This is not a diatribe

I protest. Strongly. A low comedy played out today and it was too absurd even to evict any emotion resembling laughter. Our final presentations were scheduled today and a person no less than our very own HOD walked in to evaluate the students. After months of intense hard work I was looking forward to the presentations because I was looking for feedback on my work and it was an opportunity to share my experiences with my classmates.

My presentation was the first one that she evaluated. I was expecting a fair and critical analysis from the evaluators with concrete suggestions that we could incorporate in our work in the future. But what transpired was very different from my expectations.

It all started because I had essentially carried out research in the social sciences and the HOD has a chemistry background fortified by the rigors of laboratory work and being buried under piles of unnecessary paper work.

But that shouldn't make a difference, should it? Inspite of being from a pure science background, she could have been more open to the fact that research in social science is possible. She refused to believe that data in social science is generated by talking to people, by taking into account people's perceptions and relying on independent observations. Why else would it be called a 'social' science then? Her eyebrows were in danger of disappearing into her hair when I informed her that I generated primary data by interviewing people. Why else would it be called primary data?

She expressed extreme surprise, astonishment and dismissed my entire work because I spent only 21 days doing field work. How could I explain to her that I encountered conditions where I had to eat food infested with rat shit and cockroaches and that some nights I went without food as I was too disgusted to eat the crap anymore? But I am digressing here. Why does the number of days that I spend on field matter as long as I collect data that is reliable and proves my hypothesis right? It is immaterial whether I spend 10 days or 30 days. All the days of walking for 10 kms everyday for long hours in the sun boiled down to this. The quality of the time spent should matter and not the quantity.

She was also disbelieving of the fact that I conducted 50 interviews and that each interview consisted of nearly 200 closed and open ended questions. She expected me to list all the questions on the slides that I had prepared. Really now, come on!

According to her, I spending 21 days on field for my work is very less because a period of 6 months is granted to us. Just to make it clear- we are granted only 4 months out of which the major chunk is spent in conducting a literature review, working out and managing the logistics of the field visit, scheduling interviews, framing relevant questions to be included in the questionnaire and analysing data.

Another problematic area was the classification of my respondents. I had used the standard method of classification where respondents are grouped in categories based on the amount of land that they possess.

Large Farmers: >10 acres

Medium Farmers: 5-10 acres

Small Farmers: 0.01-5 acres

Herders

Landless

This is the protocol followed in my field of interest (watershed development). She said that this kind of classification is wrong because a farmer cannot be large, medium or small in the real sense. Really madam, your quibbling over semantics exposed your pettiness and your scientific approach. Pray,  where is the logic?

And it is not just about me. When another student gave her presentation, our HOD was disbelieving that Self Help Groups are formed by NGOs in areas where watershed development projects are carried out to bring the community together. Her ignorance can be forgiven but not her arrogance.

She was keen to drive home the point that conducting a thesis out of the University is an exercise in futility as students end up having a gala time outside their homes. Sorry, this did not hold true in majority of my classmates. We got an opportunity to step out of the hallowed precincts of our department and explore the world outside. Unfortunately she sees that as a waste of time and now has scrapped this system for our juniors who will be expected to conduct their projects under faculty (which is virtually non-existent and the few that are there are incompetent) who are all from the chemistry background. They will be expected to perfect their skills in titration, BOD and COD estimation, chromatography and the like. Now I don't have anything against laboratory work. I myself come from a pure science background and I just discovered my calling pulling me in another direction. But I believe that our HOD needs to wake and understand that research in pure science and social science is complementary to each other. Research is but not limited to sitting for long hours in the laboratory where one has to prepare chemicals and medium, autoclave and sterilize instruments, incubate microorganisms, etc. She dismissed the fields of anthropology, history and ethnography in a wave of her hand. She believes that what people say is not does not come under the realm of hard and verifiable facts. Of course she doesn't know that there are certain methods used in social science to verify what people say. Like I said, her ignorance can be forgiven.

To be fair, there was another evaluator who despite being an ecologist asked me fair and pertinent questions about my work. She was neither judgmental nor did she have any preconceived biases against the social sciences. She interrogated me in a way that could be called real defense. My close friend gave her presentation before mine in which the HOD was not present and even she had conducted her research in the domain of the social sciences. This evaluator was fair to her too and asked very pointed and relevant questions. 

This is not a personal vendetta against our HOD. It is just a ranting by a frustrated student who is caught is the grasp of people who come from a peculiar mindset that looks down upon the social sciences. It speaks volumes about the encouragement the department provides when people try to do something other than spending time in the closed and controlled conditions of the laboratory.

I will be giving a seminar shortly where I work and I believe that this will be where that I will be truly evaluated. The faculty here come from varied backgrounds but they are not dismissive about other fields. They listen and understand and encourage research from all fields. It is progressive while my department seems to be stepping into the middle ages with their initiatives of scrapping the policy of conducting projects outside Pune. She thinks that we have wasted our time having 'fun'. Stepping out of my department have opened up new avenues for me. I have learnt what it means to work in the field of academics and it was like a breath of fresh air after the unnecessary hurdles of slow and lumbering pace of work of our department.

And this wasn't true only for me. I being from a city decided to spend 4 months of my time someplace else all because of the opportunities that open up when one is out of one's comfort zone. There are some people in my class who come from rural Maharashtra and they worked in institutes like ISRO and it has done wonders for their confidence.

However, our HOD is quite determined to believe otherwise.

All is not all right in this world and the injustice rankles. I wish that I could proudly state that I have done my Masters from this department. But even I am determined to believe otherwise.

And so I rest my case.

The light shines...and all that.

The fact that University days are over for good is hitting hard these days. Undoubtedly this were one of the most memorable journeys that I have had until now. So many new vistas opened and every day was like a new discovery of the self. Ambitions long forgotten started being realized and the good-kind-of-feeling started rubbing in real hard. University does grow on you.
Now if I'm asked to pinpoint any particular memory that stands out everything just seems like a blurred film in fast forward mode. Rush rush rush. A curious mixture of 1 and a half years packaged into a 30 seconds. We entered, made the best possible friends and now we are on are way out all too soon.
Being out is strangely exciting, so many magical stories, worlds and people to explore and so many chances to imbibe their experiences and learn. Again the feeling of being a small fish in a big, big pond.
But this small fish will grow- That I promise you :)

Examination Woes

After three long years I will be giving exams for a fortnight. Biotechnology was pretty chilled out about exams. Three days, 80 marks papers and we would  be free. Now it's 5 papers, 50 marks each spread out over 10 days. It's a real bore. The breaks in between are the worst though this time around they seem welcome since my books still continue to be in a state of permanent rest. And I will be doing the honour of opening them only before each paper.

 

M.Sc has made me even more lazy.  I am not sure if it is because of the horrendous number of assignments that we are besotted with or is it due to the fact that we end up doing them only a night before the submission. I wonder where the time flies. The professors made us slog by giving us a schedule of 9 to 6 and before we knew it exams were bolting towards us faster that Usain Bolt.

Tomorrow are the practical exams and I have just skimmed through reluctantly. The laziness lingers. Here's hoping that I won't have any serious repercussions tomorrow.

La langue française

Yesterday I got a chance to better my French-speaking skills. 4 students from France have joined my department for 6 months as part of an exchange program. We got talking and I made a pact with Audrey-She would help me practice La langue française if I taught her Hindi.

After our lectures got over we spent time in the canteen where a couple of them were treated with idli-sambhar. They ate it with quite some relish and le fil kept wanting to talk about cars. On returning back to our department, ma classe de française started in earnest. Audrey kept throwing les questions at me. It took me a very very long time to get used to her accent and her speed. The French are known to speak rapidly and I had to keep begging her to speak lentement. I was listening and speaking French after nearly 3 months and all les conjugaisons des verbes had taken leave from my mind and for my life I couldn't remember le mot pour 'forget'.
Later I redeemed myself by impressing Audrey by with my knowledge about l'histoire et la geographie de la France.

When it came my turn to teach Audrey Hindi, she proved quite adept at picking it up. I taught her numbers, how to bargain by saying 'Kya bhaiya, kitna mehenga hai!'. And in the meanwhile Tomas was conducting his French lesson for the boys of our class. It was a sight to watch the boys learn how to say 'Au Revoir'. He was teaching them how to pronounce 'Revoir' and in the end all the managed to say is 'Oh Rava'.

And this is what I said when Eric and Americk asked me whether I prefer German or French.
"Je pense que la launge est trés romantique et belle. Je l'aime beaucoup." They were delighted and Tomas started at the word 'romantique'. Bien sûr, il est un fil méchant!!!

Lectures in University

At last a new month began today. The couple of days at University have been absolutely terrific. The lectures are getting all the more interesting with each progressing class. Having never studied Geosciences and Atmospheric Sciences, these subjects are now sharing space with Microbiology as my favourite subjects. I never dreamed that rocks could throw so much light on Earth's historical mysteries and I'm glad of this new-found fascination.

Sir makes us scratch our head with the clever questions he puts to us with a well-placed itch. We grope around with the clues and just about solve his riddle. Everybody ends us being pleased with themselves. After 3 years I am being taught like this. As one of my class-mates put it perfectly-it's akin to listening to stories by our grandparents. Most of the lecturers are aged but with bucketful youthful enthusiasm and with every passing minute I'm totally captivated and hooked.

Then another professor linked Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, the hat makers, the mercury spill in Japan and thus the Minamata Disease. It was ooh-la-la worthy.

This has been the first time that I have not looked forward to the end of the lecture but the commencement of a new lecture. The eagerness grows everday.

Rainy Walks

Walking in the University campus is such a joy. It's been pouring since the last couple of days and during our break in between the lectures my classmates and me go exploring out to various departments. Armed with umbrellas, I find it very quaint walking on the water sloshed winding paths and the fresh greenery transports me into another world. At times like these I'm at a loss for words and just hum a tiny tune for my pleasure usually one of the songs which I have learnt in dance class.

Today I met my old friends again while I had gone to the bank to deposit the fees for the convocation ceremony. Gosh! Again we buzzed like bees, cracking all the same old nonsensical jokes which make sense to none but us. We had to stand in the queue for over a couple of hours but it really didn't matter. The time was yet too short for us. Then after a couple of members of our group departed, 3 of us went to the University Canteen. It's an old, gloomy, dully lit but an interesting place which serves 'Egg Sez' rice.

While sitting there I wished that it would have been so pleasant to have all my friends there with me and studying with me but they jackasses wish the same thing for me to be studying with them in their departments. It's a good thing though-at least each person likes the course that they have elected for. But I oh so do miss them so so so much :)

University in the Rains

I can't wait to start going to University. The fresh greenery gladdens my heart. I can't wait to get wet in the University in the monsoon. Oh and to see the water drip gently off the leaves into a puddle, form tiny streams and meander off somewhere. And then following those streams to see where it continues flow or does it just play a trick on you and dives into the ground?

And then the little drenched bird's plaintive cry resonating in the ears from somewhere high up; but the eyes can't pierce through the thick growth of trees.. But oh..but oh..my eyes want to see that little bird.

Then to sit at the canteen waiting for a steaming cup of coffee and hearing the steady pitter-patter of the rains on the metal sheets. Listening to that sound tells me how heavy the rain is and from there I can see the rain fall in sheets and the wind tosses it in this direction and that..Just a white hazy mist is all around then. And then the coffee arrives and the lazy steam curls up over the coffee into nothingness.