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Well an update on my planned exchange to Singapore : I most likely won’t be going, as it would mean swapping a lot of courses between semesters and moreover. Also, I may not be able to take some of the courses that I am interested in.

Profs tell me that NUS is really good in terms of research output (better than the IISc/IITs) but the teaching is not that good (the IITs are renowned for their alumni and teaching, its just that only the former is hyped up by the media) and the quality of students coming in is not so good. Teaching has never affected my learning much and so given a chance I probably would have liked to go to NUS on exchange but as of now, the courses pose a problem and moreover, after going for a tour around campus during the midsem recess, I’ve kind of become attached to it, so missing a sem… I don’t know.

Anyway…yesterday I listened to something that kind of shook me… I went to church as usual, in the evening and we had this medical professor delivering the message : He was posted in a college in Kanpur and recently shifted to Bhopal. The college there offered him more freedom and so he was able to go to a missionary hospital in Kashmir to do some charity work.

There, he found out that the hospital head was his classmate at JIPMER. This classmate apparently had been the all India topper for the JIPMER entrance and was among the toppers in college too. He was a brahmin who converted to Christianity. In the last year of college while everyone was preparing for their postgraduate entrance exams, he made a decision : he wanted to serve in a charity hospital in Kashmir.

This was the dialogue between him and the medical prof (who delivered that message)
“You’re going to Kashmir? This is crazy! Do you know how many charity hospitals are there in Kashmir?”
“No”
“Well there are none”
“Then I will start one”
“How many people do you know in Kashmir?”
“None”
and with that, he walked out of the house, and they didn’t meet for 8 years when this medical prof went to the charity hospital in Kashmir.

Apparently, the hospital had been attacked several times by militants. The last time they came, they shot a few people outside the hospital, came in, put a gun to this man’s head and told him to close down the hospital in 24 hours or they would shoot him. The man had said “God asked me to start this hospital and so I did. I will not leave this place. If you wish to kill me, you may do so”.

The militants left him and didn’t ever come back.

This whole testimony shook me. The fact that this person actually was risking his life for what he believed in shook me. I am nineteen years old and some people think that I have achieved a lot in life by clearing JEE and getting the Lucent schol but now I really wonder, if I had been in that situation, would I have stood up for what I believed in or would I have run away? I guess I would have run away. But then what is the point of having n achievements if I don’t stand up for what I believe in?

Looking back at my stay at IITK, I suddenly realise that I had in some way, run away a few times : In my first year, I was against the idea of ragging and boycotted it. At the same time, I thought that if ever I got a chance, I would do all I could to stop ragging, at least in my hostel. Eventually I was elected a Hostel Executive Committee member. But I’ve just realised that despite being able to do something, I have just been a spectator.