HAPPY ENGINEERS DAY What have we done to the word engineering ?. It has became a four year degree, a college, a campus placement and, for parents, a reasonably safe answer to the question, “What is the junior doing?”. Engineering has became something you study rather than something you do. Indian parents: “ Please do one engineering then do whatever you want to in life” .. till we want you to get married and have children”. The fellow who could take apart the family radio, spread its components across the dining table and manage to put it back together before his father came home was engineering. The uncle who could look at a scooter that refused to start, make two adjustments , there famous slant it twice to 65 degrees and kick it once was engineering. The neighbour who could get a leaking tap to stop dripping with a piece of rubber, some thread was engineering. The mother who could fit clothes for three children, two suitcases into the boot of a Maruti 800 is frankly, engineering of a fairly advanced kind. Engineering is never really about knowing the formula. It is about looking at something that isn’t working and asking, “Why?” And then, more importantly, “What can I do about it?”. We seem to have forgotten that part. All of us are engineers in a way, but we give up the mindset somewhere because we think it is about doing a tech degree. A child playing with Lego is engineering. A boy bending a cycle stand because he thinks he can make it better is engineering. Also is probably more of an engineer than the person who can recite the entire textbook on fluid mechanics or the one who can solve complex vector calculus with ease . The first person who put a wheel under something was an engineer . The person who put a handle on a stone was one too and so was the person who looked at a fire and thought, “Perhaps we can control this” Engineering is about constraints. There are never enough resources . The real world does not come with a problem statement saying, “Design a system with these specifications.” The real world gives you a leaking pipe at 10 pm to fix. Engineers are basically children who were given degrees and told they were allowed to use power tools. Jugaad is engineering . Yes, it can produce some dangerous contraptions, but at its heart is an engineering instinct, understanding what you have, understand what you need and find a way to bridge the gap. The problem is not that we have too much jugaad. It is that sometimes we stop at jugaad and never get around to making the solution safe, repeatable and elegant. Good engineering takes that instinct and adds everything around the jugaad. The most impressive engineering is hardly spoken about. Nobody applauds a bridge because the traffic moved across it without falling into the river. Nobody notices a lift when it works every single day. Nobody thinks about the plumbing when water comes out of the tap. People only notice it when it fails like most other streams. Of course the degree helps. The laboratories help with practical thinking , especially with use of equipment one can't afford otherwise. Learning how to calculate stress, electrical loads or fluid flow certainly helps. . It helps with a “We have to always look at the world around us and thought, This could be better.”. Innovation comes from understanding existing problems well and the science behind them. Also Engineering college teaches you many things. Mostly, how to sleep anywhere, survive on tea and submit something that technically works. Keep deadlines by remembering about them the previous night. Keep the engineering mindset always irrespective of your profession or degree . Stay curious .. #engineer #Engineersday

We love to fight for our cities. We show oneupmanship about a thing about the city. Mumbai’s never say die attitude and the “spirit” , Chennai’s music festival Kerala’s countryside , Bengaluru’s weather. We also have mud slinging fests on the other cities and these fights have become an everyday affair. No one is gaining. We arent putting in efforts to change our cities , except a few noble souls. We don’t really care about our cities . If we did we would not throw garbage all over the city. We are a still in the nostalgia that our civilisation built stepwells, aligned with the stars, invented zero and all achievements great Yet, place us in a lengthy queue ,something ancient and rebellious awakens. There are always folks cutting the queue. It is not that we do not understand cleanliness or order. We adore it , alas only in theory. We admire spotless airport floors. We post photographs of European streets with captions about “civic sense.” We remove footwear before entering homes and temples with reverence. Perhaps the problem is that our enforcement mechanisms are dull. A sign that says “Do Not Litter” has zero persuasive power A painted line on the floor assumes a level of obedience , does it?. If we have to improve civic behaviour, we must first understand ourselves. We are not frightened by rules. We are moved by spectacle, embarrassment, and competition. Take littering. The average citizen does not fear a fine; he fears being noticed. Maybe we need a “Sanskaar Rating,” a civic score attached not to income but to conduct. Return your tray at a food court? Five points. Pick up a stray plastic bottle? Twenty. Jump a queue? Minus fifteen. Those with high scores receive small, delicious privileges: a faster lane at government counters, a priority token at the temple, perhaps even a modest discount on income tax. We are a people who will stand in line for a crowded concert , a new hyped restaurant or for a new phone launch. Why not the same for dignity? Some will argue that such measures trivialise a serious issue. On the contrary, they recognise a serious truth: culture changes not only through fear but through narrative. We behave impeccably in airports and temples because those spaces feel watched, valued, sacred. If we made our streets feel similarly visible we might discover that discipline is less about fines and more about audience. The Metro stations are a classic example . No one litters there . It is an equaliser of classes of society some say. The real scandal is not that we litter or cut queues. It is that we know better. We lecture our children about responsibility while expertly shaving three minutes off a line. We sigh at overflowing drains while contributing a plastic cup to the mix. The contradiction is almost appalling . So let us stop relying solely on stern signage and occasional fines. Maybe we could even try humour as policy. Or engineer embarrassment . Let us turn civic behaviour into a game we are slightly afraid to lose. Maybe we should start teaching these things practically instead of schools . India has a great culture should be just with our homes and our Gods. Can we treat our cities and fellow living beings better. Instead of teaching moral science through a text book , can we show our children that we are indeed a culture who would like to preserve our cities and dignity by participating and involving them young . We start saying it’s the elected Govts role to keep cities clean, we after all elected them and pay taxes . Doesn’t mean we should litter at will . We can take some responsibility of being a human . The governments too are happy not doing their bit , strict vigilance of the contracts , provide dustbins at all public places etc . They just sit back and watch us fight our other cities Whose city is it ??

If Rameshwaram opens a pub will they call it Gheeist ?@peakbengaluru

How many of you remember Chris Tavare of England test cricket?. Did you know Tavarekere was named after him 😀? :). The whole surrounding area's traffic (BTM, Silk board ,Madivala etc) pays respect to him by moving inch by inch #Bengaluru #cricket

“Once upon a time” when there was nothing beyond Silk Board till an apartment came up . Folks were scared to cross the Silk Board signal even back then . The bus stop right outside was called “apartment”for several years #Bengaluru #trivia @peakbengaluru