What Makes A University Great?

“You may not learn from the lectures by these elite professors, you may not learn from the books in the library, but you will surely learn from your friends in hostel”  

At first when I pondered about this, I thought about the things I discuss in hostel and on mess table, what mostly boys discuss are girls, seasons, movies, sports, faculties, mess food, campus news, companies, gadgets, games, this can be a long and lurid list.  I was not able to conclude what this statement actually meant, until I observed it all over again. I observed that people were really discussing ideas, ideas wrapped in stupidity, craziness and frustration. Imagine how boring it would be to discuss something like “organizational structure of a company” instead you just say” if my girlfriend ditched me because of money, I’m gonna open a company” and this is the moment where ideas start flowing, you broach and others join.   

It’s not the infrastructure and building that actually make a university; it’s the ideas that have made impact and rest of the success parameters followed eventually. How the mess table conversations can really shape someone’s mind? How connected minds work together? The depths and eruditeness of the things one gets at mess table, let me assure you no book can provide you that much of learning appetite and attitude within such a flick. One cannot understand whole theories on the mess table or memorize the whole formulas, but you can always absorb the ability or inspiration to work on that thing. New TED talk, new book, the content of the book, a small idea like “I googled this and discovered a new thing” can really kindle a zeal to work on big projects. 

Philosophies, quotes, political insights, new opportunities, carriers, you name it and they will tell you what they discussed about it. Albeit mess tables and Hostel galleries are not always occupied with nerdy project ideas, nor is the case that you keep on talking about Gaddafi and Obama all the time, but whatever discussion is going on, inclusion of gamut of examples is commendable.

The beauty with these discussions is that even if you are in a technical university or in a B -school, the topics broached in those old hostel building are not confined to their curriculum. You can find technical students talking about Nietzsche, freud or Yeats and the profoundness with which they talk about all of them inculcates a habit of projecting excellence in whatever you do. It’s in the culture of  these varsities that they have kind of milieu that can make you contemplate about things. Profoundness is buttressed at these places.

In all these group discussion and team work, I’m not saying to forsake idiosyncratic ideas, time for self, importance to reflective transcendence shall not be emaciated. I was underlining the way people collide, the way they share ideas. How a bunch of people coming from different walks of life instigate something big. Structure of companies like Infosys, Flipkart, Indiabulls and many more were gestated only in these dorms and mess tables. 

It’s not the size of the books or studying hours that make leaders and entrepreneurs out of these educational institutes but it’s certainly something really different. It’s the environment at these places, way to think and attitude to take on things that brings real change. While I’m writing this in my room, free and frolic hostel galleries continue to brim with haphazardness, jokes, claps, cackles, philosophies and  above all, they will be remembered for the silent excogitations beneath all this pandemonium. 

Ajay Singh Rathore

Final Year Student, The LNMIIT