Getting a New Pair of Eyes

Very bureaucratic administration. It can do more to integrate Humanities with Sciences and medicine since the latter two are its biggest attractions for most students.

There was no entrance exam. Had to submit a Statement of Purpose to get considered for the admission. The entire process was online. I chose this course and college because their methodology was unlike others in India. The stress was/is on research and hence no final exams, only 8000 word research papers (genuine ones).

So the first year is when English, Sociology and Philosophy students studied common inter-disciplinary papers with a slight emphasis on philosophy. Second year is when specialisation began. But one could opt for a paper or two from the English or Sociology courses as an addition even in the second year. Each semester barring the fourth and last, had minimum four papers. In the last, minimum papers were two cause more time had to be devoted to the 30000 words MA thesis. The courses themselves had a a lot of flexibility cause professors were given significant amount of freedom to frame the course plan. In the first year, we had a basic course in Sanskrit too.

We were a Humanities and Social Sciences department, so we were not very interested in interning with corporates as it was not field. But I worked as a translator-subtitler in a US-based firm called Sfera Studios for three months. It was freelance work so I was paid as much as I worked.

Everyone in my batch found work to do post-graduation and not a single one of them were through college placements. They were all done through personal findings. 4 continued studies in the form of research and Doctorate. 4 found jobs in schools and colleges in the capacities of teachers.

I unfortunately was not aware of the college fests as they were generally conducted by the engineering students. We had enough on our plates to even be interested in them. But we had our extra-curriculars (mentioned later) and quite a few intellectual conferences to freshen our minds.

My course fee was reasonable. I paid 73000 for the entire 2-years course. 43000 in the first year and the remaining in the second. My fellow English and Sociology students had to pay a little more - 90000 for the entire course.

Narayan Guru Scholarship for One year Fellowship. Plus, there is the PhD program which offers a stipend of 18000 a month.

We ran a film club and regularly played frisbee. our course had more girls than boys, ration being 1:3. We had students and faculties from wide ranging backgrounds much like the way India is.

Hostel canteens served clean nutritious food. But were expensive. Apart from that there were always food courts.

Our department being small with less than thirty students in the two years combined were a tight knit group. Everyone knew everyone and continue to keep in touch even after the course is done.

We had no final exams as previously mentioned. Only mid-sem exams of hundred marks each. Instead of final exams we had 8000 words research papers to submit which had to meet decent standards of scholarship including those of originality and bibliography. This made the research and MA thesis work very challenging. Those with motivation lacking often unable to get through the challenge. Our everyday life too was pretty much occupied since we had to submit an assignment in each course every week.

Faculty in the department was/is pretty brilliant with Sundar Sarukkai being internationally famous. He was the Director and one of the Philosophy faculty members. The intellectual standard of the faculty was pretty high cause no one without a PhD and some years of teaching experience was offered a position in the faculty. Plus, the applying candidates had to have an active research project to be seriously considered. These high parameters ensured we have professors like Apaar Kumar, Nikhil Govind, Gayathri Prabhu, Meera Baindur and Michael Dusche teaching us. Apaar taught us Ethics, Philosophy of art, Philosophy of Self and Social etc. Gayathri, a course in 20th century Modernist literature. Meera, Indian philosophy and Philsophy og Health and Biology. Michael, philosophy-sociology of law.