Reco Mela - 4

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3. We shall now examine in some detail the Evolution and Escalation of the American Recommendation Letter over the last 4 decades:

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1965: This is the golden era of US-going if you have an IIT stamp.

The Moon had to be seized, Cold War won, Vietcong fought tooth and claw, Economy booming courtesy the Military-Industrial Complex.

All Profs of all American Univs wanted cheap TA Sweat-Labor at rates about a tenth they paid to their baby-sitters and table-cleaners.

But to the kanjoos Indian, PURE GOLD!!!

You just post a dozen Air Mail Inland Letters (preferably by Departmental Mail if HNB is not looking) to various places picked up from the last but one Annexure of Webster (the last I think is the Proof-Correction symbols, I didn't check).

And wait.

Within weeks you get huge packets. You just show your Degree. GRE is waived, TOEFL unheard of, Registration Fee condoned, SoP a formality and shuck-letters unknown.

The Reco Form is just one page, one side. It comes with the latest Technology: 3 copies backing up the top thing, in different color schemes, for the Head, Dean, Chairman Admissions etc. There are no carbon papers! They are self-inking. You just insert the bunch in your Remington Typewriter, or take a ball-pen and go poetic on the top page; the copies automatically come up on all the back-ups like magic: only it never works that way. They are too faint to be legible. Maybe your typewriters or ball pens are not hi-tech enough. So, you pull out and try without unfastening them to overwrite; a punishment without reward: everything is garbled.

But it never mattered.

The rewarding part of it is that almost the entire reco page is vacant beseeching you to launch into a rhapsodic tirade. About 30 lines can be squeezed in if you have the will and the words.

That's about it.

If you are in the know, you can get the Fulbright Travel Grant too.

Passport will take its own sweet time depending on your connections; but visa is no problem: they are just waiting; you are the only one in the queue.

Just Heaven!

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1975: A new word entered our lexicon: Brain Drain.

Americans are now wary. Their TAs, while highly subject-savvy, are good only for khata-correction. They can write like a Goldsmith but like him they can't speak a word of intelligible American English; nor follow it (Contrast with 1996 when Ashish went to Caltech: his Prof not only outsourced his Classical Physics Lectures, but also Quantum Physics after listening to his first Lecture).

So, the Reco Form has some questions about Communication Skills, written as well as spoken.

Also, some more questions on analytical, comprehension and such other skills.

The space for poetry shrinks to about 75%.

Still GRE and such are not compulsory.

They seem to have discovered some native Indian ingenuity, and so the Degrees and what are called Transcripts have be authenticated by the Dean (Deans materialize at KGP just then, maybe for this Special Purpose).

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1985: Flood Gates are cramming up!

GRE & TOEFL are now compulsory. And Registration fees too. Passport remains a hassle and visa too. You can't take it for granted; you have got to convince the guy or girl behind the Counter that you will RETURN!

Ha!!!

The Reco Form is now not one-page-3-carbonless-copies; Xerox arrived there. So, it is just one sheet; but two-faced, like Janus. You Xerox it if you can or they will do it for you after you send the filled-in Form.

The Reco Form is now a veritable Questionnaire. Inquisition. Full of 8x6 matrices. You have to 'check' in various slots depending on your mood.

More matrices and more intricate questions, such as: I have know this guy for so many years, in such and such a capacity, and place him in the top or bottom 5% or 10% etc of all students I have taught at this level.

Calls for elephantine memory or database of the grades of all the thousand odd students over the past 20 years, if you want to be honest.

The space for Poetry has shrunk to a very insignificant size: call it bra or pantie depending on its height from the bottom.

Still, you CAN write a few words glorifying the unmatched Tanmoy.

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1995: Hurdles are unimaginably increased. Everything is compulsory: even a Viva for Spoken English.

You have to be prepared to stand in overnight queues in front of the visa counter.

Depends on your luck and the mood of the knitting Ma'ame deFarge.

Reco Form is now bristling with more matrices and more intimidating questions.

The space for poetry is just large enough for SDM's or EFT's signature (both have a bold and king-size handwriting).

Knowing this, the questionnaire asks you to attach a separate loose sheet (back to 1965 with a vengeance): you have to answer the Objective Part honestly (impossible) and also do a subjective essay of unimpeded length.

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2005: In God We Trust! Rest is CASH.

Give up!

The ONLINE Reco is in!!!

You have to take the active help of your net-savvy recoee. Otherwise, by the time you think up a suitable word to justify your claims: "You are timed out!"

And you are firmly in a Do-Loop.

Don't pause to think; just hit!

Best of Luck!!!




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