When adoration becomes fanaticism….......

When adoration becomes fanaticism….......

                          There is nothing special in loving someone whom we know personally. This is in fact a common phenomenon in life and almost all the living creatures experience this kind of love. Loving an unknown person is indeed something special. But this specialty ceases to exist when we come to know that the unknown person is a well known celebrity. This is due to the fact that there are a large number of people who love a select number of achievers, actors, leaders and without doubt film stars. Though there are people of this kind in all parts of the world we Indians stand out in this aspect. It may look like a bit of exaggeration but we worship our co citizens as demigods only on a condition that they should excel in their own field. This kind of adoration is quite common in India and everyone knows that this is something more than a passion but unfortunately it can never become a profession.

                           There are people who live for their own sake. There are number of instances in real life where people live and work for the sake of their loved ones. There are innumerable instances in our nation where there are a lot of young people who are so passionate about their on screen idols that they hardly think before they do something crazy to show their love towards that person. There is no harm in loving a person for his work and in fact it helps people in gaining confidence and also improves their self belief. But this is the only positive against a number of negative effects of being a follower.

Ayn Rand a great writer of 20^th century, also the founder of a philosophy called Objectivism quoted that “Selfishness is the best virtue for mankind.” Though this statement may look absurd and also out of context but a thorough understanding helps in discovering the statement. According to her selfishness in loving one’s own work, in completing his duty is the best virtue and if every person loves to perform his own duty there will never be any difficulty arising and if at all there is one it will be solved in no time. This is also an ideal ideology and definitely it is not possible to implement but even if a few start loving their own self than being selfishly unselfish there can be a lot of development in our present state of affairs.

              The adoration of people is common and it has become a part of our life but it becomes a problem only when this hero worship crosses the limit to become fanaticism and then as the meaning of the word suggests it becomes uncontrollable and there arises the problem. In a more straight forward way there is absolutely no use in worshipping a film star and fighting to save his reputation where even he himself does not like to have such. In saving the unwanted reputation of his idol the person definitely becomes notorious and along with these abstract problems there will be more practical issues of facing the police at times. This kind of fanaticism is definitely detrimental for the overall development of the youth.

               Then what can be done? Following the on screen actors, politicians and others has been a long held hobby in our nation and it has been unfortunately hereditary. Now the youth are better educated, more matured and definitely more logical compared to those of previous generation. So should we follow the age old tradition of following some one? Following someone can be done even by a computer. In fact following and performing a repetitive task is done in a better way by a computer or a machine when compared to a human being. So in this world of  ever increasing sophistication and modernization it is only creativity that makes us stand out and it is no doubt that creativity becomes the basic amenity for a person to lead his life in the near future. So let we stop following and start creating and we shall become the ones being followed…if a nation has all its youth as leaders then the nation itself becomes the leader……..

Engineering in India: A concoction that needs concern.

                         Every year there are nearly 60 million Indians passing out as graduates and 2million engineers are among them. India is also one of the youngest countries in the world at present. With the education system designed to emphasize the importance of mathematics, science and technology, we are producing the man power required to drive the world forward. There a good number of Indians in almost all the reputed corporate giants and definitely it is something to cheer about and draw inspiration from. Individually working we Indians are comparable to the best in any business.

                           With the increase in the number of seats offered and the augmented job opportunities in software and core industries the number of students preferring the field of engineering has gone up steadily. There are nearly 3700 engineering colleges in the country offering admission in various streams of engineering. Among them we have the internationally reputed IITs, NITs, Deemed Universities and the engineering colleges affiliated to government universities. Though the quality of the education provided differs in various institutes the quantity and the content does not differ much. The business minded people have made innovations even in the field of engineering offering new course which are the hybrids of the existing streams.

                             Indian Institutes of Technology are considered as the best places for pursuing engineering and they are internationally acknowledged as premier institutes for technical education. This is a known fact and hence the competition is also very high for attaining a seat in these prestigious institutes. It is almost a certain dream for any +2 student in India good in mathematics to be in an IIT. The kind of infrastructure available and the quality of the students are the important attributes that make them the esteemed universities they are. Unlike in schooling the role played by the faculty decreases in higher studies and it is the duty of the students to use the lecturers and gain knowledge from them. Then coming to the other institutes that offer engineering education there are many good aspects available in educating the students along with some discrepancies and disorders.

                            Every student starts his B.tech or engineering after rigorous hard work in the +2 for securing admission in an institution of high quality. They come to the college with a lot of hopes and also with the wings of freedom. Then the system of our engineering slowly starts taking its toll. The basics of all streams will be taught in the first year without any emphasis on the elected stream. But the saddest part is that there will be same number of credits accredited to basic civil engineering and electronic circuits for an electronics student. Many students choose the groups on popular public opinion than based on their interest. This problem arises due to the fact that many students are not well informed about the different groups and so they end up choosing wrong subjects. This is one of the biggest problems faced by the students and there are not many solutions available for this. Then coming to the life style and the work done in an engineering college, one can confidently say that for a residential engineering student there will be a lot free time and many of our students do not know the different ways to use the time well and hence they learn wasting or killing the time that is one of the worst things that can happen to a student in that particular age. Another important problem that has an enormous impact on students is the rapidly growing enforcement of western ideas which hinder the general inherited Indian growth thus making our future engineers, many of them the ardent followers of the pop and Facebook culture.                            

                          Then coming to the curriculum there are some electives and some compulsory subjects for every stream and unfortunately the electives are not electives after all in many colleges. They are electives that are compulsory making the name elective meaningless. Then the staff will most probably be either of highest standards or below par making the subjects tougher than they actually are. The assignments those lack innovation and creation make the students virtual Xerox machines where a single interested book worm does the work and others just reproduce it and thus save a lot of time which can be spent in watching some meaningless movie or work on their passion which is by no means their own subject of engineering. Then there are technical and cultural fests that are intended to bring the creativity and problem solving capabilities of the students to light and to some extent they serve the purpose but there are many instances of mismanagement of these fests by students themselves setting up a bad precedent for the future nation builders. Then finally during the final stages of the course the project work will be imposed on all the students and the final outcome is there are a good number of companies selling the final year projects and the business has become one of the best in recent times.

                            This work is not intended to criticize a single institution or a group of institutions but the problem lies in the system itself. The engineering field which is the most sought after should be made more flexible helping the students to choose their field of interest and before that the students should be well informed about the course they are going to pursue. The HR ministry should definitely look into the present engineering system which according to many corporate companies is producing only 10% of employable candidates. With proper planning and implementation and without taking any radical steps a lot of improvement can be seen in the near future….