Donation & Degree

Those were the days.

In the year 1979, when we completed our Intermediate ( ~Plus 2), there were very few options for engineering aspirants of our batch. There were the 5 IITs and two State government engineering colleges: one REC at Rourkela and one at Burla ( Not yet UCE) in addition to our 3 state medical Colleges.

Only the very best could make it to Engineering those days. Only a very very few would join a private engineering courses on a donation. It was the perception that only the dull would go for coaching. Degrees on donation were like goods purchased in the black market. Good students do not join coaching, at least not in college. It was considered to be below dignity.

It so happened that two of my schoolmates who were very good in academics had also scored identical marks in the university exam. Unfortunately, none of them could make it to Engineering that year. That had to be the end of their engineering career.

It was unreligious in those days to waste another year in trying for an engineering degrees. That’s the rule. Though there would be exceptions.

Those rare few who were courageous enough to go for one extra chance, must get themselves admitted to a meaningful 3rd year course to show that they are not interested in a second attempt. It’s just an act of time pass. There was no Kota factory syndrome. There were also no private engineering colleges in and around Odisha.

Coming to my friends ( Let us call them Ram and Shyam). Soon after the entrance result were out Ram went on a super secret Bharat Darshan tour and could arrange a seat at a Private Engineering College in Karnataka at a donation of 10,000/-. It was 1979. This effort should rank him along with Marco Polo and Hiuen Sang of Odisha.

It created an horror among our friend circle. Donation Degees. Shame, shame. Ram became a pariah in every khatti.
Shyam said, I would rather commit suicide than give one rupee bribe to get a degree. He took admission in Commerce. It was the next best option for failed technical aspirants.

So it happened that while Shyam continued Commerce and had a proud presence in our khatti, Ram took banwas for 5 years and completed his B tech degree. He became a joke till our discussion changed its track. On vacations, he would not show his face to friends while Shyam would be proudly flaunting his honour and chastity because unlike Ram he had resisted the degree from the black market. Ram remained blacklisted. In the whole 5 years, we had met only once that too away from the campus and only after darkness. Ram was so penitent as if he had committed a sin that I became saddened.

Ram went to the extreme of joining M tech course in Kharagpur IIT to wash the donation stain off. Nobody would go for higher education after B tech in those days.

Time took to its heels.

Ram joined State services and rose to the post of the Chief Engineer in due course. Shyam had started his own business and had also become a prominent citizen of our town. Today after more than 40 years, their degrees do not matter anymore.

Since that year, hordes of our juniors have followed the footsteps of Ram to seek out paid seats in Private Engineering Colleges. Kota has flourished and students have dropped years from their career for a degree.

Ram went on to add a PhD and signs as Dr Ram today only to wipe out the black stain of donations from his degree. The donation degree has spurred him to scale the highest qualification. He was of course a good student. But in the 70s, there were no second chances in college education. ( Medical and IAS exams apart.)

Good students would join teaching in government colleges and second graders would start private coaching ventures only to drive expensive cars later.

How much changes have occurred in our mindset ?. Today teachers recommend coaching institutions to their students. Parents show off how much they are paying to home tution sirs for their kids in primary. Teachers are better known for the coaching institutes they are attached to.

Donation to acquire degree has become the new normal. Parents are ready to pay hefty fees to acquire a foreign degree or diploma. Gone wre the days, when Laxmi used to be inimical to Saraswati. Today Laxmiji rules over Saraswati.