I was all prepared to talk to the “stronger, uncontrollable, bigger” students, who were supposed to have a say with their colleagues. I wanted to show them a movie “Freedom Writers” – my 25th birthday gift by my cute little wife. And I wanted to make sure that it didn’t have anything that would give them a wrong idea. And I couldn’t find anything of that sort. So I was up until about 2.30 in the morning before getting up at 5.30.
I said I would be ready sharp at 8.00. Got a class room ready as well, so that we would not be disturbed. There were a set of students gathered around 8.30… But alas, they were the field representatives of the departments of the faculty. The so called leaders didn’t turn up! “Did they get chickened out?” was my first impression. But it was a something that those representatives were there, so I wanted to make the best out of that, not for me but for them, their friends, the whole faculty.
So we spoke, and kept on speaking. A lot was revealed! They were all confident that no problem would arise inside a department, but they were also confident that they could not do anything if something goes wrong at faculty level with in their batch. So, they had one request from the staff, not to have one batch representative but if necessary to have two.
We had a lot of discussions and I gave them my word that I would deliver their messages to the upper layers but I would stand on my ground. I believed that they need to have one student as a batch representative and work with him having no divisions in their minds. They all said (irrespective of their divisions) that they would do their best not to have one batch representative. I wished them luck and asked them to fight for their beliefs tomorrow when it was time for a representative to be elected.
We watched the movie “Freedom Writers” as well. Many students thought that it was very related to them. (I simply didn’t think like that at the beginning, but as and when I understood their feelings, I could understand their attitude towards the film.)
I have to mention this. I really appreciate them coming and talking to me. I realized that those “stronger, uncontrollable, bigger” students didn’t come to meet me not because they were chickened, but merely because they didn’t trust me enough (yet). (Of course, I teach to a particular set of students of three departments so that many others would not know whether I could be trusted or not).
