Last Tuesday Set Me Thinking . . .

BY : AIMAN MUGHNI 

Last Tuesday, I had a mid-term exam. I came to university with my brother. He stopped the car on the road (as path to department's entrance is blocked). I looked here and there for a way to reach my department's entrance. The path seemed blocked for people as well - you cannot jump over the barrier, can you!

Anyway, I decided to walk through the garden as that seemed the only way towards the gate. I stepped on the grass and started walking. The grass was not mowed in ages it seemed. And after three steps I realized that my socks and shoes were getting wet- apparently the grass was watered that day (read: over watered). I came inside my department sulking!

After my written exam, there were two classes to take place. The teacher of the first class was nowhere to be seen. It was a hot day and the lobby didn’t have any fans. I and my friends decided to go sit on the backside of the department and wait for the teacher to arrive.

There are broken chairs and scrap stocked up in the back side of the department. It has a dessert like view. There are wild plants, thorns and bushes and dry desert sand in sight. You could see nothing except wild for nearly four miles. (It must be pretty scary in the night, I must add.)

We were sitting there when a student came and told us that there's a meeting going on and classes won’t take place that day. I decided to call home for someone to come pick me up. And now we were all waiting for our cars. 

It was nearly sun-set by then. And I could see the beautiful sun coming down right in front of me. It was such a pleasant sight. Anum my friend took a picture of the sun. It was mesmerizing moment. We sat and watched the sun drowning down in the wild.

( <------This is the picture that Anum took)

That moment gave me ideas and some queries too.  I wondered why there isn’t a proper parking space for cars. Why do we have to park car on the road and why can't people who come to drop students enter the path towards entrance of department. Why isn’t the only garden of mass communication not properly maintained? Why aren’t there trees? And flower bushes? 

The mass communication building named Dr. Feroze Ahmed Institute of Mass Communication has recently being built. It could have been properly maintained. When I had entered the department for the first time, I had really liked the architecture. Though, the building didn't give the impression of a building related to Mass Communication studies.

The walls are plain white. The notice boards have notices and marks only (read: just white pages on the notice board). There are no posters. There are no colorful images reflecting the spirit of a media person. And nobody even cares.  Students and teachers come and go, without paying attention to the place.

There are only two sofas in the entrance hall and both are broken. Somebody forgot an office table ages ago in the hall, and that’s where the students sit. Others have to either go sit in empty classes or remain standing in their free periods.

There is no cafeteria in the department either. There's only a small tuc shop where you can find hardly anything.

The backside where I sat is like a store place. All the junks are disposed there in the open.

Why isn’t the administration utilizing that wild beautiful place to make it a garden cafeteria and sitting place for students. They should do it - make it a garden! I can imagine how it will then look when the sun will set.

 And the administration should make a committee that makes the department looks colorful. (And, please get rid of the newspaper trees that somebody made in a hurry for Earth day months ago from the wall beside tuc shop, it's awful).

Administration should get some proper seats and benches for students and visitors in the entrance hall. And teachers should inform office clerks when they decide not to come. Because when we ask the office staff, they always say that they don't know and we should wait (Of most of our queries and questions, their answer remains same "We don't know").

It'll soon be two years for me in this department. And I think my department is a beautiful place, just not maintained. And I hope to see positive, beautiful changes in the coming next few years.