I am finally going out of college and it is the time of the year when your friends give you slam books to fill. There are two types of slam books.
Type 1: Is of the type which has typed questions which are to be filled out by the person. These contain all sort of questions like "what is your hobby, what is your aim in life, what would you want your dream house to be built of, what would you do if you become rich, etc".
Type 2: This book is an empty notebook in which you can fill in whatever you want. Take the word "whatever" with a pinch of salt. You have to provide your address, contact details, etc. Also write something about your friend.
Type 1 books are totally useless. It contains questions which some third person had written and you just have to fill in the required blanks. Since you are my friend, you should be knowing those things yourself. If you aren't that close to me, what is the use of answering those questions? Will you build my dream house? or will you give make me rich if I tell you what I will do with it? Then what is the use of such questions?
Type 2 books is total bull shit. Since the book is just an empty notebook, you can fill in with anything you want. But you are expected to fill in things that you actually don't want to. You have to write good things like "you are a charming, friendly, intelligent, jovial person". Actually the content typed in goes on for pages. I have seen some of my friends who have wasted/used up an entire hour for filling it.
Even if you try to write something different, or try to subtly tease the person, you are seen as someone who has no sentiments and doesn't know about friendship. Is friendship all about lying about your friend? Is it all about writing things that you don't even feel about that person?
Some people may argue that they only write what they really feel for their friend. Great. I am bad at writing such stuff. According to me, those people are living in a dream. Thinking that a person will only write true things in their slam book... definitely impossible.
I began to realise these things from my slam book from my school. I had my friends write so many nice things about me, which I didn't know I had. ;) Now that slam book is collecting dust in the bottom of my shelf.
Another reason why I hate slam books in college is the amount of work and dedication that goes into writing that entry. Everyone is so much engrossed into it that they can't see what is going on in the class.
I give such kind of attention only when coding. Coming to coding, it is interesting to note that out of ~23 teams in my class only 2 teams(can be one or two more) have really done their project on their own. All the others have just bought their projects from consultancies aka companies.
Each project approximately costs Rs.5000 for a person amounting to Rs.20000. What is the use of buying a project and submitting for your disertation? What do you gain from it? You have learnt so much for 4 years. Can't you apply those skills? Is it really that difficult to think of a real life problem, analyse it and find a solution to it? If you can't do a small final year project by yourself, then it is impossible for you to be successful anywhere you go.
If the efforts for writing a slam book are properly channelised, everyone can do their own projects. If I say this, the reply I get "we aren't talented like you". It is just denial to agree to the fact. You know that what you do is wrong. But you can't agree.
I have now decided that I will never fill in another slam book. For all those who ask me to fill in a slam my reply is the same reply you give for the project.
"Just like you are incapable of doing your project on your own, I am in incapable of filling your slam book with bull shit. You have so many people who can write pages of this BS. Please contact them."
PS: If you want just my address and contact details, there are other means to obtain them.
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