Temples of Technical Excellence

It would be interesting to know the number of start-ups started by IITians, at least in the last fifteen twenty years. There are news about the start-up funds created to energise the entrepreneurability (entrepreneur plus ability-a new term) and especially technical start-up funds, and it would also be quite interesting to know the number of technical start-up funds out there nurturing the technical start-up world. There was news recently of some technical institutes establishing start-up centres at their campuses, too. This is great news, indeed, and better days ahead for Made in India.    

It would also be interesting to know the number of IITians joining IIMs and other premier management institutes. I recently chanced upon a news item (from a web information portal) that 84% of the students from 2013-15 batch at FMS Delhi were of engineering background. A  “Times of India” news from 2004 mined from the web tells that 73% of the First Year student at the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University (in 2004?) were engineers. So the trend is not new; it has just moved from 70s to 80s perhaps.

It would be interesting to know the percentage of engineers in each batch at the prestigious IIMs in last fifteen-twenty years. If the percentages of engineering graduates (and post graduates included) in top ten-twenty management institutes over the same period is available, nothing like that. If anybody has data, please do share the same. Or else, if anybody is interested, this could be an interesting field of study.         

Then there was news of a high speed train named “Talgo” doing a “test drive” from New Delhi to Mumbai to effectively cut off the commuting time between the Indian political capital to the Indian economic capital. The train named Talgo, it seems outsourced from Spain, and if we are to believe the newsfeed, is tipped to revolutionise train travel in India, is a technical wonder not made in India. Then not long ago, there were news about the Bullet Train from Ahmadabad to Mumbai, and ostentatiously this is going to be a Japanese art of technical excellence at the starting cost of Rs98000 Crore. Made in India rhetoric notwithstanding, these two technical objects of excellence are (or would be) “Technical Process Outsourced (TPO)” in the age of “Knowledge Processes Outsource (KPO)”.

Against this backdrop it would be also worthwhile to find out the number of engineering graduates from top technical institutes joined Indian Railways in last fifteen-twenty years. Far better would be the percentage of engineers from top technical institutes to the total engineers recruited by Railways. It would also be interesting to know the number of engineers (from the elite technical/engineering institutes)  joined, engaged or employed in developing Roads, Flyovers, Bridges, Hydro-Electric  Power ( stations-dams-generators et al), and those drivers of the Nation Building Processes (we can call this ⁿBPO if  this is outsourced).        

This takes me back to nineties book of Anupam Mishra, “Aaj Bhi Khare Hain Talaab” (Loosely translated, this means, “Tanks (water bodies) are still relevant in modern times”).  The book starts with an anecdote where the king tells Kudan, the farmer: “acche-acche kaam karte jaana, talaab banate jaana” (loosely translated as carry on doing good work for the society, go on building water tanks). In the first chapter of the book, “Paal Ke Kinare Rakha Itihaas” -History at the edge of the bank (earthen wall or small dam structure surrounding the water tank/ponds are called “paal”; so in a sense the title of the chapter could be aptly rendered as “History in the Making at the Water Banks” ), Anupam Mishra takes us through the historical perspective of developing water bodies across the country, as a measure against drought, and lists the number of water bodies/tanks in various parts, in some of the parts where drought has been a recurring phenomena. For example in then Madras Presidency about 53000 water bodies/tanks were identified and in Mysore state, till 1980 about 39000 water bodies/tanks were servicing the needs of the people. He goes on to ask the pertinent question in chapter three of the book, “Sansaar Saagar Ke Nayak”-Leaders of the World of Sea (Or the Leaders of the Water Kingdom would be more apt?):

“Who were these unknown creators? Hundreds of, thousands of tanks (water bodies) did not emerge from a void. If there was a community of creators-builders (unit is the word used by him to denote community), there was a larger community of developers-funders. This praxis of creators-developers community together has created thousands of water bodies. But in last 200 years, the literate society has dismissed this community of creators-funders as illiterate-backward (he has used: made them zero) and rendered their creation as OBSOLETE. This new society wasn’t even curious to know the people who created these water bodies. It (the new literate society and its mandarins) created a new SYSTEMS to create-develop such type of work (providing water and other needs of the society), they created new structures, created IITs, created structures of civil engineering, and did not find a need to acknowledge that such body of work was indeed taking place in the society, and it was of any use to it. If they had taken a mere cognizance of the sheer treasure trove, they would have certainly been besieged with questions like: what and where were IITs of that era situated? Who were their Directors-Anchors? What was its budget? How many civil engineers passed out/came out of these institutions?” 

It would be worthwhile to know what the majority of the pass outs from the new “temples of technical education” doing? This assumes significance against the web of critical issues engulfing our time, and asking for technical solutions. The recurrent drought-like situation, flooding-water logging followed by water crisis, and host of man-made and natural disasters along with provisioning and planning for development need technical experts. If we know the percentage (or the volume) of technical expertise lured away by management institutes and commerce, and the percentage of these (from top technical institutes) engaged in various kinds of Nation building that includes Railways, Roads, Water Reservoirs, Power Generations, Developing Systems etc, and if the numbers in the Nation Building are small but substantial, we could heave a sigh of relief-that all is not lost to e-commerce.

Or otherwise, we’ll have to fall back on the peoples technologies, and sure, it works..............     

Godfather's No

How to say no that sounds like yes

"I am on the cusp of immortality". No I am not. I am, in fact on the cusp of confusion, and if confusion can lead to immortality, well, be it!

One of my friends told me that you sounded “soo clear” that something is great going to happen to you. He is not an astrologer, but people who reach some heights through sheer persistence turn to be close to one. Like a wise seer who has seen it all and given it up all! Or a preacher who has not had time to read George Bernard Shaw on teaching!

The height gives a clear position to look below at people and they seem to you lost or stranded or lost the steam. You feel exalted in the rarefied company, and as the most rarefied of the lot still at a handful of distance perched at the top tries to boost you energy, you in turn pick a friend or two who are willing to listen out of curiosity which is confused by the preacher as their “well earned wisdom sparks”. I’ve been picked occasionally, and I enjoy these occasional sparks of wisdom.

Back to the cusp of confusion or simply put:  “not knowing what to do” but at the same time “knowing well what not to do”. So, in this puzzled dizziness, I did what I thought was best: make a long list of “things I do not wish to do-despite doing it skilfully for past few years”. 

This was a good exercise, and out went a lot of things which my friends from the past ten-twenty years would have liked me to do it for the “humanity’s sake”. I tuned off their chorus of anticipated cries, and went on to try to execute the “plan of not doing these things now”.

It wasn’t fun, and there were a number of approaches in a subtle way, and I had to say no to them. One thing which I haven’t learned is “how to say no” in an accomplished way. When I tried once or twice to be part of the “select management crowd”, Ila told me, “it is not your forte, Chandrakant, to be politically correct; be yourself!”

A lot of maneuvering to say no to people who knew I could do it, and at the end of it I was fatigued. Still there are still a few approaches, and I try different ways to still stick to the “not to do list”.

That is not easy. One needs an earning option, a thread to hold to. So quickly I went to the drawing board, and did an exercise (which my friend said, Oho, you did a matrix! great!) where in I tried a list of things I am good at combined with my interest to do that, and of which I have a reasonable set of skills at present to pursue the earning option. At the end of the exercise I was amazed to find out that I have had accumulated quite a good amount of skills without any interest in those! Before going on further, I mused as to what made me to acquire those skills, and the only reason I could fathom was the fear of not able to earn a living without these in the sector I was! Friends could, well, think otherwise, and please drop a line or two telling me about your opinions, if you feel I am worthy for it.

At the end of the exercise I had only one element left, and I felt happy that I need not worry about a multitude of options out there. Such a nice feeling! So I went on to identify a few organisations that could take me. I zeroed down on a few, and started sounding them. How do I do it? This I am not good at, I must confess, and though I had been doing “marketing communication” in my earlier jobs, I realised it was out of sheer necessity than the joy of doing the thing.

At last I got a response, and I was elated. After a flurry of mails, I received the parting mail that said something like this: I was not only good at “the thing”, I would be an asset to the organisation with my experience. But as of now, we have some fund constraints, and in next few months we could be tiding over the situation, and in those conditions we would certainly like you to be with us.That sounded great!

This took me back to Mario Puzo’s Godfather. Somewhere, I don’t remember exactly where after so many years, Don Vito Corleone tells his son, Michael, “when you say no, it should sound like yes”. 

Was it a no that sounded as yes?