Those who went to India for education in 1950s/1960s may have vivid
picture of what it was like then. The communication connections were
nonexistent and foot/bus/train travels arduous. If a message had to be
delivered you hike all the way, find someone to walk for you and give a message
or hand-delivered a written note, if you ever went to a school. No modern
communication networks existed, not even post offices. I remember sending
initially letters to my parents from my school in Kalimpong (India) addressed
as:
Dhanbir Tamang
Damphu, Chirang, Bhutan
P/O: Kokrajhar
(P/O for post office)
District: Goalpara (Assam)
We could never tell if the letter had reached home. I did not know until winter break when my father would take out his well-preserved
smoke-stained paper that his son had sent him months back. My brother tells me that my father, when he received the letter, would say often "pheri padtiuley jyojyo la chitti" (read again your elder brother's letter). There was no other way of connecting with higher education except
through physical travel to schools in India. The travel from Tsirang (Chirang
then) to school took us full four days: two days of trek on the horse-trail
(track formed due to frequent animal passage) from Tsirang to Sarpang (Sarbhang
then), bus/truck ride on a dirt road to Kokrajhar (Assam) next day, night train
journey from Kokrajhar to Siliguri (West Bengal), and then a seat on
dilapidated dodge bus from Siliguri on the fourth day took us to Kalimpong. It
really felt other end of the world, and the power of connection as weak as
that.
The travel had its own tailspin. When
you are dead tired walking whole day, you look forward to most is an even
ground to sit and let your two feet lie flat on ground. That felt relaxed. Just
before nightfall (no light at night except firewood flame rays), dinner of rice
with “gundruk” (fermented and dried green vegetable) curry was a delight. The
sleep under a tree or in an “orar” (more like a small cave) was so deep that
deadwood would have stared us with amusement. After two-day trek, travel by
vehicle was more like “pay fare, but where you sit is your problem.” Clinging
on luggage rack on the roof of bus or on top of lumber loaded on the truck was
not uncommon. The night steam-engine-powered train journey gave us a black
coal-dust facelift and bird’s nest hairdo next day. Many did not eat after the
train ride fearing car sickness on a narrow winding hill road along Teesta
river. Finally we crawled half-dead to the hostel. The youthful energy revived
as soon as we saw our other friends, and everything was a distant past. The
school education connection was certainly not as easy!
The first “cycle rickshaw” (3-wheeled
bicycle for transport with covered seat for passenger behind driver) ride from
Hijli rail station to Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITKGP) for my
civil engineering degree was as wet as Indian monsoon. The open spaces between
the blocks of Rajendra Prasad Hall of Residence (RP Hall, the hostel of IIT)
had turned into ponds, and half-naked boys were playing soccer while
four-storied building corridors of both the blocks were packed with pretty wild
spectators making fun of soccer players. Turned out that the soccer players
were the “freshers” (newcomers) and the spectators the “seniors” (2nd-5th year
students), and latest addition to “freshers” had just arrived on a “rickshaw”
to join wet-soccer game. No sooner a ground floor room next to toilet
(considered worst room of the block, the room gets better as you move to higher
years) was allotted, there were two choices: join the half-naked soccer game or
be dragged into it. Being alone in a strange place made the situation worst but
was no excuse. When there is no connection to the rest of the world; you are
powerless. So anger, frustration and/or homesickness have no place in you. Face
ragging (rude interactions of seniors with newcomers) or leave the campus like
a loser.
Once the “mass ragging” (final
ragging) was over, life got back to normal. The tough seniors gave “freshers”
canteen treats of “muglai paratha” (Indian flatbread with meat in-between) with
tea and there was no need to “sir” them thereafter. Fair enough. Next it is
your turn for “freshers” to “sir” you and ridicule them when they show their
swim strokes on a concrete floor. Different time cycle, and unconnected college
campus world that was.
The IIT Kharagpur was our world for
five years, except for occasional glance on newspapers and “Doordarshan”
(distant view literally) TV in common room, and once in a while quick jaunt to
Calcutta (Kolkata now) to buy bell-bottomed pants and Beatles records from New
Market, and eat Nizam’s beef roll. IITKGP admits smart students. Time and sleep
were precious. The teachers lectured presuming students pre-read lessons. Those
who hadn’t, went blank and could not participate in class. Teachers pronounced
them dumb and ridiculed as intellectually unfit to be IITKGPians. All complex
engineering calculation were done on slide rule (a ruler with a sliding central
strip, marked with logarithmic scales and used for making rapid calculations
including for functions such as roots, logarithms and trigonometry). Not even
calculators existed. So engineering education revolved around teachers, books,
labs and slide rules. Any other opening and/or education connection were beyond
imagination.
Fast-forward 45 years, wonderful
development progress has been made. Who will believe my obsolete story now?
Certainly, not my granddaughter who teaches me how to use smartphone more
smartly and googles anything that is new to her. Anyone can send videos, photos
and texts real-time and make a voice/video call to anyone in the other corner of the world
(distribution). And this blog is shared with everyone in the world through a
connected central stage called google blogspot (concentration). The system is
so connected now that the power is defined by such concentration and distribution.
The new innovations on the concentration and distribution systems which are
connected by countless devices and people add-up at unmeasurably quick pace.
The learning apps (like BYJU) that can be downloaded on phone offer learning
programs for students of all classes and for competitive exams. The students
who are not given the intellectual space, freedom, or support to fulfil their
educational potential and desire for learning can join virtual classroom in
Piazza that connects students and professors from around the world. And there
are Facebooks, Tweeters, eBays, Amazons, Alibabas, Agodas, Ubers, Didi Chuxings, Airbnbs,
PayTMs and so on and on....
While the connected world gives ample
opportunities to be part of power and influence through centralization and
distribution, it is also true that the world leaves behind those who do not
realize the value and power of connection to be dominated by those who do, at
the pace much faster than the speed of connection innovations I just tried to
depict from my school days till now. The connected system of profound
concentration and massive distribution cannot be understood in simple either/or
terms. Therefore we need to be able to understand and tap the advantages of
network power. The world is moving fast, the pace of which I doubt if anyone
can make even a rough guess!
