The Moon and the Stars are calm tonight
And the Earth hides her face,
And bows down in stillness.
Oh! Weary night…
…Steal me and let me sleep…
…And dream away…from life’s cares.
For when a new day dawns,
I’ll be a new creation.
- Asangba Tzudir
Asangba Tzudir
- Songertz
- I am what i am...The Bright Side - "So Others May Live" And The Not So Bright Side - "Impatience."
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Fear and Trembling
Long are the nights dark,
Stretching over a thousand midnights.
Seeing without perceiving,
Listening but the strange silence lingers on,
I fear…lest emotions drown my reasoned thoughts.
Here I am…cajoled in murky waters of life,
Wonder how long will my body and soul coexist.
Lifes realities are severe and harsh at times,
For human abilities to comprehend,
Only can I beg Heaven,
For the music in my heart,
That I sing it long before,
The sands of time is heard no more.
- Asangba Tzudir
University Life: An Empirical Discourse
‘Kurtas, worn out jeans and chappals defines what it is to look like an intellectual.’
There is nothing as ‘the university life’ but nonetheless a university life is not devoid of these three central tenets – Academic, social and cultural. And a conglomeration of these three provides scope and space for the all round ‘exploitation’ especially, the intellect of an individual. This article will be a reflection of my life at two universities - Hyderabad Central University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. So it will be more of an empirical engagement in drawing out glimpses of life at the university.
Hyderabad University opened up the doors for me to experience firsthand, the feeling to be a university student and the life it had to offer. The best thing was meeting new and different people and making lots of friends and being given a foreigners treatment because of the ‘looks.’ But worst of all was the food. One can’t expect the home food but one is in for a cultural shock while faced with the reality of curries like rasam, sambar and stick curry. The classroom atmosphere was totally different – teaching being replaced by lectures but honestly speaking, I couldn’t do any in-depth structural analysis of the very essence of academics and studies meant just to pass exams and one night’s preparation was just enough to score fairly good grades. The social life was specially throng opened to the nearly hundred odd nagas – sipping post-dinner tea at ‘gopals,’ birthday bashes almost every night, cultural nights and so on. Though Hyderabad University had a conservative environment, nothing can erase the memory of the good natured people there.
Then came JNU, considered as a premier university in the country and a haven of rock solid leftist ideology where you find yourself encountering with crusaders of modern day leftist ideals and aspiration – social, political and economic and varied knowledge of cultures. A place where one can be considered poor, not because one doesn’t have money but lack an ideology. ‘Kurtas, worn out jeans and chappals defines what it is to look like an intellectual.’ The academic front brought ‘skeletons in the cupboard to life,’ as I encountered the real meaning and truth about being in the academic world…group discussions, paper presentations, seminars, post-dinner talk, the culture of reading, specially original ‘text book.’ No one forces anyone into all these learning ‘spaces’ or call it a ‘system’ but at the end, it is this system that becomes the manufacturing tools to exploit ones academic potential. I was an academic fool and stayed the first year nursing the academic void created while I was in Hyderabad. Comparatively, there is not much of socialising, except for the hostel nights and cultural events. Generally, the ‘system’ always keeps one, academically engaged, that there is scope for debates and discussion even over tea.
From these two experiences and even if one has to experience other universities, it will always have a different life to offer and nothing as “the university life.” University is what you make of it. One can extremely socialise or spend the entire time studying. It depends on the attitude you have towards studies and the balance that you can create from it. Being in the university, it gives a great feeling especially for a newbie. But that feeling should neither prolong nor let it hamper ones studies. One should try to mature fast. Voicing my concern, it is pertinent that one fall in with the right crowd and not people who are there to fill in or kill time. And I don’t mean that in a frivolous ‘hang with the in crowd way.’ Watch out for the lure of social life as its way, way too easy to spend too much time. Yet on the flip side don’t kill yourself with overwork but just keep your brain engaged. I think the social aspect is a fairly important part of the university experience. Positively if you get on well with fellow students, form study groups to go over assignments and tutorials etc. Ultimately, you decide how university life is like. Again what is right ain’t always good. You can have a positive attitude, you can be carefree, or you can waste it all. Studying hard should be your first priority, but you also need to have a healthy dash of socialising to make those long study hours bearable. You are there to get an education after all, and not a cheap one at that. Make plenty of friends and form some study groups and help one another through – you can study and socialise simultaneously. The ideal thing is to maintain a well-balanced life. Ultimately it is not the university that makes a life for you but it is you who make a life out of the university.
As a personal concern on the ‘ideal’ front, it is quite unfortunate that due warrant has not been given to higher level studies, especially, research. I fear, but our people still have a long way to go in understanding the value of education. I don’t need to talk about the ‘sorry state of affairs’ of our only university is, at the moment. It is high time that the state comes up with more encouraging measures to promote research studies. Our oral culture is fast disappearing and in a scenario like this written materials are vital tools to any historical records and research studies can develop skills to preserve our history and our rich legacy of oral literature and various analytical studies, which can be of historical importance or value oriented, in written form.
There is nothing as ‘the university life’ but nonetheless a university life is not devoid of these three central tenets – Academic, social and cultural. And a conglomeration of these three provides scope and space for the all round ‘exploitation’ especially, the intellect of an individual. This article will be a reflection of my life at two universities - Hyderabad Central University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. So it will be more of an empirical engagement in drawing out glimpses of life at the university.
Hyderabad University opened up the doors for me to experience firsthand, the feeling to be a university student and the life it had to offer. The best thing was meeting new and different people and making lots of friends and being given a foreigners treatment because of the ‘looks.’ But worst of all was the food. One can’t expect the home food but one is in for a cultural shock while faced with the reality of curries like rasam, sambar and stick curry. The classroom atmosphere was totally different – teaching being replaced by lectures but honestly speaking, I couldn’t do any in-depth structural analysis of the very essence of academics and studies meant just to pass exams and one night’s preparation was just enough to score fairly good grades. The social life was specially throng opened to the nearly hundred odd nagas – sipping post-dinner tea at ‘gopals,’ birthday bashes almost every night, cultural nights and so on. Though Hyderabad University had a conservative environment, nothing can erase the memory of the good natured people there.
Then came JNU, considered as a premier university in the country and a haven of rock solid leftist ideology where you find yourself encountering with crusaders of modern day leftist ideals and aspiration – social, political and economic and varied knowledge of cultures. A place where one can be considered poor, not because one doesn’t have money but lack an ideology. ‘Kurtas, worn out jeans and chappals defines what it is to look like an intellectual.’ The academic front brought ‘skeletons in the cupboard to life,’ as I encountered the real meaning and truth about being in the academic world…group discussions, paper presentations, seminars, post-dinner talk, the culture of reading, specially original ‘text book.’ No one forces anyone into all these learning ‘spaces’ or call it a ‘system’ but at the end, it is this system that becomes the manufacturing tools to exploit ones academic potential. I was an academic fool and stayed the first year nursing the academic void created while I was in Hyderabad. Comparatively, there is not much of socialising, except for the hostel nights and cultural events. Generally, the ‘system’ always keeps one, academically engaged, that there is scope for debates and discussion even over tea.
From these two experiences and even if one has to experience other universities, it will always have a different life to offer and nothing as “the university life.” University is what you make of it. One can extremely socialise or spend the entire time studying. It depends on the attitude you have towards studies and the balance that you can create from it. Being in the university, it gives a great feeling especially for a newbie. But that feeling should neither prolong nor let it hamper ones studies. One should try to mature fast. Voicing my concern, it is pertinent that one fall in with the right crowd and not people who are there to fill in or kill time. And I don’t mean that in a frivolous ‘hang with the in crowd way.’ Watch out for the lure of social life as its way, way too easy to spend too much time. Yet on the flip side don’t kill yourself with overwork but just keep your brain engaged. I think the social aspect is a fairly important part of the university experience. Positively if you get on well with fellow students, form study groups to go over assignments and tutorials etc. Ultimately, you decide how university life is like. Again what is right ain’t always good. You can have a positive attitude, you can be carefree, or you can waste it all. Studying hard should be your first priority, but you also need to have a healthy dash of socialising to make those long study hours bearable. You are there to get an education after all, and not a cheap one at that. Make plenty of friends and form some study groups and help one another through – you can study and socialise simultaneously. The ideal thing is to maintain a well-balanced life. Ultimately it is not the university that makes a life for you but it is you who make a life out of the university.
As a personal concern on the ‘ideal’ front, it is quite unfortunate that due warrant has not been given to higher level studies, especially, research. I fear, but our people still have a long way to go in understanding the value of education. I don’t need to talk about the ‘sorry state of affairs’ of our only university is, at the moment. It is high time that the state comes up with more encouraging measures to promote research studies. Our oral culture is fast disappearing and in a scenario like this written materials are vital tools to any historical records and research studies can develop skills to preserve our history and our rich legacy of oral literature and various analytical studies, which can be of historical importance or value oriented, in written form.
Call it fantasy or illusive romanticism but if ideology were to replace money power in our state, where elections will be dominated by rock solid ideology rather than the layman’s politics of money power and personal gain, we can have the best politicians to run the Government. If only power works from bottom to the top rather than the existing other way round, keeping in perspective that even the ruler derives its power from its subjects, then our people can come up against any sorts of untoward and unwarranted ‘exclusions.’
Asangba Tzudir
Ph.D (Philosophy) JNU, New Delhi
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
