What do you call it?

Firstly, let me make this point clear. This article is not to criticize anyone and I might as well be one among the "accused".
That said, what I wish to say is this . I have registered for an economics course this semester. And so have ~70 other students. The course was intended for only 40 students but due to some communication gap, the registration page allowed up to 80 registrations. And given that the course is an economics course, with a great number management aspirants in the campus, it was not surprising that so many students registered for the course.
The prof entered the class the first day with some 10 "course introduction" handouts and was immediately taken back at the sight of over 50 students (the remaining haven't turned up). The prof's course page showed, as he showed us, only 6 registered students, all of them M.Tech's or Ph.D's. Taking into account the great interest of students in doing his course (as he perceived it to be), after negotiations with his HOD and the Dean, the prof announced that he would be taking only around 50 students and the rest would be de-registered, so they might have to leave the course.
A week after the de-registration, the affected students, got the GS Academic Affairs to talk to the prof and finally, after much toil, and despite opposition from the administration to increase student intake for the course any further, the prof agreed to have all the registered students in the course.
And then, the prof made the biggest mistake. He divided the class into groups of four, and said that since the course was research oriented, he expected group work and coordination among group members. In this light, it was not necessary for all four members of the group to be present for each class, but the group should be represented and each group member should follow the course regularly.
So today in the class he finds only 1 person in the class (out of 70 enthusiastic students) at 10 min. after the scheduled start of the slot and does not feel like starting the lecture. Later, a few more slowly turn up, taking their own time (I was one of them) and the prof. finally lectures to a class of 10 students. That he is extremely dissatisfied is evident on his face. But being old enough, he does not vent out his anger but only sends out warnings to those who are irregular (including those who have never turned up for the class since the start of the semester, and mind you, endsems are just three weeks away).
The extent to which these warnings will be actually be carried out for an HS course taught by an arguably peace prof. is another matter, and of course people got used to these of late. But how just is this irregularity on the part of the students? This is just a minor course and you (I mean the irregular ones in the course, the irregular me included) are enough pissed with your core courses, leave alone the 'optional' minor course. Agreed. But if that is so, who has asked you to register for the course in the first place? Are you not mature enough to judge the load that you can afford to take on yourself? What are such pressing conditions that make you bunk classes in this scale? And what qualifies a minor course to be fit for such negligence? It might be optional, but once you have gone for the option, it means you have taken the course just like any other course and it is a course in itself. Why take such grave advantage of a prof who respects your independence?
Forgive me for the bluntness, but this is how I put it. You take a course. You want the credit of showing on paper that you have done the course while you actually do not want to, or rather you cannot, given the load. You want to show that you are a "stud" who has done along with his normal courses, a minor, an honour, and has, at the same time has held humpteen number of posts at various levels from the class to the institute, while in the strict sense, you have not. Actually, you could not. What do you call it - this possession of what you may not have deserved.
For those who complain about the load, if you are doing what you ought to, then I feel your claims are valid. But if you want to do a thousand things in a single semester, and then you come up with "they make us work like hell" type arguments, dude, its just not acceptable.
This is my take on it but what you want to do, whether you want to attend the class, whether you actually want to do things in precisely the same fashion that you are, whether that is what you like, and since you are an individual in yourself, whether you have your own rights and whether the institute needs to respect your emotions before they demand an ideal student of you, are certainly, all valid questions,.
I admit that I have only taken one side (maybe, the farther-from-student side) of it and there might be (will be) many faces to this. Comments and alternate views are indeed welcome.

The Old and the New - A personal opinion

Is it anything great that (some) people no longer care for caste and religion in marriages? If the customs of each in the couple are different, if each had different practices of praying, eating etc. it would have been a matter. But if you just live out your life, just like that, why should religion matter? It should not, obviously. There is nothing great with the modern generation nor anything wrong with the older one. After all, what is it that with the advent of science, we have achieved? A more comfortable life? If our ancestors did not know of anything that is part and parcel of our life today, they still did live a life - just like you and me live our lives. What is it that we can claim to be proud of?

Random Thought

The best way to pass time in a class is to try and listen to the prof. Otherwise, time won't move.