BLANK !
precisely what one of the 'prestigious' faculties at the fabled aligarh muslim university made me ... blank, timid, meek! the supercilious attitude of the teaching staff, save a few, the arrogance of the local illbred male colleagues who thought the college and university premises to be their fiefdom, the utterly miserable office staff which considered students doomed to be their slaves for that period of the course.
oh! the frustration! while im writing this piece and now that i finally am a graduate( award of degree pending the next convocation!) i can still feel the anger and the bitteress welling up inside me.
the suffocation i suffered for four years. i wouldnt count the two years i spent in the prison called abdullah hall, for they were still better. nor the first year of college when i was cocooned in my own world, hell-bent on going away from aligarh once and for all. however, that was not to be, and i spent the next four of my foundational and precious academic years in a place which stripped me of my dignity, my fearlessness, my self belief and my indomitable spirit.
i do not speak for everyone. only for myself and a few of my friends. nor need anyone agree with me. it doesnt concern me any longer.
if i dont speak, i will implode!
i dont intend to belittle Aligarh Muslim University.i just want to write about what is wrong with the institution. after all Aligarh is not just about beautiful moorish buildings, it is about young,fiery and ambitious students like me,who when they finally leave university realise what they have lost of themselves in the process of gaining a degree...
probably, the way most people in aligarh have been conditioned to believe and behave, they wouldnt hesistate to get a fatwah issued against me for 'blaspheming' against their 'citadel of learning'.