Well, I am not promoting Nike but it was the parting words from Mr. Sandipan Deb, in the inaugual function of Careerz '05. Yes, just now I returned from the Netaji Auditorium. We met there two of our gainfully employed (as coined by Prof. Kalyan Chakrabarty in the Human Behavior in Organizations(HBO) lectures) alumnus, Mr Sandipan Deb ('85 batch of ECE), the famed author of "The IITians" and the director of IBM Global Services, Mr. Agnimitra Biswas ('92 batch of ECE).
It was nice to hear from the persons who have watched the market trends so closely and have felt it. Mr Biswas was talking on "Why is IT so exciting?". He talked about the recent studies of on "market-booms" and their final fate. He nearly scared us by stating the strange co-incidence that after every such boom, be it after the industrial revolution (followed by surge of Nepoleon), or the boom of automobiles (followed by the World Wars), humanity always experienced the peril of warfare in the history. May be we are awaiting another after the IT boom. He talked about the visions one should have in IT and how is it different from traditional professions. He also added issues like insourcing, outsourcing, open-source applications with relevance to the field of IT. The parting phrase was, "IT is less about the technology.... .... and more about the YOU".
Mr. Deb seemed to be a bit nostalgic initially. He talked about his decisions and stakes at life. But his conclusion was 'explore your passion'. Don't do things as if u r doing it for the sake of 'duty'. Explore ur ideas. You might even fail in realizing your dream. But being an IITian u can 'afford a failure in ur CV' after all. Further in this process of failure, you will learn not to repeat the same mistake again. So in the process you learn through the failure. He cited several examples where men from these premier institutes have chosen a profession pole part from engineering. Even he mentioned about an alumnus who became a sergeant even after being the topper of Mechanical Engineering Department. Mr. Deb cited a simple stroy of three stone-cutters. First one when questioned what is he actually doing, his straight-foward reply was "Don't u see I am cutting stones", the second reply, quite innovative, "I am cutting stone for the new building", the third was a visionary reply, "I am cutting stone for the building this new city." In reply to the last question from audience, "What single thing would like to change in the IIT system, if you were given the power to do so?", his thoughtful reply which was surprisingly in tandem with mine was "the mess food".
I found almost all the aspects raised in today's inaugural function were covered in the post-dinner bhaat sessions with AnupamDa in Aachen. It was the same vision that Anupamda talked on. But unlike the parting words of Mr. Deb, I would simply like to extend, "Do whatever you like remaining within ur constraints or limitations." Isn't it?
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2 comments:
A well written blog. But I don't quite agree with your parting remark. Agreed that the world that we live in, doesn't allow us to take risks wherein we put not only ours', but our family's and our dependant's lives at stake. I think its these constraints that you talk about. Please don't feel that your parting words portray you as someone meek. No, not at all. In the long run, maybe your cautiousness and analytic thinking will take you more places than it will someone impulsive. However haven't these constraints and limitation changed over time? Unless some souls took the chance of breaking the mould and identifying that the only limit that one can set onto oneself is the mental limit, the 'bounds' would have remained the same. How much I wish that I am one of them. And not only me. It should be each and everyone of us. Do whatever we want to do, but something constructive. Something that benefits us more than it does anyone else.
The world is a maddening place.. the trick is to remain sane and prevent oneself from going mad with the crowd..
In the end, i don't know why I have inundated these seemingly random ramblings of mine here.. maybe its just the coming together of emotions that have left me thinking a lot..
Keep blogging. It really is a very good practice.
Cheers !
Siddharth
It's really quite motivating to learn that somebody(that too of Seth's stature) goes through my ideas (scribbled down in hurry). Thank you very much for the comments.
Only thing I would like to add/refute to your argument,is that, there are no bounds (possibly) if you are a GENIUS. My assumption is NOT ALL of us are of that caliber. So we need to define our bounds ourselves to restrict the 'heart' with 'brain' at some points of time in life.
Also read my blog "The World is Flat". May be I have reflected your ideas only.
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