Call me a So-called Engineer!!

Well , it’s 3 in the night .Now that may seem pretty too-late-to-be-awake to you but seems like everyone in the hostel is wide awake & having a great time. Some rooms are thundering with voices booming outta their 5000 watt speakers(seems like these guys want to blow off this hostel !) ,a few are out on their bikes while some of us are busy misusing the Internet .After all, today our mid-sem exams got over.
As I pass-out from this college,time & again , I ask myself “ Can I really call myself an engineer ?” What an engineer have I become? What have I learnt during these 4 yrs? A little personal background will let u know what does being an engineer means to me . I belong to a family where every other person is in the armed forces..My dad & my own Chacha being in the Para Commandos(Special Forces) .Others are in Artillery regmts ,Garwhal Rifles, NSG, BSF,CRPF, ITBF & God know which all other forces . I don’t know why I wanted to do engineering but as I reached 7 or 8 th std-when one starts knowing about careers options- one thing I was damn sure about was that if I’ll do something that “something” has to be this thing i.e. Engg & that too from a good college .Thanx to Discovery channel, I started over-estimating my future capabilities as an engineer. All those robo wars, microchips,space shuttles used to leave me absolutely fascinated . Fortunately (& unfortunately too!!) I landed up doing engineering .Now, whenever I go home , my dad & my relatives who just have a vague idea about engg. ask me one question - the answer to which I still haven’t figured out in all these four years :”Ok! beta Tell me you are an Electronics engineer, so what can you design, what all things can you make” & I reply with the same I-still-don’t-know expressions on my face “Well, I can design….”..& there I’m ,never able to complete my sentence .Sounds funny? Yea ,it is.After that, from somehow I make up an answer & say “ Actually we learn theory in the college & apply it in the industry.” Whereas the truth is whatever we are learning will go down the drain if we join the software industry-which almost all of us are gonna do. Well , what real knowledge have we gained studying in a premier engg college of India ?
In this sem, I’ve subjects with names which may leave u in awe like Artificial Intelligence, MIS(Mgmt Information Systems) etc. but how much did I study for these exams ?. On an avg just a total of 5-6 hrs for each of the subjects. No , not 5 hrs/day but only 5 hrs before the exam day.Now as my 4 yrs in this college come to an end,I’m still wondering if I can actually make something. Robots & chips have become things I’ve become quite allergic with & the truth is that I don’t know even the basics. of Robotics .Well, all this is coming out from the mouth of a guy who ‘s soon gonna be awarded a prestigious B.Tech(Hons.) degree from one of the top ranking engg. colleges-National Institute of Technology,Jamshedpur ( I wrote the full form to remind myself that I’m studying in a top-ranking engg. college,alas,I’d long forgotton this!!) .We all have made studies a big joke here .Haven't we?
But should I blame myself who could have learnt something but didn’t even try doing that ? Most of we poor souls fall under this category .Don’t we ?
Or the “system” which drifted away the interest of a onetime book-worm(now dat’s embarrassing confession!! )from studies to things which don’t have even remote connection with studies ?
I don’t know whether this college made me a good engineer or not but on the bang of a fist I can say that it has fully prepared me to face any situation in life & now we can live in any type of condition anywhere on the earth. I guess ppl passing out from here wouldn’t have any difficulty coping up with life even in an African country( no pun intended.haha)

Cheers!!