Relevance is the shadow that walks next to every academic — sometimes invisible, sometimes loud, but always present.

It sits beside them when they update lecture slides at midnight.

It hovers behind them at conferences when younger researchers present bolder ideas.

It walks with them through corridors filled with new students who seem to learn faster, code faster, question faster.

And yet, relevance is not a fear alone.

It is also a quiet duel:

between what academia was,

what it is,

and what it must become.

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Scene 1: Boston — A Cold Morning Outside MIT

A senior professor confesses to her colleague,

“AI can generate half my lecture now.”

Her colleague responds,

“Yes, but AI cannot generate your presence.”

They both smile —

because relevance is no longer about information,

it is about interpretation.

Students don’t come for content;

they come for clarity.

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Scene 2: Indian College — A New Lecturer’s First Week

A 27-year-old teacher walks into class and realizes her students know more apps, tools, frameworks, and tricks than she does.

She returns to the staff room and tells a senior professor,

“I feel like they’re running ahead of me.”

The senior laughs,

“Good.

Chase them.

That’s what keeps us alive.”

Relevance, here, is not superiority.

It is adaptation.

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Scene 3: Oxford — A Philosophy Professor at the Pub

He sighs,

“My students ask, ‘Sir, what’s the use of this in real life?’”

His colleague replies,

“Maybe relevance is not utility.

Maybe relevance is the courage to think without utility.”

They raise their glasses —

because relevance is sometimes about defending things the world forgot to value.

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Scene 4: Silicon Valley — Founder Meets Former Professor

“Sir, everything I built… the confidence, the logic, the resilience… it came from your class.”

The professor, slightly shocked, asks,

“But I taught you theory.”

The founder smiles,

“That theory became my operating system.”

This is relevance in its purest form —

subtle, invisible, underestimated.

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Scene 5: Small-Town University — Evening Walk

Two mid-career lecturers walk around campus.

One says softly,

“The world is moving forward.

Are we?”

The other responds,

“We don’t move fast.

We move deep.

And depth takes time.”

That’s the academic philosophy:

Relevance measured not by speed,

but by substance.

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The Emotional Core of Relevance

Every academic carries two opposing truths:

1. “We matter more than ever.”

Because the world is drowning in content,

but starving for understanding.

2. “We could become irrelevant if we resist change.”

Content is everywhere.

Teachers are not competing with each other anymore —

they’re competing with the Internet.

3. “We are the last humans in a hyper-automated world.”

Machines can deliver information.

Only teachers deliver meaning.

This tug-of-war is what makes relevance a daily meditation in academia.

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The Three Layers of Relevance

1. Subject Relevance

“Is what we teach still useful?”

This question follows every syllabus review meeting like a ghost with excellent timing.

2. Personal Relevance

“Am I still useful?”

This one appears at 11:15 PM when professors finish grading and quietly wonder if the next generation even needs them.

3. Institutional Relevance

“Is this campus still shaping futures…

or just producing degrees?”

This is the question deans never say aloud, but always think during NAAC inspections.

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The Global Whisper (heard in lounges, not in auditoriums)

A professor from Cambridge told his counterpart from IIT Kanpur:

“Our relevance will not be decided by the subjects we teach…

but by the courage with which we reinvent.”

And the IIT professor replied:

“We will stay relevant as long as we stay curious.”

This is the hope inside the fear.

This is what keeps academia alive.

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The Final Truth

Relevance is not something academia has lost.

It is something academia must re-negotiate — constantly, bravely, intelligently.

The world still needs teachers.

The world still needs thinkers.

The world still needs places where minds slow down enough to understand themselves.

The real challenge is not staying relevant.

The real challenge is staying awake.

And the Reluctant Teachers?

They are more awake than the world realizes.