Tuesday, August 14, 2007

PhD - Passing with High Difficulty?

About a year ago, when I read about Kamal Hassan being conferred a PhD by some random university in Chennai, I felt that the so called custodians of the Indian education system (most of them ex-convicts or politicians; well they are actually one and the same) have tampered with and squeezed enough profit out of undergraduate education through engineering colleges that they are now targeting the doctorate degree for their next butchering act (poor Masters, nobody cares about it). And now when I read about Vijay, I was reminded of a very bad pj that my friend used to tell when we were in 3rd or 4th grade - "What is Phd? Passing with High Difficulty." That is precisely what the acronym has been reduced to. I wouldn't be surprised if I don't hear about Ajith being offered one soon (after all, the thalai can never be lagging behind the thalapadhi). So as this burlesque act continues, like a uncontrolled nuclear reaction, the PhDs will multiply and eventually destroy the system.

So what does it take to earn a PhD in India - act in a few movies? Maybe I could digest this parody if the movies that we are taking about here were at least original. But that not being the case, (90% of the movies are being made are rehashes of English or still worse, Tamil movies) what did these so called experts in the art of movie making create to be worthy of the highest academic degree. Maybe the actors associations (Since most actors are owners of some Engineering college and are also affiliated with one of two political parties, actors associations are synonymous with legislative assembly/parliament or the Directorate of Education) got together and thought "well, we cant win Academy awards with the kind of movies we make, lets honor ourselves with something that a Kurosawa, Nicholson or a Bergman don't have - a PhD".

Well, to all my friends who are still slogging it out in research labs solving differential equations and developing inventory models to obtain that coveted degree, I really really feel bad for you, because I am taking off to Kodambakkam to get my PhD in...Copyrights Violation?

3 comments:

Banu said...

Good ones, but big ones ..I meant the blogs

Anonymous said...

Cool post,

But i would say that Acting is also not that easy. I think most people just gospel about them like this vijay whos films are a real mockery.
But people like rajini and kamal sir deserve the status.

Cool, just saw your blog down in your signature. It rocks and i feel that i would visit more.

Anonymous said...

George W. Bush - Yale, Doctor of Public Service
John Lithgow - Harvard, ArtD

Or if you'd like to go on numbers...

http://www.rpi.edu/president/honorarydegrees.html