I was on stage in this very auditorium at IIT Kanpur for this very event (Convocation) in 2011 as Chairperson of the Senate Under Graduate Committee:
I was the only person in the whole auditorium then wearing an Indian dress and will never forget the hostility and derision that came my way when I argued for doing away with the western gown-hat concept and giving people the option of wearing ethnic attire at convocation ceremonies of an INDIAN Institute of Technology.
And look 🙂! Its happened now 🙂! Guess who's having the last laugh 😂?
I keep asking this one question: Globalization and assimilation of world culture is one thing. But why this obsession with everything western? Can't we even graduate without wearing gowns and hats just like they do in the western world?
As I often scoff: Our desire to imitate is so strongly rooted in us that should a student in the US accidentally drop his hat before flinging it in the air, and scratch his bum while picking it up, we'll probably end up including that as part of the closing scenes: All students will drop their hats on cue, scratch their bums, and then fling them in the air.
This transformation is good to see! There's some self respect here!
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