ANECDOTE OF AN ENGINEER

I always wondered why it is called a Bachelor’s Degree. May be because you are not worthy enough to win a father’s daughter in marriage unless you conquer the degree, the completion of this degree announces your advent as a bachelor to the society. There’s a colloquial notion about Engineering: 

Boys do engineering to hike their dowry value whereas Girls do it to relieve their parents of the same dowry value.

                       

                        A degree in Engineering is unique they say, it is indeed because whereas almost all graduation courses have a duration of 3years the B.TECH degree gives you an extra 4^th year of struggle and chaos, an extra year to realize the grandeur of Engineering

The FIRST YEAR is what you call the most pristine phase of your Engineering life, high attendance and even higher aspirations. Uniforms look clean, hairstyle looks neat and innocence is at its peak.

Everyone except the Seniors looks innocent, Yes! The Seniors (with due respect), you must have watched on Discovery and NatGeo, those hungry Lions waiting to pounce upon the herd of Zebras grazing merrily in the Savannah, the plight of a 1^st year student is no different from those Zebras, Seniors ready to pounce upon you and inflict the tragedy of Ragging on you.

You feel a strange sense of attachment to the Library in the 1^st year, come a free period and all roads lead to the college library reading room (though you go for a voluntary break-up with the Library after the 1^st year). All in all you can say the FIRST YEAR is like a trailer of the Engineering Life.

The SECOND YEAR is when you taste the real flavour of Engineering, classes seem unappealing and so do the books, only the girl in the front row seems appealing, but you don’t seem appealing to her, you call it Love and she says “bugger off!” . What follows changes you forever, life seems deserted and you resort to solitude, that’s when those Rascalous Angels called Friends come to the rescue. They kick your back (literally!), see off the solitude, glue the pieces of your heart together and push you hard enough to bump into another Girl!

Engineering is the best platform to realize the importance of Friendship, it’s amazing the way few people become so vital for us, eradicates the myth that only blood relations are forever. Friendship is the only thing that keeps you going through these four years.

Engineering gives you a golden opportunity to come face to face with different characters. I distinctly observed two prototypes: “The Geeks” And “The Bad Boys”

The Geeks are one of a kind; you find them mostly in classrooms, library, seminars and labs. Spectacles are their most precious jewellery and books are their ultimate temptation. You can find them running around from library to classroom and vice versa hugging fat books. Come semester results and they would be flying high, as high as their GPAs! One look at their GPAs and you start feeling how you have been ruining your Engineering.

The Bad Boys are not actually bad, they are good at heart, they won’t hesitate to go that extra bit for the sake of Friendship, its only the their choices that brands them bad, Wine instead of Thums Up, Cigarette instead of Bubble Gum, Cards instead of Books is all that enough for them to be Bad!
Sunglasses, bracelets, rugged jeans and fat wallets are all typical of the Bad Boys!

The THIRD YEAR marks the arrival of the Era Of Depression for an Engineer. The sins of 2^nd year haunt you throughout the year, poor grades and poor attendance take a heavy toll on you, all the while you try in vain to free yourself from the possession of the 2^nd year ghost. You suddenly realize the worth of your parents hard earned money channelized into the college fees; you make resolutions to study hard and get good grades but Engineers are good at everything but resolutions!
You go sincerely to class and the front row girl smiles at you, you open a book and the bed entices you, and by the time you discover a blueprint to mend your ways it’s too late. Projects & Seminars hover around you all the time and trailers of the Coming Soon placement drive keep showing up in your dreams.

The FOURTH YEAR or THE FINAL YEAR is the stage for the final showdown; Campus Placements become the ultimate goal. Anxious faces at college, anxious faces at home, Mothers praying to God, Fathers silently wishing you All the Best, one look at their eyes and you realize their hopes rest on you, after decades of being worthless you get that chance of a lifetime to bring smile to your parents, it’s the time to seize that chance and give it all you have.
The Third most dangerous adversary in your Engineering life is that phenomenon called Recession (the first two are of course the University and the Syllabus), you have absolutely no control over it, the best you can do is watch news and read newspapers and hope the Recession recedes back soon.

The Final Year brings back the nostalgia of first year all over again, the thought of it all ending soon, the thought of leaving the college, I always believe a college feels like a college not because of the classrooms and buildings, but because of the people, because of friends and because of the bond you share with them, the moments you spent with them. The sudden realization that you are going to be deprived of all that fun for the rest of your life is hard to digest.
Finally you bid goodbye to the most amazing four years of your life, the four years which didn’t just give a graduate’s degree but also helped you to graduate from a Boy to a Man, what you take with you is loads of memories which will make you smile in the toughest of times and the lessons of life learnt that will show you the right path everytime.

Do Engineering. It’s the best you can do for yourself! J