Monday, March 31, 2008

Indian Institutes of Technology and Engineers

This comment is a response to an article which I read here:
http://helloji.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/iit-insufferable-indian-tribe/

(quote) engineering by definition is mediocre science at best. Try to come up with a name of a great engineer and you will see how far short it falls from a great mind (end quote)

Whoa! Hold your horses, my dear friend. I am not against you taking a swipe at my "tribe". In fact, the very fact that someone is taking out time to write about us is proof enough that we possess qualities which are worth writing about! :)

Till such a time as you are speaking about IITians [IITans, whichever way you spell it, it harldy matters] and making generalizations left, right and centre under the pretext of humour [correct, UK english spelling] you are treading a well trodden path. But the moment you make a demeaning statement about engineering, you are showing the hollowness of your thinking and the limited capability of your brain to process information fed to it.

Consider this: the very PC/laptop that you are using to rant about IITians was created by an Engineer. The Internet, which you are using to spread the ramblings of your "jaded" mind [nice name, very fitting] is likewise. Consider all the good things in life: a house to live in, quicker travelling, availability of medicines, ability to communicate over large distances, et al., and you will realize that there is an engineer responsible for it and proud of it. What you don't realize, and probably your own "inflated" ego prevents you from doing so, is that engineers contribute to society as much as any chartered accountant, medical professional, airline pilot, sea diver, army man, etc. does.

You might have apologized for this statement of yours. I see that some people have already made references to this. It's alright even if you don't apologize though. We, as engineers, are content with the satisfaction we derive from the utility of our creations. After all, it takes a lot of creativity and effort [which this post could have used] to convert an idea into a practically usable item.

I see that your post is quite popular, and you might take a moment to reflect that many posts are by IITians. This might suggest that we have a lot of time on our hands! :)
But then, that also means either that we can find time to write/comment on things that matter to us or we are so financially well off that we don't have to slog like mere mortals do!

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