Psychedelic Slippers

Do you cry? over glaring tree stumps, of branches past; over fallen leaves, torn flowers imprinted, in a muddy cast. Do you shudder? at broken homes, wooden caskets; that lay beneath the rubble, crushed, li'l baby baskets. Do you wince? when axes slit, through carcasses; or when you see life lying, on streets, lifeless. Do you pray? for those who willed, but were bent, by might; or for lives lost on a stormy summer night.

The good thing about IIT Kanpur is the active student involvement in the administrative processes (at least those related to students). This, I have never had a doubt about. I believed that the average intellectual of the IITians would rise beyond shallow greed to enable this system to be progressive. But over the last one year or so, I feel saddened to have been proved wrong. Around a year ago, a proposal was received to hike the electricity charges to be borne by the students in lieu of increased electricity rates. A subsequent proposal was made to recover electricity charges from each hostel individually. The proposal aimed at generating greater accountability amongst the residents(students) regarding electricity usage. This system was finally implemented in the start of the present semester. Through all the back and forth discussions, the students remained silent about the new proposal, its shortcomings etc. until they received their first bill at the end of January. Then b...