outsiders.The groups move from one class to another and the PROs repeat the same stuff.Yeah SCRs are excellent time managers too!
At the peak time, people density is at its best. Many SCRs excellent dodging
skills rescue them. As they say "when going gets tough tough gets going".
Finally the ending bell rings , SCRs realize theres end to everything. groups slowly disperse and the men of action are again the dull guys in the classroom along with others...
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Very well put, Vaibhav. Its strange how being in the thick of things kind of rouses certain people's energies and channelizes them... Perhaps it's the sense of 'doing something' in this monotonous engineering life or maybe as Dale Carneige wrote, people just want to 'feel important'. Whatever it might be, this is the thing that makes VESIT what it is for me and I'm sure many share the thought. And no amount of cribbing on my part about non-funtional printers, slow-internet connections, lousy staff ,pain-in-the-ass faculty can take away the fact that many remain and many will be indebted to VESIT for giving them this pleasure to discover heroes within themselves.

Moving into trance

The first post . Not exactly . Actually I've made many attempts prior to this to maintain a functional blog. Somehow I could never manage it.

By the way, I'm Grafitus…

Excuse me for choosing such a blatantly obvious username to be addressed. Two things I'd like to clear out though.

1. I'm not a Roman history buff. Nor was I bowled over by 'GLADIATOR'. It's just that I like the sound of the name to be used as a 'mask'.
   
2. 'Mask', you ask?(the rhyme is not intentional, its just that I'm naturally into poetry ;).. well the reason I'm not using my real name here is that I'm getting excited at the prospect of cribbing about certain stuff in this blog, and though I doubt anybody has the time to bother, why give them a chance. )
   

Well, to continue with the introduction then, I 'study' Computer Engineering at VESIT in the MUMBAI university… now ,now don't form a notion that I'm one of those boring S/W developer geek types who scare you to death with their philosophy. That's because I'm not into software much. And I'd rather not comment on the philosophy part. Im very passionate about my college, a kind of passion that originates only from the people there and not VESIT, really… A very intriguing post on VESIT will surely follow in due time, im sure.

On the personal front, I'm 19 and committed. Its been wonderful so far and I hope it continues to be so. Its also changed me in ways I'd never thought was possible. I've become religious, for example… and I've learnt to put up with gossip… almost!

Also, I've staying away from home in hostels, apartments , friends' apartments, relatives apartments etc for a quite a while now … So you may have to put up with some how-to-manage-life-on-your-own-in-this-cruel-world posts… I'm sure those would prove extremely helpful (to learn how to control the urge of not throwing stuff at the screen )

Psst… I almost forgot… I admit I'm a pathetic writer, but I'm not posting for others to read and curse. I'm writnig to curse others*follows this with an evil lung-bursting mythological serial kinda laugh*

Until next post then . Ciao…to myself