The Beginning Of the End

" Everything that has a beginning has an end " , Perhaps Agent Smith was true.

whoa whoa whoa ... Agent Smith - you don't remember..huh cmon guys!!! The famous Matrix character. And so did Neo realised soon; and that probably aided him to evade the consequences.
This one was one of the point of our discussion yesterday. What was the discussion all about; who i was discussing; why when. Probably if you are a computer science undergraduate; you would by now realise these questions formulate the fundamentals of Software Engineering.

So why I am speaking about the Beginning of the end ?
Cmon i wouldnt like you to grope and find you way.

I am speaking of my final year of college. Yes Final year of my Engineering.
Probably it has begun; and I can feel the end; the end of 4 beautiful years; the end of 4 charismatic years; the end of 4 accounting years.

But then what i have learnt - here lies the fundamental ques; the crux ..

have i learnt some strong database concept[i may be speaking of normalization or parallel databases]

have i learnt some strong 3GL and 4GL languages ?

have i learnt the functionalities of some strong Operating system like LINUX

have i learnt to design a compiler?

have i learnt some strong modelling techniques?

can we answer those.. as for me i am not sure of what i have learnt among the tech list i provided above. i am not sure as of how many of you [ i take into account computer science undergraduates ] have learnt among list.

but then we are reqd to learn things from our environment; from things happening; from thing along the courses of life.
So are we reqd to learn these..[keep aside the semester examinations]
means cmon' where in life you need to implement a YACC design on UNIX system. where in life you need to find a java program to represent a Schrodinger wave Equation and find out the reqd roots. How long we gonna need this type of knowledge in particular.

But then i realised something else
College makes a man out of you.
it make you feel you have balls under you . As far as Engineering courses are considered[ at least that is what i have pursued] three years for me have been phenomenal.

I learnt how to prepare an assignment 30 mins before dead-line and end up getting a A or B+ grade

I learnt how to slog nights and sleep late and more importantly yet emerge in college next day on time [on time means a grant of one lecture off]

I learnt how to "jugaad"; the important of all activity; the essentials of all. Had I not attained this in particular i would be so screwed. Jugaad specifically means a source hand on all that you can .. ranging from lab journals to assignments to exam papers[if you can [:)])

I learnt how to prepare for exams only in prep leave and not wasting the entire sem for it (even then you have a difference of 3-5 % [: P])

I learnt to flip through 500 pages in a night for an exam next morning.

I learnt to write an internal test with less than 1 hrs of preparation.

I learnt to celebrate every little event we can. even a beer for a day well spent serves the purpose.

I learnt to watch 18 episodes of a season at a stretch and then sleep all day.

I learnt to find brilliant excuses.

I learnt using slangs every now and then.

I learnt to ignore eventually everything that is of least concern to me.

I learnt how to get away with uneasy and unhealthy situations.

I learnt to Lie and fake circumtances

That is what college taught me.

And i think more importantly these attributes are more pertaining to a practical view life. By this i dont mean shunning of your courses. Obviously one need the first set of items but the technical knowledge doesnt lives all your age. We forget more than we learn.But we do always have an option to look up;the teachings i Listed second are in more proximity to practical Life situation.

Some wise and idealist men have said we shouldnt lie. we shouldn't fake. But then every one cannot be as wise as them or else Wisdom got to be redefined; and morover Life is no bunch of idealism - its just a simple computational result of causes permuted with combinations of effects.

So what helps more ??
3 nf Normalization of tables or ability to take control of events?
70% throughout aggregate or the thought process ?
Stack and Queue machines or the Prioritising actions [ i do not intend to use priority queue [:)] ]
Deterministic and non deterministic automata or ability to decide for essentials ?

The very notion of college was to prepare individual for the challenges of life and not make him mug every possible filthy item he can.
Its a very personal feeling of mine that the youngsters are detracting from the primary aim of college life. I do not advocate shunning and discarding courses but i only mean to take into consideration the second list; which do become a part of abstract curriculum.
This abstract curriculum/culture of Engineering courses makes it one of the most distinguished course in itself.

If College makeths a man
i would like to quote it more properly
"Engineering maketh a proper man"

and this is probably what i will miss when i leave college. this is in exact that makes me feel low when i think of beginning of the end.

but as said

"Everything that has a beginning has an end"

Love and wishes
Anshu