It was rightly quoted by James Dyson “Manufacturing is more
than just putting parts together. It’s coming up with ideas, testing principles
and perfecting the engineering, as well as the final assembly.”
This thought was put to action as the first year of my
engineering dawned on me, signalling the commencement of a new phase. Many of
us walked through the campus to their respective sectors, some holding their
junior college friends, and the rest hoping to make new. It was indeed a fresh
beginning that involved getting hands dirty in grease, dismantling equipment,
meeting failures every now and then and ultimately surviving the hurdles that
engineering served. It never allowed your platter to be empty as it was always filled
with assignments strengthening one’s skill of finishing a week’s work in a
night. Seldom had we escaped the turmoil that the college’s Fresher’s party came
where people outshone with their talents and grooved to the beats of music like
a drunk maniac.
In a broader sense, I got better at mental math, spontaneity
was reflected in reaction when put on the spot, and more importantly, I learnt
to stay calm in hectic situations and improving my multitasking abilities.
Engineering is not confined solely to shaping a student’s
life but it also aids in moulding their personality. The proverb “No pain no
gain” holds true in many walks of life, probably conveying that a student
cannot succeed until he studies carefully a month prior to the examination. But
an engineering aspirant cannot triumph until he knows “what to skip”
and “what to learn by rote twice or thrice.” Above all, the semester
examinations are definitely not a cakewalk, as they fetch you a decimal pointer
that forms a pool of sweat whilst sitting in a campus interview.
This course isn’t about building castles in air. It’s about
learning the inventions of bald men who filled pages with their work. The
debacles that students undergo while striving to clear every semester is too
nerve wrecking. After all, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea to begin the day by
grabbing the local train’s pole and then ending it with a slumber walk on the
platform rummaging through a tired bunch of souls. And you’d think weekends are
when one can escape this commotion. But there are those overwhelming workshops
offering intellect at the cost of my social life. Often I’m plunged into
engineering so deep that a minute off and my cell pops up with texts like,
“Hey, you’re dead?”, “Where the hell have you been?” to
which my sanity is like, “Oh well I planned on doing something practical
and then engineering happened!”
As a child, we dreamt about emerging successful in ambitions
that aroused our interest, but as we grew in age, interests modified themselves
into responsibility with a less enthralled heart. The brevity of engineering
lies in building concrete grounds of reality, envisioning success beyond the
tiny glimpses of dejection that it bestows ceaselessly.
Thomas Alva Edison once said “Anything that won’t sell,
I don’t want to invent.” Yet, all his life he was a better inventor than a
salesman. With these words inscribed on every aspirant’s mind, engineering is
no more a world shrouded with thick fog, but a reality where one can fathom the
thought of touching the zenith of explorations in technology.