Indian Colleges are a Lifetime Experience

Indian colleges are a lifetime experience. And, we need more of these quality government funded colleges.

A few weeks ago, a couple of alums from St. Xavier's College, my alma mater, curated a WhatsApp group for those of us who have graduated from college about 10-12 years ago. And it's been so inspiring to read the awesome stuff classmates, many of whom I am not in touch with, are up to, working across sectors from social impact to venture capital and startups and living across cities/geographies from India to Ghana.

For all its infrastructure and quality of education limitations, the Indian college experience is "unparalleled," as one of my college friend puts it. I mean, the 'real' government-funded college experience and not private institutions that are pricier. And, below is why I think we need more such quality colleges in India, because at the end of the day you barely remember what you studied in college a few years down the line. But you keep the friends and experiences with you for a lifetime. And, I would any day prefer my daughter go to one of these undergraduate colleges versus a much more 'hi-fi' Ivy league type where privilege (mostly) outweighs merit.

- A first-time immersion to real world. Schools are a bubble, where you generally meet people from the same vicinity and income strata as yourself. College is generally the first time, where most teens, such as myself who came from more privileged backgrounds, are interacting with the real world out there, learning that there are so many more folks smarter than you were in school and there are so many things that classmates excel at non-academically, like photography, playing in a band, etc.

- Friends for life. As a teen, you generally have a faint idea of your interests and you're developing ideas of who you want to be in a few years, as you start working professionally. And, college helps you meet similar folks. Some of my closest friends till date are those I studied with in college. And, I know this to be true not only for Xavier's. Many friends from engineering colleges who stayed in the same hostel have this very raw, almost family-like friendship decades after graduating.

- College fests/ journals > Any professional work achievement. In hindsight, the work and sleepless nights to put up and promote a college fest or any initiative was ten times more than what I see in my professional career. And, we enjoyed doing this, because you're doing this with friends and because you chose to do this and are passionate about the same. Perhaps, a note for companies. One of my proudest achievements even today is The Arthniti, the Economics research journal we published where I was part of the editorial team and we got the foreword signed by Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

I owe a lot of who I am today to my alma mater. And, I'm sure there are many who feel the same.

PS: A very nostalgic photo of a T-shirt we printed for ourselves, prior to graduation.