Gradness

The life of a grad student is generally quite hectic. He wakes up every morning to do pathbreaking research which will change the future. But as soon as he wakes up, he realizes that the future can wait as its already in future. When he comes to the lab, his mates ask him for tea, lunch, tea, tea, tea dinner and tea. So by the time he sits down to work, its sleeping time. But the grad student against all odds, fights his sleep and put in an hour or two working which shows his commitment and perseverance towards research. All this pressure of "research" (nth time), causes weird habits in him. When he gets out of elevator, he will block the way and move ultra-slowly. Slurping tea, making noise while chewing, pushing in queues, cracking geeky jokes in public, literally drooling at SoBo babes are some of the other.

But the he should not be blamed for his behavior and folly. If you look closely, you will find that he's treated with contempt. For all his endeavors, he is paid a meagre stipend, provided shady hostels and CRT monitors at work which are now even out of production. Its quite ironic, that the worthless admin people work on Dell Vostro machines with Flat screen monitors. There's an article in Indian Express by my advisor where has seconded the popular opinion of hike in the professor salary and increase in grants. But there too he missed out on the fact, that the students should also be treated well. We may not do research all the time, but we need money for infinite rounds of tea and occassional weekend parties (on weekends of no exam). I personally believe that good students are the backbone of any university, only getting the top faculty with no quality research students will lead us nowhere as the brain drain will continue. I hope some day the knowledege will dawn on the authorities and they will make amends. Till that time, grad students will have to do only with cutting chai and no wada pav.