My cabin was filled with students. There was a lot of space outside the cabin where long benches with cabinets were lined for people to sit but none wanted to do that. They had their bags on their shoulders and it was stifling. I gently opened all the windows, switched on the fan and said, ‘One at a time, please leave your bags outside…’
They walked out and waited in the waiting area.
The odd semester end-term submissions were due for numerous subjects for these undergraduate engineering students. As faculty, we were responsible for courses related to Humanities and professional development. Most of our assignments happen during class hours, but we do have end-term submissions to help students update their work and submit their hard copies. Their work is then organised in files and the students have to submit these, later these files are attested by the heads of the respective departments Due to the retreating pandemic, we are still getting used to the new schedules. It is also difficult for the university to manage the schedules of various engineering years with the haphazard dates of fresh admissions.
We had grown accustomed to the online Google classroom submissions but now we were once again back to the offline end-sem submissions after the pandemic. When these submissions are successfully carried out, the students receive their clearance certificates. This clearance certificate grants the license to appear for the theory and practical examinations. In India, we call it a hall ticket.
The students who were punctual had got their clearance certificates signed way back but we still had a large number of students who hadn’t done so due to their preliminary examinations. The signed files had to be attested by the head of the department whose office space was located on the fifth floor. The students juggled between the various floors and spent a long time at the doorways.
Today was a tough day for them as they had spent long hours with the other faculty. I had waited for a long time and was about to leave. Each of the students would plead and have some excuse to stop me from going home till their work got completed. It was now the turn of a tall boy in spectacles. He seemed every bit sincere but I had never seen him during the classes.
‘I have never seen you in my class. Who are you? I said
He handed his file with a cheerful smile and said, ‘I wasn’t keeping well, Ma’am’
What is the matter? You look fine….
He said, ‘I was terribly sick’
‘Throughout the term’, I exclaimed
‘No, Ma’am, for a part of the term’
Why? What happened to you? I said
He replied, ‘I was suffering from sinus and synovitis’
I said, ‘Are they related?
He quickly wore his mask and nodded his head.
I kept meeting the students that day who said they were unwell for a long. Some of them were suffering from fevers, some from colds, and a few others coughed vigorously without masks hastening me to finish my work. I could not help saying, ‘this seems to be a batch of sick engineering students who are still wrapped in the pandemic’.
The girls were intelligent, and they weren’t sick but someone else in the family was…the late grandparents were brought alive and sent back to heaven once again.
The next day there were a greater number of students who had missed out on submitting their files. This day the focus of excuses lingered around dengue, accidents and recoveries.
One of the students had actually met with an accident. He looked fine with just a hairline on his forehead.
‘How are you doing now? I said
‘I am fine now’ said he smilingly.
‘The accident caused my forehead to be pressed inwards and I suffered a severe injury. The doctors grafted the wound with ligaments. It has helped me become better again.’
I kept correcting the students’ work. A few had blindly copied the assignments of others. They had even forgotten to erase the names of the primary person from whom they had copied. On questioning, I was told the sob stories of diseases they were afflicted with.
During the educator’s course to teach engineering students, we learned that 2.5 percent of the students would play truant, no matter what the situation was, no matter how good the teacher was. The best way then was to concentrate on those students who were eager to learn and not get carried away by the students who weren’t interested.
A tall student with curly hair wearing spectacles kept standing at the doorway the day before the exams. He brought in all his manners and was extremely polite.
I smiled and said, ‘I will accept your submissions, do not worry about it
He immediately said, ‘I have my friend’s submission too, Prajit’s, you know him well’.
Was he regular? I said trying to think about the boy.
I couldn’t recollect him. I said, ‘I don’t remember him.
‘Oh Ma’am, he was admitted to the hospital,
‘Is he admitted? Which hospital, was he anxious about these submissions? I asked
I started empathising and corrected the file. ‘Where is he now?’ I asked.
He said, ‘Ma’am, the new hospital near DMart’
‘Well, I live close by, I will visit him today evening’
The boy immediately said, ‘He is better Ma’am, don’t worry’.
I said, ‘You said that he was admitted?
‘No Ma’am, he has got a discharge, he is there for a check-up’
The mobile phone rang at the same time and the boy felt sheepish, I said, ‘Maybe it is Prajit, pick up the phone’.
I asked him once again, ‘Where’s he now?
He looked at his phone and then answered, ‘On the first floor of our college.’
‘Well call him, I would like to talk to him, I said
In a few minutes, Prajjit was in my cabin. He seemed healthy and fine. He quickly said that he was at the hospital for his reports.
I kept quiet and completed the formality.
A few weeks ago there were preliminary exams conducted for all the streams. The students who hadn’t cleared it were asked to appear for the exams once again. During the re-exams, the crowd was larger. Many of the students prefer preparing for this re-exam to the first exam as it gives them greater time to prepare.
Life has some choices that are specifically designed for those who can’t make them the first time around. There is something different about the new generation, they are still learning about punctuality. Maybe their experiences in life will help them realize that it is a noble trait.
“The brain can be put to better use by reducing anxiety, just as reducing friction between threads can increase the torque transferred to the axial load.”― Haresh Sippy
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