Engineering Syndrome
My son is an Engineer. My daughter is doing Btech in the famous xxxxx College of engineering. Which parent wouldn’t be so proud saying this. Especially in a state like Kerala, which boasts highest literacy, great number of engineering colleges and a greater tendency to send their kids to xxT’s. Debates have been fought around this case since the boom of Engg colleges, but history seems to be repeating itself. Engineering doesn’t fail to glitter in the eyes of parents more than the victims (would be graduates), which leads us to the matter of whether its better or worse?
Engineer Syndrome : A student currently studying engineering who believes
he/she is better than anyone else simply because he/she studies Engineering
The Title was a quick thought, unaware of its implications. But to my surprise an accidental Google search pops up the word ‘Engineer Syndrome’ with a meaning ‘ A student currently studying engineering who believes he or she is better than everyone else simply because he or she studies engineering.’. So i thought the meaning can be a bit manipulated to target parents by using ‘Engineering Syndrome’.
Before getting deep into the shallow part of the matters, a disclaimer would be essential. The problem will always have two sides, in this case an N number of sides(which comes as subsets of the 2 sides). The perspective from every distinctive sides (most probably the students, the college & the parents) must be considered relative to the problem. And i wouldn’t deny the existence of the minority that this problems isn’t concerned with.
Btech is, of course a reputed degree, especially outside the college, especially among parents. It isn’t justice to blame a parent who send their kids to become an engineer. Stand in the shoes of your parents, or imagine yourself as one in future. Will you send your kid to learn Film-making (although keralites are film lovers, they just don’t like their kids to become one) or 3D Animation ( Doing Cartoons !) ? Think about the situation where someone will ask them, what your kid’s doing ? In this scenario, comes the Btech with a guaranteed job, reputed name, value-for-money budget and plenty of scope of opportunities which surpasses the other courses. The success stories of the Btech graduates works as a catalysts too.
Now from the student’s point of view, there’s an endless list of blames, problems and criticisms against this, mostly from the engg students themselves. The criticism that Btech drains the talents is more rampant, but in reality it shows the opposite. There are countless examples i could point out from my own observations, that Btech has brought up many talents who were not interested in Btech itself. It just seems that Btech can makes you an engineer or makes you better in stuffs other than engineering. It never makes you to sacrifice your talents, but is actually helping you by testing your passion despite the unfavorable conditions. Finally it teaches you to take the next steps cautiously without making further mistakes.
It will be a never ending debate if we try to justify each sides on their own terms. It just happens that way. The main reason behind the birth of this article is not the problems, but the people complaining about not having Good films, Good script writers, intelligent politicians and ministers etc. Guess what, most of the brilliant talented people have gone for learning Engineering. The only solution to this scenario is to think different and act different in future, where you become a Mom or Dad willing to send their kids for the choice suited for them.
[ Written for the College Magazine (i’m surprised to see this got published), during the Ending moments of final year, on a Lonely night ]
