Cold comfort: IITs join the Singapore standard by central air-conditioning hostels

There is something tautologically pleasant about all new hostels at Indian Institutes of Technology ( IITs) being finally fitted with central air-conditioning.

While most middleclass Indians have come to terms with the air-conditioner not being some faintly sinful luxury device that makes sloths of us, the fact that central air-conditioning is being fitted in Indian university dorms and corridors is a radical step.

For those still scoffing at the idea of central air-conditioning for central institutions of learning, chill.

Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore, considered the air-conditioner to be mankind’s greatest invention of the millennium — at least for the swathes of mankind who live in tropical and subtropical climates.

For the man who turned a swampy British-ruled outpost into a sleek 21st century-inthe-20th century city state within a generation, the air-conditioner vanquished the natural heat and humidity via technology, drastically improving the quality of people’s work.

The question now is: will folks outside IITs realise that airconditioning, more than any magic mantra, can radicalise the way Indians work?

All that is needed is for smart folks to invent ways in which air-conditioners leave smaller carbon footprints than they do at present. Well, what do you think the central air-conditioners at IITs are for?