Things that Make Me Happy (Updatable)

In no particular order:

• Rain
• Babies
• Wet grass
• Dew drops
• Good food
• Cheese
• Coffee
• Flowers
• Writing/blogging
• Typing
• Cameras
• thxthxthx.com :)
• Shades of purple
• Being so busy with something, you involuntarily forget about lower-order needs
• Long phone conversations
• Smiling
• RAOKs (directed from or to me)
• Good stationery
• Clean desktops—real and virtual

An Open Letter to Whoever Can Change the Scenario Described

Sir/Madam

I have to clarify right at the outset that, no matter what people might say, I love life at Thapar. Everything about the place—the negatives totally included—make life so much fun and satisfying, and I'm probably blessed with the best people around too.

But anyway, frequently I think of how India's fourth best private engineering college fails to live up to its name in some ways. Rather than using engineering in a way that reflects the education being imparted, the campus is just an ordinarily equipped place. Here is a reality-check:

- We're churning out an exponentially rising number of Computer Science engineers every year, yet there is no official system (that is followed as well) to distribute notes online, and offer video-taped lectures. Even the attendance and testing systems have remained the same over the years while technology grows as warp speed.

The idea is to enhance communication among students and teachers (WebKiosk 2.0), an example of which is Mr. Apurva Bakshi's IPR blog: avbakshi.blogspot.com.

- Electronics and Electrical engineers have not been able to design greener technologies to mow lawns, water plants, power the campus... Not only are we yet to bring out a breakthrough in the existing technologies, despite the generous revenues, even already-available technologies are yet to be put to productive use.

- Despite the high desirability of Civil engineering courses, the real thinktanks have been rather uncivil in not having bettered the walkways, which are sure to ruin a good pair of shoes with the oodles of quicksand during the rainy days.

- Most courses are based on the theoretical aspect of things, and the practical applications only come as a footnote. Unless we realize the manifestations of its concepts, how are we expected to find interest in the course? And what real innovation are we bringing learning exactly what the past generations of engineers have been studying?

- The labs are a wonderful way to waste/utilize time trying to prove the proven. The curriculum overall, and the labs in particular, have no flexibility, and that goes directly against the very idea of engineering.

The list has more than can be recounted, but the general idea is to inject more engineering into a campus like ours.

On the shiny side, however, some of the ongoing research is highly awe-inspiring. The potato-tomato hybrid, and the zapping cars of the mechanical engineers of course do us all proud. Let's try swinging the scales in favour of the delicious side of engineering.

Truly

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