Cell phones / Mobile phones in College

A popular blogger in
http://alaphia.blogspot.com/2006/01/anna-university-faded-glory.html
says that the Glory of Anna University is Faded.

While I completely agree with the VC that cell phones should be banned inside classrooms, libraries, labs etc I see no reason as to why students should not be allowed to use the cell phones in hostels.

On the other hand, I should say that I studied MBBS not long ago (I joined in 1996 - just 10 years ago) and my parents and me were in touch and they did not loose me just becasue I did not have a mobile phone. On the other hand, my dad says that his father (my grandfather) did not even have the option of phone. He used to write just post cards.

I can recollect by college days. Those were times when we all were just into the colleges and seperated from the family and felt lonely. Of course, we can never be "alone" in the first year - there will be always a long list of pathology H&E diagrams, FM Postmortem Reports and Medicine Case Records to write. If you are wondering as to why a first year student has to write final year case sheets, you have not studied in a professional college.... Full Stop.... No more discussion on this regard .....

I remember vividly my first MBBS days. There was a postbox, just outside the Anatomy Office near our professor's room. After our Anatomy lecture, we used to go to the Lecture class in line (yeah.. in line.... and not in bunches..... Anatomy department in Tirunelveli Medical College was at that time like a department in Tirunelveli Medical "School") through that corridor. Quite a few people used to drop inland letters in the box on the way from one lecture class to another lecture hall.

Usually it was the northindians, who used to often write letters to home. Of the south Indians, it was me and one more person (name withheld to safe guard privacy !!!) who used to drop letters in that box often. The irony was that Tirunelveli is just 51 kilometres from Thoothukudi (My home is not even that far as my home as well as Medical College are on the Thoothukudi -Tirunelveli Road) and the other person was from a place about 80 kilometres from Tirunelveli.

Why we wrote letters was for the simple fact that phone was TOO COSTLY those days and most of our homes did not have a landline connection.

Those were days when you can talk for UNLIMITED HOURS for a local call. On the other hand, you had various "rates" Full Charge, Half Charge and Quarter Charge for the STD Calls. To call from Tirunelvei to Thoothukudi means you have to pay a lot of money for STD. Once I got admitted for Typhoid. I called my mother at around 11 AM(she was at that time in Sirumugai with my Dad who worked in Viscose) and informed that I am getting admitted. I hardly spoke anything more than that, but the bill came around 80 rupees (The call was in FULL STD Rate).

It was during those times, we used to get calls from our parents in hostel after 7 pm, or after 9pm or after 11pm.

There will be a long queue in the hostel to attend the phone calls. At that time, telephone (BSNL land line) was not as widespread as now and most parents have to call from public booth only.

Only a lucky few who had a land line in their home (or neighbour's home) had the luxury to call their parents from the Booths in Tirunelveli. For others they can hear their family members voice only when they were called. I am sure that the college youth of today will have difficulty in imagining this.

While Gents Hostel (House of Lords and House of Princes) did not have a (practical) Time constraints the inmates (is this a correct word) of Ladies Hostel (House of Angels) had to returnto their hostel before 8 PM. Hence they were not able to use the Quarter Charge Slab while calling home.

It was for this inconvenience that almost all telephone operators in that area had the facility of conference calls. The mechanism was simple. The student had to inform the telephone booth operator that she wishes to call her family that night. The telephone operator will call the hostel in one line and the students home in another line and connect both with the conference call machine and they can talk. He will collect the charges later.

And with all these, we were connected to our parents, inspite of the fact that we did not use mobile phones. .....But ...just because there was no phone in our times it does not mean that you are prohibited to use that. The story above was just a reflection and I am not using that story for arguing against cell phone.

I FULLY SUPPORT THAT MOBILE PHONES CAN BE PERMITTED INSIDE THE HOSTEL and BANNED IN CLASSROOMS, LABS, LIBRARY, CONFERENCE etc

Though I agree that there is NO harm in letting students have cell phone INSIDE hostel premises, and (even though) I strongly feel that the VC of Anna University is a little stern in this regard, I should add that THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE that demands your and my and their (student's) time.

Cell phone is a modern gadget. Cell phone has uses. But it is NOT INDISPENSIBLE. If the students are agitated because they do not have adequate water supply, or if the students are agitated because there are insufficient books in the Library or if there is a unrest over street lamps not functioning, or poor security inside the campus, I will be tbe first person to support them.

On the other hand, Permission or Prohibition of the usage of Mobile phones is not something that demands this much attention from the media or erodes into students time.

Your opinion guys