Sunday 17 May 2009

The Engineering Experience

My blog has been going through a dry patch recently, and there hasn’t been a single post this calendar year. This is mainly because I have been too lazy to write, and also due to the fact that I couldn’t really think of anything worthwhile to write about.

I am sure I have already mentioned in my previous posts that I did my engineering in Manipal, which was like a 4 year vacation. Now, I am not even going to try to condense my entire experiences into a single post because it will not do justice to all the different events that took place during that time. Let me put it in perspective, I had started writing a daily log for almost 2.5 years during my engineering and the document size is more than 220 pages. So, it is absolutely impossible for me to share my experience as a single blog post. Trust me, I have wanted to and I have tried to do that several times

What I am going to try instead, is talk about some of the habits that I have sort of picked up during my stay there. I feel that it is quite general and that almost every single person who stayed there would be compelled to agree with the list.

1. The 10 Minute Rule – The 10 minute rule basically states that for any event that is taking place, the person who attends (us) has the moral right to reach 10 minutes late. There should be no consequences for a 10 minute delay. What this actually meant was that, a student could rightfully enter a class 10 minutes late and it was absurd for the teacher to complain or express displeasure. Eventually, this rule came to be applied even for examinations and people chose to enter exam halls on their own sweet time. In case, the class ended after the stipulated time, which in itself was a blasphemous act, the 10 minute rule would extend to allow the student to enter the class 10 minutes after this.

2. The 5 Minute Rule - A corollary to the 10 Minute Rule was that, it was expected that the class end five minutes early, and in case of examinations, the student be given five minutes extra. The gist is that the first 10 minutes and the last 5 minutes belong to the students.

3. The 11th Hour Syndrome – The 11th hour syndrome was visible before the sessionals and the end semester exams that we used to have in Manipal. The definition of the 11th hour was different for the two exams and also varied for different people. Everyone had taken procrastination to new heights and doing things at the last minute had become a part of the lifestyle, and was done subconsciously, much like putting a hand in front of your face while sneezing. For Sessionals, the 11th hour would normally be one day before the 1st exam, and for the end semesters it was around 3 or 4 days at max. The 11th hour was normally when one got photocopied notes after having confirmed the syllabus and the sequence of exams.

4. The 11 Hour 30 minutes syndrome – The 11 Hour 30 Minutes Syndrome is an exaggerated version of the 11th Hour Syndrome. As the name suggests, sometimes the last minute is a little too soon, and this results in this particular phenomenon. Developing Procrastination into an art form, this rule was applied mainly to the many assignments that we were required to submit from time to time. For an assignment to be submitted on a given morning, a student would begin copying (from one of the few sacred souls to whom these rules did not apply) the solution after midnight the previous day (which, technically became the same day). The assignment would finally be completed during the class, a few minutes before it was supposed to be handed over. If the assignment was to be submitted after lunch, it would be done during the lunch hour, or the morning classes. Cloning speed of students was phenomenal, and everyone learnt to write pages after pages without having an iota of knowledge about what they had written.

5. The Nocturnal Rites – Most of the students of my college, changed their lifestyle and adopted a nocturnal culture, wherein we were most active after sunset. A normal day went on till after 3 a.m, after which people started considering taking a nap, before getting prepared to sleep in class. Classrooms were like slumber pods, where everyone caught up on their sleep, and the process of falling asleep was catalysed by the dreary monotonic lullaby of the faculty. This also enabled everyone to polish their skill of sleeping without getting caught. It was very normal for someone to start a movie at 2 a.m because it was obviously too early to sleep at that time. In fact, 1 a.m was pretty much a standard meal time, and everyone would either get home delivery, or in case they wished to socialise, go to one of the all night food joints and invariably run into some of their friends.

6. The Rule of One – The rule of one is a fairly simple rules which means that for one semester, a student can only use one pen and one note book. In the unlikely event that you run out of pages, you must stop taking notes, and in case you run out of ink, or lose your pen, you must beg, borrow or steal. Taking notes is to be regarded as an act of futility, only serving as an attempt to remain awake, as all notes would be photocopied from a select few reliable sources at the 11th hour. For some people, the rule of one meant that the notebook had to last one whole year, if not more.

7. The Law of Diminishing Expectations – As the examination dates draw closer, the level of preparation and the resultant grade that a student expects to achieve will continually fall. 2 weeks before the start of the end semester examinations, a student would have a grade in mind, which he could realistically achieve when pigs fly, and he would dream of studying absolutely everything from the book, with written notes and a couple of revisions. A couple of days later, the number of revisions would reduce, then as time progressed, one reading of the book would be considered an achievement, then a reading of borrowed notes, and then during the 11th hour, optimism would prevail, and one would be convinced that if he would study a few selected topics, which he considered important, he would be able to get a respectable score. Finally, in the end, everyone would pray for an act of divine intervention, to help maintain their previous grade.

8. The Elasticity of Time – Time is relative to the observer, Einstein’s observation could be practically experienced by students during lectures. A thumb rule was that the perceived length of a lecture was directly proportional to the monotony of the lecturer and to how mundane the subject was. Students could swear that in the most boring of lectures, a minute would comprise of 75 seconds and that there would be a discernible expansion in the pause between the ticking of a clock. Also, at other times, everyone could be found perpetually complaining about the lack of time.

9. The Optimisation Principle – It is not surprising to know that engineers are responsible for optimising processes and increasing efficiency of tasks. One gets plenty of practice during their 4 yours to make it an ingrained characteristic. Making the minimum required effort to achieve an output was the only way of doing things. Minimum amount of studies, for the minimum number of days, with the minimum number of study materials for any exam was practiced religiously. Maintaining the minimum required attendance, and figuring out how much the bar could be lowered for a particular subject and then pushing the limit. Giving the minimum number of exams for any subject, were all activities that were meticulously planned for and then executed. All names having more than 5 alphabets had to be shortened, and the short form could not contain more than 2 syllables. The name of every subject and teacher would be known, only by abbreviations. The rule of one was also an outcome of the optimisation principle.

I am sure that there were many other experiences and practices that have become second nature to everyone who studied in Manipal, but these are the ones that I can think of right now. Most of these practices have been adopted and refined according to the current needs by me and my friends, to suit our requirements post Engineering.

Some people did not adhere to all these principles, and at this juncture I would like to thank them from the bottom of my heart, for without them, it would probably not be possible for me to have finished my course in the stipulated time.