Engineering Idiots ??

  Watching Rajkumar Hirani's 3 Idiots for the second time again compelled the swinging mind within me to contemplate 'Was engineering a right choice for me?' 'Was I made to be an engineer?'. It might sound flabbergasting but it was Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone that had once inculcated within me a heavy attraction towards this career - an engineering degree from a top institute.That was years ago when I was a high school student growing up in a small town; already nurturing utopian dreams of being an IITian. No idea why, but reading a book that describes three IITians going wayward intensified my dreams of studying in one of these so-called prestigious institutes. Eventually it was not IIT but I did land up in BITS Pilani - a big dream fulfilled. The heart within me satisfied. It was a success in wars called engineering entrance . JEE, AIEEE, BITSAT etc etc. Wars where a single mark propelled you up and down through some thousand ranks. Given the craze and lure of Indian students for this career,engineering seemed to be something majestic;something that made you a man among men.

But is engineering really so dignified? Does everyone of the thousands of students who win the rat-race of engineering entrances end up  being distinguished or even successful engineers? Why do many engineers switch to management, administration, business,politics etc after grueling their minds with sophisticated theories of physics, chemistry and mathematics all through their student life ? If the aim was to go and work in a bank then why study science and technology ? Is engineering education in our nation so pathetic that students lose interest in it during the course of graduation ? Or the engineering entrances in India do not actually select the deserving students who possess an aptitude for engineering ?

These are questions that cannot be answered or retorted back without extensive research and survey. No one is born an engineer or scientist. It is the propensity and surroundings that make one successful in one's field. I did not take up engineering just because someone asked me to do so. Certain ambitions to work in the field of science and technology drove me to this choice of career. But it is undeniable that social or economic circumstances might not deviate me from pursuing my objective in the years to come. This is how engineers work. Maybe this is how the whole system and process called education works.