Saga of Mechanical Engineer from ITBHU

As stated before, I was great fan of opening scene of RHTDM. A firing dialogue was delivered -“Mechanical Engineer mein fire hone chahiye”. Then in next scene of the movie, R. Madhavan ignites a lighter for smoking cigarette. That snap makes mechanical engineering as a coolest and macho field of engineering. Mechanical department is more cussed fore lesser grades and strict professors than any other department irrespective of engineering college.

A really handy research predicts the stronger aptitude – between verbal and numerical – in children by the relative lengths of their fingers. Now, how cool is that? Apparently, if your index finger is shorter than your ring finger, then your numerical aptitude is expected to be stronger. And if the index is longer, then your verbal ability is stronger. Of course, my longer index finger explains – in hindsight – why I scraped through four years of Mechanical Engineering. And do not miss the use of middle finger used for sign language....

I walked into the massive building for the first time while a long guided tour of Department of Mechanical Engineering was given to us. It was a really long procession – as there were almost all 60 of us although Roll no. 42,'Sagar Singh' was missing.

Academically, it was probably the best decision of my life to study Engineering and I realized that after studying(just enjoying) 1st week in college. This decision also looks back firing when in the first thirty minutes of the first Engineering Drawing class. R S Singh and his company makes life more difficult than ED (Engineering Drawing). R S Singh is a good teacher, it was just that I was lacking imagination for 'plan' and 'elevation' with possessing scary drawing skill. One class was just not over when few of us were literally scolded for being 1 minute lab at Engineering mechanics lab.

The curriculum in the third semester in department, at its best, has the same level of complexity as the mandatory seat-belt instruction 'training' prior to takeoff. Every day we fled the department faster than a fire-alarm would evacuate Pentagon. We went to many more places than the first generation Aryans went to find newer pastures in gangetic planes. The lanes of BHU were well covered by our cycle trips and never to forget the nostalgia of Cafeteria in 15 minute break. However mass evacuation of mech students at 10:15 due to arrival of G-9 is also a scene to remember forever. However, the clear winner was an ambiguously named place called "Limbdi Corner". I know it is named after limbdi hostel but who the hell is limbdi? It was neither air-conditioned, nor really hygienic. But the taste of Samosa and Khasta is unforgettable.

When other departments finished the only mandatory "fitting" lab - where one has to build a T-joint with cheap wood pieces, we still had 13 more left where temperatures of burning metals could often exceed 500 degrees. And people call our sufferings at workshops as true and evergreen engineering. Only other 'labs' from rest of the departments had either chemicals or computers with as 128MB RAM. The main mechanical lab had, and still do, a Wesson lathe machines - always reverently garlanded on the day of "Viswakarma Puja". Try that with your jar of Sulphuric Acid, Chemical!

For those who came to ITBHU after 12 years of "boys only" schools, counting - or other related number crunching - would only involve girls. At least on that very first day, we had only one dream about gender ratio. But it was thrashed due to grass root realities of IIT JEE system. Mechanical Engineering was the hotbed (pun not intended) of activity, being the home base of a few thousand technically-inclined, hormonally-charged, muscular people. Most of them were totally unable to comprehend how girls fell for wimps who recited Pablo Neruda and had no time for macho men who thought nothing of hammering a cast iron flange for three hours straight. As I write these lines, I get a feeling that people must be wondering if Mechanical Engineers are a modern version of Spartans.

Before anybody tries to protest at what seems like an exaggeration, let me add that we never let anybody finish a match we had the remotest chance of losing. The constant boycott on losing the match was sight to watch again and again in memory lanes. So, every single Arena followed a predictable path for Mechanical. For these modern-day Spartans to flex their sporting muscles, there was an aptly named tournament called CS and AOE Arena.

For Chemical, it was time to show off that they had the maximum girls in the department. For Ceramic, it was time to show off that they had really good dancers. For Meta, it was time to show their bench strength in theater performance. And for Mechanical, it was a time to pulverize the rest of the Engineering faculty into dust, swallow them with a gulp of Thumbs Up and pee it out in the center of the pitch. We had shown it countless in time in cricket or CS and AOE match. The random and chaotic dance of our seniors at cult fest KY-07 was such memorable event. Also, KU & Technex were managed by our passionate batchmates despite of consistent sarkaari type hindrances from the administrative system.

We have done cuss word fights several times in CS match against final year Cera Branch (2006). Lot of words were exchanged between us but they never bothered us with their super senior attitude. 3rd Electrical Branch(2007) do not have courage to stand our outrage. The fight was much a scene and video recording by JD of pre-arguments before dispute between us and them was sensational. It was shared on LAN with more input of Student Language than English or Hindi. Even it was test of VKS next day, our batch of Mechanical Engineering attacked the Electrical Engineering Department with stumps over a small case of mess in hostel only. That day, even Warden watched from the sidelines!)

Socially, it was probably the best because in those four years. I had the privilege of knowing most intelligent and entertaining people. Even though it is a engineering college, there are bond guys in field of academics, music, sports, theater & technology. I was lucky to be part of such geniuses as college mates. This lengthy tour de force cannot end without paying tribute to Photocopy machine at which we have spent more time than Guttenberg has done at his inventory printing press.

However, graduating in Mechanical Engineering was like being perpetually in a place that's a homogeneous mix of a crowded men's locker room and a sports bar that does not allow females. Hell, we did not even have a "Ladies" toilet in the buildings that our department owned in our first year. I read the below lines in some one's blog about Mechanical Department,ITBHU-- "If You have passed your 4-5 years course here at IT-BHU,then you can survive yourself in any condition of your life". I am not saying these words but students of this department say together.........."