While seeing the movie, "Swades", this thought about the present state of Engineering struck me. Doctors seemingly do justice to their profession by specializing in Medicine after their bachelors. People pursuing Law do end up as Lawyers. In this regard, Sciences and Commerce could also be included with Medicine and Law. Engineers are about whom I am more worried about.
An engineer by profession, (atleast that's what the world says or thinks!), and specializing in the same field (fortunately), I cannot help but wonder as to how many people infact pursue their specific undergraduate field of study. Sadly nowadays, disciplines like Mechanical, Chemical, Civil, etc. are not preferred. Why is it that these disciplines are in such a sad state? Most parents would want their ward to pursue Computer Science or Electronics, and the irony is that neither the ward nor parent(in most cases!) know as to what these two disciplines actually involve at the time of admissions. With so much of peer pressure, and the neighbour's son doing Computer Science at IITK, and a colleague's daughter pursuing EEE at BITS, Pilani, the desire to make their ward famous among their circles, does seem to get on their nerves.
Again, I might be wrong in making such an indiscriminate generalization, but I feel that most of the so called Mechanical, Chemical, Civil, etc. engineers finally end up in the IT industry or switch over to Management/Services. Engineering has sadly become a platform for seeking higher and more lucrative pursuits for them. Agreed, that money plays an important role in our daily lives; But, should the primary field of study be sacrificed in such a shameless manner? Well, there are some people, including friends of mine, who were born to be managers. I do not want to raise a dabate now on whether managers are born or created out here. But, what about the others, who turn towards IT/Management/Services not because they are genuinely interested, but because of the money factor?
Well, I am not a saint. I might have been or was one like them. I am now in one of those saught-after disciplines. I do not want to point fingers at them. It is just that, the time has come for all of us to realise the glory of these neglected disciplines. I was wondering as to what these engineers were doing, when in fact they could be building dams and improving the infrastructure of the country, maybe not easy as it sounded in the movie "Swades", but nevertheless still DO something to bring a light into their lives.
An engineer by profession, (atleast that's what the world says or thinks!), and specializing in the same field (fortunately), I cannot help but wonder as to how many people infact pursue their specific undergraduate field of study. Sadly nowadays, disciplines like Mechanical, Chemical, Civil, etc. are not preferred. Why is it that these disciplines are in such a sad state? Most parents would want their ward to pursue Computer Science or Electronics, and the irony is that neither the ward nor parent(in most cases!) know as to what these two disciplines actually involve at the time of admissions. With so much of peer pressure, and the neighbour's son doing Computer Science at IITK, and a colleague's daughter pursuing EEE at BITS, Pilani, the desire to make their ward famous among their circles, does seem to get on their nerves.
Again, I might be wrong in making such an indiscriminate generalization, but I feel that most of the so called Mechanical, Chemical, Civil, etc. engineers finally end up in the IT industry or switch over to Management/Services. Engineering has sadly become a platform for seeking higher and more lucrative pursuits for them. Agreed, that money plays an important role in our daily lives; But, should the primary field of study be sacrificed in such a shameless manner? Well, there are some people, including friends of mine, who were born to be managers. I do not want to raise a dabate now on whether managers are born or created out here. But, what about the others, who turn towards IT/Management/Services not because they are genuinely interested, but because of the money factor?
Well, I am not a saint. I might have been or was one like them. I am now in one of those saught-after disciplines. I do not want to point fingers at them. It is just that, the time has come for all of us to realise the glory of these neglected disciplines. I was wondering as to what these engineers were doing, when in fact they could be building dams and improving the infrastructure of the country, maybe not easy as it sounded in the movie "Swades", but nevertheless still DO something to bring a light into their lives.
1 comment:
i couldn't agree more with you. had this argument with quite a few of my batchmates in BITS. ulitimately in life each of us must do what wea re best at. i can understand someone who was completely disinterested in MECH/CHEMICAL/CIVIL switching over to an IT job or decididng to pursue management. but whta hurts is that people who actually did well in their CDCs and have a passion for the subject still decide that they are better of selling soap!
this trend is more prevalent in the more well known univs. what this basically amounts to is that "engineering" is being pursued by a lot of those who are actually have a pretty mediocre aptitude for it.
am proud of my friends in IIT who would consider it below their dignity to do a non-techie job - i wish more BITSians felt the same.
one very good option for those who want to pursue a career in engineering is the IES (Indian Engineering Service) that recruits engineering graduates for government engineer positions.
its important that good engineers from India stay in India. what is happening now is that those who want to study further mostly go abroad and end up staying there. this impoverishes us as a nation, because now our countrymen are producing cutting edge technology in other nations, and we are content just buying it and using it. there needs to be more impetus for research in India. after all dont most of the brains that run the tech labs of the world come from this side of the globe??
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