BOOK REVIEW.
TITLE: Five Point Someone: What not to do at IIT.
AUTHOR: Chetan Bhagat
PUBLISHER: Rupa Company
NO.OF PAGES: 270
GENRE: Humor, educational, Reality based fiction.
(Review by Sammy Frank)
Three friends meet at the Indian Institute of Technology, IIT. The story of their friendship at the institute leads the reader at the edge of the seat. This is not just an interesting story but a story with a lot of implications for educators.
The three friends are Hari, Ryan and Alok. Hari falls in love with Prof. Cherian’s only daughter, Neha. The Prof. is his head of department at the department of Mechanical Engineering.
Ryan is the thinker among the trio. His warped thinking lands the three in to trouble many a time.
Alok comes from a poor family and is the only hope for his comatose father, an unmarried sister and a mother. The reader should understand something about the tribulations of the middle class Indian family that pins its hopes on the son of the family acquiring a good education and dreaming how thereafter he would land a well-paid job and put an end to all their misery and suffering.
The mention of an unmarried sister is significant. She according to Indian culture is supposed to pay dowry before she gets married. This is an extra financial burden for the family and by extension on Alok.
Nevertheless, the three friends choose to enjoy life with a big spoon. They take to regular outings, dating, movies and even try out with booze.
They soon discover that such a lifestyle is not compatible with IIT. What with assignments, tests, viva-voce exams and all? When the end of first semester examinations are announced, the three friends are at the tail end of the class and they all managed a GPA of five point something. They maintain that pitiable rank in all their stay at the premier institute.
The story is gripping and fast paced. Bhaghat shows a clever understanding of the Indian contemporary life. However, something else caught my attention. The author, whether consciously or not raises very pertinent issues regarding education.
1. How much should an education system depend on examinations as a measure of learning? According to the book and the movie The 3 idiots (which is partly based on Bhaghat’s novel) the current Indian education system does not encourage learners to think. The value of the learner is perceived to be based on the percentage they score in exams such that toppers are thought of being more valuable than their lesser gifted colleagues. I must be quick to point out that this obsession with diplomas is not limited to India alone.
2. What is the most practicable way of meeting individual differences in a class setting?
I recently came across a quote that addresses this issue rather aptly; “If I can’t learn the way you teach, will you teach me the way I can learn?”
In the novel, Hari performs poorly in viva-voce exams simply because he cannot express himself during the examination. It is not a language problem. We are made to understand that he knows the answers to the questions being tested. It is a kind of fear that grips him when he has to face the professors and he is completely tongue tied.
This may call for some sort of soul search on the part of teachers. Could it be that we would change someone’s academic life just by going out of our way and seek to understand some of the unique challenges that some of our students face?
Remember Thomas Edison’s teacher? He told the young Edison to go home because he was “too stupid to learn anything.”Albert Einstein’s teacher described him as being
“mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams.”
Food for thought for every teacher out there. Do we give up too quickly on our not-too-good-students?
3. Career Choices.
This theme is more pronounced in the movie, The 3 idiots than it is in Bhaghat’s novel. In our days of extreme vocationalism, what drives young people to choose their careers? Passion for doing certain things in life? Prestige associated with certain careers? Parental expectations? I don’t wish to give my personal views on this issues. Neither do I want to preempt Bhaghat’s message. But as you read the novel, it will be good to bear in mind this crucial facet of education.
Bhaghat himself was an investment banker who quit his trade to pursue his love fro writing. His grasp of the Indian street slang and the IIT culture makes him an easy darling of the youth in India.
The New York Times has named Bhaghat ‘the biggest selling English language novelist in India’s history.’
©Sammy Frank is the pen name for Samuel Mwangi. He is a Chemistry teacher in Kenya. He is currently (March 2011) a student for Msc. Chemistry at The University of Mysore, India. All rights reserved.
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