Preface and Disclaimer

"To be or not to be", the first line of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, comes handy to many of us during dilemmas of various proportions. Now just add two little dots in between the letters of the word “be”. What you get is a question that plagues every engineer’s life, while he is in the making, when he is successfully one, and for the rest of his life.

TO B.E. OR NOT TO B.E.?

In India, where every set of parents want their children to be either doctors or engineers, the most probable answer to the above question is a YES.

Let me just jot down a few possible reasons behind the obvious “YES”:

1) Mrs. Gupta’s son is now in the US, earning Rs. 30 lakhs/year. He is an electrical engineer working in a software company. Why should Mrs. Sharma not let her puttar tread the same lucrative path?

2) I was good in studies and so I had no other good option, yaar!

3) Papa says that I will get a good dowry if I become an engineer.

4) I want to be an astronaut.

5) Aditi, Prajakta, Vidya, Aparna are planning to do engineering. So I also want to be an engineer.

6) I don’t want to do B.Com or B.Sc. So, kuch to karoo!

7) Papa said that I should do MBA after graduation and since most MBAs are engineers, I want to do engineering.

8) Hmm…. No idea.

 By the way, I myself am an electrical engineer working in a software company and wish to be one of the most-loved authors of India. There is no relation between what I have graduated from, what I currently do and what I wish to be! My simple reasons for doing engineering were point numbers 2 and 8 above.

If you also chose B.E. for any of the above 8 reasons, then this book is for you. But if you have dreamt of becoming an engineer ever since you could spell the word ‘engineer’, then please keep this book back and check some other book; you won’t enjoy this book!

Disclaimer

"To B.E. or not To B.E." is a satire on the life of engineering students. Mention of every character, name, place, animal, thing or situation is merely a pure coincidence. No need to read between the lines. No engineers and/or animals were hurt during the making of this book. Every attempt has been taken by the publisher/author to make sure that dogs don’t get offended in chapter #3. The same is applicable to engineers, too. Just have fun, laugh your heart out; as simple as that!