[dman]

I am from India and have had my fair share of suffering at the hand of the Indian education system. I dont want to be an apologist for the status quo but do want the rhetoric to be cooled down. For eg Here are a few non IIT institutions which are pretty decent a) http://www.iisc.ernet.in/ b) Bits Pilani c) Anna University

Also a) I think it is fair to say that a post which ends with "Horrible Stuff" is reaching some kind of conclusion. b) When I look at people who like me who "failed" at 12th grade and didnt get into IIT, I see that just the process of trying has served us well. c) Education as you rightly said is what you make it out to be. d) I do want to congratulate you for the strength of your convictions in choosing to pursue undergrad abroad when you realised that the Indian education system wasnt serving your needs.

[magic_haze]

You're right. My bad; remembering all those days cooped up studying Loney and K.D. Joshi made me emotional. Yes, it certainly helped me breeze through all my college math courses, but it's that sort of experience I wouldn't want even on my worst enemy.