To B.E. an engineer!!

Attended the college annual day function today, where the chief guest was Mr. Mahadevan, Director, India Pistons Ltd.—a really fascinating person. A mechanical engineer, and an old friend of the Dean’s, he was in his element today, presenting his views on “The traits of a competent engineer”. His anecdotes were extremely hilarious but at the same time insightful and perspicacious: here’s the one I enjoyed most, which came when he was talking about the stereotype of an engineer in people’s minds

A man was lost in the Sahara desert, and five hot days under the boiling Saharan heat had just about taken the life out of him. He was trying to reach the nearest army base or whatever outpost of civilization he could find. After five days of surviving on the barest of food and water, he happened to meet another guy.

“Where am I?”, asked the man of the stranger.

The stranger reflected a while and then, with an extremely grave countenance, replied “You are 24 degrees 32 minutes N of the Equator and 42 degrees 50 minutes E of the Greenwich Meridian.”

The man digested this and said “You must be an engineer.”

The other guy said, “That’s right, but how do you know?”

The man said, “Your information was extremely precise, and extremely useless!”

I fear that that’s exactly what we may become in a few years if we don't do something about it.

P.S.: EC lab end sem on Monday!!! Its been easy for evry1 so far, and this is what worries me extremely.