Contribution from Alumni

I have heard that there are quite a few alumni of our institute in USA. One of them came to meet me a while ago, with an American accent and all. He used to look like one of us before he left. He had put on some weight, dressed still the same, but now looked a bit like Ronald Reagan when he spoke. He had a niece studying with us, whom he had brought along to introduce to me. “She is a keen student” he said. “That is very nice. For a change we have a student who is keen. Most of them seem to be happy being in the canteen or on the Katta rather than in classes” I said. “She will attend all lectures and clinics regularly” he assured me. “She is different.” I smiled. “We have formed a group of alumni in US” he said. “We collect some money and send it to the alumni association here every year. Nothing great, just a couple of thousand dollars. Did you get anything from that amount?” he asked me. “They do not consult me about what we need, but supply whatever they think we need” I said. “They had fitted a scrolling board in my department, which scrolled some meaningless text at a rapid rate. We could not change the text to suit our needs. The alumni association office-bearer who was responsible for the installation of the board could not or would not tell us how, nor would she send along the supplier to tell us how. Finally I had to unplug it to save electricity. When they started repairing the building, they took it away. No one in the department objected, because it was not officially given to anyone. It was just fitted in the corridor, which was common property. Such things happen time and again. But since you feel good about doing something for the institute you might continue with it.” “If not money, what would you prefer?” he asked me. “This is an academic institute that needs not furniture or scrolling boards so much as means of education. Medical journals are costly, and we don’t get all the journals we would like to get. You could pay the subscription of any one journal of your choice for our central library” I suggested. “I will see what we can do” he said and gave me a huge smile. It has been two years since. I have not seen him again, nor his niece, nor a single issue of any journal given to our library by his group. I would have known, since I am a member of the library committee.