We have entered an era, where we so steadfastly mistake information for knowledge. We have begun to use these two words almost interchangeably, unaware of our dire folly. Sitting in front of a personal computer and jabbering away fervently must for sure have increased the know-how of the current generation in the different ways to use the ‘Ctrl+C – Ctrl+V’ tool but the bigger picture of the issue has been relegated to a blurry background long back. The problem: There is an immense amount of information available but little Knowledge around.
I have seen batches and batches of engineers pass out from this institute and have seen a certain pattern emerge while being a spectator to the spectacle. There has been a clear cut downfall in the quality of the engineers that we see wearing mortar boards now. There remains no depth in reading, or for that matter any interest in reading. The lanes and corridors of the library are forever empty and the number of students really wanting to attend lectures is a minority. What’s more shocking is that such behaviour gets a thumbs up in popular culture. All the people reading this please understand why this is a sweetness that will eventually turn into diabetes. A short term incentive to not study, to not push further, to not complete your journal, to not teach the students a certain lab experiment and later promise them a 45 on 50 - all this cumulates and pitches in to make a mediocre engineer who would anyway be preparing for an MBA degree (against which I personally hold no grudge), but the fact is that even that person didn’t make an informed choice for his/her future, for he/she never gave engineering a chance.
Ask yourself a question. How many among you walked into a laboratory of your own will? How many among you cared to visit an old local garage just to see what goes on? How many of you actually cared to switch your lights and fans off when not in use when you apparently showed huge concern for the environment by trying to build a hybrid vehicle? Unfortunately, not many can raise a hand when these questions are relayed. But what do we do? What do we do when we see the laboratory exposure clearly go down? What do we do, when lab readings are copied from batches to batches and tampered with to get a signature at the end of the day? What do we do, when a hoard of young 19-22 year olds are seen committing such a huge magnitude of fraud daily in so many respects and despite that they have a perpetually negative attitude towards ‘the system’? What do we do? What do YOU do?
As one of my students once said “If you see the glass empty, don’t crib; rather be happy, for it is an opportunity for you to fill it up” And here, we wish to fill up the glass. Take initiative - start by writing in to the concerned authority to offer you concrete lab exposure. Drop a proposal to augment laboratory hours and evaluation weightage. Go and visit the nearby garages, not even big establishments, the small ones in the nooks and corners. For students from other branches – do something similar; open up your mobile charger, learn about a new mobile application, get enlightened on different unconventional shapes helpful for stronger structures. Link-hop and get into independent research at a personal level. Stop making a joke out of your final year project. Stop turning your seminar topics into a proficiency test to copy more and paste even more. STOP IT. NOW. Remember one thing all along - there cannot be a manager without a technician. There are 12 lakh students writing to get into an NIT but only 10000-15000 make it here. You are one of those technicians. Don’t waste this opportunity. Grab it and enjoy the process. Understand, analyse and then make something out of it.
And what will I be doing? Well, starting from the next year onwards, I will shift my cabin to the boilers lab and spend time with the first year students and try to infuse in them what actual engineering is. I believe in you kids a great deal. I have seen year after year, the kind of creativity you put out for everyone to see. That creativity needs to be backed with this strong anchor and propeller named knowledge. And mind you, it is very simple to adopt this method. Everything, my dears, is a function of your inner strength and will. Nothing else will aid you apart from that. Look into yourself and ask “am I becoming an engineer who can be entrusted with building a boiler, or a bridge, or an electric grid?” and you will know what to do. Wishing to see some action!
As usual Sir, u r very
As usual Sir, u r very correct in ur observation. Drishti and later on Pushpak were efforts to bring in practical aspects of engineering in daily life of students. I am not too sure how far that worked, at times i get apprehension that these activities were perilous for academics indirectly as some students including me missed the classes to bring out these.
But still I hold the firm belief that proper orientation and motivation to new batches by Prof;s and seniors can rejuvenate the engineering experience, i guess ur decision to move to boiler lab would be a beginning in this regard, but sir do take care of ur health.
U r the most precious wealth NIT-Surat has.