Romesh Wadhwani, a hungry IIT Bombay student in the 60s, started a new venture. It was a student hostel in the corporate style, replete with equities, student shareholders, dividend, et al. In a way he kick-started the blueprint of his first ever firm in the US. Years later, it figured in the Forbes List.
To celebrate half a century of its existence, a book ? IIT-B History Survey Project, will chronicle interesting trivia, history and culture of the institution. So expect to be educated on the lingo of the nerds, backbenchers, guitarists, bloggers ? all brilliant students. Read anecdotes of life in college, hostel, on the campus. Not just students, but alumni, scientists, teaching staff, non-academic staff will participate in the survey. The history team wants residents on campus as well as children grown on campus to contribute with their experiences. The stories will get compiled in the book and eventually find a place in the archives.
To be written by Dr Rohit Manchanda of the School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT-B, the book is expected to be out on March 10, 2008.
?It will be eminently readable and chronicle the fun and the not-so-serious aspects of the institution,? he says. The book will not be a ?compendium of facts? like the one written when IIT-Kharagpur marked its half century, says Damayanti Bhattacharya, research associate of the History Book Committee. The Institute has called upon all those who have been associated during different periods of growth to ?help write history?. On IIT-B?s web page since mid July, the survey will be up till December. Response gained will become a part of the archives.
?When an institution writes a book, it is normally a top down narrative. But we want to make it as representative as possible with responses from all stakeholders. Hence the history survey,? adds Bhattacharya. Any book on an institution or person cannot be an excercise of self-glorification and has to take a critical or analytical approach. IIT-B?s history would not be an exception to this, clarifies Bhattacharya.
So be prepared to read not just about the merit rankers and their intelligent exploits, but also unpleasant stuff such as performance angst and the resultant suicides at IIT, brain drain, ragging ? which incidentally is absent in the campus claims Bhattacharya.