August 27, 2012

By DU Beat August 27, 2012

Hello Amma,
I am doing my B.A (Hons.) first year from an All Girls Colleges of the University.
I am a Lesbian, and although I make no efforts to hide it, I haven’t really ‘come out’ to my classmates. My classmates, atleast most of them are pretty open-minded and accepting when it comes to homosexuality, but inspite of that I don’t know how to let everyone (or at least those who are chill with it) know I am a Lesbian. I am single, so I can’t use the ‘I-was-talking-to-my-girlfriend’ trick either.
Could you tell me how to come out, without really having to shout it out? Or should I just let it be?

Before coming to your query let Amma show you the bright side in your life: you are in an all girl’s college. A place full of ripe coconuts for you to tap, secondly and more importantly the open minded people around you. Now macchhi shouldn’t you capitalize on these things!

Well before coming out of the closet you must be confident in yourself, and should have made peace with the fact that you are attracted to the same sex. The key is to choose the right person to begin with. If this target fish of yours is hooked well, the rest of the sea shall be a piece of banana cake with filter coffee. And since you can’t slip it in casually, do go through a sort of script or be confident and careful with the words and tone you use. Once you have your close friends taken care of, go on further and let others or more casual friends know, this will help with your self confidence.

You will also have to brace yourself for awkward questions or homophobic behaviour. Girls’ colleges usually have some separate group or society to help and counsel the baffled macchiis like you, so if not in your college do get in touch with such a group.

So once you have let the people (those who matter) know Amma would love to hear from you and your girlfriend. Do make sure you let Amma know how your curry is boiling and buzz me anytime you want help in spicing it up!

You could mail Amma your queries on the ‘hush hush’ topic at [email protected].

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Gargi College

No First Aid at Hand

By DU Beat August 27, 2012

First aid facilities in most colleges belonging to one of the most prestigious universities in the country seem to be in a state of apathy. Most colleges in Delhi University lack basic first aid provisions, giving an impression of utter callousness on their part.

Students of most colleges seem unaware of any such facilities even if they do exist. “I have no idea about it. I don’t think anybody would know”, says Parth, a student of Kirori Mal College. The story seems to be no different in Sri Venkateswara College. “I don’t even know if we have a medical room. I’m just glad I’ve never had to use it”, says Aniruddh, a 3rd year Economics student from Sri Venkateswara.

However, this is only one end of the spectrum. The other end has colleges like St. Stephen’s where the facilities provided are reportedly top notch. “We have proper medical facilities and a very approachable medical staff”, Vatsal, a student of St. Stephen’s was quoted as saying.

Interestingly, the girls’ colleges of Delhi University seem to fare much better in this regard. Colleges like Lady Sri Ram, Gargi and Jesus and Mary have a well equipped infirmary. “We have a well equipped infirmary and a stationed nurse, and from what I’ve heard, it’s quite adequate”, says Tanya, an LSR-ite. “The first aid facilities in our college are pretty good and the nurse is friendly. Since it’s a girls college, we have provisions for every possible thing”, says Nandita, a student of Gargi college.

It seems that the co-ed colleges of Delhi University need to take a lesson or two from the girls’ colleges and provide adequate provisions to its students and make them aware of such facilities being provided to them in college.

Surya Rajappan
[email protected]

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DUB Speak

The new IIT JEE pattern: A necessary revamp or a major disaster?

By Ankita Mukhopadhyay August 27, 2012

Education, literacy and entrance examinations have always been a subject of popular debate in our country, with thousands of students aspiring every year to get through some of the best educational institutes of the country, like the IITs, NITs, AIIMS, etc. The Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) has always been an elusive examination for most students, with lakhs of students preparing every year to attain the coveted tag of being an IITian, with only 1% getting through. The IIT JEE examination is considered the toughest engineering entrance examination inAsia, and those who crack it pride themselves in doing so.

In May 2012, the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, Kapil Sibal announced a revamp of the IIT JEE examination, with the inclusion of all the major engineering entrance examinations of the country into one single examination- Indian Science Engineering Eligibility Test (ISEET). The new pattern consisted of two examinations- the ISEET Main and the ISEET Advanced. The top 40,000 students of the ISEET Main examination would be allowed to appear for the ISEET Advanced, which granted admission to the premier institutes of engineering like the IIT’s and NIT’s. However, ranks would be determined by taking 50% of the score of the advanced examination and 50% of the class 12 board examination results.

This proposal had earlier been pending in the Parliament, but was passed this May, causing uproar throughout the country. Students as well as parents protested against the inclusion of the class 12 board examination marks and the IIT senates immediately condemned this decision of the government. IIT Delhi moved the High court two weeks after the declaration of this decree. IITKanpurmoved a step ahead and announced its very own entrance test from 2013.

Amidst this entire confusion, there were hotly contested debates on various public forums, with writers like Chetan Bhagat and Directors of ‘prestigious’ coaching institutes condemning the decision to include the class 12 board marks and they labelled this move as an attempt to lower the standard of the IIT’s, which are the pride of India. The IIT senates felt extremely insulted by this impeachment on their autonomy. A student studying in a coaching centre in Mumbai said, “ I took a drop after my class 12 to prepare for IIT JEE, and I hadn’t fared very well in my boards as I was busy preparing for IIT JEE. Now that the pattern has changed, does the government expect me to go back and give my class 12 boards again? Before, cracking the JEE was important. Now, if class 12 marks determine our ranks, then where will students who have taken a gap year go?”

However, the Director of the Vidyalankar group of coaching classes felt that this decision was a wise move. With coaching classes branching out all over the country, IIT JEE had become an examination for conditioned mindsets, not academic brilliance. With the implementation of the ISEET, students would become more serious about attending school and performing well in the boards. The practice of integrated school- cum- coaching classes like Bansals and Narayana would soon disappear and students could again go back and enjoy their school days – something they deserved and which they should not be averse to. He also added that his coaching centre offers coaching for both class 12 and IIT JEE. Looks like business strategies are changing as fast as the education system.

With increasing dissent all over the country and a complete deadlock over the course of the future of thousands of children sitting for the entrance examination in 2013, Kapil Sibal organized a meeting with the IIT directors and finally came to a consensus about the pattern of the ISEET examination. The proposal for 50% weightage on class 12 board marks was scrapped and it was decided that students in the top 20% of their board would be allowed to sit for ISEET Advanced. The number of students eligible to sit for ISEET Advanced now increased to 1,50,000. The agitation slowly died down, as the decision makers came to a consensus without taking the views of the children into account, which is usually always the case when it comes to education. Take the implementation of the semester system inDelhiUniversityas an example.

With the ISEET implemented, the students still haven’t received any intimation in regard to the pattern of the new exam and are still in the loop about whether their board marks will be scaled down while assessing their ranks or not. We can now just wait and watch the outcome of this new exam- a political gimmick, most people say, before the 2014 elections. Whether it will be a huge disaster like the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medicine (NEET), which was a complete failure last year, or a success…only time will tell.

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