Error 101: Your service provider is a jackass!

Freedom, Liberty, Free Will and other such BS, are often claimed to form the nuts-and-bolts of all our Indian laws. I remember, back in school, our civics textbooks sounded a lot of President Bush’s speeches, only a lot less funny and as long as Ekta Kapoor’s scripts. But then, aren’t these supposed to be the foundations of our constitution? And where would our news channels be, if they weren’t allowed to lampoon and feed on the political tamasha? Israel’s ex PM, Shimon Peres, is reported to have said in an interview, “TV has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.” Nevertheless, these are the divine rights, which we celebrate every year in form of Republic Day and Ambdekar Jayanti (when is that?? April 14th). With all these rights in place, where do you think India figures in the world in terms of Freedom of Press? 106! (Out of 175) OUCH! That hurt, isn’t it?

In the present age, the internet is seen as a great "leveler" and a "phenomenon that changed the human civilization forever"; until China came along with its restrictive policies. Next in line was our institute.Accessing the internet from NIT Rourkela is as just as good as accessing internet from a country like Iran (a country where "human rights" are rated above the knock-knock jokes in the funny papers). In fact, in some respects they are better off.

The idea that today's Web is termed "Web 2.0", i.e., it’s a two-way medium, doesn’t go too well with the network administrators here on the campus. They prefer Web 0.5. A filtered, restricted but definitely, more "morally acceptable" worldwide web- free from all the sins and traps our religious books warn us about.

Here’s a simple example to prove that our network administrators are pre-historic oafs and belong in the Smithsonian, right next to the T-Rex fossil remains: Google “Sexually Transmitted Diseases” and click on any link that appears under the search result. The ugly, white, sad page indicating that you are a goddamn pervert flashes instantaneously. Okay, never mind AIDS, Herpes, and all that.
Try visiting Slate.com, often touted to be amongst the most popular current affairs magazine online. Result: Access Denied, under the category: “Entertainment”. If slate.com falls under “Entertainment”, I wonder under which category is the NIT R’s network admin’s page listed. "Circus Clowns",perhaps.

Moving on, 350mn people worldwide use Facebook, NIT R folks can’t.Why? It’s listed under "dating" and dating is outright immoral and against The Great Indian Culture. Never mind the fact that the scriptures on the Sun temple, just a few hundred kilometers away, read like an erotic magazine. All right, for military buffs out there, have you ever tried Googling/visiting any arms and ammunition website? Hah! All right, no points for guessing the answer. Blocked under category: “Weapons”. Never heard of the student who used a ballistic missile to blow up the institute building because his professor didn’t give him an A? Neither have I. But then, an NIT R internet administrator has got to be always prepared for the worst. You never know what the students are up to. Here’s a comparison chart of the restrictive internet policies between NIT R and Iran.

Share |