The mega alumni meet

The University of Kashmir recently organised a mega alumni meet, I still wonder what exactly the aim of organising the event was. The function gave the impression of being an event of a law college rather than of a full-fledged university, nonetheless the natural and social science faculty has performed exceptionally good in addition to the faculty of arts and literature. In its general principle the alumni meet is organised for the reasons enunciated as under:

• To celebrate the institute’s anniversary or other milestones and to raise money for scholarships or other programs.
• To provide networking and professional development opportunities for alumni, which helps in building community culture.
• To reconnect alumni with each other, their teachers and with their alma mater.

Traditionally there are no agendas, dockets fixed for this meeting; the alumni meet to talk about their life outside the institute after they have passed out, their experience in the outside world and how they are managing their professional/family lives. During the meeting the institute takes the opportunity to identify the most distinguished alumni and seeks ways how these successful alumni can be useful for the alma mater. Alumni meetings aim to help the institutional staff recognize the contribution of their ex-students in the professional world which rejuvenates their energy and also makes them to feel proud for the success of their students. This meeting gives ex-students the chance to converge, coagulate, interact, share experience with the people whom they have not met for years. It is similar to other formal meetings or live classes and many institutions ask their teachers or ex-students to deliver speeches on this occasion. The meeting aims to acknowledge the contributions made by ex-students, it is a common event in almost every institution that gives their ex-students a chance to meet each other and provoke the memories and the mental association.

But the university organised the meeting in a dissimilar context and environment. It gave a strange feeling which can be summarised by an awkward modification, “invention is mother of necessity” of a very famous maxim. There were no speeches by any academician presently working or superannuated from the university. I doubt if the alumni were invited or allowed to enter the convocation hall, even the retired teachers (who have contributed their youth to the university) were not invited to participate. The interesting part of the grand function was the felicitation, some alumni were felicitated and the citation was read. What came as a shock to me is that none of the alumnus from the main campus (who has not occupied any administrative position) but has served in the university or outside of the university as a teacher or a researcher was felicitated. I surely don’t know the reason but it doesn’t need any rocket science to draw two conclusions. One, no one from the university has carved a niche so didn’t deserve to be felicitated. Two, the university administration ignored the contributions of the people who have done so in academics and felicitated some bureaucrats instead.

But what concerns me is the fact if the academicians viz., scientists, mathematician, technocrats, literary luminaries, economists are not glorified, where will the inspiration come from? Are we not breeding mediocrity? I don’t demean the hard work of the people who have qualified prestigious examinations and have joined civil services, but what a university is meant for, and what university product should be glorified, need to be thought upon. If the university teachers who are at the helm of affairs would not acknowledge the contribution of their colleagues towards science and literature then who are they expecting to acknowledge their hard work.

Here, recollecting a happening with great Ghalib becomes inevitable. We all know Ghalib faced financial challenges. Once, the Delhi College was in need of a teacher for Persian and he was recommended for the position by his friend Moulvi Sadr u Din. The principal of the college, who was a British, called Mirza sahib for the interaction. When he arrived at his gate, Ghalib asked the gate keeper about the Principal. The gate keeper said he is inside. On hearing this Ghalib returned back. When asked by his friend why he didn’t meet the principal Ghalib gave an epic reply:

“Dekhiye moulvi sahib main iswaqt garzband hon laikin naukri karna chahata hon izzat pane key liye, na ki jitni hai who bhi chali jaye. Main principal se zubani farsi key ustaad ki hasiyat se gaya tha na ki naukar ki. Usse chahiye tha ki who mere istekbal key liyr aata”.

This is how a teacher ought to be. Teaching is a different enterprise; it certainly is not a two person zero sum game, yeh faqiroon ka kaam hai, yeh eak tapasiya hai. It is certainly not what we think of it that, just to get an administrative position we bow to commit whatever our lords will tell us to. We cannot claim to be inspiring as teachers when we take pride in escorting the people to dais. We need to introspect, as teachers we have to face challenges with regard to open libraries of world renowned institutions, and now the boom of artificial intelligence. We need to acknowledge the contributions of our luminaries instead of looking for short term benefits here and there.

Dr Nisar Sultan Lone is Professor of Mathematics, JK Institute of Mathematical Sciences at Amar Singh College, Srinagar