What is Life in an Institution ?

Am I ready to blog about the theme "Life in an Institution?" 

I better be. I have so many posts to write, so much of back log. The last week has been very tough on me, being unwell feeling unhealthy.

I think Life itself is an institution. Like in an institution where you teach different things for different people, life also teaches you different things at different times as you grow.

What is Life in an institution? Growing up in school, college and settling down in life in an institution. I have seen Life in an institution from all perspectives. Maybe the best person to write this post!

In school, I  learnt how to fight with children, take sides in the close circle of friends, study,  rant, play book cricket ( I am not sure whether it is still done), play games at school play ground, fight and stand up for yourself among your senior students.

In college, Bunk classes and make others bunk them too. Watch movies without going to college along with friends (I actually preferred to go alone). More play and less study was the motto. Studying together with a core group of friends. Developing team spirit. Always complaining about the lack of facilities in the institution, be it in the canteen, hostel or …That was my Life in an institution as a student.

As a teacher : Envy the freedom with which a student enjoyed his life. Carefree, Not worry about anything atleast till they came into their third year of Engineering. All play and little study. Talking to parents occasionally about their child’s performance.

As an administrator : This was when I started seeing the true colours of students in an institution. In the hostels, I was appalled with the amount of food which would be wasted by students in their plates. And the answers the students would tell the wardens, Are we not paying the money for the food. Over the years, I have taught them the value of food.

I have seen some indifferent students too. One who told his father that the principal would not allow him to college without a Laptop and made his father, a poor farmer take a loan and buy him a laptop, only to watch movies in the hostel. There was one who had not prepared well for his internal exam and gulped mosquito repellant to avoid writing exam. Another, who brought the fees from his parents and spent it on something else and lost one year because of lack of attendance?

As Institutions grow older and make a mark, so does our life, leaving us to cherish the many memories that Life in an institution offers.