Yearn to Learn Rishi Agarwal, March 6, 2007 While chatting with a friend about his brother’s future ( who has just given his 12th exams and needs to decide his future course of action ) , I got a chance to reflect back on my past. I will describe in brief my path till now… I did 12th ( HSC ) from the ‘Fergi’ college of Pune in 2002 . Then did Computer Engineering from Pune University ( from not so well known but decent college – MESCOE aka Wadia Engg College ) and got my BE degree in 2006. Till 11th grade, I had a dream of becoming an architect. Due to some consultancy and research, I dropped that idea. And, as the only thing that every guy in FC wanted to pursue, I chose the path of Engineering. I still didn’t have a clue as to which branch I am apt for, but had a bit of interest in Computers and Automobiles. After 12th grade results, I got into Computer Engineering and that too in the college which I had dreamt of ( yeah, right ! ) . The only good thing about the college was it was close to my place and ofcourse, the people I met there. My Engineering life was pretty good, I fared above my expectations , got decent marks and secured a job in a decent company ( thanks to the recent spurt in IT industry ) Well, back to present…. Are you with me now ? So, while chatting with my friend, I told him that I am happy I did Engg, rather than Architecture. He responded by saying that it doesn’t even matter. But I feel it did matter. It did matter that I chose Engg, it did matter that I chose Computer branch, and to top it all, it did matter that I got into Wadia college. Let me explain. Everyone gets a job. Everyone accomplishes his goal, his dream, sooner or later. If I wasn’t in Wadia, but some other remote college in some remote district, then maybe I would have got a job after doing MBA. Maybe if I was in a better college than Wadia, then I might be writing this blog sitting at a better company than I am in now. Same would have been the case if I had taken a different engg. stream , or a different career path altogether. What I liked about my engg. life is the things I learnt, apart from the technical curriculum. I learnt a lot from my friends in that college.Many of us friends shared the same vision. Many of us had similar interests. All these people did contribute to my thought process.My interaction with them did evolve my thinking, and I guess that if I had been in a different college, my thoughts, views, ideas would have been different. Which , in the end, might have led me to somewhere else in my life.I learnt the good habits of people, which mistakes can one avoid, whom to trust , whom to distrust and so on…. Well, education is all about this. Education is not a mean to earn money.You get a chance to interact with thousands of new people when you study further . Take that opportunity. Do whatever you want, whatever field you choose, but keep learning – as in learning stuff outside the curriculum. I am not saying that you should not fix up on some particular branch or career. Its good that you know what you want. But its always better if you keep an eye for things and keep learning, keep evolving your thought process, at the same time, fixing your mind on your goal. In the end, it all matters on your daily decisions. Small decisions or major ones, your life’s course depends on your choice. And those choices ultimately depends on what you have learned, what you feel is right, what you have experienced. It depends how flexible your mind is, how flexibleyou are to opt for new thoughts, how you adapt to different situations. Actually, this learning process doesnt end at our graduation or post-grad. We are students all our life, and so should our mind be. Related education philosophy
Hmm …What your friend might actually mean by “it does not matter” is “It does not matter to him what you did” Umm .. then again, it might – and it was just a hint (which you probably didn’t get) to stop boring him to death narrating your past đ Anyways, everything matters in life actually, coz I believe that every little action you perform now shapes the future you create for yourself. Like if you had taken up architecture, you’d be in a completely different sphere right now (parallel dimensions anyone?) Or maybe, while writing your maths paper, a fly came and sat in front of you – you tried to shoo it away, in the process, dropping your pen, breaking it, losing 5 minutes in the process, not being able to complete a 5 mark question, getting 5 marks less, landing up in a different college altogether. Freaky huh?And all because a small fly came and sat in front of you instead of the guy ahead! Reply
WTF !!!! Recent events have definitely made a impact on ur brain…. Kuch bhi likta hai …. ( atleast u wrote a comment đ ) Reply
Hello Rishai ! How are u doin be ? And i agree with you , i can’t even imagine myself graduating from a different college ( imagine a rishi-less class …heheehhee) ! And to think of it , i was supposed to be a doctor ! But last minute turn of events after the 12th std , changed sooo much ! And ur post , is very reflective , in the beginning , but gets very teacherly towards the end ! Just an opinion ! P.S : Saurabh , ek machhar aadmi ko …ehehe ! Reply
I am fine , Jomy… Thanx for ur opinion. This blog is a series of blogs when I get into my ” Professor” attitude. U forgot, it seems Reply
Financial Crises Some dangerous myths have been generated in the wake of the sub-prime crisis. It is hard to think of a more charitable word for them than ânonsenseâ. The first is that the crisis is attributable to âfree market capitalismâ and this is justification for compromising or abandoning the system. This myth overlooks two basic facts: that markets have and should have fluctuations, panics and crises; and the failure of big corporations. These are natural and desirable manifestations of the dynamic nature of markets and essential parts of what makes markets superior to government alternatives, where countless follies are perpetuated at the expense of taxpayers and national prosperity. Even if the market is responsible for the crisis â which it is not â there would be no justification for tampering with the system that has made countries with it the wealthiest. Countries with the systems now being proposed as supposed solutions are the hellholes on earth where destitution is so normal that it is not regarded as a âcrisisâ. Brief setbacks in the worldâs most successful system are no reason to switch to the worldâs least successful systems. Second, as far as the SA economy is concerned, exchange control can, at best, now be credited with brief and slight benefits, which do not justify its continuance in the long term. The National Credit Act (NCA) has plunged SA into an opposite âsupra-primeâ crisis. The US government forced the market to provide credit to credit unworthy (sub-prime) people, whereas the SA government forces our market to deny credit to creditworthy people. This has caused or contributed to a collapse in our credit-intense sectors (vehicles, housing, furniture, clothing, and so on ) by as much or more than the collapse in Americaâs sub-prime housing sector. Thousands of creditworthy South Africans, especially blacks, have been denied credit, hundreds of marginal businesses have collapsed due to the NCA making credit costly and risky. The third and most fundamental myth is that the crisis is a manifestation of âthe marketâ. The nonsense surrounding this idea goes so far as to attribute the problem to âWall Street greedâ, as if it is a new phenomenon, unique to the past few months and Wall Street financiers. It is an idea so obviously absurd as to justify no further comment. âThe marketâ has indeed been responsible for dubious practices such as underrating the risk of securitised and highly geared and leveraged derivatives, but this, on its own, is neither a sufficient nor necessary condition for the crisis. At most, it would have caused spontaneous market corrections and insolvencies for the guiltiest parties. South Africans can easily understand government provision of sub-prime credit and implicit backing by reference to our Land Bank, the sole purpose of which is sub-prime credit to farmers, and SA parastatals, which are implicitly government-backed and therefore able to purchase on credit. The fourth myth is the thought that the crisis was caused by âderegulationâ. The truth is that there were various laws which obliged banks to provide sub-prime credit such as the Community Reinvestment Act and the prohibition of âred-liningâ. What little deregulation there was, was firstly trivial and secondly of no direct relevance to sub-prime mortgages. BY: Manik Prasher Reply