College life is a phase which everyone wants to relive.
This piece is an expression of my ongoing experience of it, pursuing M.A. in Development at Azim Premji University. Before beginning, I can’t resist bringing up the importance of exercising the fundamental right of expression. This is what I have been able to do in this university. I have been here for more than a semester now and my affection for life is not filled with stories of hanging out with friends or the charm of bunking classes. It is, instead, filled with a sensation of feeling worthy. This college has adopted the pedagogy of active engagement and being a social sector oriented college, the atmosphere here ensures that students engage with the cause.
It is a cause about which the world needs to have a thought. When the term ‘social sector’ is used, it comes with a broad meaning. But to keep it brief and slightly subjective to my opinion, the social sector is a space where the work is largely about mending the gap between the privileged and the underprivileged. Coming back to the college, it is a fulfilling experience here, where I am constantly made to realize my self-worth and the untapped potential which is necessary to get into the sector.
This process involves an excellent effort by the teachers, who give their best in making the students think. This includes engagement with intensive reading and evaluating it. What makes the studies engaging is the regular grading pattern which is not on the basis of the power of mugging up but on the basis of one’s grasp of the whole idea. This is what is helping me the most in developing personal insights about a lot of things.
These lines about my gradual development in academics can go on, but the one major thing that makes me grow every day here is my responsibility of holding the post of the Student Support Committee (SSC). The students’ council set up is pretty different here. With no hierarchical order of the president, vice-president and so on, the council is a sum of different committees and that one committee which looks after all the others is the SSC.
Holding this post, it is the first time I am having a taste of how it feels when people turn up to you for every good and bad, and especially bad. This experience of a year’s tenure, no doubt, extensively demands both physical and mental energy, but the work gives me the best of opportunities for making inclusive decisions. This mini-model of leadership is definitely adding a lot to a possible potential in me for becoming a bigger leader someday.
With all these little hopes and lessons, my life at Azim Premji is a good one. Without tagging more adjectives, I would just like to wrap up with a note: at the end of the day, being here, I go to sleep at peace.