I studied painstakingly for my entrance exams, sweating it out day and night, hardly catching up with my dreams of lazing around and having a blast during the holidays, which has been strained by the colander called ‘childhood'!
Yet, at the end of the hassle of buying an application form from the most reputed colleges in the city and meticulously filling it with precise and not to mention doggedly verified photocopies of various original documents that spell out our originality, I realise that the examinations that I wrote, the forms that I filled and the interviews that I attended were all an eye-wash. A mere formality!
Baffling criteria
The officials were having a jolly good time, collecting money by way of application forms and loads of entertainment while they shot questions at us. I was in for a huge shock when I was sarcastically asked if I was a Tamilian? (After having spent all my days in this awesome city, from the day I could blink?) I took the second bullet with a smirk when they asked me which denomination of Christianity I belonged to?I saw red when the last ridiculous statement was laid down. They said they would try their level best and that the Head of the Department would do all in his power to help me secure a seat but my caste would be a serious factor that would keep me away from this apparently esteemed college!
My intellect, hard work and personality didn't matter to them. Yet their college motto claimed they stood for honour, truth, justice and all those synonyms that most institutions claim to inculcate in their students.
I felt so helpless until I looked at the buddies I had quickly made during the usual delay before any kind of entrance examination begins in our country. These newly made buddies hailed from Kerala, Coonoor, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and other small places. Their travel expenses alone would probably exceed their first semester fees.
The next thing did not shock me at all, as I was used to hearing it from my seniors. Even if you looked like the worst candidate and if you took absolutely no effort to look “human”, waving a wad of cash at their faces or influence or “push” that makes them feel insecure will definitely get you a seat any where in India. Gone are the days when brilliance and hard work mattered. This isn't merely the case with UG or PG courses but also a serious issue when it comes to getting your toddler a seat at a decent private school, where she/he can hope to learn English with the right pronunciation and learn standard etiquette.
Mary Sruthi Vijayakumar, III B.A English, Women's Christian College
