IIT-M, toffee that got swallowed a bit too early

CS Unnikrishnan reminisces about his days at IIT-Madras.

IIT-Madras has been a memory for me that resembled the caramel toffee that got swallowed a bit too early, before I experienced it slowly and contemplatively.

Two-year MSc programmes are like that, that too when water shortage and other problems shorten the semesters themselves prematurely.

By the time one gets a feel of the campus and its potentials in multitude of interactions with people and the environment, and with the city, the course is over and another journey of camping and learning starts.

My landing up at IIT-M for a two-year MSc course in physics was just chancy, more or less a last minute decision because I was not really aware of the potentials of education in the IITs.

It is difficult to explain this ignorance, as I learned later, but that was the fact.

Anyway, the place was a revelation. It was certainly the first major exposure to a research environment, but even regarding the standards of education some notions got immediately corrected.

There was pressure to perform well in a way that was unprecedented (with the logo 'Sidhirbhavati Karmaja' constantly in view!), and the only thing that really helped to keep the enthusiasm and morale high was seeing the surprising paradox of how well the younger BTech students were doing while enjoying life at full blast, watching movies, indulging in sports and music!

We, in the MSc batch did try a bit of that though not with full success, but being in a hostel full of BTech's helped in being relaxed.

An interesting aspect of IIT education is the rural-urban transition that one feels and undergoes. A large fraction of IIT students are from the middle class environment and a lot of them are from small towns.

While the atmosphere inside the campus remains middle class, there is often the city enveloping it and one is aware of it.

Even within, communication requires refining for many, and in my case I started speaking in English for the first time, and needed to get familiar with it within a matter of few weeks.

It was not very different for many of my classmates, except for about half of us who did study in the cities before. In a way this situation is not different from the case for so many youngsters who go outside the state for jobs, in a country speaking so many languages, with essentially English as the only bridging language.

Only, in the IIT situation one feels an urgency about it.

Looking back, I cannot say that it was the quality of the teaching there that made a difference -- we certainly had equal or better teachers on the average in school and in college.

In fact, I find that usual hype associated with the IITs and IITians is not well-founded, and education at a good Indian university is of a more mature and socially and politically rooted nature.

But, the vibrant environment that mixed research and teaching, within the city around, hidden but real, perhaps were positive and unique influences.

An important, perhaps the most important, aspect of education at the IITs was the fact that it was inexpensive - even more than it is nowadays.

This was crucial because most of us who went there really could not afford today's expenses for education, even at the school level. But for the scholarships and small pocket money, it would have been impossible to venture into an intense educational routine far a way from home.

In fact, even the occasional tiny but useful 'income' from odd jobs inside the campus, like collecting tickets for movie shows at the Open Air Theater (OAT) helped to get the night chai at the Taramani gate.

My friend Tomy used to take up typing jobs at the library and there were a few other possibilities that students used. Times have changed, and more private money is available at the IITs these days.

Even the level of living of the students who come to these educational institutions may have changed upwardly, but I see the IITs as a solid example of a state's commitment and responsibility to offer high level education at relatively low cost to young people.

In these days of vulgar privatisation of basic education, IITs continue to provide the counter example of a compassionate and much needed investment that provides high returns eventually.

One of the major linking themes in Madras is music - IIT-M had a fair share of music lovers and the music club managed to have very good concerts frequently.

I think these played a substantial role in my own development in music appreciation. It also led to some friendships, with colleagues, teachers and also musicians like TV Goplakrishnan.

We had our own in-house musician, the talented and accomplished flutist K Bhaskaran, just across our Hostel Tapti. He organised flute classes for us in the campus. I still remember his flute-guitar Carnatic music jugalbandhi during a Mardi Gras festival, with a colleague from Guindi college on the guitar (not Guitar Prasanna as far as I can remember, who also studied at IIT-M later, as I gather from his website).

The yearly cultural festival Mardi Gras has changed its name to Saarang now. One really misses Madras for its music, all the more because we had not enough time to indulge in much listening, wandering into the city in the music festival season.

The IIT-M campus is green enough, with large elderly trees. That helped to forget the high humidity, warm atmosphere that was difficult at times (the swimming pool helped, which at times was the only place with water enough for an impressionist bath).

The human-friendly deer in the campus, being part of the deer park, did make a difference to the ambience, giving a feeling of peace and calm.

Memories with that backdrop are by and large pleasant and fond.early morning classes, shared bicycles, inter-IIT sports and our double-menu training camp, occasional trips back home, Malayalam plays, and ...love, which was rare and precious.

There are several from our batch and the next with whom I keep contact. People moved into what they liked -- research, teaching, industry, philosophy, administrative services, music...Occasionally when we meet we feel happy that we were together at a place that encouraged togetherness, even though we perhaps did not realise it fully at that time.

CS Unnikrishnan currently works as a scientist with the Gravitation Group, TIFR and is a IIT-Madras alumni (1982-84 batch).