How An Unanswered Phone Call Cost Me A Seat In This Reputed Institute

By Sagnik Basak:

Education is not only a necessity it is also a right. One cannot be denied the right to education or to better themselves. Sadly, in our country not many share this point of view. Basically, what I am trying to say is: if you are an ordinary student in India then, my friend, you are screwed in the truest sense of the term. Let me give you an example so that you can better understand my point.

Close your eyes for a minute and try to picture a scenario. It is Saturday morning about 10. You have an entrance exam the next day at one of the premier Mass Communication Institutes in India.

What do you do when one of the most reputed institutions in the country fails to provide accurate information on their websites, or they feel that complying with the information provided on their website is beneath them?

Let’s take a look at this then.

Indian Institute of Mass Communication Delhi, on their website, asks all candidates who have not received or misplaced their application number to call the institute between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday. Now being the forgetful person that I am, I lost the unique application number that I needed to get a copy of my admit card to appear in the entrance exam on the May 29.

I make no excuses on the part. I lost the unique ID number. It could happen to anyone but lady luck decided to let it happen to me. Now I go on calling the institute from 12 o’ clock onward and get no response. No one picks up the first few times and from then on the line is constantly busy.

Even if I were to go by the argument that there was no one in the campus to pick up the phone, it being a Saturday, the question that remains is how did the phone ring for the first half hour without a reply but then remained busy till 3.30 p.m.! Then again it rang without a reply for an interval of 10 minutes to remain busy till well after 5 p.m. After that there was no point calling anymore as the website (big help that it turned out to be) mentions that the calling time is from 10 in the morning to 5 in the evening.

It now looks like either the Institute was closed on the day or there was no one available to pick up the phone. Then why don’t they just remove that bit of red underlined text from their website as it is hopelessly misleading and causes no end of worry.

It has now been a little over a week since the date of the entrance exam has passed; I received no word from the institute even after sending them a mail explaining the predicament I landed myself in.

As I write this piece, the others are at this very moment hoping that they have cracked the exam and will be selected. And since I haven’t heard back from the institute, looks as though my grievances will remain unaddressed.