to \/ | \/ A or not to V I V A

My heart was beating at 256kbps...sweat trickling down my already-tensed face...

External :So, what is your experiment?

Me          : Load test on DC shunt motor sir.

External: Hm mm..So why do you do the experiment?

Me          : Sir, we gotta know how the characteristics of the motor vary under load conditions.

External :That's great, but tell me why are we doing this experiment?

Me          : Err..Sir the characteristics of the motor ought to be determined prior to its  usage..observation of its parameters with regards to load variation will give us an idea as of how to evoke an efficient process of the machine's working.

External :The equipment manufacturer always gives a data sheet, you know that? (yes..i replied)..it will contain all the necessary details regarding the motor, so why                                 should you do it?

Me           : Probably for the verification of the data sheet??

External :You can't expect your equipment manufacturer to give you wrong details!!

Me          :OK sir. Let me exemplify it with an example, sir we use these motors in trains, so its   constant speed ought to be maintained even if innumerable compartments are added keeping in mind 'bout its capacity, so we need to....

External :So u say trains use these motors?

Me          :Yes they do..

External :OK tell me why have you conducted the experiment?

Me          :(pondering.............) Sir, its recommended in the syllabus.

Thus ended my eventful viva session after which i asked him the answer for which he grumbled "how do i explain that??" (fondly rubbing his chin) !!!! Damn it, this is what i was struggling for right from the beginning.

 I always used to appreciate the idea of viva-voce wherein real knowledge could be tested and one cannot escape through rotten mugging. The purpose of viva-voce fails when the so-called external tends to stupefy the pupil with questions that are un-answerable (i mean the sensible way!). Yet another viva session that i despised was that of my data structures lab, god please stick some rotten carrots in some part of his body that you wish. He asked me the logic of my program and i boisterously explained every part of my program that even Dennis Ritchie would have asked me to stop to wonder whether C could do so much. All along i faced the monitor pointing to some lines that were brilliantly colored (red, yellow, green, etc) and after finishing i looked up at him. Poor thing, he was busy examining the strength of the ceiling, pondering if this building had the right approval from the corporation or whatsoever..craning his neck to every nook and corner of the room but...this poor soul. I was fuming like hot sulphuric acid. I think he was stuck by the sudden decrease in the decibel level near his area, that he suddenly shot at me one question which made me go dizzy, "Which city do you come from??", i bit my tongue (it ached, yea this is all real), i said "Chennai, sir". He noted something down in his paper (probably ticked my name in the list of "souls excruciated for the sake of laugh").

Education is always a paradox, it arrogates that it provides wisdom to those who acquire it, yet do not see the sapience in any of these people. Education cannot be blamed as such, it is up to those who do the business with it!!

Will all these happen in every other institutions which i always wanted to be a part of?? I didn't want things to happen the way they happen.

The way i want education to be :-

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence the University George education. - Bernard Shaw

Shaw might have quoted this on an occasion where there were no doltness amongst the teachers and this shall not hold true at this moment wherein the duty of a teacher winds up when he/she successfully run through the recommended syllabi interrupted by a couple of tests that are supposed to examine the skills that the pupils had acquired through the course of study. I always believed that the university provided a  unified collection of thoughtful ideas to transform education into what i called real learning. My belief was shattered, i didn't want education to be the way it is to me.Just as iron rusts from disuse, even so does inaction spoil the intellect. So act as if no one had ever attempted to solve the problem.

My take on this issue shall be this, I'm not like the rest raising my hands for the abolishment of the exams, but i shall surely pop-up if i do not see the point in writing tests that could be cleared off just by doing some last minute patchwork in the process of which engineering course need not be given such a long duration of four years. Engineering could be done in a matter of 80 days during the  study holidays. Sounds great!!! "Around the engineering in 80 days"!!!!! Guess you might not like that, how about a life like this- students in the college hither and tither, tension mounting, the team leaders sweating profusely, coordination at its best, aha it is what IT IS...a tech fest..robots cuddling the humanity, technology riding on the environment, innovation at its best....whoaa...eventful were those days, wouldn't it be nicer if we make our entire course of engineering eventful. Instead of carrying a bunch of observations+records (and God must only know, we might even be given "rough"observations, "fair"observation, record notebooks with checks, record notebooks with stripes, XL records,XXL records and what not!!!), we must take with us a notebook to note the principles of what we learn, how it could be put forth for the betterment of the society and the most important part is to ask questions.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Albert Einstein

Instead of giving written assignments that results in nothing productive but the decrement in the number of trees in the country..huh.. project work ought to be given that fosters the unity amongst groups encouraging team work and brings the creative best out of them. Vociferous appreciation ought ta be done to inch out an aura of happiness out of our hearts and shout to the world "I think, i lead". Good leaders are those who know whom to lead and where to lead. To make a good leader an open mind is needed, and education is the only means to open our minds to eternity.

When thoughts strides through the Alma mater, fond memories of teachers patting you, the fun and frolic of classrooms, boisterous friends, groundbreaking ideas should wade. The best way to acquire them would be to open our minds (as well as other's ;) ) and learn to learn.

I must certainly thank my eccentric viva session or else i would not have got a topic to blog!!

                                               "Ini oru ini oru vidhi seivom

                                           vidhiyinay matrum vidhi seivom"