Yeah, that's what B.Tech is all about. I learnt it the hard way. If you have marks, then probably you would've documented whatever you'd done, or more correctly, you've claimed to have done. That's it. Academic projects, usually 2 in number are seen as the litmus test for the level of practical knowledge acquired during the 4 years of engineering life. But to my dismay, it's more of a show of documentation than the show of electronic prowess. If there's something solid to be documented like hell, then in most cases, it'll be the product of some professional team. Kerala has got some very famous (or infamous?) groups working solely for "helping" engineering students complete their projects. Nice business if you know a thing or two better than the so-called budding engineers. You get easy money, that too putting to good use the knowledge you acquired painstakingly. To be frank, I had plans to start something of this sort, capitalizing on the lazy and easy-go-lucky type of guys. People who seldom like what they're doing, and do everything to land up in that alluring 3-letter word: job. People who claim to "enjoy" college life, just like enjoying a picnic, or may be a movie. Zero effort, maximum entertainment.
I had aimed sky-high. Hi-Tech. That is what I wanted my engineering life to be. But alas, my dreams and aspirations never took off. I nose dived into the depths of grief and frustration. A minor project got washed away in the super-managerial skills of the team. Each one teach one. But the one here meant a management lesson- how to play a better manager. The end was a black box that too king-size, which can be called a coffin, rather than a casing. And guess what's inside? Two massive transformers, and some untidily stuffed wires and 2 (or 3?) boards. Oh yeah, it does have human-interface gadgets - 4 unconnected microswitches, and a connected AC switch. Great. But the documentation was foolproof. Safe and sound. I got more than what I deserved for making someone make that black box for us. Something is better than nothing.. Proverbs and analogies are aplenty, enough to stuff my otherwise silent mouth.
Another 12 months and a more serious stuff to lay our hands on. Right from the start documentation was picture-perfect. I wondered if engineers are reared to be document-makers! The way things turn out, as it had before, nothing unusual. Just like saying intel inside-idiot outside, here it is bullshit inside-papers outside. The moment someone talks about getting the documentation ready, the entire focus shifts from the actual project to the subsidiary documentation. There is no need to do anything over here. What matters is documentation. There were some major changes in the hardware part and some unexpected delays in the arrival of parts. But that was not quite a reason for dropping the entire project that too a part of a grand mega project at a very reputed and premier R&D center. Dropping the stuff is not done officially. It means documenting whatever is done and whatever is supposed to be done, with the latter part left untouched, because it takes great pain to accomplish. Yes, the doing part. It takes more than words and more than hot debates to shape up the actual physical substance. I'd always yearned to be part of something big. Not just being part of the big thing, but being able to contribute, more than documents.
Hey, why am I writing all this? This is again documentation... Documentation of my feelings. Yeah, documentation, documentation and more documentation... That's what B.Tech is all about
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