Random Musings about engineering syllabi

Anyone who keeps his senses moderately to himself, and of course uses them, can easily come across more information than he or she may ever desire, such is today's world. But add to this basic assumption of presence and use of senses, a desire to try and digest (or at least store for future assessment) all that one comes across, and there you have a really useful individual!

But this individual is not all that useful as may seem at first glance. After all, of what use is a database, if there were no tools for analysing its data! Such is the case with our currently obtained individual. The word 'digest' here can be easily misunderstood to meaning a gain of knowledge. But no, digestion is merely the act of converting food (or information in our case) into a form potentially usable by us. It is the process of 'assimilation' that truly enables us to absorb the actual nutrients (in this case, knowledge).

Thus, the point I'm trying to make is that it is not enough to digest, one must assimilate!

Alas, it seems as though the greats of several Indian universities are totally missing this very important point.

I'm talking specifically about the typical syllabi for 'Engineering' streams. I am not being selfish here, I just don't have enough experience with other fields to be in a position to blog about them.

These people who I guess are responsible for setting the standard for education, have long forgotten, it seems, why the education is being imparted. The goal of education is not to create a digestor, but an assimilator, or even better, a creator.

However, today's engineering syllabi are merely churning out second-handers (I love how perfect that word is, first used in such a context by Ayn Rand) who can make no creative contribution to this world, but can perfectly consume and digest the luxuries offered to us by the work of creators!

At last, here's my first!

Well, I really don't know what a blog is. I've seen many of my friends' blogs, most of them seem pretty interesting. Interestingly, an equal number are either plain dumb and boring, or seem to lack steam to go on. I guess up until now, I myself would be in the second category. But it seems a pretty interesting thing to do, and so without further ado, I'm raising the sails! Bon voyage to me!

Today, the idea of maintaining some sort of a record for my stray thoughts, findings, broodings, maybe even dreams and fantasies, suddenly struck me as something worthwhile. I'm not too sure why. I think it came in one of my innumerable thought-surfing sessions. And yes, since the day before yesterday, when in the wee hours of the morning, i received the sad news of my maternal grandpa's passing on to that realm beyond life, I have been doing quite a bit of thinking. Not really mournful thoughts, but just a little bit deep.

How that turned into a wish to blog is something i'll probably blog about soon, when I get to understand for myself what blogs really are! By the way, I think this does for a fine start, so I won't put in the fact that my BE Sem VII exams started today in not exactly a great manner. And I sincerely hope that I shall continue blogging, now that the hard part of starting is done! Until next time, then!