University and Universe have the same ring. Every country has at the very least a university, in where a universe flourishes. A university is where the real country is, or should be. In there you find adult life for the first time, the joy of separating the whims of a country from evidences, the delight of waking up to your peoples' genius and hypocrisy. University attendance is universally low in lectures, and characteristically high on campus. The open grounds, the tea shop, the hostel, the dramatics/debating/music clubs, the all-night cafe, college elections, is where the real university is, where you learn that what you do can count, has consequences, and that is contagious. You get university fever, and it infects your entire universe. This is the allure of a university, one that you never found at home, one that you will not find the moment you step out (some of us never do!). A university is where you put on headphones to shut out noise so you can listen more carefully, test how your own voice sounds, and gingerly attempt to utter original sounds if indeed fortune favours you. A university works if the entire universe is invited to inhabit it, and that must mean that it is universally funded by the public. Countries emerge out of universities, not the other way around. To see a country attacking its own university is to declare war upon its own universe. And if you do not have a universe of your own you must live in somebody else’s universe. And we all know what a shame that is! Stand with publicly funded universities, stand with #jnuprotest, stand with all students who fight for a better universe.
