Mechanical Engineering at REC Silchar................Part 1

Our dear friend Xonii once remarked “Once in a lifetime show”. Although he had uttered those words in some other context, no words are more apt to describe, what happens to be one of the greatest enigma and sweetest truth of my life – Mechanical Engineering at REC Silchar .

Its been nearly six years from that 10th day of August, 2001 when I took admission for the course of mechanical engineering at REC Silchar (although the name has since been changed to NIT Silchar, I still prefer to call it REC). But everything that happened between that day and 13th June, 2005 (the date of our convocation) is so clearly etched in my memory that even the mere mention of the word REC deluges my mind with a vista of recollections. It was also on that day (i.e 10.08.2001) that I received an entity by which I was going to be identified for a long time to come: 01-2223, my scholar number.

That was just a prolusion. But where do I begin and where do I end the real story. Of course, I don’t think I can end it anywhere as the saga still continues. But begin I will. It all began in that classroom on the first floor to the right of the staircase. The most unserious bunch of people in the world had gathered out there to begin their journey towards becoming an engineer (of course, with the sword of “Ragging” hanging above everyone’s head, the atmosphere was not that joyful to begin with). An unusual mix of apprehension, fear and excitement is how I would like to describe the situation. Moreover, that classroom in those days was the only place where the seniors could not directly access us and so in a way, that was our only shelter from the omni present and omni preying seniors. Maybe, the only encouraging fact was that the classroom for CSE and Electronics was next to ours and there were quite a few ladies in that class. And they had to cross our class on the way to theirs and it was on those moments that everyone forgot everything about the ragging in the hostels or seniors or anything and concentrated solely on displaying the highest decibel levels that their lungs could reach and the wonderful voice modulation facets that they possessed. We had also been made to believe that being Mechies, this was our birth right. Many a times, even the professors had to come and warn us to behave properly but these warnings had their effect on us only for a very brief period of time. The moment the ladies appeared again, things were again back to normal.

Looking back now, those days bring a smile to my face. But at that time, it really was one of the most testing times of our careers. It was more demanding and more frightening that a thousand KC examinations combined. But here, I will not go into the details of the ragging period. That is another epic in itself and is best if dealt separately. Lets talk about the teachers. They were all great entertainers in their own right. There was Dasgupta Sir who always kept on looking at your feet while giving lectures. A.K. Sil Sir who thought of himself as a great statesman more than a teacher (though both these people were decent professors as far as the academics part go I must admit). Then there was Asim Roy in the physics lab who was more interested in keeping tabs on who was near his wife than in the experiments that were taking place. Miss Krori, who took ICP (although the actual de-abbreviation was Introduction to Computer Programming, we had modified that to I Cannot Pass) and was known to everybody in the college more for her looks than anything else. It was maybe due to this that most of the ones in our class never got beyond learning #include. When only your eyes are open and the rest of your sensory organs stop working, there is no way you can learn anything. Even someone like Dhol was once found paying so much attention to her that when he was asked to answer a question, all he could do was stand up and look from Tanumoy Biswas to Abu Hussain to Prashant Shekhar with the most quizzical look you will ever see in this world. Although no one got even the vaguest idea of what arrays and functions and subroutines meant after one whole semester of learning C programming, there were many who had Miss Krori’s birthday in their mind as if their lives depended on that information and were very disciplined in rushing to her cabin to gift her with cards and flowers.

But the award for the performer of that year must go to Mr. Baharul Islam. From being reputed to having a negro girlfriend to sporting a cordless phone to the classroom (trying to make us believe that it was a mobile phone) to talking and moving around in a way which would have given even Karan Johar a run for his money, he was always par excellence.

These are some of the names that I can remember. Apart from these, there was that Chemistry teacher who used to come to the class with all the things totally mugged up and just vomit out everything on the board before he forgot anything. That old man in the chemistry lab who was so interested in showing how a full bottle of concentrated Sulphuric Acid or Nitric Acid could have no effect on his hand. And last but not the least, Mr. Karmakar. With that wall clock on his wrist, his baby steps and his acidulous remarks, he was certainly not the most loved person on the campus.

So this was how things began. In the three ensuing years, there were many more memorable performances. Mr Canti, K.M. Pandey, KC, A.K. Paul, RCB, Mr.LC Saikia, Mr Partha Sarathi, a cameo by Mr.Lintu Roy, Mr.Agnimitra Biswas, and many many more. Will write about all that later. This blog will get stretched beyond imagination if I try to cram in everything in this one.

As I began this with a Xonii quote, its very appropriate that I end it up with another. This is what he had to say about that initial period of our lives in REC Silchar – “We are all under-training dogs now. We can make mistakes now. But soon we will be thrown into the other hostels and then if we make mistakes, we are finished”

Pursuit of happiness.........

First, let me say that this is not a review of the film that goes by the same title. Its just my take on what happiness is or more precisely, what it isn’t.

At the onset, its very important to define the term happiness. Just by implying that it is important doesn’t mean its easy. Thousand of years of wisdom and soul searching has not been able to yield a clear cut definition as to what happiness really is. So who am I to say what it is. But still, let me try to put it in the simplest form I perceive it as – “Happiness is the most salient entity everyone in this world is after”. Of course, then the second most important thing people are after has to be money. Actually, this relationship between happiness and money is both very intriguing and a highly debated issue. One thing that always comes to my mind whenever this question of happiness vs. money arises is the MasterCard ad: There are some things in life money cant buy......Of course, I think that they should modify the ad to There are some things in life money may not buy......because there is nothing today in this world that money cant actually buy. Love, happiness, pain, friendship – its all in the market today.

But is money happiness? The most straightforward answer to that question is “NO”. If that was the case, then me and my friends would all have been happy today. Of course, I don’t mean to say that we are drawing a very handsome salary but just that, that today we have a lot more warmth in our pockets than when we were in college. In college, we used to spend the whole month within 1.5 to 3 thousand rupees. But we were happy. And that I can say without any ifs and buts. And I am sure that if the time machine ever gets invented, we would all give the last penny we have in our bank accounts for a chance to hop into that and go back to those wonderful years. Its when you don’t get those things that u look towards money to give u happiness. What I mean is that if me and my friends were together now, maybe I wouldn’t look for all the material things to make me happy. But the fact that they are not with me (and the more painful fact that there is no chance of that happening in the near future………and maybe in the distant too) makes me think of money as my closest companion in my quest for happiness. Indian Terrain shirts, Reebok shoes, Central, Pantaloons, Westside, Inox and PVR, Digcams, I-pods…..the list in unending. And this list is what has become our definition of happiness today. Today everything that we think can give us happiness is contained within the 8 cm by 5 cm card that we keep in our wallets – the debit cum ATM card (another thing that we did not have in college). So what we see is the wonderful way in which money and happiness have merged into one single entity and the worst part is that there is nothing we can do about it. We do try to keep in touch with one another over the phone (that again involves a lot of money as none of my friends are board members of Airtel, Hutch or Idea), but its hardly adequate. We have been planning to meet but even after almost two years, we haven’t had the chance to do so. Non availability of leaves, non availability of tickets, inability of some people to be there are some of the reasons that we cite. But at the end of the day, I really don’t know what the real reason is. Previously, if the holidays were for 7 days, then it certainly meant that we won't be back in college before a fortnight of absence. And now, even getting an hour or respite has become a luxury.
We had debated at length about this tussle between money and happiness in our college days. Most of my friends were of the opinion that a life where there was decent amount of money is what happiness is all about. U don’t need a lot to be happy. U can get happiness with a Hero Honda bike, u don’t need an Opel Astra to be happy in life. And I was always objecting to these by telling them that “No, that is not the case. When u find that other people of equal caliber and competence are spending their weekends in the Swiss Alps and u are here rotting in M.G.Road in Bangalore, that’s when ur going to feel it”. But they never agreed. They thought that money was not the source of happiness but other things were. How I wish they were right and I was wrong. But unfortunately, in today’s context, happiness is defined in terms of some specific words and abbreviations that have become such a part and parcel of our lives – CTC, take home, etc etc.
Another important definition of happiness is contained in an entirely different set of abbreviations – CAT, XAT, GRE, GMAT, and if u are somehow able to successfully cross this hurdle then a second set – IIM, XLRI, MDI, MICA, IMT………Of course, a lot of money is also involved in this too. I lost more then 20k last year in all these coaching and all (the end result is that I am still here in Baroda working in the same old company). I gained nothing, lost time and money and I am unhappy with the entire episode. I know I am not alone. Most of my friends are in the same boat. Some are in a worse position than me. One of my colleagues in ABB left the job last year at about this time to prepare for CAT. He got through nothing and at the end was desperate to get into any decent job that he could find. Of course, now he has settled into a comfortable job in his hometown and hopefully he is a bit happy.
Another important aspect of happiness that I have not addressed is the place where we spend the majority of our lives nowadays – the office. Irrespective of what the CTC is, irrespective of the fact that there is a mesmerizing beauty sitting on the desk next to you, irrespective of the fact that our boss approves your leaves without even raising an eyebrow, nobody is happy with his job. Of course, none of the conditions that I have just stated apply to me. I studied in a all boys school (from nursery to class 10), then in college stuck to those school friends only and ignored the girls (the worst decision of my life), then did mechanical engineering (girls don’t take mechanical) and then got a job in a core company and today I work in the only business unit of ABB where there isn’t a singe female. Coming back to the job thing, everyone I talk with seems to be unhappy with the job he or she is into. Some days ago I happened to chat with someone in a Yahoo chat room and when asked about what I was doing, I replied that I was making an invoice which I would then be scanning and then sending the scanned copy through mail and also fax a copy of the same to a customer in Bangladesh. The person asked me one simple question – are u a clerk? I logged out of the chat room then and there. But if we think about what really we are doing then that question in precisely the answer. We are clerks. There is no other definition that fits the work that I am doing. Scanning, printing, faxing, receiving telephone calls, pushing people to dispatch materials, tracking airway bills through online cargo portals…..etc etc. What can u call these? Whenever we are sitting in the lunch, there is so much talk about how we began as engineers and we ended up here. How we have not been given any technical work and it’s a total misutilisation of our technical knowledge and all that blah blah. But the truth is that I never had any technical knowledge. The 4 years spent in the engineering college was just to get the degree. I remember how I and my friends used to shout out at 12 at night from Xonii’s room’s balcony in 3rd hostel – “Ami Eku Najanu” (it means we know nothing). So I guess the job I am doing right now, I am suited to do something like that only. If they had put me into something technical, maybe I would have had to search for some other job where my profile would be somewhat similar to what I am doing now. So, even though there is so much complaining about job satisfaction, a satisfied job profile would have made me a more unsatisfied individual.
I don’t whether I have been able to stick to the topic I had begun writing about. That invariably happens. This is all the effect of the “adda” culture that we are all so used to. When u keep on constantly blabbering for hours without halt, u are bound to deviate into many other things other than the main topic.
About happiness, I think it will be very appropriate to end this with this – “You can be happy if and only if you are happy with yourself. Finding happiness in anything external is of no use when you are not happy and content with yourself”