The title is supposed to be an intended pun. They built a brand new block for our department. Its huge, tall, spacious, breezy, attractive and unfortunately far far away. Its already quite a mess that we study in an institution that is placed a comfortable 38 kilometers outside the city limits. Now they want us to walk inside the campus too. We did not deserve this. They promised us air-conditioned labs, spacious classrooms, stunning architecture, great upholstery and a whole new approach to technical education. They just chose to hide the own blatant fact that could generate oodles of anger and frustration from an already disgusted batch of students. They built the block a mile away from the bus stop, a mile away from the canteen, and the biggest blow to this huge mishap - a glad two and a half miles from the main college gate. For all those foodaholic obesity endorsing KFC loving friends of mine, their attendance just took a bullet to the temple. They choose to bunk college rather than walk the extra mile which brings about disastrous after-effects like elongated classroom sleep and cruciating ankle and joint pains.
I do not blame my college. I can't do so anymore. If there were any more accusations that I could file, the book would be fatter than the bible. Sometimes if there is too much of something, you just wouldn't know what to do. In the case of my college, its area. Acres and acres of land are stagnating in and around, they just don't know what to do with it all. So they hatch a cunning ingenious plan - Start scores of new courses, build huge blocks in far away locations, and let the students walk to their misery. The block is just a fancy looking three-storeyed-so-far brick and concrete structure, with six acres of barren land for neighbors. Occasionally cows come right into the block, establish proof of their digestion and walk out with elan. Amidst all this, we students fight our way to grab some amount of education.
The block is not even completely constructed yet. There is still work going on, and occasional lectures are interrupted by deafening sounds and crunching noises that come as a boon to both the students and the lecturers. The lecturers, with no clue what they were teaching, could cover up saying they had said it right and that we had heard it wrong. The students cash in on the opportunity to slyly gossip amongst themselves and call the teachers names, with no worries about being questioned for the same. Sadly, there is a minor glitch to the whole plan. Just when you think you have come up with the coolest comment about the teacher, and you are yelling your heart out like you are atop a lighthouse, all the construction work will suddenly stop. Not just one or two of them; All of them! And your voice will echo all around the classroom with that sense of pride and establishment while the dumbfounded teacher will stare at your face like it were made of pure spotless gold. The rest, is all but a few breezy walks to the dean's desk and back.
Altogether the department has not gotten a makeover or gained a touch of class, as they promised us. It has just moved a few hundred meters away, is just as bad as ever and has only managed to generate a lot more dirt than it usually did. It was usually just in our brains, but now they are emphasizing it by showing live samples outside our block. It sure sounds like fun, to walk a mile a day. But for people with already caving in figures, and minimal enthusiasm to institutional education, this block is proving to be quite a block for and to academics. They misunderstood the phrase 'The Journey to Education'. God help them!
