Who can understand the power of last-minute learning/thinking, better than an Engineer? We all must have faced a situation in which we were allotted ample of time that somehow (intentionally) got reduced to a day, but we still managed to complete the work even at the cost of a sleepless night. It may have been an assignment, a tutorial, practical or even exams, but we all must have gone through this "Agni Pariksha" of last day work to get the feeling (degree) of a 'real Engineer'. So here is a short story of mine that made me think that Problem is nothing but the Solution itself!
So there was I, pretty excited to put my first step towards the CSE department, entering my 2nd year. There were many clubs that attracted me, but one of them had something special in it, no friends, this time that "something" was not a girl! It was the 'Robotics Club', a club managed by seniors belonging to various departments like ECE, EN, CSE, Civil, and Industrial branch. The only problem with this club was that they conducted 'an interview' of students who were interested. Terrified by the mere thought of facing the interview, I didn't fill the form that they sent as a criterion for participation.
And finally, the day arrived, I came to know that 2-3 friends of mine had filled the form. As I had a lot of free time, so I decided to wait for them until the interview gets over. As soon as we reached the interview hall, I came to know that they were also allowing on-spot entries. I know it may sound weird, but seriously at that moment, I felt as if destiny was giving me a second chance to enter the club, I even felt some kind of energy in that room that made me apply for the interview.
After waiting for 2-3 hours, it was my turn. We started off with those typical interview questions like "Tell us something about yourself", so on and so forth (you pretty much know the drill) and that was the first time, I was thankful to the communication skills classes I have attended in my first year. There were various questions to check my coding skills, but there was just this one question that made me think, it was- "Why do you want to join Robotics Club?" At first, being in a hurry to somehow finish my interview, I decided to answer, "Because my friends are joining this club". But I ended up giving my best self made answer ever, "I think the only thing that would separate me from all those 60 students sitting in my class is joining this club as here I would be getting a chance to gain knowledge from different fields apart from CSE", thanks to the skill of 'last-minute thinking'. When results were declared, I came to know that I was selected. That day I realized that I ain't as dumb as I think I am!
Well moving on with my story, the next turning point was in the form of AXIS 2016, an event organized by VNIT (some college). It was the first event that we were going to participate in, with a team of 5 members. We participated in the event called Autobot, a category of Robotics in which one has to program the bot to just follow the black path and complete the track with the minimum intervention. The problem was that all the 5 members of our team were from CSE, and hence, had no idea how to build a robot in the first place. Around 2 weeks before the competition, we were completely clueless about, what materials were actually required, where to get them etc. At this point of time, what we decided to do, was, what every real engineer would have decided to do, JUGAAD.
One of our team members had attended a Robotics workshop and was given the material to design a bot. So this brought us back on the track a little. Somehow, we managed to complete the coding part but the designing part was still just 20% done with all the JUGAAD material. I remember, just a day before the event when other teams were testing their bots, ours was just 50% done. All we wanted to do was to check our code as the designing part could be completed on the day of the event itself. As the structure of our bot was far more different from the other teams, we weren't able to check our code using their bot. And then, while I was thinking of all the mess that we were going through and regretting having joined such a club which at that moment seemed nothing less than a nightmare, an idea popped into my brain, "What if there's a website with all the pieces of equipment as options, like wheels, sensors, chaise, batteries, etc available virtually, in all possible variants that one may want to use. With an option for the user to design the bot as per his/her own requirements by selecting from all the available material/equipment and simply dragging and dropping them in place. This way, one would be able to check his/her code for every possible case that may exist and can make changes beforehand". I was appreciated by the seniors for this idea and some even advised me to work on this as a final year project. That was the very moment that made me realize that problem is nothing but the solution itself. One's problem could be a solution to millions!
What if our team hadn't faced all those problems? What if I had given up after facing my problems? Would I have been able to discover this idea that could possibly help a lot of people to get rid of such problems? What if Mark Zuckerberg had never met with any problem due to his website Facemash.com that led to his suspension from college, and hence the creation of one of the most sensational social networking site Facebook.com? What if Steve Jobs had never faced any problem at his workplace, would he ever be able to discover his talent to build something great of his own? What if Jack Ma wouldn’t get rejected by KFC, would he be able to become the CEO of the largest online shopping platform Alibaba.com?
So friends, whenever you face any problem, just think twice before giving up, that is there really anything to worry about?, because this might be that one chance you always waited for, that one moment you always hoped for, this might be the beginning of something great.
So don't you agree with me when I say "Problem is Solution"? Think of it!
You may also like:
