Friday, October 10, 2008

Atanu Dey's message for IIT graduates


It's a pity he isn't one of the featured speakers at the PanIIT-2008. Here's his message to the PanIIT delegates:

Dear Fellow IITians:

[snip] ... We have all fed at the trough of public largesse. We’ve sucked at the teat of involuntary public generosity. We, the select, the few — our fancy education was funded by denying a very large number of the really poor the opportunity to even get a basic education.

So my precious sweeties, don’t you think that it is time that you actually paid the full cost of your education now that you can? Should we not today, now, here, at this very convention — and a very nice convention it is — decide that every one of the fortunate 300,000 should contribute at least the full amount spent on us for a fund which will do for others what was done for us?

Let me make the promise of paying Rs 20 lakhs today into this fund — the IIT Graduates’ Gift of Gratitude Fund (IITGGGF) — to be used for the future generations of IITians. I don’t have that cash lying around in my checking account but I am sure that I can get a bank loan today and pay back that amount I owe.

In other words, put up or shut up, my preciouses.

Thanks and may you all have a wonderful time congratulating each other on how wonderful you all are.

7 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    Atanu Dey is a bore, saying the same things over and over, and always preaching others on how to implement his ideas so that the world would be saved. He is the prototypical blogger, all yakking and no action.

  2. ggop said...

    Anon,
    No balls to have a real handle?

  3. Atanu Dey said...

    Abi, thanks for the posting the excerpt.

    Anonymous, you are absolutely right about the boring bit. But you are wrong about the other bits -- I am not the "save the world" types.

    My position is, "Here's an idea. What if ...?" For the most part, the ideas are not mine. If someone likes it, good. If someone wants to use it, even better. If no one cares, no skin off my back.

  4. Anonymous said...

    No time, to waste.

  5. Anonymous said...

    Thanks for accepting the boreship.

    BTW, I didn't say you are a save the world type, just that you are a prototypical blogger. Every blogger has the attitude you describe -- they are all waiting for someone to use something. Unfortunately, the people who read (with handles) are also in the same league. So, so far, it has mostly been no skin of everyone's backs. And a lot of bore.

  6. Axis.Mundi said...

    anon - "always preaching others on how to implement his ideas so that the world would be saved."

    Ideas like putting up 20 lakhs of your money so that the less fortunate may get educated.
    How horrible! The nerve!
    Atanu should be publicly flogged.

  7. Anonymous said...

    I have been following Atanu Dey since his transformation into an economist/blogger.

    His "ideas" are extremely shallow -on education for instance.

    On the other hand - there are other like Noureil Roubini who actually saw this financial crisis coming.

    It is amazing that people think writing blogs change the world.

    I am reminded of Pune pensioners who would walk to the top of the hills - watch the sunrise -- and comment on all and sundry - including moving India forward.

    Rajesh Jain should have better use of his money - if any is left now with the Satyam debacle..