Chapter 15: ATKTs

Aditya had been trying way too hard to make his love story work, but it seemed to be going just nowhere. But I was not complaining about mine too much; it was going fantastic. Vidya, on the other hand, seemed to be losing herself in me more and more with each passing moment and asked me if I wanted to go out for a walk in the garden. I definitely wasn’t mad enough to miss that chance! So, we went out for a walk. As we walked with light steps on the fresh green grass of the garden, I sensed Vidya coming closer to me. After a while, she slowly entangled her fingers into mine. I was enjoying all the attention and thinking of Aditya’s expression when I told him this. Just as we moved further towards a spot out of the sight of our team members, Vidya turned to face me and before I could ask or do anything, held my face in her soft hands and planted the most amazing, heavenly kiss on my lips. Though I was not keeping time, but I can bet that our lips were locked for about 2-3 minutes or so! Obviously, my happiness knows no bounds and I am incessantly thinking of that incident and smiling to myself. While returning to the apartment, we didn’t talk at all. We just kept smiling. The wide smiles on our faces conveyed it all!

As we came back to where the others were discussing something, they stopped talking and looked at us. Aditya saw me smiling, Veena saw Vidya smiling. Chitragupta looked at me and Vidya and thought we’d made out! I let them assume what they felt like, for I wasn’t going to kill the surprise for them.

Aditya’s expression changed quickly and he shouted at me, “You B********! Kya faaltugiri hai bey! You kissed Vidya while I was thinking about our next chapter! What the hell!” I was still smiling!

Aditya saw that his outburst had done nothing to my smile, so he continued with full vigour willing to deface me in Vidya’s presence, “Bloody Dipen had 16 ATKTs in his four years of engineering.” But Vidya’s response to Aditya gave me an idea how much she trusted me. She said with great confidence in me, “I think you have mixed up your ATKTs with Dipen’s. I know him very well; he is an intelligent guy. Not like you, you assole!” Well, I was still smiling!

Aditya was suddenly reminded of all of his 16 ATKTs in his engineering days and went quiet! I tapped on Aditya’s back and said, “Dude, come on! There is nothing wrong in getting ATKTs in engineering. I respect the guys who get ATKTs. Let me tell the whole group that getting ATKT in engineering is not at all a matter of shame. You don’t have to feel bad; I’ll just prove it to these three as well. Don’t worry!” Lest you begin thinking that I was really worried about Aditya and his image in Veena’s and Chitragupta’s eyes and wanted to cheer him up despite whatever he had just said about me, I must clarify that all this was done to win more brownie points from Vidya!

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Similar to the theory about submissions and the business around them described in the twelfth chapter, the ATKTs allowed in engineering colleges are an extension to that business. ATKT is a business model that is a win-win situation. Engineers benefit by getting a chance to reappear for their exams, the university earns by getting ATKT exam fees!

As we have already seen above, Jethalal Shah was a visionary. Once upon a time, as they begin all tales, engineering colleges were few and only the best of minds could manage to enter them. As a result, there were hardly any students who failed. Gradually, with the passage of time, increase in population and demand for engineers, N number of engineering colleges cropped up in every nook and corner of India. Then emerged the problem of churning out “good quality” engineers! Since many students couldn’t cope up with the syllabus, the number of engineers who couldn’t clear all exams increased rapidly. It so happened that out of fifty students in the first year, only twenty-five reached the final year. Not only was the reputation of colleges at stake; in general, people started to de-value the “Engineer” tag. Fathers-in-law stopped giving huge dowries to engineer-sons-in-law; prospective brides started looking out for bank employees or government servants. In short, the whole elite engineering diaspora was jolted out of its slumber.

Jethalal and his nexus came up with a brilliant idea of starting the system of “Allowing the students to go to the next year. Terms and conditions apply*”. In short, ATKT (Allowed to Keep Term) became a savior for all those students who couldn’t move on to the next year because they couldn’t clear their exams. The ATKT system allowed the students to take the KT exams twice a year, requiring twice as many question papers and answer sheets, in turn, giving more business to Jethalal. While students were happy that they could move on to the next year with papers still pending to be cleared, the Management of the college and the Universities were happy that more money in the form of fees of ATKT exams flowed into the system. Needless to say, Jethalal and his cronies were happy that more paper was bought from them! A win-win-win situation, as I said!

Almost after ten years of the introduction of ATKT system in the Indian engineering colleges, a young researcher known as Ms. Keh K. Lungi from a country 2000 miles north of Kazakhstan came to India to write a thesis on the behaviour and psychology of students who got KTs and those who don’t! And since we believe in attributing credits, we are reproducing the following excerpt from her research report.

Students from Indian engineering colleges can be divided into three categories –

1)     The top 10

2)     The middle 25

3)     The rest

Ms. Keh K. Lungi made a questionnaire and asked around a thousand college students to fill it up. Below is their profiling based on the average responses to those questions. She gave each group a happiness factor, too.

 The Top 10:

a)     Write a brief about them?

Ans: These kinds of students are the most artificial kind of people in college. They will be very focused about what they want in life. Most of them aim to go to the US and do MS and then MBA after working there for 4-5 years, and subsequently settle down with someone of a foreign origin. They do not believe in adhering (read, confining) to societal boundaries. They have a very filthy image of concepts like religion, caste, creed, etc. They are very selfish and will interact with others only to get their work done. They participate in various intercollegiate Technical Paper competitions and Robotics competitions, winning loads of prizes.

b)    What do they think of their fellow batch-mates?

Ans: They always throw a condescending look upon their batch-mates. Even after spending full four years in the same class, they would refuse to recognize half of their batch-mates later in life, let alone remember their names.

c)     What kind of people do they befriend?

Ans: Birds of the same feather flock together. They befriend intelligent and cunning mates with whom they wouldn’t remain in touch with mutual understanding and consent. People with emotional attachments are a strict no-no on their list.

d)    What are their means of entertainment?

Ans: Mostly American sitcoms, dramas or thrillers. They don’t give a shit about Indian television shows, no matter how popular they are with the masses.

e)     Humanity quotient (a factor to check how humane they are to people around)?

Ans: Approximately 0.27.

The Middle 25:

a)     Write a brief about them?

Ans: These kinds of students get an average of 2 KTs. The first KT is mostly in Mechanics or Basics of Electrical Engineering. They are the ones who diligently solve the question papers from yester years and mug up the solved problems from textbooks mentioned by the professors. They also make sure that they attend all the lectures and take notes of whatever the professors say. These kinds of students stay with their parents till they (either of them) die. They belong to middle class families and have a strong sense of commitment to anything they do. They value money because they have seen the worst while growing up. They feel a sense of responsibility toward the society and family and hence are the best lot to get married to. Their aims in life are pretty well-defined: take a loan to own a house, complete their home loan by the age of 45, get their kids admitted to good schools, buy a good enough car by the age of 50 and have a good bank balance by the time of their retirement.

b)    What do they think of their fellow batch mates?

Ans: They like all their batch-mates and believe in the adage Vasudev Kutumbakam, i.e. the entire world is one family. They crack jokes with all the fellow students, irrespective of which category they belong to. They feel compassion towards “The rest” group for the number of KTs they get; and help them by providing the necessary material that is needed to clear the KTs.

c)     What kind of people do they befriend?

Ans: Please refer the above point.

d)    What are their means of entertainment?

Ans: Mostly chitchatting amongst each other and watching popular Indian television series.

e)     Humanity quotient (a factor to check how humane they are to people around)?

Ans: About 0.58.

The Rest:

a)     Write a brief about them?

Ans: These kinds of students get an average of 9 KTs in their tenure in engineering. Assuming an average of 7 subjects in every semester, the total number of subjects they appear in come to about 56. So, failing and reappearing 9 papers out of 56 is not a big deal for them. The first 3 KTs are normally in the very first year and mostly in Mechanics, Basics of Electrical Engineering and Engineering Drawing. They spread the rest of KTs in the remaining 7 semesters. They are the last ones to check the notice board once the results are displayed. They can easily take lectures on the art of living-a-life-tension-free! They know that these KTs are just a temporary setback in life. These KTs give them the strength to bear the realities in the cruel world once they graduate as engineers. Since they have to take so many KT exams, chances are good that at times two exams fall on the same day and they will have to toss a coin to see which exam to take. For instance, if the third attempt of Mechanics 1 and firs attempt of Maths fall on the same day, then what? Toss the coin! Such incidents early on in life give them enough courage to be strong and face even the most adverse events in life. That way, the KTs are a boon a disguise for such students!

b)    What do they think of their fellow batch mates?

Ans: They are least bothered! They crack jokes amongst their group members. The arrogance of the top 10 group or the indifference of some of the middle 25 group doesn’t matter to them at all!

c)     What kind of people do they befriend?

Ans: They prefer to stay friends with the members of the same group. They don’t believe in social networking, especially online. Karna hai to direct call karo, kya faaltu ka facebooking karne ka!!!

d)    What are their means of entertainment?

Ans: Mostly news channels on television that sensationalise normal everyday events to superhuman capacities. If they are in a mood to watch movies, they tend to watch movies with Kamal R. Khan, Mithun, Govinda, etc., in the lead roles.

e)     Humanity quotient (a factor to check how humane they are to people around)?

Ans: 0.89

In short, ATKTs are promos to the bigger problems that one is likely to face in the future. How you face them matters more than how many you face! The manner and aplomb in which you take these setbacks decides your character and guts to face the world. Four years of engineering are just a minuscule time compared to your average life span of seventy odd years! Learn from your batch-mates and implement those lessons in life. That is what life is all about!