This is a true story which happened with me when I went to visit - TopicsExpress



          

This is a true story which happened with me when I went to visit my cousin at his home. - “Hey bro , meeting you after a long time.. How are things ? You have your board and entrance exams in less than 4 month’s time. Howz your preparedness and self-confidence ?? “ I asked him ,after entering the drawing room , with a big smile on my face as I had huge expectations from my cousin brother. “The situation is indeed a very tense one for me; everything is in a mess. My self-confidence is in doldrums when it comes to Chemistry. Bhaiya , there are few questions which I would like to ask you “ He said so and sat in the adjacent sofa. I must confess that I was distressed to notice that grief-stricken look on his face . “Yeah sure.. go ahead; I can understand what makes you tensed but look.. “ I had not even completed my sentence when my cousin brother’s mother came from bedroom, cut me in between my speech and said in a pretty fractious tone - “ Arey kya bhaiya-bhaiya laga rakhe ho ? Pehle portion khatam nahi kar paate , phir mock exam me kam number aate hain toh tum mujhe jhooth bolte aur din bhar mobile aur computer me wo blue screen me ghuse rehte ho. Ab bhaiya se help maang rahe ho ?? bhaiya toh kya .. bhagwan bhi help nahi karenge tumhari “ ( Firstly , you don’t complete the portion , secondly you lie to me about your marks which you got in your mocks , thirdly you spent all the time with your mobile and in front of a blue computer screen and then you expect your brother to come to the rescue ? This time even God won’t be helping you !! ) I was quite shocked to hear this from aunt who in earlier days used to be quite supportive but I wondered what caused such a drastic change in her phraseology. Maybe , my cousin had gone a bit off the boil in the last few months. “Arey mumma , you go now na, he has come after such a long time . I want to know a few important things from him . Please leave us alone “ was my cousin’s agitated answer and I could see the frustration in his face which meant that he was used to such scathing rebukes. “Tell me everything in detail bro, why is aunty so mad at you ? “ was my immediate question to him. “Bhaiya , I never knew why exactly I was studying Physics , Chemistry and Maths from class 11. Undoubtedly a few chapters of the 3 subjects were very interesting but when I came in class 12 the subject computer caught my imagination. I enjoy writing the Fibonacci number program, and those infinite series developing programs. I have found C++ very interesting and I love to spend most of my time writing funny codes, generating random patterns on the screen. (The C++ program runs on a blue background and this is where I realised why aunty was so very concerned about that “blue screen”) It always sends me into a tizzy when I come up with a new and unique pattern on the screen. Since the last 4 weeks I have been in a Whatsapp group which teaches us how to develop interfaces for mobiles such as Samsung galaxy S5. The group is basically an Indonesia based group which has 43 members now and I am a part of 7-8 such groups at the moment.(And this was the reason why aunty had mentioned his possessiveness with his smart phone) You remember Dheeraj Bhaiya , who is reading in IIT DELHI now, CSE department,3rd year ? “ He asked me quite reluctantly . “Of course , how can I forget him !! I used to emulate him while preparing for JEE. “ Was my reply . “Yes , he was a very fine student but his CGPA has taken a serious beating now. I called him 3 days back and he said that all throughout he was brilliant in the courses involving applications of Physics, Chemistry and Maths but when it came to Data Structures, he was always in a quandary . He said that when he (Dheeraj) had told his senior about his rank and asked him which branch should he choose, his senior came up with a pretty spontaneous reply of Computer Science . When he told his senior that he doesn’t even know the C of computer science (or coding or C++ , whichever way you may interpret) , his senior replied pretty coolly, ‘ don’t worry you are a quick learner. You will grasp the basics quite easily’. Alas he never could. He was almost in his tears while talking to me you know bhaiya. “ My cousin replied , with a pretty unnerving gaze which depicted shock . “ Really ?? I feel very sorry for him yaar. But you see Dheeraj Bhaiya’s case is a rarity . I mean, people who are really good at P,C,M are expected to have an agile mind and their analytical skills are usually considered to be the best in the business . As Dheeraj Bhaiya’s senior said , they are usually expected to have a high grasping ability which is not a wrong thing to expect. But tell you what , even I also know a few guys who have a CGPA of more than 8, some even 8.5 at the end of first year but are having a F grade in the first year Data Structure course. Anyways, why are you telling me all this ? Were you not supposed to ask me a few questions which were disturbing you with growing urgency ? “ “ Yes. I am coming to that. You see, engineering colleges lay so much stress on Physics , Chemistry and Maths but still the highest demand is of a Computer Science seat in India. Why can’t the law makers and those who prepare the entrance exam papers just take some extra pain and go on to add one more section to test the Coding skills of a candidate ?? Also, I feel that one should have a choice of appearing for any 3 of these 4 subjects (Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Computer). It could have helped my cause so immensely. Mumma is worried for me as I have not been attending any Chemistry class for the past 1 month. It is true that I barely got 40% marks in the pre-mocks of Chemistry. But I want to do more and more research on interface building and for that I know I have to be good at C++(at THIS POINT OF TIME) which I certainly feel I am. You want a proof ? I scored more than 90% in first term , second term and pre-mocks and even though its December I have finished the entire syllabus of Computer and revised it once. What should I do now, please tell me bhaiya ? “ “See , this is how the system is and you need to adjust yourself accordingly. If you want to do some rigorous coding , hacking and interface building stuffs then why not learn it from workshops or maybe video tutorials after your entrance exams get over ? Or maybe if you are not that lucky to get into any of the IITs, do well in your college and try to do an M.Tech in CS from any of the top IIT/NITs.“ “ Forget about IIT-JEE. I feel ,even JEE-MAINS would be a tough nut to crack for me in order to get a seat in the state NIT. However , I am surprised by your reasoning. To show my passion for coding and talent I thus have to wait for 4 or maybe 5 more years you want to say ?? “ was his next question to me. “No not exactly. As I said , do well in your college. Take part in various inter college coding competitions, win laurels for yourself and your college. I also know a few people, who were not from IIT/NIT/BITS/IIIT but still ended up with a package of more than 1 crore . Who knows, maybe you can be the next in that list ? “ I replied, albeit a bit hesitantly . “I want to achieve the same feat by studying in any of the reputed colleges of India. And what are your thoughts on Dheeraj bhaiya’s predicament? I wish , something could be done to remedy his crisis. “ What he said , made imminent sense to me. It is true that life has wrecked Dheeraj’s dream ships on the sharp rocks of reality. The demand for CS seats have been ever-increasing but quite a few students like Dheeraj fail to realise their own passion and inclination to Computer Science. The situation is prevalent not only in IITs/NITs but in many of the well known private as well as state government colleges too. It high time we purge the minds of the aspiring engineering candidates of the false notion that – CS EQUALS PERENIALLY CONSISTENT FLOW MONEY EQUALS PEACEFUL LIFE. It is true that close to 80-85% of the students who score very well in the entrance exams have no problem whatsoever in learning the ropes of the various coding languages as well as the correlated subjects and courses . I am all the more worried about those 15-20% of the students who are languishing at the bottom of the CS department in terms of their department ranks and are having nightmares each day at the computer labs and lectures. They could have done really well and contributed to the various other fields of science and technology if they would have spared a thought for the other branches too. Ultimately I could not come up with a satisfactory answer and thus replied him bluntly, “Well, this is what the system is bro. I know this is a grave yet a fixable situation. Educational institutions must look to address this at the earliest. Anyways , lets go outside and play badminton. It’s so chilly in here. “ And we both got up to enjoy the winter evening outside. ~Tapobrata Behera
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 11:30:00 +0000

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