Interlude : The beginnings of hall tempo

Well, at this point, things seemed to be following a set pattern : Wake up, go to class,  OP in the mess, lab, OP in the mess, room, OP in the mess, usually followed by a common room “meeting” (which would either be OP again or eliminations for some GC event).

Then one day, we were all made to practice the tempo shout. I’m sure the first years are aware of this ritual, but for outsiders, you can check out any this clip on YouTube (another attempt by seniors to put KGP on the world map, but this is by far the most embarassing way. The most hilarious thing about the comments is some alumnus going nostalgic. Please!) :

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds4Y4TH8xo8

Now we come to an integral part of OP i.e. tempo, or should I say, “tempo”. If I were to infer as much as I can from what I’ve seen, hall tempo is about patriotic feelings for your hall. It is about being there, in every GC event, to cheer your hall and abuse/beat up your opponents. Its about blowing away your academics “for the hall”.  Tempo is your ticket to the typical KGPian life (which will become clear as this blog progresses). Essentially, its about being indoctrinated, for the lack of a better word, to do what it takes for the benefit of the hall.

So the tempo shout is one of those rituals (very primal one at that) which is meant to unify the batch. Believe me, it does a great job. Its really a spectacle watching how tempo affects these people, when they take it to heart. I have never seen so many lives heading nowhere at the same time under the influence of tempo. As for me, it is pretty clear what my stand on tempo is :  It’s another B.S concept. It probably had its origins in 195x, when a batch of IITians, bereft of the internet, television, possibly even proper civilization, propounded to pass their Saturday nights, and has since been passed on as “tradition”, like every other piece of B.S that exists today.

Tempo does one thing : It brings you up close and personal with the seniors, who pass on their fundas to you.  You’ll see some amazing fundas passed down by seniors to you..I’ve seen seniors advise batchmates to lie on their CV, knowing very well the consequences that one may face on being caught.

So well, who is affected by tempo? And whom is it “good” for? Tempo comes to the aid of those 18+ year old minds, who still dont have an inkling of what to do with their lives.  It gives them a goal to work for i.e. the hall. How the system works is this : The hope is, in the course of your 3/4 year stay in the hall, you will rack up enough credentials  by working for the hall, to either get placed at a “top” company (“top” because the perceived No. 1  recruiter is decided by the crowd, and in very few cases, by a focussed individual), go to a haloed university abroad (by the way, if you lie on your CV to a university, bid goodbye to your career) or, the CAT.  It gives the 2nd years “happiness” as they finally, finally, finally have an aim.

There are a couple of problems with hall tempo :

Firstly,  its the classic story of the frog in the well(http://www.englishdaily626.com/stories.php). In short, you succeed in competition that is highly localized.  To give you an idea about how bad the standards truly are,  look at the inter-IIT standings of KGP for the last few years in sports.  And mind you, this is just the other IITs.

Take Formula SAE for example. BIT Mesra won it couple of years ago, and IIT-B has been participating in it for quite a few years now. The contest itself has been around for  a decade. KGP is waking up to it now.  It is rather shocking, considering people from here go abroad (and brag so much about it), they should have learnt something. Also, we have a rather gigantic mechanical department, and they’re realizing now that it might be worth a shot.  Reason? Well, everyone’s been so busy trying to put down the hall next to them and come up with silly slogans, using up the remaining energy in tempo shouts,  no one ever noticed it.

The whole point is this : You want credentials, think big. If you’re just considering ways of spending your free time though, go ahead, take part in the GC events.

I remember when I brought up this point in my discussions with people,  their logic was this : “You should go step by step with competition. Start at the inter-hall events, then go on up”. Sure, that makes sense.  But, let me tell you one thing : It takes a LOT of focus to go to the next step. It is a lot easy for the frog to stay in the well and be the overlord of its domain, rather than take its first steps into the larger world.  I’m certain I would have heard if the “frogs” from IIT went from the inter-hall to the world stage and win.

So what does this have to do with OP? Seeing the crowd, it is very easy for you to jump into the fray and give up on gunning for the top. Whenever you feel tempted to join the crowd, remember what Bertrand Russell had to say about it :

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it’s still a foolish thing”

Secondly, the seniors, in their quest of “tempofying” the junior batch, tend to overlook the fact that there are people who don’t need tempo.  There are people who have an aim, and are probably partially on the way to building up enough credentials to get there. The OP tends to affect these people in a different way : It makes their life a living hell (like mine for example).  You might ask me, “Wait. Why didn’t you opt out?”. I’ll get back to that in a few posts.  This is one piece of advice from me to you : If you’re sure of what to do with your life, do not, I repeat, do not give the OP.  It is the worst mistake you can commit in your college life.

Now, what if you’re a person who doesnt have an aim in life? Well, here is my advice to you : Do not give the OP. It is the worst mistake you can commit in your college life. Why? Well, I just told you. You cant aim high if you buy the hall tempo pitch.  And even when you make a decision about what to do, 9 out of 10, it would’ve been influenced by the crowd.

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