Sunday, January 31, 2010

Interests

When i entered NITH,Computer Science and Electronics were the hottest branches,top rankers used to opt for CSE and ECE as their first option.
The choice was obvious as it guaranteed a cool IT job after college.

Recently i was talking to one of my juniors who is still in college,
he told me that Electrical and Mechanical have taken that cult status from CSE and ECE.
Now if given a chance to change the branch,students no longer opt for CSE or ECE,they go for ELE or MED.

What happened in fours years?
Why are all the students losing interest in computer sciences,how come the interest has generated in Mechanical?
Or was it really the interest or something pseudo?

I was mulling over this thought and somehow i stumbled over a video on you tube.
It gave me some real food for thought.

I think it's not the student's interest which determines what he studies.
It's the industry which determines what the student takes up as a subject.
Whatever industry requires our interests are modified accordingly.

It's the...
Industry which determines the Interests.

However there is a nation from which all of us can learn so much.
In that nation...
Two guys were interested in organizing the information of the world,they created a search industry which shook the world.
One guy was real interested in computers ,he created the personal computers industry worth billions.
I mean simply put,

It's the...
Interest which determines the Industry.

If you see the words in the two sentences ,they are exactly same.
How i wish i could swap the first and last word of our version of the sentence....

10 comments:

lony said...

Bang on.
Perfecto.
If only, everyone can follow - students, teachers, parents- all alike.

saurap said...

One thought...

As u wrote, 'Its the industry which determines the interests (plural), but its the interest (singular) which determines the industry...'

U probably wrote it unintentionally, but still...

Its the one interest backed by strong will n hard work which determines the industry n then this industry determines the thousands of pseudo interests...

Gaurav Vashist said...

@saurup

Are yar sahi pakda tune....this was totally unintentional but its a nice observation...aisa hi hota hai

Unknown said...

Awesome,I too observed this and wanted to write something on it ,couldnt articulate. You have given a new direction to the changing trends in the college.

Shamail said...

I don't completely agree with you on this.
See, industry determine the interests... NOT SO.
We are developing nation, drop all the other countries in which one man created an industry worth billions and look into the present scenario. When I join my college, the same was the case. CS and ECE were at boon. But now its not mechanical and Electrical, its Civil which has overridden all of them. Here I am presenting an example....
REASON: Economic slowdown and CW2010.
And who created "interest" called as CW2010? No one. Can you name anyone because of who's interest Civil branch, which otherwise was treated as backward, and B.Arch got a status of celebrity? (Obviously don't say its the government)
And I can bet the situation would have been the same if there was no CW and still an economic recession.

#2. But I can name someone, or many, or even so many, who goes by interests and not by trend. Who does not create trends but followed themselves. There are people who are still joining there favorite branch and I've seen a plenty of them who drops an year or sacrifice better college for there choice of branch.
One such example is me. Who had a passion of going on with CS. Though at that time my father wanted me to pursuit ECE, but that was called as "dhun" which made me sacrifice AIEEE and DCE.
But later after joining, I found that I was not the only one. The very first day I met 3 people who had either an year drop or even a drop of couple of years, who joined CS just to go along with their passion and not where Industry was going.

So the your first statement does not hold, however, I do agree that both the statements are tightly bonded, but I consider, its you who decide your interests and not the industry... Just to add one more example, there was a senior of mine, a Bangladeshi, very bad at studies, but was there in CS, music was his passion. And can you guess where he is today?
He left the college in his 3rd yr and today he is a part of very famous band in UK. (I forget the name)
Here is how people drive themselves and not industry.
So, the moral of this is, realize yourself, don't follow the sheep's path and be yourself. Country will progress a lot more and we will no more be slaves to the INDUSTRY DRIVING forces, mainly USA.
"An educated farmer who can increase a crop production by 40% is what India wants rather than a bunch of 100 engineers or 500MBA's who are working for some MNC."

:-)

Prashant said...

hi sir!!
ur intellect inspires me...

Amol said...

very truly said by Shamail: its individuals interests which drive his future.

When CSE or ECE was ruling , people were going with their interests and passions. If I am not wrong, not even a single boy from Mechanical sat for software placements during our placement times i.e. 2006 (software boom period).

Also, giving a testimonial to my statement there were people who got a chance to change their branch to CSE or ECE but they opted out of it.And the year was 2004...very few would have taken this decision in those days. We have an example of Jamta, Bansi, Ravinder with us who went with their interests and today all of them have made a mark in their industry.

Vishal said...

Well... Its an interesting thing to discuss and anyone can have a different perception. So, I wud also like to pour some drops into it. I think the so called "interest" is not something which comes to you in a second. Until you are exposed to something u cant make a random guess that is it part of your interest or not. See, at the time of counselling there were ppl like me who didn't even see the monitor before. But later when I was exposed to it along wid keyboard and CPU, things started looking interesting to me. I mean without sitting on the driver seat you cant say whether driving drives u crazy or not :). I think its not about ECE or CSE its about the exposure you have about something, though we cud have given a pause for a moment if someone had gone for civil and not ece, cse or mechanical where there was no guarantee of job (This one dedicated to to all my civil frnds :) ). There are another good things to discuss about this hot topic but they are not the part of debate tonight. But, I wud love to leave this text for all of you from wikipedia page of Larry page ( a page for page :) )

During an interview, Page said that "their house was usually a mess, with computers and Popular Science magazines all over the place." His attraction to computers started when he was six years old when he got to "play with the stuff lying around."

Anonymous said...

If you're perseverant enough to pursue your interest irrespective of the demands of the present industry, and have a vision to replicate that interest in the form of acceptance or demand, in future, rest assured, your interest is going to create an industry as well.

You've already cited examples.

And yes, beautiful articulation of a rare observation.

Gaurav Vashist said...

@ All- Hmmm i see some real strong views on the topic.....
I think i need to clarify a few things.....
1)It's not a generalized assumption.i.e it doesn't apply for all but it applies for most of us.
2)It's not about CSE,ECE,MED orELE ,it's any ABC,XYZ subject that one studies.

@Rookie
Agree boi...It is a systemic shift and that too at a huge level.

@Praveen
Good that you feel this thing...
This thing is disastrous for a nation...

Please Please Please stick to your interests or if you are stuck in pseudos, at the very least please figure out what your interests are?Damn the pseudos,figure out who you are ? what your interests are?

I am telling you this coz,you are still in college and college is a relatively easier place to follow your dreams and interests.

@Prashant
In all humility....Thanks a lot bro... :)

@ Shamail - What i think is that each of the branch is beautiful and required in its own way,pehli baat to hierarchy type cheej honi hi nahi chaiye.Each engineer is required equally to have a uniform growth.Civil studies should remain as beautiful with/without CW2010.B.Arch is a celebrity even without CW2010. Here the industry is CW2010,it is generating interest in civil and b.arch.It determines that people should study civil coz they'll get a good job.
When CW2010 is over ,will civil cease to exist.....will the beauty of civil engineering cease to exist?

CW2010 goes and i bet many people will revert back to other ventures which pay you well.

I agree with you when you say that if CW2010 wouldn't have been there , situation would have been same,because for most of us ,our interests are determined by who provides us a better job.Agar civil nahi de raha hota ,aur PSUs recruit nahi kar rahi hoti..things would have been same,as again we would have opted for the safest option.

You said you disagree with me but i think you are saying the same things as i am.

Yar i would love if your Bangaladeshi senior does well ....thats what i am saying regardless of the music industry providing jobs,regardless of the risk involved he has chosen to stick with his interest.That's what i also wished for ......:)


@Garaiin
Are garaiin galat train pakad rahe ho aap :P (aamir style mein)
Its not at all about any specific branch and its not generalised at all.

We have people such as Jamta ,bansi Ravinder and you who have done what they wished to do.and that's why you are where you are.
I am just saying that for most of us it's an option as to who will provide a good job rather than where do i feel the max fulfillment.
I suppose Maslow hierarchy mein we are quite below. :)


@Vishal/Abhishek
Agree to almost everything that you have said.Interest is nothing but a good knowledge of what you are doing.Larry had this advantage from childhood and that takes him ahead of 99.99% of people worldwide.

Once you are on the Drivers seat and you are enjoying driving,even if someone comes and tells you that road is bumpy ahead and you can't be a good driver for the upcoming roads.I think you need to stick it out.If you njoy driving,dnt change it because environment around is not ready for that type of interest .If you are good at driving ,have the confidence to build a industry which will lay out the desired roads.