When I first went to US in 1992 there was this great International Student Servcies Director who is a 3rd generation American from Jamaica. He told all of us something...that I wanted to write here and align my thoughts with every one of APRSK students. He said (I wish I remember his name) when everyone goes to US first you are WOWed with everything looking good and all so your spirits are very high. In few months you feel the reality of not having enough money as a student, not having your mom to cook your food, clean and help, not having your friends and family to listen to you. So you will hit a low. The people who survive this low will come out successfully completing their education and find good jobs to become part of American society.
I draw the similarity here: When everyone attended the Feb 27th event - we are all in a HIGH of meeting our old friends, seeing the cots we slept, remembering all the naughty things we did in school, meeting some of our teachers, bringing back our old memories in the same place - where we bathed, slept, studied, became successful. Had a wonderful day with our dear ones. Some kissed the ground at entrance, some took pictures of everything and anything, some shot videos, some went to every place they remember in school, after all that one thing stuck to me.... most of us were in our own little world we remember. So we went thru the euphoria and we are at a high point. However some of us were privy to some conversations and happenings in school that pains us.
I remember one of our principal in SVU College of Engineering kept 3 boards on 3 of the stair cases we had. They read" First Duty of a student is to study" on first floor stair case. "Second Duty of the student is to study" on 2nd stair case. You can all guess what will be on 3 rd stair case: "Third Duty of the student is to study” Now all of us remember the presentation Giri sent. If you saw it we remember the teachers that taught us, the friends we played with more than world’s richest people or renowned scientists. We all remember our teachers very fondly- why??? Because they fallowed the principle of “First duty of a teacher is to teach, Second Duty of a teacher is to teach and Third duty of a teacher is to study. On top of it they looked after us more than their children in some cases. For those who are starting to wonder where am I going with this…. For those who spoke to some students and noticed the happenings, this is not the case in school. Not all of the teachers are at fault and it takes only one rotten apple to make a difference. This is only one problem. Students on other end are being brainwashed to server wrong purpose of this bad apple. They are not realizing what is important for them. Before we start taking the note by students seriously and pouring funds and doing what is right let’s question the same students what is that they are planning to give back… Are they willing to bring back state ranks to school? Are they willing to seek help when they need instead of stopping their education? Are they ready to reach out for help? Or they williing to give their full potential for their future?
Looking at the list of things in the speech of students, the needs can be easily met- but always keep in mind the operational costs day today.
We can provide fans, paying every month power bills is an operational items for this.
I remember someone getting wiring done earlier once. In my opinion changing wiring on the old buildings is a drop in ocean. Is that the issue or getting new buildings with good infrastructure with fans and good wiring is the solution?
Dining hall completion is a challenge- we have to think- how and what we can do here. Heard from people who were there (Murali and others) that students are eating food sitting in gym as there is not enough space to seat all of them at same time in dining hall. This is absolutely a necessity. We can prioritize this. Logistics wise- assuming we get funds, who manages the contractor, who manages the project, who will be accountable for the funds? There is no Mallikarjunappa, no Kiapa or No KRK nearby to do any of these. We have to find them in other batches to do this. Once we have the committed people on ground this can become reality.
I will talk about sports kits and game rooms. But will talk about Library and science labs. Madhav and Eka brought a lot of books with inventory. We wanted to hand them off to a librarian. The school does not have a librarian. How can that be? Earlier once Phalgun spent a lot of time to get a lot of science lab material to school. After a year or so the equipment was still gathering dust as the teachers were commuting daily and could not show interest. Kaipa was instrumental in providing a great computer lab and a person to manage it from NIIT to run it. When the lab was shutdown god knows when Kaipa came to know of the 15 months later. Is this good?
So my dear Tammullu before we end up with too much enthusiasm let us think and pause for a moment and see what is right thing to do?
One last note: I asked the team who was responsible for the donations to provide the list for transparency so no one can question them later. As someone pointed it is always good to recognize people who gave more- it is a best practice anyway you see it. So please stop more discussion on this subject. Consider this as my humble request keeping bigger picture in mind
