Discordant Songs in Singapore

I have been getting a lot of queries on what I am doing with the offer of going to NUS on student exchange. The whole process has been long-drawn and my mind has been changing its stance with the direction of the wind. I feel I owe an explanation.

For all the visitors to this page, who might have come here expecting something inspiring, sorry fellas. If you think this stuff is going to bore you, it would be a good idea to stop reading the post at this point.

September 3’rd Week:

“I don’t know if I’ll go to NUS, but why not give it a shot”.

I get a mail from the department telling me that a chance to go to NUS on exchange for one semester, in my case the sixth semester, is up for grabs. Though NUS does not exactly sound like the seventh heaven for academics, I apply anyway. Buying time for such decisions is a habit I have picked up of late, as you would have realized at the beginning of the post.

September 4’Th Week:

“Yuck, the whole process is so messy, I don’t know if it’ll come through at all”.

There is word spread that a list of courses has to be prepared, but when we get to the faculty advisor we are told that it is still some way off. This is only one of the many instances where the lack of a central co-coordinating person/body at IITM was sorely felt. Going pillar to post to get some tiny bit of information was not uncommon.

October 1’st Week:

“I am finally done with it, or am I? Something didn’t seem all right…”

The hard-copy of the application form is submitted. My passport application is doing its rounds in three different states and I cannot not attach its copy. It was at this point that I make my only error in the whole application procedure. Blame it on Shaastra, my carelessness or whatever you will; I forget to attach a copy of my grade card with the application.

October 2’nd and 3’rd weeks:

“Wrong e-mail id? Never mind I can manage! ...Hey, maybe not...HELP!!!”

In the middle of my busiest semester yet, I figure out the mails from NUS are being sent to a sancharnet id that I had given to the institute two and a half years back, that might seem eons now. One of my friends plays the good Samaritan and forwarded me the two or so mails when I told him of my predicament.

I really should have sent them the correct e-mail id immediately. But, maybe I thought with all the mail being sent to the whole group, I could get away with it. By the time, the correct e-mail id that I sent percolated to the different tentacles of the NUS octopus, a fair amount of damage had been done. I had missed a few important mails. It still boggles me how they could turn a blind eye to the email id on the application and instead use some defunct one retrieving it from the depths of the institute archives.

I manage to talk to a few professors about the exchange and got a mixed response from them. With a few big things coming my way and looking like they would need my continued attention here, I am increasingly skeptical about the whole exercise. Nevertheless I make up my mind to continue with the formalities and take the decision when all the information I need is at hand.

November 1’st and 2’nd weeks:

“Oh, damn! Why the f@#$# did I forget the grade card?”

I always thought Indian babudom set the record for the longest and heaviest red tape. I hadn’t seen the world yet. Turned out the Singaporean bureaucracy would give our system a run for its money. Referring to the missing grade card copy, they ask me to send the transcript. The academic section sends an attested copy by fax and in turn, I inform them by e-mail of this make-shift arrangement. It takes them two solid weeks to tell me that a photo-copy of the grade card that everyone else had sent was absolutely necessary. How a photocopy has more validity than an attested fax beat me and the academic section.

November 3’rd week:

“Hey, the offer’s tempting. But what about the loose ends?”

The flimsiest of the ‘hard copies of my transcript’, a photocopy of my grade card, is sent to NUS through the academic section duly attested.

Meanwhile, I figure out that most of the applicants from IITM are actually accepting the offer. Bit by bit, it seems to be a nice deal after all. For the first time, I give it a really serious thought. Issues of credit transfer and grade equivalence are cleared; however a few other concerns have to be ironed out.

November 4’Th week:

“Bugger off! I have end-sems!!”

Understandably nothing much is done.

December 1’st week:

“Gosh, I’m screwed! Never mind, these little things will fall in place…”

Everyone except me and another chap gets the offer letter. The other chap, Puneet, assuages my ruffled temper telling me that he would make calls to Singapore for free(one of the perks of being the branch councilor) and make enquiries.

I am occupied with bringing out the TFE and continuing with the development my IDP design. I knew from the start it would be the busiest month in my stay at IITM and nothing has made it look otherwise so far.

December 2’nd week:

“Semi-bliss and a pin-prick, ouch!”

I have a wonderful time at Digha in the winter academy. Last minute preparation has become the rule for me of late, it was no different here. I will save this experience for a separate post.

On the 13’th I get a mail that I am unable to check till the evening of 15’th owing to the lack of connectivity there. When I see it, it tells me that I have to send in my courses by 15’th. As could be expected, there was no way I could make up a sane list of courses in so short a time away from the resources that would have helped me.

December 3’rd week:

“That’s the last straw. Singaporean red tape is invincible!!”

I have all but decided to go when this appalling piece of co-ordination from NUS stops my application in its tracks. The person handling the department courses apparently went on leave from the afternoon of 15’th and would not be back till the 26’th. Talk of timing your leave to perfection. Filled with disgust and loathing, I send my course list to them anyway.

December 4’Th week:

“The situation is out of my hands-I wait and watch with the maximum passivity possible from a man whose butt is on fire”

I am told that the offer letter could be sent by e-mail as a soft copy for contingency to make up for the delay from the department (refer to the leave episode). That went a long way in removing the heebie-jeebies.

This was the calm before the gale. The death blow came when they assigned my accommodation to an off-campus location. The reason apparently was both due to the ‘pending status’ (my foot!) of my application and the shortage of rooms. There is no way I could accept this raw deal. Why me? I must have asked that questions so many times that I hate the sound of it now.

Latest status:

I have sent them a mail telling them that in the absence of on-campus accommodation I would be forced to reject the offer. With the air-ticket blocked I still have the option of going there in the event that this ultimatum does something remarkable.

Writing this has been a cathartic experience. Mentally and materially, I am prepared for either possibility now. I am glad I have not burnt the bridges and IITM would not kick me out. After all, it has most of my good friends in a setting that I have grown to love with all its flaws.

PS- I'm done with the whole affair. It's good ol' IITM for the next sem.