Jindal Global University – the college for rich, spoilt kids who have can while away their time.
Is that what we are? Are we not more? Does it matter?
Students of the Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) and the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities (JSLH), two of the 5 schools in JGU, were asked this.
Beginnings:
“It has been seven months since I’ve joined this liberal arts college. New friends, a new environment, new professors but still the same me. It was difficult in the beginning but I’ve settled down now. I’ve come to realize that no matter how good the food is, you still end up getting used to it after a while.”
– Taarika Pere, 2015 Batch
These lawyers and their articulation…
“Law School. The real life enactment of Rihanna’s much loved and hardly understood song – ‘Work’. Where time passes, we work and anyone ever hardly understands what else is going on. However, what’s important here is to find joy in what you do. Be it the endless dance practices here, the Debate Society preparation times before speeches, or playing football, all of it while being sleep deprived and having humongous dark circles, is all made up for, once you start loving what you do and doing what you love. Law school at JGU is worth it.”
– Adithya Thyagarajan, 2014 Batch
When you really need your professors to like you…
“When I came for a liberal arts college visit in the beginning of August last year, I was not quite sure about what I felt about the college. It was then that I was introduced to one of the professors at JGU. He asked me about my specific interests and told me a lot more about the course, but what I liked about him was the fact that he was brutally honest and he absolutely loved the fields in which he taught I guess, that is true towards most of the professors I have met in college, their love and passion towards the subjects they teach. I think one of the reasons I really enjoy being here.”
– Kanika Dabra, 2015 Batch
We all have our ways of putting this forward. Some casual, some don’t-care-a-bit, and some…
“The pedagogy here is unique. Here, I can freely interact, learn from, and mainly research with distinguished academics and professors. Jindal offers students with an array of opportunities to pursue both their academic and extracurricular interests.”
– Didon Misri, 2014 Batch
Speaking of extracurricular interests:
“Last night, I went to the dorm room at 1am after the day’s activities. It was a tiring day of studies and research, followed by ‘Games-Night’ in college. On top of this, I wasn’t feeling well, so naturally I was ready to call it a night. But destiny had other plans for me. I ended up staying awake, despite of exhaustion, to binge-watch “How To Get Away With Murder” till 4 o’clock in the morning. Two words for that: bad decision. Take this as an advice, never stay up till late when you have a 9 am class the next morning.”
– Ridhima Kohli, 2015 Batch
The Entire History of Us:
“For the last 5 months, there have been some big happenings as well, from an entire State shutting down due to agitations, to cultural events, stage plays, and more. I came to Sonipat to learn, to study the arts and the humanities, and perhaps not forget the sciences. At the JSLH, there’s a lot to do, from impossibly lazy afternoons watching the show ‘Daredevil’, to debates, academic research, and coming back to bed to crash. But I came here to learn, and have done so too, from learning nuance and subtlety, to seeing music in the most beautiful ways, and having the loveliest nights.”
– Q, 2015 Batch
So what are we? Spoilt brats? People who use resources in pursuing indomitable interests in a land where money equates to something bad? Or is the world passing a value judgement on money that they cannot verify, let alone justify? Everyone studies, everyone researches. But however much we may push ourselves, we can never let a day or night go to waste. For when all the complexities and expectations of academia fade away, all that’s left are the human beings within these students. And no analysis of constitutionality, ontological study, creation of business model, macroeconomic policy or inter-continental conflict evaluation, will ever be of enough importance to replace that humanity. It is this humanity that is resurgent in our college, it is the weirdness and diversity, the open-mindedness to never dismiss a lifestyle simply because it isn’t conventional, and the ability to grow with the freedom provided, that is the perspective that I would see our college with.
That of being brilliant in the weirdest of ways.
