The IIT A Syndrome
"Realise you are from the IIT, not from Roorkee or some NIIT institute"- Taken from the book "Above Average" by some IITD Asst. Prof. who incidentally also did his B.Tech from IIT Delhi in 92.
IIT - An Introduction
Let me first introduce you with the rare breed called IITians. In words of Scott Adams (Author of famous Dilbert comic strip), the IITians are the rare breeds who learned to use their huge brain at IIT. They have an IQ of 240+. They are the best talents of India. 10% of the Silicon Valley startups are by IITians.
IITians are selected through a very tough selection process called JEE(Joint Entrance Examination) in which some 5000 students are selected out of which only the upper cream gets admitted into the IITs. Others go to the allied institutes which are also among the best colleges in India. Though they no longer remain as talented at the original IITians. The exact reasons are yet to be discovered.
Exact count of IITs is surprisingly very debatable. Some say there are four core IITs. Some others claim it to be five. Lots of people say there are six IITs. And the official count of IITs is seven.
There have been reports that some people claim that there has been only one genuine IIT the one which was established the first.
Roorkee
Estabilished in 1847, The college has undergone several name changes. As University of Roorkee, it became the first technical university of independent India. Till 2001, UoR used to get its funding from Uttar Pradesh Government which was several times less than the same recieved by the IITs despite an outstanding infrastruucture and faculty. In return the university had to reserve seats for some type of Uttar Pradesh students (let me stay away from the caste based reservation issue here). UoR used to select students through REE (Roorkee Entrance Examination). The exam wasn't unknown to any of the IIT aspirants. Almost all of them (except for those with regional preferences) used to appear for the exam giving it the preference after JEE of course. The UoRites constituted 350 students. Actually those 350 who couldn't or didn't go to IITs either because of no rank in JEE or because of not so good rank in JEE.
And yes, it isn't a Software Training Institute
NIIT
NIIT is a company by a couple of indian entrepreneurs and it trains IT professionals in software packages and languages.
It isn't an engineering college.
The Confusion
So dear readers of the book, please do not confuse Roorkee with some institute in the league of NIIT or Aptech or SSI or any such software training institute as suggested by our dear Mr. Asst. Professor.
Objective
I am not here to boast what being a UoRite means. How good is the alumni base. How good is the University(Now Institute) in itself. I am here to talk of the subject which is being taught in the very first line I wrote. The statement of Mr. Assistant Professor.
The subject simply is Arrogance. This is one extra subject which is taught in IITs and perhaps is now taught at IIT Roorkee also.
The Laws
Here are few Laws of Arrogance taught in this subject as I derive from the IITians I have met.
Law I : There's no exam you'll ever fail (I haven't used the word can). If you don't pass some exam, its because sun rose in west that day or maybe the exam was too weird.
Law II : No non IITian in this world is as smart as an IITian. And no IITian is below the intelligence level of any non IITian. All IITians are of same intelligence level. Intelligence is boolean parameter, if(true) IITian; else "who cares".
Law III : IITians are very rare to find and they should remain rare.
Law IV : JEE rank should always be quoted on your resume.
Law V (Recent Addition after 2001) : Roorkeeians who passed out before 2005 have two big antennas on their head so always look at them with suspicion. University of Roorkee (commonly misundrestood as IIT Roorkee) is as good as the Jhumaritalaiya Institute of Technology and the students there (Till 2005 passout batch) are as smart as the jerkheads from mental asylum.
There sure are a lot more laws in addition to this which either I don't know or couldn't remember.
All those JEE qualifiers who do not go to IITs also follow these laws with one small change. They replace the word IIT with JEE. They are not taught the lessons of Arrogance, they just learn it from the fellow IITians.
Real Life Instances
In one meeting someone started talks of Mindtree consulting. How good the company is. And then the Manager asked who's the founder of Mindtree?
Someone answered. Subroto Bagchi
Someone else interrupted. He's the COO, Ashok Soota is the CEO.
The manager said. Oh yes Ashok Soota. He perhaps is from Carnegie Mellon.
I just smiled. Ashok Soota did his engineering from University of Roorkee and had never gone to Carnegie Mellon. The manager here did his MS from Carnegie Mellon. The "Someone else" is my friend from Roorkee.
Our company goes to campus to recruit only from IITs. When my friend from Roorkee with two big antennas joined our company the HR manager asked him,
"When was Roorkee converted to IIT. Will the current batch be the one selected through JEE".
This year our Company went to all the IITs for recruitment except for IIT Roorkee. I wonder if they have two different JEEs for the two types of IITs. IIT Roorkee and the others. Because I don't see anyone with antenna now staying at Roorkee campus.
Myself
I am a Roorkee passout. oh yes for the concerned ones, I do have the two big antennas. When asked where did I do my btech from, I answer Roorkee. Just roorkee. Because if I answer IIT Roorkee, people start staring at my antennas, and if I answer UoR, people say, isn't it IIT.
As far as truth is concerned, it is an IIT and I did pass out of an IIT, just that i didn't enter an IIT. Not that I couldn't have entered an IIT but wasting one more year just to enter an IIT was not a good idea when I knew that Roorkee is a good college which has placement at par with IITs. More important was, I never thought that JEE is an exam which imparts the ultimate intelligence to those who actually crack it.
Closing Note
IITs are great institute because they have great talent. Not because there's no talent outside IITs. Its good to know that you are from IIT and have great potential.
And equally good would be to know that there are lots of UoRites and IIT Roorkeeians out there the ones with antennas and the ones without it who are no less talented than you. And can get a place which even you aspire for.
And equally good would be to know that there are lots of NITians, and students of other college who might be capable of the same.
One should act like a student/faculty of IIT KGP, K, M, B, G, D, R. And not like a student/faculty of IIT A. A for Arrogance. Labels: IIT, Opinion
Deixe aqui seu comentario :
Dear dreamer,
I am sorry that you feel that the statement made by one of the characters in my book reflects my opinion.
Much like you I don't like the elitist tendencies of the IIT system or its products (although I am one of them) and I think by talking about a certain kind of arrogance that exists within the IIT system - you have identified this correctly - I have tried to open it to critique.
Personally I hold your alma mater in high esteem and have nothing but regard for its students and it's faculty who I am proud to call my colleagues.
And even NIIT is an institution whose contribution to our nation's life and growth is undeniable. I do not consider it inferior, it just teaches a different set of skills from what an engineering college teaches.
Best,
Amitabha
Dear Amitabha,
I am sorry if I sounded in a bad taste in my blog. But for the comment I would be more happy if it appears in your book instead of my blog which is read by rare souls sitting on their desktops totally unconnected from the actual readers of the book.
It is just my way of looking at it. You are the author and of course what goes in the book should be your line of thought.
I really appreciate your coming down to my page and clarifying my doubt.
Thanks and Regards,
dreamer
Way to go dreamer
-A proud UoRite
Hi Dreamer, your school of thought reflects your lack of understanding and interaction or may be prejudice against the IIT community. It is interesting to read but disturbing to learn that instead of looking at the other side of the coin one jumps to conclusion like these. I'll proceed in the same order.
Law 1: I don't know if you have sincerely prepared for JEE Exam. It takes a lot of sweat and determination to get a decent rank in IIT JEE exam. Since you are so well informed I need not mention the level of competetion one has to face. So, if hard work becomes your habit you will be confident of cracking exams.
Law 2: It is not the IITans who think but the world does. I think it is the attitude of solving any problem by logic and reasoning and making it look simple is what you perceive as arrogance. Smart no doubt they are.
Law 3: Your rubbish dream
Law 4: Varies from person to person. Rank is a manifestation of your hard work and callibre in acads. If you highlight things like some project you did or some olumpiad you cracked then what is the harm in mentioning your rank.
Law 5: It is natural for anybody to be a little bit hostile in the beginning. Put yourself in their position and it will start making sense to you.
Dear Dreamer I think your writting skills are good. I have great respect for the people of your fraternity.
@anonymous1: thanks...
@anonymous2:
Hi Anonymous, Thanks for appreciation. I wrote this reply erased and rewrote. I am still not sure whether I should really post it. Please don't take anything personal here. It was an individual opinion which is shared by lots of other souls on this earth. I respect your feelings also and completely agree that lots of IITians do not carry these kinds of feelings.
I have multiple real life examples which can show how the laws I have mentioned are actually driven by arrogance atleast in those cases which I have been through. But I don't wish to quote them.
on Law 1: reread your statement:
"I don't know if you have sincerely prepared..."
and connect it with my explanation: "i wasn't talking of confidence here"
and you yourself become an example here.
on Law2: Whatever you said is very true but very different from what I explained.
on Law3: my dream??? read the comments on no more IITs petition dude. The way people write.
on Law4: I'll just smile over here :)
on Law5: A copy paste this is, "Put yourself in my position and it will start making sense to you".
I didn't mean to initiate a debate here. This post is for those IITians who feel its true and wish to change it for better. If you think this all is a random compilation and prejudice, disregard it man, I can't do any harm to the big, famous and great IIT fraternity (no sarcasm intended) to which eventually even I have started to belong.
Law I : Yes. By definition, being in the top 3000 out of 1.5 lac ensures that you will be in the top 50 percentile of any "general" exam that has people of all different IQs participating. If the top 1% of the population can fail while some retard scraping the bottom of the IQ pool can pass, there is something obviously wrong with the exam.
Law II : False. There are plenty of IITians who would have been better off scraping tyre marks off a highway. The quota entrants, for example. They also ensure plenty of deserving people don't get into an IIT.
Law III : Yes. If they offered IIT degrees to every Tom, Dick and Harry, the degree would not mean anything. There can just be one out of every hundred people who would be in the top 1%. If you claim the top 60% of population is equal to the top 1%, you are an idiot, and don't deserve to be even in the top 60%.
Law IV : Yes. It shows that you are smart, and that you are hard working. Any recruiter would love to see that in the candidate he is interviewing.
Law V (Recent Addition after 2001) : UoR is not an IIT. People who enter through the REE don't deserve IIT degrees. Theres absolutely no problem if they claim to be from UoR. If they claim to be IITians, they need to be treated like the lying tourists they are.
- An IITian.
I can't do any harm to the big, famous and great IIT fraternity (no sarcasm intended) to which eventually even I have started to belong.
Funny how we have so many people wanting to be IITians. We have pretenders acting like they are IITians (The blogger, for example). You'll find 40 year olds telling their sons "You should get into IIT. I tried, and I couldn't." You'll never find IITians wanting to be from the local colleges.
That's called Brand Value. It's not built on hot air. FYI.
@Octa: You are a winner dude you woke up a dead soul and made him post this comment here...
for I: I don't understand which statistical analysis led you to the 50%ile conclusion but what amuses me is your finding... Did you say 50%ile??? :)
for II: oh really?? better ask your quota entrants what they feel. btw if you intended to impress me by ur scraping tyre expression, you have done it, congrats.
for III: check your maths... 1% of a billion is 10 million. In 50 years IITs should have produced 2 lakhs IITians per year as per your calculations. Now u'd say many of them are kids and elderly people and whatever. But suggest me a calculation which proves that one percent of population is 3000...
your numbers make me laugh a lot... what on the earth made you deduce this 60% thing now...
for IV: interestingly for your information every indian iitian has to qualify JEE to get into IITs. And i don't mind if you write it. marzi hai appki aakhir rank hai aapka. I just posted a trait which i find amusing. I am noone to stop anyone from writing it.
for V: i wish they had written UoR on my degree.
on comment2: Shortsighted and arrogant you are. I am thankful that you posted the comment here. you just helped me prove my point. Thanks kiddo
-"deceased" dreamer
As you seem to be having a hard time understanding the basics, I'll be more explicit.
for I: The best 5 people among a population sample of 500 would definitely be in the top 250 ranking of any test on any day. If you have a situation where the best 5 fail in the exam (say, come in ranked 480 and above), that means there is something wrong with the test
for II: If you read the statement with open eyes, you'd realize that I am saying that there are many undeserving people who get into the IITs, and that these guys should have been scraping rubber off highways if they got jobs commensurate with their abilities. Since you have an inferiority complex, you assume anything in that tone refers to you. Nothing much I can do about it.
for III: check your maths... every year, 2.5 lac candidates write JEE. The top 2500 ranks get seats in the IITs. If I remember math correctly, 2500 is 1% of 2.5 lac. The sixty percent was to illustrate a possible situation when 2.5 lac candidates vie for 1.5 lac seats. The point I was trying to get across was that if there is no exclusivity, there is no value for an IIT degree. Sorry if that went above your head.
for IV: Because you did not mind writing it, I did not mind explaining the reason for this occurrence. You are nobody to stop anyone from writing it. Thanks for the clarification. I never knew.
for V: I wish they had written UoR on your degree too.
on comment2: You claimed to "belong" to the IIT fraternity. I just clarified that you don't belong to the IIT fraternity.
You seem to be going out of the way to ensure IITians cannot treat you as their equal. If these posts still don't seem to make sense, then just open your eyes and read the posts again and again. Slowly. Don't exert yourself too much.
@Octa: You know what I literally yawned when I read your last reply. I hate to fall into useless debates especially on my blog when it serves no purpose/ does no value addition. Next time you post a comment better come up with something new. Else you are unwelcomed.
I wrote short sentenced reply because I hoped you are intelligent enough to understand it. afterall you are an "IITian". Anyways adding more sentences for you to absorb it well. And this is going to be last reply cause I don't have time for useless discussions I am a busy man.
I - In your words: "The best 5 people among a population sample of 500 would definitely be in the top 250 ranking of any test on any day".
So if I scale this up, best 2500 out of 2.5 lakhs would always fall within 1.25 lakhs... Hope you learnt the same maths as I did. I feel sorry that you could not understand my one liner. And if you still don't get what I am hinting at, then do care to ask one of your classmates. I am sure most of them will get it.
and btw I hope there's nothing wrong with JEE ;)
II - Ask someone in your class to explain you what I wrote. It doesn't seem to be getting through your head.
III - Do'oh!!! Well because you couldn't understand what I was hinting at, let me give you another clue.
"Harvard MBA admits 14% of all its applicants". Surprisingly, all 14% (or atleast most of them) have an IQ in top 1% of population. Eureka!!
Read this statement, relate it with my previous answer and your two responses. Think before concluding. You'll get what I was hinting at. If you still don't understand then don't get back making fool of yourself.
IV - There's a basic difference dude. I wrote it in "my" blog post. however you wrote it in a comment in "my" blog. This isn't the best place to exercise your creativity so please refrain from posting useless things.
on comment for comment2: Ever heard of a concept called PANIIT??? I believe they are more responsible authority to talk about who belongs to iit fraternity and who doesn't. And unfortunately they do consider me as a part.
No... don't hit reply. First think and understand what I wrote. It isn't complex, anyone with an IQ of 100 can understand it.
And yes... more than eyes one needs brain to understand a post. Use it this time. Its right there above your eyes.
Dear Octa,
before this argument between you and dreamer gets worse, id like to intervene.
What is it that bothers you the most?
The fact that dreamer is as you would say, a "psuedo IITian", or the fact that he talked about a certain phenomenon which has no relation to ones achievements in life but more to a state of mind, a state that is ingrained and if i may say so would exist in any situation? The state of arrogance.
In certain unfortunate cases this state gets exaggerated by the feeling of having achieved a milestone in life. IIT is one. No doubt its a brand that has been built over the ages by the numerous brilliant and bright students that have passed out of it, and one which continues to be built by the coming generations.
But to gloat over it,to be blinded by its flashiness, is at best reprehensible. I guess that is what dreamer subtly indicated. Its an attack not on the IIT, but on IIT A, or if i may say so on A only.
By taking a personal dig at dreamer's credentials you seem to indicate your tilt towards the A syndrome dear Octa. Not a really good thing to do.
You are still studying right? you have time to learn a lot of things. And the intelligent and deeply introspective soul that you seem to be, you will perhaps understand what is being said,if not today then tomorrow.
Till then, lets not harbor bad feelings for each other.
regards and eternal longing
A proud Thomsonian( UORite if you please) and a humble IITian
Please, give me link to download XRumer 7.0!!!
Thanks!
Always yours,
miss MW