It was somewhen in August 2017. It was my first ever IN-Sem exam in university. We all were just freaked out with the syllabus as we had to achieve a minimum score of 12 on a total of 30 to pass the subject. We all were tensed. it was pretty easy till then to score huge in an MCQ examination for the first 4 semesters. But it was a massive challenge to deal with the 6 giant subjective answers and calculations. And that too all into just 90 minutes.
The supervisor arrived. Tension was built. The drama got added to the exam room. He brought the rolled set of question paper to his armpit. He started distributing the answer sheets. We were hungry to grab the question papers. Finally, the first student from the very front desk received his one. We were jealous of him. A sound of jealousy screamed, He already experienced the surprise we all have been waiting for. All our eyes turned towards him. We were waiting for the dramatic expressions to appear on his face. We started decoding his expressions. He was stunned. Suddenly our turn came. We received our paper. Everyone went through the question set with the utmost greed within. And BOOM! Every single student from the exam hall sat shocked just after that moment. The first question was for 10 marks. “Design knuckle joint for the truck.” We could have managed it but the issue was the additional note they have added. “Calculate the diameter of the pin when the truck turns 30 degrees towards the left.” (Don't imagine! We couldn't too:)
But the clock was running. Overtaking the beats of our hearts. Some of us swiped the sweat from our faces. Some drank water. I chewed nails. But everyone just started using formulas and tapped calculators to get at least something done. Some with formula, some with techniques, and maybe some with the hypothesis. We as engineers believed that in the deadliest situation, even the fallacies too could survive us. We just kept ourselves surviving.
Normally we use to mug up the ‘Decode’! A book that already contained previous years' questions and some model exam papers. We were so sure that we would have been having the exact questions from that model set. “Anyway, who takes a lot of effort to design unique and fresh questions for a 30 marks exam?”, we said, ‘Overconfidently’.
But our university did. ‘Overpassionately’!
That day noon was pretty calm for me. But a lot disturbing too. I kicked my bike and went on a long drive. Maybe to some peaceful hill. I was afraid of failing the first-ever IN-Sem exam. It was our pre-final year and the final year, placements, internships, thesis everything was about to come. It was going to decide our tomorrow! Maybe every single day of our tomorrow!
“Do I know Engineering?”
“Is it my cup of tea?”
The questions started hitting my mind every minute after. We all were so equipped with our tools, techniques, handbooks, and formulas and maybe sometimes with theory, concepts, and some hypotheses too. But still, we failed to get ourselves called an engineer! We failed to sharpen our tools. We failed to recognize them. Maybe we were unable to recognize that one significant tool in engineering. And that was ‘COMMON SENSE’!
We even used to opt for the electives during our semester based on how fancy they sounded. The content always stood secondary! How cool it feels when showing off our glossaries and our dictions when are in our friend circle by simply bypassing The Actual Concept, The Skills, The ‘LOGIC’. Mugging up fancy words and pitching half-knowledge understandings is an identity of a cool engineer! But engineering was never cool IRL! It was never invented to enhance the so-called social standards when one pursues his degree. It was us who made it fancy. Sugarcoated the entire profession in some craving rhythmic lengthy words maybe from a crossword puzzle to solve on a Sunday morning.
2020! Covid arrived. We got a chance to boost our scores by appearing for online exams. We did it. Took the full benefit. Got a huge fat score to show to society. Yes, I am grateful that I made myself able to complete my graduation without a single backlog, with a decent score, distinction grade and an ideal profile usually juniors seek to follow their seniors. I am thankful that I was able to build my self-belief with a 4-year journey that I have accomplished smoothly.
But later, I have fallen! From the peaks of beautified dreams that I have achieved after my graduation. Because at every step outside my college campus, I thought of being an engineer as a curse. Gentleman, you might have known this. What? NO? Bro, you're an engineer, right? Neeraj, such a basic thing you are not able to do? It's the fundamental man! You must be aware of it! But alas :-( I wasn't. These criticisms were not direct, but still, used to hurt. The judgments had churned my self-beliefs like a storm. A storm that has harshly uprooted my confidence, self-esteem, my hope, smiles, my attitude, and my image just in a blink of an eye. Why ever have I chosen to be an engineer?
Did I want to do it? NO! I wanted to be a theatre artist.
The nightmares use to scare me a lot. But still, even in those dark evenings, those nightmares, I haven't had even a single thought saying that I'm not made for Engineering! If it was not meant to happen then I would have felt extremely difficult to manage my academics. But no! I used to find it interesting. I genuinely enjoyed it while teaching and simplifying the concepts to other pals just before the exams. Maybe I was not lacking in knowledge. I was lacking in the implementation of my knowledge.
During a pandemic, I got a chance to intern in an industry. The experience was not much countable but worth remembering. A philosophy I got to learn was, “In Reality, No Boss Pays Any Person For His Work. The Person Pays Himself!” It's not your profile that shows how suitable you are, but your attitude it is that projects the potential you carry within! Eligibility is just a count of thresholds, whereas capabilities are the gateways that get opened when we smash our limits.
I carried all these intentions within me during my flight to Germany. Joined my master's at the campus. Some issues occurred and I decided to search for internships to get hands-on experience in the German culture. I landed at a place. The place is something I would consider the most substantial place in my journey. I joined an organization that manufactures medical devices. But here in this 180-degree opposite culture of my homeland, I accepted the challenge of Relearning and Unlearning the false beliefs I used to follow. Yes, the shift was massive. We have to think of Quality than Quantity. We have to think of Time than Money. We have to think of Innovations and Anticipations over just Blind Executions. We have to think of End-User Behaviour than just Employee Satisfaction. We have to keep aside the jargon in engineering and have to deal with the Psychology Behind Engineering. Because whenever you deal with psychology, everything comes to Common Sense and simply Human Behaviour. And what I have been told by my most lovable mentor from the company is that “Engineering Is Nothing but Common Sense With a Little Essence of Skills.” The need is not how a ‘Unique’ solution you bring but ‘How Convinced You With Your Solution Are!’
Even during our storytelling in theatres, our focus sustains on making the story more CONVINCING rather than Making It Much More Experimental And Theoretical. We used to make everything believable. In the same way, Engineering is also like making things believable. It's just like our theatre performance. We used to think about how the audience would react to this scene! So basically today I am a theatre artist only, but some qualities that I needed to develop in addition are ANTICIPATION over Improvisation, IMAGINATION over Cognition, ANALYSIS over Conviction, and PERFECTION over Excellence.
Because things are not as hard as our education systems have made us think of. Knowledge is not always an ocean to dive deep into. This is because when you get overwhelmed with the depths and start drowning directionless, your fear forces you more to give up on the efforts to swim and survive. Instead, it can be sometimes as simple as just viewing sunset while sitting calmly on the seashore. Taking some sand in hand and creating a beautiful castle with it. Maybe the more profound meanings of life can be discovered in such simplified moments only.
So the next time onwards, if someone ever feels scared of the Science, Reasoning, Comprehension And Realisations Towards Life, my humblest suggestion will be of accepting the fact that “Reincarnation is the Religion of Knowledge.” It has been continuing since evolution. It's not a big deal to know things, the need is to COMPREHEND them. As the most lovable scientist of the past century has said, “Intelligence is the Ability to Adapt to Changes.”
Changes are constant! Don't get surprised. There won't be anything ever that is not understandable. There always will be some networks of LOGIC connecting everything from within. Just make your tanks full of Logical Insights, ignite them with Wisdom and let the aircraft of your thoughts take off towards Discovering New Horizons. And never forget to keep your fears and worries shamelessly aside because there is NO Rocket Science! And “Rocket Science is not even any ‘Rocket Science’!”
This article is written by a good friend of mine Neeraj Garud, currently based in Germany, who is an Engineer, Theatre Practitioner, and Experimentalist… High five and cheers buddy :-)
To know more about Neeraj, please follow him on - Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram
If you want to share anything or have any suggestions/questions, please leave them in the comments!
That’s it for today :-)
Hope each of you has a great start to your day. I’ll talk to everyone tomorrow.
— Amit
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