Integration – the Engineering Way

It was our first semester at REC Durgapur. Regional Engineering Colleges, as you know, had seats reserved for each state of India, in proportion to their populations. So we had students from each part of India, with their different languages and cultures. Many of them had never come out of their states before. That was the place where they got a national identity. Everyone spoke Hindi and English; every one wore the similar clothes, ate the same food, shared the same hostel, and sat side by side: like brothers.

I remember it was a maths class. The professor was a Bengali (in fact all professors in our college were Bengalis, except one from Kerala). The professors always felt good while taking classes of first year students. He seemed to be in a mood. I still remember what he said:

“This concept of RECs is foolish. They think if students from all parts of India come and learn together, there would be a national integration! How stupid. In fact when students from different parts of India come and live together, there would only be hatred and dislike of each others. They have all passed different entrance exams; they are not all equally talented. Then they have got educated in completely different environments. When each state has an REC, why don’t they reserve all seats for the students of that domicile? If you think there would be any integration, you are foolish.”

We all giggled together.

Four years in our college gave us many more occasions to laugh. There were times when the professors told many nons (that is how non-Bengalis were called) in public that they were not welcome. There were times when there were secret meetings of Bengali students – over the growing ‘menace’ of nons! But in the end, we know – Satyameva Jayate!

Four years at REC Durgapur changed a lot of things. Slightest feelings of differentiation were erased from our memories. It all started from the ragging days. When one junior used the word ‘reserved category’ in front of one of the seniors, he was thrashed, by all 16 seniors, one by one. Then and there, that word was erased from our minds. During the ragging days, we ate together, suffered together and sang and danced together – how can any feeling of caste or religion survive! And those feelings couldn’t get up ever after. Hindu-Muslim divide – no trace. We had Muslims whom you couldn’t distinguish from amongst the class. North-South divides? No way, we had so many best friends, where one was from the north and the other from the south. For us, Rajnikant and Saurav Ganguli were both equally revered heroes. And even Bongs and Nons partied together; fought together and survived together.

Engineering is not only about studies; studies are just a part of it. I say four years in an Engineering College is like acquiring a complete way of life. A vision where everyone one is equal. We have already come across this many times: that engineers are logical. Don’t you think that when we ‘logically’ think, all are equal – and a ‘divide’ of Maharastra, Gujarat, Bengal, or Kerala exist only on geography and NOT in our minds?