Engineering and Bangalore

Bangalore has a vast history of distinction in Engineering and possibly far surpasses many other cities in the country on this count. The Vidhana Soudha is a standing example of the capabilities and strategic intent of the people in this city. There is no other state in the country which envisioned and built a gargantuan structure like the Vidhana Soudha to run the administration of the state and bespeaks of the dynamism of bangalore and its genre and the reality that large sums of money were made avaliable and expended for this purpose deserves praise. Even today the city basks in the glory of this structure which is aesthetic, charming, imposing and formidable. I have visited the internals of this structure along with my brother as a child accompanied by my illustrious father who at the nick of the moment gave the reference of a defence person to gain entry. This structure for ages to come will serve as a bedrock for all progress in the city and will make an average person contemplate distinction.

vidhana soudha

The Vidhana Soudha was possibly constructed by the contractors in Mysore by the name Boraiah basavaiah and Sons who distinguished themselves in the construction of such structures in the past and the confidence and rhythm with which the task was executed considering that we were a fledgling country at that point in time is noteworthy. I dont think in the modern world any structure of this kind would be built afresh in the first place that combines oriental aesthetics and modern needs. I have had a faint belief that Shri M S Ramaiah a illustrious son of this city must have had a imposing and domineering hand in conception and execution of this structure.

The engineering skills of Bangalore and its neighbourhood is largely exemplified by this structure and is a reflection of the maturity attained in engineering activity quite early. "Government work is Gods Work" is an inscription prominently displayed on the facade of this stucture and many a employee seated in the premises may be deterred from doing any wrong having seen the statement almost daily. What Iam trying to pin-point is that none of the cities and states in the neighbourhood have any structure on these lines.

Massive engineering activity was rampant in this part of the World. Bangalore is a city that has already "Arrived" and can be of help and succour to many a city that would like to "Arrive'. This is in large due to the splendour of engineering that this place had as a heritage and later inherited by future generations. It must be pointed out that as early as 1908 Bangalore had Electric supply and South Parade the modern day M G Road had street lights and resembled a village street with a mud road. How different the place is now? This was MG Road in 1908. Please bear in mind that many of the American cities got electric power around the same time if not later. Iam not sure if AC or DC was used for electrification but the power must have been drawn fro the hydel plant in Shivanasamudra some 80 miles from the city.. It is likely that AC was used and note that use of AC was a new technology for the day and possibly a 60KV line was brought into the town . My strong suspicion is that the Electric Power station seen near Subhedhar Chatram road was a possibly the distribution center and few privileged house holds were given electric power apart from street electrification in the nights. Also note that Bangalore was the first city in the country to get Electrification around this time largely due to the hydel plant that came handy.

Walchand Hirachand group strated the modern day HAL factory somewhere in 1942 for maintenance of Aircraft and also maybe for the production of the same which has become a flourishing enterprise of late. This means there was expertise not only in conventional engineering practices but also in advanced and more complex engineering area of the day like Aviation. To my opinion there must be a plethora of aviation talent hidden in the city which needs to be un-earthed. Co-ordination of some kind must be undertaken to harmonise talents across these sectors so that abilities of people are not wasted but channelised to quantum good for the world community. Iam looking for the day where large passenger planes would be assembled in the vicinity of this city which does not seem to be a mere fascination but can be a reality anytime considering the kind of talent that exists and needs to be escavated. Aviation is one line where Bangalore can contribute in a big way in the future in the building and selling of Airplanes and can do so cost effectively.

On these line permit me to castigate modern day Engineering education on few counts. The irony or parody is that there is no Engineering any more in our Engineering Colleges and no one who studies engineering really wants to do anything with it. May be it is the sign of the times but Engineering in its pristine form needs to be revived.There seems to be the phenomenon called "Perfection of Means and Confusion of ends". Engineering education confines to sylabbi and a perfunctory and speedy journey carried through them in which the prospective student comes out dazed and is resigned to a reality which is mis-leading and confusing. Engineering education today is seeking for some ideal. We built the IIT's and other institutions to promulgate Engineering but it is the same story everywhere and a student of engineering dragged through a set of chore all of them definitely not un-purposeful but that which would serve short term purposes. Engineering needs to be brought out of this rut. Engineering and Engineering education badly needs to be given a elevated ideal atleast in principle so that prospective undertakers have an idea of what they are into and what would transpire. I have seen engineering graduates misused by the business community in being made to do menial jobs which is an abrogation and needs to be set right. Well engineering and the applications of it have changed with the times but some of the essentials and rudiments must be preserved.

Let me explain what I meant in the earlier passage. The two wheelers in bangalore city are from HONDA. The buses of the city are increasingly becoming "VOLVO'. These two vehicles enjoy merit in their product design. Why are Indian organiztions not in a position to engineer such a product is a pointer to the wrong orientation or lack of a defined direction in our practices and preimses of engineering and engineering education. Every time I sit in a VOLVO bus I can feel the engineering difference. It is not a good sign of our times that notwithstanding the engineering culture that some of our cities and more precisely Bangalore possesses that we lag behind  in the ability to design new and better products from within our corporations both engineering and business.

We have built a large number of Engineering college that strikes awe in the developed world too. I was once talking to Edward Proctor of the University of Chicago and he had praise for the large number of engineering colleges that we built. Even otherwise engineering course is the best education one can aspire considering the various subjects both theoretical and practical one is exposed to and the natural graduation of an engineering graduate into managerial positions. My only hope is that engineering education does not forget the crux of engineering ;its orientations and aspirations and does not only focus on generating better paid labour but would evolve instantly into a higher platforms of focusing on creating new and better things for which engineering was basically slated.