A nation of Engineers

In the early 19th century at the height of the Napoleonic era Napoleon mockingly said when asked about England's threat by labelling them "A nation of Shopkeepers" and said that they are no good at war. If he were to be alive now he would probably have similarly labelled India as "A nation of Engineers".

As an engineer coming from Bangalore sighting another (software) engineer is as common as sighting fish in a pond. So you almost get a feeling here that every other person you meet is an engineer. The word Bangalore has become synonymous with the IT industry and its engineers. And every family wants to have a blue-eyed software engineer son/daughter.

Without a doubt the profession has done immense good to the country by contributing enormously to its coffers and providing the youth with a sense of financial security that the previous generations of it lacked. But all said and done some how i get a feeling that the profession has also seceded in overpowering other essential fields of social relevance such as pure sciences, arts , sociology etc. The Indian society has almost become monochromatic with the advent of the IT brigade. So much has been the 'ITfication' of India that the other fields of learning have become secondary in importance and attract very few talented individuals.

In a perfect world every individual pursues his/her passion but in today's less-than-perfect India people are coerced to take up engineering for the desire of a settled and stable life. In the long run this trend could be disastrous as you need more than engineers to form a healthy society, after all an engineer cant help you with your history lessons nor can he help you discover the hidden treasures of science. The responsibility not only rests with the children and their parents but also with the government of the day which being the custodian of the society is obliged to make sure that each field of learning gets its due importance and its fair share in the job market.Unless we address such anomalies we will just remain 'A nation of Engineers'.

'Veni Vidi Vici'

"They Came, They saw, They conquered" - The Australian team's performance in the world cup can be described as such. It was the most complete domination seen in a world cup ever. Especially the innings of Adam Gilchrist played in the final was the best innings in the world cup by far and probably one of the best ever seen in a one-day game. The Aussies despite missing some of their key players through injury and retirement played aggressive and competitive cricket right from the word go which enabled them to attain an unprecedented Three-peat. This was as much a triumph of the 'Aussie way of playing' as it was a testimony to their bench strength.They really have raised the bar a little higher and its up to other teams to aim higher.

In a sense it was a pretty fair world cup - the four best teams played the semis ,the two best teams played the final and the best team won it. The world cup also proved the fact that only those teams who played as a cohesive-unit will succeed consistently at major tournaments and served a warning to teams like India who rely on a bunch of over- hyped,overrated,overpaid,selfish super stars to win them big tournaments. So the moral of the world cup was 'Teams and not galaxies of superstars win word cups'.

However, in spite of the Aussie's remarkable performance this year's world cup will go down as one of the most boring ever. The Woolmer murder cast its shadow right through the cup and with India and Pakistan dumped out early and the Hosts struggling it was doomed to turn lack luster. But as always the ICC played its part in turning it into a dull and boring affair by scoring lots of 'own goals' which started with robbing the Caribbean 'joie de vivre' by sanitizing the stadia and eventually ended by enacting the most farcical climax to a world cup final ever.

India's abysmal performance was matched if not bettered by the 'performance' of their official TV broadcaster Set MAX who reached new depths in cricket broadcasting (or is it Ad broadcasting that they did) . They were too trigger happy to press the advert button without even giving a thought to the poor viewer who was given a raw deal. This attitude of SET MAX was blasted even by Steve Waugh who felt "Telecast in India was unwatchable". Thankfully their broadcast contract has expired and we have seen the back of them for good and hopefully other broadcasters learn from them how not to broadcast a cricket match.

In spite of all the dullness and gloom around the tournament it will always be remembered for the Aussie pursuit and attainment of Perfection. Probably they will be waiting and planning for the 2011 world cup already. In fact i can almost hear the Aussies shouting - 'Bring on the 2011 world cup'.