Saturday, September 15, 2012

Properties of an engineer


Properties of a weird specie of people called ‘engineer’ -

  1. He is found in varied professions banking, entertainment, media, advertising, Hotels. If you think he does only technical jobs, you are wrong. He can do anything; you just have to train him. Yes he is a threat to your job too. You can keep cribbing that he is wasting his degree doing other jobs, but secretly he doesn’t want to use his degree at all.
  2. No. Pls don’t tell an engineer to repair your broken tap, mixer-grinder, car etc. He can exactly tell you how it works, but cannot tell why it doesn’t.
  3. All engineers are not math-geniuses. Lot of them actually hate maths. It’s like a pill you don’t like but cant do without. He may very well solve complicated calculus equations, yet make silly mistakes in divisions and multiplications
  4. He likes to complicate his life and try to find a complicated solution. This is how he feels, his degree was worth of everything he had sacrificed in life. Do not teach him common sense. That’s the last thing he would like to use.
  5. He will always pretend to know more about gadgets than others, often fumes if a non-engineer knows more about gadgets than him.
  6. He will leave no stone unturned to flaunt his engineering degree and to brag about it. Secretly he knows the only thing to flaunt about the degree is that engineers have evolved as people who can bear with any kind of academic torture.
  7. Half of these species go abroad for further studies just because others are going, Lots of them get into IT,  other do courses which have no relation to engineering and the remaining few do actual technical jobs. Most of the times, the last herd are the most satisfied lot.
  8. Female species are often rare in engineering colleges, speaking to one of them is considered to be one of the biggest achievements. Guys having girl friends were given demi-god status and were often consulted by the have-nots for tips. Very often these demi-gods were the best source of all information related to the better gender.
  9. All those habits which make the boy a man are often introduced to and perfected in these 4 years.
  10. ‘40’ is a special number. It is like the finishing line of a marathon for an engineering student. ‘All Clear’ - That’s what defines any successful engineering student. He strives to see that number on his mark list, and any shortage in that is multiplied with the worst swore words in any possible gaali encyclopaedia, often targeted to the professor who taught that subject, the examiner, the paper-setter, the invigilator who didn’t let him copy, the exam-neighbours, the cricket series, the crush and every one else who cleared the subject. Basically everyone except himself.
  11. You have written as many pages of assignments that can bring down a forest. Every engineer is a skilled editor. The assignments of the one who can bring down a toppers assignment to an optimum minimum pages is a benchmark for all future manual Xerox copies of the same. Yet there is always scope of further reduction.
  12. The humble scientific calculator suddenly becomes a device with usages even the inventor wouldnt have imagined in his wildest dreams. It becomes a secret message device, the storage device for formulas/important values for exams, the boredom killer in lectures.
  13. Has often being taught important definitions in local language by professors.
  14. Has weird usage of words, even in normal circumstances. This blog title is one such example.
  15. He might have spent the most torturous academic years of his life doing engineering, he actually starts living after his engineering. Yet he will cherish it as the best years of his life.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Chhattisgarhiya Sable Badhiya!


Sable Badiya Chhattisgarhiya! – it means ‘Chhattisgarh is the best’ in Chhattisgarhi language. Those were the bold letters written on a giant gate at the entry to the capital city – Raipur. I still remember reading these words when I had taken my first steps towards the city. I still haven’t been to find the reason why locals there think so. However there are few things that make CG a bit unique in its own way.

Few enlightening things about my Karmabhoomi – Chhattisgarh:
  1. Apart from Tigers it houses a human population of 25,540,196
  2. No, not all people staying there are Naxals
  3. No, not all people staying there are Adivasis
  4. Yes there are a lot of people who buy cars there (for all those ignorant @$$es who kept asking me “Tu waha gaadi kisko bechega, forest officials ko??” )
  5. During summers you cant differentiate between a girl and a guy, both are covered by super long scarf on top half.
  6. Yes there are malls, 6 sprawling ones in a small city. Now you just have to find people to visit them.
  7. Everything is as expensive as metro cities, surely they have at least tried to replicate one aspect of Metros
  8. Summers are like a baking oven, can go upto 45 degrees
  9. ‘Bhaiyya’ becomes ‘Bhiya’, ‘Haan’ becomes ‘haau’, ‘Paani Puri’ becomes ‘Gup Chup’
  10. Rare to find localites, everyone is either a Marwari, Punjabi, Oriya, Bengali, Maharashtrian etc etc
  11. Peace loving people, hardly witnessed petty crimes
  12. Terrible food options, though I can vouch for the fact that ‘Rasoi’ in Bilaspur is the best vegetarian restaurant I have tried yet. No food available before 10 am and after 10 pm. 
  13. It is not unusual to see a jerk stopping the vehicle on a flyover and talking on phone and waving other people to move ahead his car
  14. Cattles on the road give you an exciting driving experience
  15. Wine shops remind you of Mumbai Locals, round the year, as if the next day is a dry day.
  16. Sunday is a holiday, even for shopkeepers. So if you make plans to do some Sunday shopping, you are sure to be disappointed.
  17. Every Autorickshaw is a 10 seater, and even 15 seater if the traffic cop is on leave.
  18. Remember those School Bags with buckles to close them? You get those as a free accessory with every bike. They are used as a side carrier!
  19. Have seen a Bhelpuri waala sporting a huge LCD screen on his thhela powered by an Auto Battery. Call it a jugaad or innovation, means the same. He is a celeb.
  20. Don’t be shocked if you feel your plane has landed on a railway station. Yes it is the airport.
Having said all these, I must say CG is developing rapidly thanks to its abundance of rich mines and minerals. It is one of the fastest progressing state in India. 10 years down the line I am sure any MBA passout getting posted will be happy to go there. I have absolutely cherished every day of CG, each one of them was a learning experience. I evolved. No matter what all reasons people have made to make that quote, but for me this was the reason why Chhattisgarh was truly sable badiya.