The age of Kapil “Sibalism”

The year 2010 seems to be the year of education and Kapil Sibal seems to be a man on mission. His tenure as Education Minister is beckoning to bring about a sea-change in the way students are going to get education.


In the past two-three months, he has announced various measures to improve the current state of our education system. Firstly, it was the scrapping up of the X board exams which was for detraumatising the students who sometimes commit suicide because of the pressure. Then it was “Right to education bill” ensuring free and compulsory education to all kids between 6-14 years of age and also making education a fundamental right. And now it is the “The Foreign Universities Bill, 2010” which has stolen all the limelight and is the topic of discussion nowadays. The Bill will allow foreign educational institutions to set up their campus within India, and be treated as private universities. There will be no quotas for SC/STs and they will be allowed to fix their fees like other private institutions.


The main advantages include that, firstly students now don’t have to look for higher education off-shores, as in they can get the same education in India itself at much affordable rates. This thing will reduce the brain drain and also help India to save on the much needed foreign exchange. Accoding to Assocham , India will be able to save up to USD 7.5 billion of foreign exchange annually that students spend on studying abroad every year. Apart from providing good option to Indian students, these universities will create a healthy competition within our education industry, which in my opinion will be good as Indian universities will try to match up with foreign counterparts in each & every domain regarding the quality of education, the experienced teachers or the necessary infrastructure. Even the higher education institutes like IITs and IIMs have hailed this decision and welcomed this move. 

The main disadvantages of this step can arise are, firstly most of the professors of higher educational institutes are not paid properly, many of them did went on a strike last year to complain it, so this step can encourage them to leave their current Indian institutes and join the foreign counterparts in search of attractive salaries. Another thing that can’t be ruled out trading up of seats, we know that there are many private institutions which offer students free seats (without any merit) in their college for hefty donations, so this move can increase such things. Also these institutes will be free to fix their own fees of the courses that they’ll provide, and in my opinion most of the students from middle class families will be left out as they will not be able to pay such high fees.

To remove such anomalies and to prevent education industry from becoming another business, the matter should be considered seriously. All the matters should be handled properly and in a transparent manner. A separate body like UGC or AICTE should be established which can take care of such foreign private institutes and it should be held accountable for its decision.

What are your opinion friends, whether the above stated steps would help the Indian education industry or not…...?

My friends = My life, My Journey

A, B, C, D

This post is dedicated to my last few days in college and three of my best friends in life, my best buddies at my mba school. Together we make the first four alphabets….. a, b, c, d. Yeeeaaaaaaahh, its true…............!!!!

Our last semester exams ended way back in February’s first week, but we all stayed in the college till March

10^th. Two of my friends got placed early, if I correctly remember the dates, it was 28^th & 29^th November respectively. It was me and the other extreme of a, b, c, d who were yet to be placed. Many Companies came and went, didn’t picked us up, in some companies we wanted to get placed & in some, we didn’t, but the fact of not clearing the whole selection process or clearing the GD round and not the interview haunted us. Some of the companies that came of my interest were NetElixer and MAQSoftware whom I thought of performing well in their selection process, but ended up being kicked outL.

Anyways, I was a strong believer of the fact that “whatever happens, happens for good”, ( yeeaahh I have some real life examples to substantiate it…….). So I kept myself cool and composed of the fact that God is just checking on me & my friend’s patience. I always used to tell me and the other extreme of a, b, c, d that we just have to wait and our day will definitely come.

So, what happened, God did listened to us, a bank came to our campus in which I and my friend decided not to sit, because we thought they were coming for the Selling profile. But we ultimately sat, coz they were coming for the Delhi location which lured us. I & my friend were in the same GD group and our GD went well, both of us cleared the GD round & after which we appeared for the interview process. As the final results came out, both of us didn’t found our name in that list & as again we felt dejected and sad. There was a third and final round of interview also and that was the telephonic round that was to be held at a later date, but of no use as we were not shortlistedL. But what happened next, that my friend (the extreme of a, b, c, d) got a call from the placement deptt. that her name is on hold and she might get a chance for the telephonic interview, so we all became very happy that here is a chance to get placed. Then the “d” day came and my friend gave that telephonic interview and she cleared it. We all were very happy that day; we celebrated with our favorite pasteries in the canteenJ. She was really happy, as she got the profile that she wanted the most (SME one) and obviously the location (Delhi).

At that point my belief just grew stronger that “whatever happens, happens for good” and then it was like my turn to celebrate. It did take a while, but the patience made it all the more worthwhileJ. As I saw that not many of the marketing companies were coming to the campus, I thought why not try for the profile that I always wanted, I sat one night and applied to all the companies that were offering same kind of profile. From the next day itself, positive responses came and I felt really good that there are some companies that want to take me, heheeeeee J.

Then there were some companies that gave me some written tests to do, some said they wanna fix up an interview when I reach my native place, and there was one which took my telephonic interview one day. At the start of the interview, I was really nervous considering the experiences of my past interviews, but as they say, it was my time, I was really confident coz it was my field and I know, whatever some knowledge I have, I am good at it from the fact of knowing it & also explaining it. The interview was a long one; it took around 45mins to explain my worth for the candidature. But it was a fruitful one. OOOOhhhh……...... I left something in between, in the mean while (before the interview); I booked the train tickets (of four of us). Going back to my home, without having a job was very tough, but so is life. So I held myself together and thought of contacting these companies from Delhi itself and then fixing up an interview after that. But things are not expected to turn out the same way as you think about them. Just two days before we were leaving, I got a mail from the same company that they are indeed offering me a profile (that I liked the most) and the place (Delhi-which I liked even moreJ) of my preference. They mailed me around 8pm in the evening, though I am a guy who regularly checks my mail, I checked my mail at that day around 1am. I really shouted by seeing that mail and called my best buddy in the boy’s hostel (heheheeee, yes he is one of the part of our alphabets a, b, c, d). He rushed to my room and then we called the better halves staying in the other hostel, the girl’s hostel. I forwarded them the same mail, as I couldn’t believed that, and they were really happy by seeing it, we all talked on the phone with the loudspeaker-On and shouted, shouted and shouted ……..happily J

The story didn’t end on this note……….then came our train journey, the last one………..…and the most emotional one. This journey was different from the earlier ones as we knew we will never come back and things will never be the same afterwards. We will never be able to roam together, or take a nightwalk on the highway or even go to that Narender Dhaba which we liked very much, or play together whether it was badminton, Cricket, throwball or Basketball or go to Shankarpally for those Mirchi k pakode & cream roll. All these things made us really emotional…………….. (I am not extending this para as I am gonna cry now……L ) 

Each of us was thinking about the new phase of life that we were entering, whether our friendship, our love, our care will be same as it used to be in the campus. We didn’t had any answers, the answers were all lying in the place we were going……………….!!!!

I just wanna leave you on the fact that, always remember every phase of life has its own importance, so don’t compare it with the past ones. Live this moment as best as you can and see the MAGIC……….!!

“Whatever happens, happens for a good” ~ Its true, its true, its damn true J

P.S: From my own experience ~ The two best qualities that a man should have are hope and self-confidence. They'll surely pay you one dayJ

Spare me for writing this long, but couldn't help it as I still skipped some small small things, heheheeeee………anyways hope you all liked this chota-sa story of our life after end semester exams J