Making it work

That feeling of making it work, when you know no one else can do what you can, because you care enough, you want to sit down for a little longer, walk a little longer to make it work better, to push your boundaries and your creation a little further, one small step at a time.
You read up because you see a problem when everyone else is tired of solving problems, you just cannot let go because you can still see that it can be better, you read, you understand, you write it down, you come up with a hypothesis, an equation, a program, a code, a circuit and want to make it work, you know it will work, but unsure at the same time. You work on it, and you are ready to press the button to test it, its pure joy or sheer fall on the face now, the moment of truth, you take the leap of faith

It works beautifully, it moves with grace, slow and steady rising to its maximum potential, waking all the others who had given up long ago, slow and steady going back to sleep. Nothing can compare to that feeling!! Nothing comes close!! the realisation that you made it work just because you cared enough, not because you are the only one who could have done it, but just because you cared enough.. And that bond is set forever, never can you forget it and stop wondering if it remembers you...and hope that you will see it again one day..

He scales the mountain, because he's not afraid of it. He slays the dragon, because he's not afraid of him. And he walks through hellfire... because Broomhilda's worth it. --Dr King Schultz in Django Unchained, originally Quentin Tarantino

I was born uneducated; unfortunately education didn’t change that...

I finally triumphed procrastination! Back to the blogging world! Allow me to explain what I mean by the title of this post.

I was a decent student in a state board school, landing with good 10^th and 12^th scores! As a kid, I was very fond of tinkering around with anything I could get my hands on. Machines or anything remotely gadget-ish would not go unscathed. I was very sure I wanted to be an electronics engineer. I got into a respectable college in Mumbai and I had the time of my life in the first three years. Then, out of the blue, came the most shocking revelation. I got placed in an IT company. Don’t get me wrong…I absolutely believe in the power of IT and its immense contribution. But I did not study 4 years of electronics to work in IT. I wanted to work in a core electronics company and then eventually land up in automotive electronics. Accepting an IT job was the end of that dream.

As fate would have it, with little effort from my side and a lot of help from a friend, I landed up in an automation company. I still remember the first day I walked into the office. I was ushered into a lab where some young lads, not more than 2-3 years older than me were working on some sci-fi looking kits with wires and LEDs sticking out. I was intimidated. If this was a lab, what was that where I did my engineering practicals?

I was lost and scared. I could not understand a single sentence of what I was told about my work. Embarrassingly, the work was directly related to a subject I passed with “flying colours”. I could only register words - motor, converter, inverter, duty cycle, power amplifier, logic controller. I couldn’t retain anything more. I realized that the concepts backing these were not very different from what I had mugged up to pass my exams, but I wasn’t confident to apply them in real world!

I had learned about Nyquist and Bode plots, Fast Fourier and Laplace transforms, but the real high was to use a Bode plot to make a machine work. And these were not some ‘hi-tech’ machines! These were machines used by cottage industries based in MIDCs and GIDCs. Machines used to pack medicines, chips and biscuits. I automated simple, efficient and cheap machines using the very basic principles we loathed in engineering. What a high it was! Exams and marks never gave me that feeling. Those moments, when you could see a machine produce something of value, something a common man can use every day…you start believing in engineering. You start living like an engineer!!

My manager used to say, Engineering is not a profession, it’s a religion.

How many of us have had that high, when we picked a problem, used our knowledge and made something of value, something useful to someone? I never felt I could do that when I was pursuing engineering. We never learnt how to use that knowledge, what’s the purpose of what we learn. We never asked, hence we were never told. I wish I asked “why” more often when I was studying. I wish I could experience engineering rather than being taught about it…

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I will learn - Benjamin Franklin

If you think you are 'educated', read this...

Finally, I am back to blogging after days of coaxing and convincing myself that I might still have the ‘blogging’ streak.  The last time I wrote an article was way back in 2009! Two jobs and an MBA degree, I thought I had lost my naivety and brusqueness!

What triggered me?? This brilliant video: 

Most of Indian middle class can closely relate to my educational and professional background.  State board schooling, an engineering degree, developing software , an MBA and finally a Bank job!

There is one exasperating question that every MBA is asked again and again – Why MBA? With plenty of time at hand, I decided to answer this question honestly. Why did I switch from engineering to MBA? Did I hate engineering? Of course, I did not. I graduated with good grades; doesn’t that make me a good engineer? No, grades weren’t enough to make me a good engineer at work. My lecture-centric education hardly helped me to comprehend the connection between classroom knowledge and professional practice. Even after four years of learning fascinating concepts and sophisticated theories, I wasn’t competent to respond to the need for increasingly complex problem identification and solutions. I felt I was not ‘cut-out’ for a technical career. Probably I was right!

But every year lakhs of Indian students apply for admission to engineering colleges. And a large majority of graduating engineers apply for admission to business schools. Are they all not ‘cut-out’? There definitely is a missing link. I think it is our education system. I feel we overuse the lecture format. It is indeed an efficient delivery system to provide students with large amounts of information in short amounts of time. However, this passive one-sided talking quickly disengages students. 

Another reason would be our outdated syllabus. Our televisions have progressed from plasma to LCD to LED but we are still taught cathode ray tubes! Of course we need to get our basics right but today’s industry is not about routine engineering or age old applications. The 21st century market seeks innovation and demands engineers who can conceive and create new classes of products and services. We, therefore, need to understand the bigger picture of engineering: a systems perspective, an entrepreneurial perspective, and a global perspective. 

And, this is not limited to engineering! It applies to every form of education. This makes me wonder are we 'rightly' educated? Do we understand the real meaning of the word 'education'? That word is derived from the Latin word 'educo' meaning to educe, to draw out, to lead and develop from within! 

What do you think? How can we solve this problem?