Fixing an Engineering Degree! Everyone has heard of fixing a cricket match, fixing a drink, fixing a meal etc. But fixing an Engineering degree? Normally, I dont bet on any events or incidents, for I know everything is possible in this Universe. But on this one, I want to know if there are any parallels in the history of Mankind! I bet there will be none. :-) Honestly, it would not have possible for us, especially the guys from Industrial Engineering branch, to celebrate 30 years of completion of degree from BMS College of Engineering! In the year 1979, Bangalore University announced launching of two new branches of Engineering viz., Industrial Engineering and Transportation Engineering. And BMS College of Engineering was one of the few colleges (maybe the only college), that opted to offer these two branches. I chose Industrial Engineering. Why I chose Industrial Engineering is a matter of another post altogether. First three years of Engineering, we had subjects in common with the Mechanical Engineering and hence there were no problems either with the labs or the theory subjects or even teaching. Beginning of fourth year, some new subjects were introduced. Most subjects were unheard of both by the students and the teachers. As the classes started, we understood that there were no teachers for the newly introduced subjects. We approached the Head of the Department and the Principal and both of them drew a blank! All of us in Industrial Engineering branch, were shell shocked and there were rumors that the branch will be shut down and merged with Mechanical Engineering. We did not want that to happen. OK, some of us decided to DO something about it. We contacted several people including professors and well known industrialists in Bangalore and explained our predicament. Within a few days, we were asked to contact a few Management Professionals. Some of us, went hunting for these professionals and we met them and put forth our problems with them and asked them to conduct classes at our college. Most of them declined. A couple of them agreed to do the needful but at a price! The Principal was appraised of the situation and he asked us to bring the professionals to the college for negotiations and agreement. During the course of the meeting, the Principal offered them Rs. 20 for an hour of teaching. This was appalling considering the status and experience of those professionals. But the Principal admitted that his hands were tied and he could do no better than what was offered. The two professionals obviously did not agree. We were now in a panic mode. After a couple more days, we met another professional and now we offered the terms on our own (on behalf of the college), and pleaded with him and somehow managed to convince him. He wanted a little more than Rs. 20 an hour and we arranged a meeting with the Principal. After a lot of haggling with both the Principal and the Professional, an agreement was made. Rs. 20 an hour plus Rs. 5 for petrol for every visit! That was the best thing to happen for the next two semesters! All in all he taught us four different subjects, two each in 7th and 8th Semesters. In 9th semester again we ran into a problem with a very important subject. This time we tried the same tricks as before but we were not successful. Time was running out. In the nick of time, we approached Indian Statistical Institute on Mysore road and requested them to teach us Statistics and Probability at our college. They said the college is too far and the faculty there cannot come during their college hours. So we found a place for rent on Richmond road and the faculty agreed to take classes at 6 AM to 8 AM for over 6 weeks. All the students rose to occasion, pooled in the money and this time without any burden to the college, completed the classes outside of the campus! Even before we became Industrial Engineers, we were Industrious enough to rise to the occasion. The day we completed 10th semester examinations, our happiness knew no bounds! This is a tribute to all my classmates at BMS College of Engineering, Industrial Engineering Branch Class of 1979-1984! Chidananda Rupah Shivoham Shivoham Phanibhushan Sharma
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 12:31:18 +0000
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