IIT - India's Success Story? GHANTA!

A few days ago, my good friend Vinay Surti came to visit me at the campus of IIT Bombay. It was his first visit to this heavenly campus, but instead of wondering at the flora and fauna, and the unique freshness of this geography, he exclaimed, "So this is where geniuses are made! The success story of India!!"

Initially, my chest bloated from a mere 40" to a 44" (ok ok ... t-shirt business main hoon ... itna to chalta hai) ... but soon I began to wonder, "Success story?!" It didn't take too long for me to realise how stupid a statement that was, by Vinay. Moreover, how stupid most of us have been to believe that the IIT's are indeed the success story of India.

"Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands this fine monument of India, I.I.T., today representing India's urges, India's future in the making."

That's what Pandit Nehru worded when the foundation stone was being laid down for the "Mother of all IIT's", IIT Kharagpur. He must be turning restlessly in his grave to see the sorry state of this institution, around 60 years from then.

Every nation has its USP, a 'focus' strength, a differentiating factor. Infact, it's not true for nations as much as it is for a group of nations clubbed together on the world map.

For instance, the African community has its strong people - and they are bringing a lot of glory and national pride to their local communities by building their own niche in the world of sports. Very soon, and I have speak here as a sports manager, this will lead to their economic development as well.

The European and American worlds have three or four very important USPs': a headstart (their civilisations started living a self-dependent life some 2-300 years before we could do it), their white color (well ... to a large extent, and though many people may hate this, it still matters in many communities), and the Christian discipline (one of the most disciplined religions, in my own perspective).

The Middle East and the bloc have their limitless oil reserves ... that do the trick for them!

India, China, and countries around us (including Pakistan and Afganistan too), have the strength of wisdom, and hard-work! No one can beat us at working hard (though we could do with a little bit of personal and social discipline), and we all know who are the real brains behind so many Western developments!

And IIT's are supposed to be nurturing the best brains in India!

But even after some 60 years of the existence of the IIT's, India's still a 'developing' country. Pandit Nehru was a genius to realise the strength of India, and he made sure that within 5 years of India's independence, the concept of "IIT" took shape! That's amazing! Masterstroke!

The reason he created these IIT's? To take India forward. Or, to be more precise, to make those Indians that could uplift the rest of the nation.

Just like the armed forces were created to defend the country (or, to be precise, to make those Indians who could be entrusted with the task of defending the entire nation).

However, one place where the IIT's went wrong was ... its marketing.

Today, whenever you see an advert about the army, they stress upon the fact, "Come! Take pride in defending your nation!". They could have, always, easily attracted new jawans through adverts about the adventure in the army, 'that' splendid uniform, or just the fact that once in the army, you almost have a license to kill someone ... or just use the gun at will, too! But they, almost always, chose to highlight the 'national purpose', and not the 'individual lifestyle' ... when they recruit.

IIT's, on the other hand, lost their purpose in their marketing message. To make matters worse, the most unfortunate part for IIT's is that they have never needed any proactive marketing. Their marketing is so viral ... that it's not in their hands anymore!

When I was in the 10th standard, at the age of 15, my friends from the science class informed me about something called, "IIT". I inquired, and for some unknown reason (which I know now: peer mimicry), I found myself subscribed to "Brilliant Tutorials". Still, I had no idea about IIT's, and what the hell will an IIT lead me to (if I got through). It was just something that everyone was doing ... pure fashion. Infact, till a few months before the JEE, I thought it stood for, "Junior Engineer's Examination". That's how clueless I was!

My father had some other motivations! I remember him telling me once, "Beta, IIT main admission le lo. Bina donation ke ho jaata hai ... bas exam main pass hona padega. Kahin BSc karna pada to laakhon ka chadhawa lagega!" We are banyas.

Same goes for my mother. Infact, the same goes for almost anyone I knew who encouraged me to sit for the JEE. "Life ban jaayegi", "Note chhapne ki machine hai IIT", "IITians pe to ladkiyan marti hain", "Fatt se settle ho jaayega, aur achchi bahu bhi aayegi" ... blah blah nonsense (nonsense ... because none of these has happenned to me yet)!

That's where the IIT's lost it. They could never market themselves like the armed forces. No one ever perceived them as a place to go where you sacrifice your materialistic luxuries to use your personal strenghts and solve the nation's problems. They were never about the nation, for us. It was all about your personal achievements, the bank balance, and peer-targetted-glory. It was about basking in some stupid, stupid achievements!

Just imagine if the IIT's had marketed themselves like the army, if IIT's were about struggling, striving, giving up on daily conveniences to help the country! I am sure parents would have had sleepless nights when the kid had announced, "Main IIT jaaunga"! They would have retorted, "Is din ke liye bada kiya hai tujhe?!"

Jokes apart ... here's what's happenning. The army, and the IIT's, both enjoy almost unlimited convenience from the government ... in terms of space, in terms of subsidies ... almost any kind of resource. I may be way off the mark, but may be the government is spending lakhs of rupees on each soldier, and on each IITian. All of it is the tax-payer's money ... and the tax-payer is paying it because of the promise of these intitutions: "We will do good for you!"

While the army makes sure, through those 'bonds', that either the jawan breaks his bank to break the bond, or serves the army for 5-10 years in SSC ... the IITians have no such issues! You study at IIT, use all those resources, and then choose what you want to do. Mostly, an IITian chooses to make a career for himself. More often than not, the IITian joins a hi-fi company from abroad, adding all the value to them! Oh yes ... they do bring some foreign currency to the country (their bank, rather) ... but the real value is added to those nations. No wonder the Western world has all those amazing metros, and bridges, and whatnots!

On a personal level ... within the first three years, the IITian buys his first car, gets his first house, and finds his first wife ... and then he starts wondering how the hell can he spend those extra dollars lying in the vault! Then come those exotic vacations, luxurious purchases, and infinite savings for the future - just in case some money is needed!

All this while, the army jawan has been serving his 'sentence' of 10 years ... wandering from one place to the other ... mostly keeping away from the family. By the time he is ready to leave the army, his life is half spent! There are no complains, however, since he knew what was coming.

(Btw, it's so easy to type all this on a silly blog. But, I am shameless ... so nothing can be done about that).

The situation is ... in the last 6 decades, 1.5 lakh IITians may have been produced. However, if we talk about science, none of them has done us proud by winning a Nobel Prize (just said it for the sake of saying it ... a Nobel Prize is not a metric of success for me, otherwise). A few of them did join the public sector, and are doing us proud (I hope) at places like ISRO, DRDO, IPS etc. Quite a few of them have started their own companies, and are helping the national cause in a very minimal way, by providing employment. But most of them are (even at this moment as you read this post) f***ing their lives in small little corporate cubicles (mostly of multinational companies), attending stupid meetings, planning on the new house, and hoping to get laid. That's a typical IITian, as far as I know this world, at present.

Earlier, the Western world seduced this country with dreams, and robbed us of all the wealth. Now, the carrot remains the same, but they seem to be looting us of our brains.

Some people I know may take a huge offense on whatever I have to say ... but I would offer to drag them in the "what would have" world! Just imagine, for a moment, what would have happenned if the IIT's, like the forces, had this compulsory bond for the IITians! Something like, "Either serve the country in some public sector organization for 5 years, or pay us Rs. 20 lakh and you are free to go."

I am sure most of us would have gone for the former (my dad would have ensured that for me - we are banyas)! Let's say that number was 75%. This is what it means: more than a lakh IITians, working in the public sector, for atleast 5 years of their lives. Moreover ... it's not all simultaneous ... but spread over 6 decades!!

Do you really think that we would have been where we are today?! Let me boast a little bit: IITians are 'problem solvers'. It's a breed ... a species which gets restless if there's no problem to solve. That's what they really teach you in IIT - solving problems. Whether it's about the 8-Queen problem, those irritating Fermi ions, or the incomprehensible Y-Delta circuits, or about making a bigger Mood Indigo happen, or convincing a nutty professor to give us a grace pass grade - we have been solving problems all through out (except for the last one I mentioned - that's still a hard one)!

With a swarm of problem solvers, the so-called and so-they-are-as-well 'Cream of the Nation', stuffed into the Public Services, we would have been a completely different country! The world would have followed us! Hygeine, health, infra, security, development ... just about anything! Perhaps that's also why Pandit Nehru conceptualised IIT's ...to drive the nation forward!

It's a pity, though, that things cannot be undone. The 'what if' world doesn't exist, and IIT's are still those white elephants (and don't even get me started on IIM's) that are proving worthless at the grassroot level.

However, undone things can still be done! I strongly feel that if good things are to come out of IIT's, the authorities should enforce a '5 Year Public Service - or Pay Out' bond on passing out students. Jo bhi solution hai ... the bottom line is ... IIT's have not really helped (and it's difficult to blame the IITians ... since 90% of them did not get into IIT for some nation building objective) ... while they have sucked a lot of money, resources ... and a whole lot of hope.