OK first of all let me just say that I do have a fair share of Chula-graduated friends and most of them are a pretty sane bunch (right, Namizon? Korbua?).

But then there's another group of people that breathe and live the pink pride. It pains me. And what I hate more is their tendency to try to convert people around them to have the same ideas and opinions.

It's like almost like cult.

What sparked me to write about this post? I just went to Chamchuri Square to check it out for BK and it wasn't a kind of experience I would like to relive again (http://www.bkmagazine.com/blog/alisara-chirapongse/2008/07/28/not-so-cheery-chamchuri). It was a pure example of the kind of people representing the Chula stereotype. Traditional and uptight.

But anyway as I got off the Sam Yan MRT, I realized that I have landed in the Chula turf, thanks to the pink tiles, symbols and colors that are decorating the walls of the station. I didn't have to wait for long for a gigantic sign saying "This property is built upon the Chulalongkorn land" to appear. Yes, we know.

Don't you think Chula is such a vain institution?

As I grew up in a pretty traditional Thai environment where every family member was educated in the Chula umbrella in one way or another, I was surrounded by the Chula mentality all my life. The mentality that requires you to NOT think outside the box, to not defy the powers of the adults and to always know my place and be aware of the fact that since the days you opened your eyes your future was already set in stones not by just your parents but aunts and uncles, grand and great grandparents.

I have always been the odd one in my family. I was never in the family's systematic series of education. Everyone else did. You have to start your education at Chitlada and continue your university in Chula. Peroid.

What did I do? I went to a Catholic school, then into a Brit system and ended up in a private university. Boy were they pissed when they saw that my university did not require me to wear ridiculous white shoes and skirts covering my ankles.

When I was in my second year in ABAC I was called in by my great grandmother to discuss "my future". She sat me down, while I was wearing my university uniform, and she went, "So when are you going to get into Chula?" I got so pissed. If she wasn't tiny, old, and my own great grand mother, I would have punched her in the face.

The rumor had it that the reason why I was in ABAC was because I wasn't smart enough to get into Chula. Right. Like the Rote-learning style of exam would improve my braincell count. I CHOSE ABAC, solely because I did not want to be sucked into the system that I loathe. The system where uniforms for university students were not enough, you still have to follow a strict dresscode that makes you look like you just stepped out of a 1950s poster. The same system that the way you tie your hair or the way you dress OUTSIDE the university perimeter can also decide whether or not you will get your degree. It's the same system where teachers should be revered and feared like gods and where your involvement in abusive freshman hazing has a say whether or not you will go through your four years of college as an invisible person of no importance.

Funniest thing is, I heard about all these rules and "customs" from real life Chula graduates and yet they spoke of these with such utmost love and respect.

My cousin posed in a swimsuit for a magazine once and she almost got suspended. A friend did not wear proper white shoes as stated by the university and she had to write an essay about it. And all this happened in the 21st century.

OK, Chula is the first university in Thailand, named after a king, has bred nation's finest and has the best educational facilities and resources the country could ask for.

But there's a difference between being traditional and outdated and they should start acknowledging it.

But then again if people are still raising their children under this mentality, like the "traditional side" of family, it will never be out of the cycle.

Oh well, at least I never got in.
~
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