Two and quarter years ago, in one workshop on quality in a university, I was asked, how would I define ‘quality’. I said, I wasn’t some philosopher, but I can try answering you from my experience. I feel that if you are able to deliver a product a service or personal conduct better than the most-that would be a quality. I feel that ‘better than the best’ or ‘the best’ itself was perhaps an illusion. Quality has a nasty habit of getting better and better. The standards move vertically, far less horizontally.
To recognise quality, a person requires to become a quality person, first. A wide exposure to quality is a precursor to judge or develop quality in anything. Often in the HEIs, we add some value and then settle down with the status quo and mistake it for quality. But when we are in face to face with the true quality, it draws an awe and the eyes open up to see more of it. It is clearly visible and can be felt as well. The other day, I saw quality walking on the road. It was the road itself; black top, a much runway like surface. I saw quality in ultra busy airport operations. A minor aberration could otherwise lead to a disaster. “Apple”upgrading to every new quality version. And then I saw quality spilling over the pot in Switzerland, no cable cars and gondolas ever failing, trains clocking railway stations to seconds perfection, pollution-free pristine iconic peaks of Alps, lakes and valleys. I wished if human beings were as much of quality in consciousness, emotions and feelings deep within and there were no divisions and cracks, self-driven wars and battles out of vengeance, dominance, and the resultant sufferings. So, a search for quality within and outside of us continues and should continue. Let’s have more quality people in our system, and not just in the IQAC alone. Quality is a MUST have.
