Rules? More like guidelines
Sunday, November the 20th, 2005
I live my life by a set of principled rules formulated based on my notion of morality—of what’s right and what’s not. For the most part, this is a non-issue as these align with traditional laws put forth by the legal system. For minor deviations, I do consciously make it a point to abide by the letter of the law, even if I’m taking liberties with the spirit in which they were intended.
But sometimes, just sometimes, I end up contemplating violating the letter of the law as well. Not because it’s convenient to do so, or because I aim to benefit unjustly from such a violation, but purely because my moral compass opposes what someone else decrees as “right”. I imagine something like this not bothering me, even if technically illegal, because I don’t believe I am doing anything evil.
After a couple of seminars on legal issues however, I’ve realized this is a totally brain-dead idea. Apparently, even tiny breaches of rules (which will only result in a stern warning or a slap on the wrist for a normal person here) can result in international students losing legal status, preventing them from completing their programme.
Now, a bulk of my life plan is predicated on leaving here with a degree, so I’ve decided to make myself aware, and play along.
So, basically, you’ve got to stick to your guns and principles—unless it’s (or could eventually be) tremendously inconvenient.
November 21st, 2005 at 1:39 am
Would you care to be somewhat (if not totally) specific?
November 21st, 2005 at 4:13 pm
There is a reason I am being vague. Only stupid people admit to evil deeds they did/planned to do.
November 25th, 2005 at 7:06 pm
Sorry, this is not a comment specific to this post. I am glad I stumbled upon your blog. Interesting posts. எளிய நடை, வலிய கருத்துக்கள். Keep blogging!
November 25th, 2005 at 11:07 pm
Thank you for stopping by. I thought I could read some Tamil but I am more illiterate than I thought.
I won’t hazard a guess on the first two words, but I think the last two read vazhiya karithukal (or something like that), but I can’t translate those either.
Help!
November 26th, 2005 at 6:41 pm
I can’t recall why I assumed you can read Tamil.
எளிய நடை = eliya nadai = simple style
வலிய கருத்துக்கள் = valiya karuththukkal = strong content
November 26th, 2005 at 7:16 pm
Cool, thanks. This must be sen-sen-Tamil because I thought I could speak it well and I couldn’t even translate one of those words. But, I’m sure my parents will be proud that I could “read” 50% of what you wrote.
(Now, people in the audience, before you scoff, recall that I’ve “learnt to read” by matching the English and Tamil bus route titles back home. Which means I read with only a partial knowledge of the alphabet, and with much extrapolation. And obviously not very accurately.)
And, you must’ve assumed I can read Tamil because you knew I was Tamilian.
I couldn’t help myself, some inverse-IP looking up and snooping around later, I think I recognize who you are through numerous walking-pasts at corridors. Is your office in EECS too? And are you the dude with the IISc Tshirt?
November 26th, 2005 at 8:44 pm
Yep, 3214 EECS is my office. (But we are moving to the new CSE building this December. Yay!) . And I do own a IISc T-shirt.
November 26th, 2005 at 9:19 pm
Sweet! I didn’t know that building was done done.
November 27th, 2005 at 10:13 am
Yeah, the building was done really fast considering the typical pace of UM constructions.
BTW, do drop in sometime or catch me in the corridors, I sure would like to meet the man behind the words.