Saturday, September 15, 2007

KBC Jaldi?

On 27th of June 2004, which was also my eighteenth b day, I made a decision on which I often ponder. The decision was to opt for DCE with every stream available over IIT with geology and pulp and paper and mining as options. IIT Delhi was not an option at that time as Delhi has only 15 courses for Bachelors and they are pretty fast to get taken up. I had to go to one of the smaller towns. And today on 15th of September 2007, as I sit without a job, with decent chances, in my own(and only my own) opinion, of makin it to some decent university in some part of the world, some case studies force me to share my experience with you. I have four cases to share here. First being of The Bong guy, whose name I do not know, second of the XYZ boy who went to ABC IIT,third of my friend Tejbir and the last of my own.

First case is the Bong guy:

The Bong guy is 26 something.He got an above 3500 rank in IIT and took up geology or something in Indian School of Mining, Dhanbad. Today he earns 20lacs per annum and travels business class. Which is some success, trust me.

Second case is of the XYZ guy, whose name I have no intention of sharing:

He went to one of the best IITs with one of the sharpest brain on the planet, but failed miserably. When I last heard of him, he was struggling with a CGPA of 4, which is pathetic, and was clearing his previous back logs all through out the summer vacation.

But some how when it comes to IITians, you know that a gorgeous career beckons him any way.

The third case is of my friend and class mate in DCE, Tejbir:

This guy is one of the sharpest brain with a chaste attitude towards studies which expectedly places him within the top very few of the class. He quit Civil in IIT Delhi to opt for DCE, Electronics. Today he has an awesome placement of 10 lacs in his hand with NVIDIA with an enviable career. Would he have had a better career in an IIT. When I popped up the question he had a long story to tell. He said this very question had haunted him for the last three years. He had often regretted having left IIT. When he was kicked in the written exam phase for first 4 companies he applied for, he told me, he lost his marbles. He asid he really wished he could go back in time. But then came NVIDIA. They gave him a job and a nice one at that. And now he says he is relaxed. He loves himself for gone for eletronics. He has no regrets.

The fourth case is my own:

Here are the facts:


  • 2004:IIT:rank 3830,which means one of the worst steams in one of the most inferior IITs

  • 2004:DCE:rank240,which means every option available

  • 2005:IIT rank 2321, which means many options available but wasting a year already spent in DCE.

As is known to any one with whom I have exchanged any more that 2 sentences in last three years, I opted for option 1 among the three I listed. Not going in to the train of thoughts which forced this decision, I express what I could have been had I opted for option 2 or 3:

The Bong guy's case left bells ringing in my head. It easily could have been my case if only I wanted. But then there is case 2 of the XYZ guy which also VERY easily could have been my case. But then I could have wasted a year and worked with diligence like Tejbir and excel at one of the IITs. All three cases could have been a possibility. But as I often say, when its about yourself, you know in some part of your brain that you will get through.

Only time can tell us ki Koun Banega Crorepati jaldi?
Edit:
An epilogue:
Tejbir's comment:

I know this one is very late but still it is.... I am the third case guy, to introduce myself. Truely in the first three years at DCE, it has been all regrets for not going to IIT (and taking up something like civil or textile over there). Then NVIDIA somewhat changed everything and I backed up my decision. But now again, Sachin, same question has started to haunt me. Aseem Khosla , my friend in IITD, having 2800 ( or so rank) , got into Textile, and now he has got wonderful package of 26 lakhs p.a. So what say now?? I think its all destiny. Everyone will get what he/she desrves. Its just a matter of time.

January 9, 2008 8:52 AM

Johnny's reply:

The debate is endless tej and i have to thank for sharing this train of thought.
one point you are not considering is that not every one at IIT gets 26lacs and many of them inferior jobs than yourself.
but i still can not negate the fact that with your mental acumen, no career could have been too good had you been there.

February 11, 2008 9:55 AM

7 comments:

durjoy datta said...

a fifth case......
some 40-45 odd students(dce)will study hard the cumin six months,get thru some A grade b-school and beat the iitians to the finish line....!!!
its a rat race dude......!
"morning walk thodi hai!"
but remember....
even if u win the race,u would still be a rat.......!

Sachin Garg said...

I so hope am one of those 40-45..
I guess time will tell..
considering the number of times we have kicked ourselves for missing out on a morning walk..a rat race seems a distant dream.. ;-)
I hope you get the double meaning of the line..
BYE!

Narayanan said...

Well, speculation is something anybody can do. The situation of the second guy is something very similar to our very well known movie themes where the rich actor is brought to the streets with debts. It is impossible to predict accurately of what would happen to anyone in future. What one typically does is just linearly extrapolate the available success rate data of students from an institute to predict the most likely future of the protagonist. One should remember that chaos is inherent in the universe. What distinguishes a human from a machine is his unpredictability. Deviations are bound to happen. So, an intelligent guy in IIT may fail in the IIT system, but a similar guy in another college may triumph. It is all a part of the game.

The lesson that we need to learn from this is to stop speculating about past events and learn how to take things positively, keeping only the present (and future, to some extent) in mind. What we have in our control is only our present, not the future, and not the past.

Every human is different. We need to stop comparing ourselves with others and their successful careers. I tell you Sachin. Even if you do end up with a not so high paying job, you should be happy about it and learn to progress in life with it. You are given a few opportunities in every moment of your life, and the only thing you can do is to choose from among the opportunities and make the best out of the available resources. Its beyond the human brain's capability to choose the perfect opportunity every time!

Narayanan said...

Ah! And so finally, I bought a ticket for the first time on this bus. :)

Sachin Garg said...

its ironical that one of the best pieces of text on my blog are actually not from my finagers..
you out it as neat as it can be and i strongly reccomend blogging to you as well..
you out the stat part like a true IITian...esp if he has recetnly been to paris working on complex mathematical probs..
regarding the job part..
dont worry brother..
4 out of 5 times i see myself working in TCS, infy tpe company and it doesnt exactly make me sulk..
i know/hope something will work out..
the comment on comments on m blog is purely because people dont understand that how aimless blogging can seem when nobody reads your blog..
its important for people to comment as thats the motivation for writing..
thats the difference between writing in secret and writing in public..

Tejbir said...

I know this one is very late but still it is.... I am the third case guy, to introduce myself. Truely in the first three years at DCE, it has been all regrets for not going to IIT (and taking up something like civil or textile over there). Then NVIDIA somewhat changed everything and I backed up my decision. But now again, Sachin, same question has started to haunt me. Aseem Khosla , my friend in IITD, having 2800 ( or so rank) , got into Textile, and now he has got wonderful package of 26 lakhs p.a. So what say now?? I think its all destiny. Everyone will get what he/she desrves. Its just a matter of time.

Sachin Garg said...

@tejbir,
the debate is endless tej and i have to thank for sharing this train of thought.
one point you are not considering is that not every one at IIT gets 26lacs and many of them inferior jobs than yourself.
but i still can not negate the fact that with your mental acumen, no career could have been too good had you been there.