DesiPundit

The excerpt you published is downright misogynistic. Also, the whole post is just an incoherent rant. Pray, why does this warrant publishing?

Full Disclosure: I went to one of the IITs.
Fuller Disclosure: I am sorely tempted to dismiss the post as the rants of a loser who didnt have the smarts to get in.

TAMBRAM,

I find your handle a confirmation of what the dude said.

And I would suggest that you exercise your temptations as you deem fit.

oh ! what kind of drivel gets published at desipundit these days!

Aah who doesn’t like a good stick to beat us damned Brahmins from IIT ..

Another post that furthers the IIT stereotype.

Whose fault is it that clearing JEE is seen to be an achievement?

And who made these undergraduate students spokespersons for IIT? IIT community is wider… besides undergrads, it includes graduate students, and staff, and faculty.

This is a real good one. Hilarious for sure. But sadly undeniably true.

I feel that the very reason behind existence of IITs has been long lost and today the tag ‘IIT’ has boiled down to a mere status symbol. Shameful and sad.

I too, am an IITian, and this stereotyping hurts. Pray what is wrong with being proud of your alma mater, and being fond of talking to people who went there.

A lot of statements are pure drivel:

“The other distinguishing characteristic of this tribe: they are insufferable”

“The first thing you should notice is that there are two “I”s in IIT, and that is no coincidence. People from IIT have the most inflated egos.”

“Like a tree dwelling primates in long captivity, they would get into frenzy and holler these names when they locate a fellow member in the wildness outside IIT”

“All of them shy away from normal human contact, and feel out of place in a social situation.”

The above statements are not funny (which would be fine and taken in a good spirit), they are demeaning, the most crass form of generalization. In one fell swoop, IITians have been singularly categorized as inhuman, beastly, unsocial and whatever insight the paragraph below is trying to elicit.

“Do not get me wrong: IITs have done a great job of producing export quality engineering labors. IITs have continued the Indian tradition of generating migrant workers: mine labors during British rule, farm workers after independence, and now the skilled labors for high-tech industry. In defense of the IIT system, some claim that in this new brave world inflated ego is the soma of these deltas: given the life long tedious mind numbing work they are trained to do, it is only humane to inflate their ego that blocks the blood flow to the brain and dulls the pain. But, considering the second hand suffering the rest of us have to go through was it worth it?”

It’s sad Desipundit has come to such a pass.

I know IITians have been pained.But then the post did warn us about the reaction, didn’t it?!!

Well, I feel there is nothing wrong with being in love with your alma mater. All of us are. But there is definitely some weirdness attached to IIT culture/ lifestyle.Even graduates from Stanford/ MIT, etc do not carry license plates with school-city on it.All the observations made are so true, and we see it everyday!

However, on a serious note, given the high standards of IIT education alumni, IITians have not done justice to all the money India spends on them only to see them migrate to US and work to promote US economy.

Well, about the humor in the post. As Indians don’t we know that all things in the limelight have to bear the love-hate relationship with rest of us!

I would suggest enjoy the post as is. And all the IITians out there- this is your chance to come up with a take on us now!

So what’s wrong with IITians having an attitude ? I went to Madras Christian College and so consider myself a cut above most of the rest. And you can always recogonise an IIT/MCCian apart just by the language, attitude, halo-around-the-head etc. Happens all the time when you study in a prestigious institution.

I still dont get what the post author was trying to convey. Ridicule, envy or awe ?

Confused> you dont have to tell us that you didnt go to IIT. Most of us who read your posts here and in your blog know that you didn’t pass 5th standard

I agree that parts of the post are puzzling at best. For instance, the dig on number plates. I actually thought that number plate was funny. I don’t understand why people think it is somehow strange behavior by IITians.

For all those people who think Stanford and MIT alumni don’t carry number plates with STNFRD written on them - you know what, they don’t need to. Because Stanford and MIT (like every school in the US) sell number plate frames that have the school’s name on them. Like this one on Stanford’s website.

Gentlemen and ladies,

Thank you for all your comments. Naturally, this was not a dispassionate analysis of what kind of people IITians are. I know more than a few and most of them are perfectly social and nice folks. It was just one person’s view point so I am not sure why so many folks are so hurt.

Donthecat,

heh. Man, you are the only reason why I continue to blog.

Confused,

I think the reason why so many people are annoyed is because the tone of the post is somewhat ambiguous. The author does tag it as humor, but it comes across as a very serious rant, not as good-humored poking of fun. There is some truth in some of his points, but given the way it is written (and the way it ends), you start wondering if this is all really in good fun.

I am unable to understand why people cannot take a joke as a joke. I think that is where we differ from rest of the world- we cannot laugh at ourselves and our own absurdities.
For comment above mine- ‘The author does tag it as humor, but it comes across as a very serious rant,.’ I am sure you know, there are two ways of doing comedy- one is like the clown in the circus. This one is called physical comedy. Other is through sarcasm, which does not imply sentences ending with exclamation marks. These are the people who make you laugh while holding your nerve.

I cannot help but notice that all the people complaining on this post are as the author calls them ‘IITians’.

Good job, confused. I enjoyed the post thoroughly.

Manav,

I understand what you are saying about jokes that don’t need to be in-your-face.

If you have ever read my own blog, you will find that my own default style is sarcasm or mordant wit too..so let’s just say I am quite familiar with jokes that don’t end in exclamation marks.

But even I thought that this post straddled the line between being witty and ranting. I was never quite sure whether the author started off in one mood and ended up in another.

I am sorry Lekhni, but I found the author’s style through and through funny. He has hit the point. Kudos.

After all it is not the first time somebody is making fun of IITs. People who are not even aware of the history or traditions of IIT, even they cannot help but notice these points. Scott Adams (not Indian) had gone to the extent of creating a new character and whole new series to represent this group of people- the IITians.

Lets take the writing in the stride it is meant to be and keep it at that.One can always read and interpret the way one wants to.

Scott Adams is funny. I think that’s the key difference here.

If this was supposed to be funny, then the author has lost it completely and what this comes through is a long whining post.

P.S. My being an IITian doesn’t affect my reactions in any way because I am sure that anybody who passed out from a college would tell you how nostalgic and high you feel when you meet a long lost college friend of yours and you can’t help but keep rediscovering those old days. This is in direct contrast to the author’s point of view who says it is only the IITians who keep reminiscing about their college life (apparently to great discomfort of the bystnaders)

People find ways to crib; to nitpick. I guess they wake up thinking there has to be something wrong with something, and let me dig that up.

P.S: Me not from an IIT.

You could have replaced IIT with IIM and the post would have been just as true.