ENGINEERS ARE NOT COOL

Its been a long harboured belief ( though I'd have used the term myth, I realise that the time is simply not ripe for that ) that Engineers ( I'm talking about those who get into the top colleges in the Nation, not just any Random person on earth who has gotten into any Engineering College ) are not fun loving people ( or in other words are nerds). They're viewed by others as a different species altogether. That they've no sense of humour, that they're book-wormish geek-like pain-to-be-with types who seldom have the time to say anything apart from polymorphism and recursion, that they're pre-absorbed in wondering if there was another solution to the Tower Of Hanoi , that they don't love parties in happening places , that they are short of confidence and still send friend requests to girls on Orkut, feigning insouciance, and that they're uncool. For all people who have such RATIONAL beliefs , I'd really appreciate if someone came forward and explained to this humble and ignorant prospective engineer what according to them was the definition of a cool person.

Or let me make a wild guess : a cool person uses - in trend - words like wassup ,yo baby , stylo which elude all attempts at capture by those compiling a dictionary ; messes with the conventional ways of spelling english words by spelling my as ma and life as lyf , physics ( if at all he/she uses the vestigial word ) as fysix ; wears self designed apparel that defies the plain un-materialistic human comfort ; has piercings and tattoos in strange places ; dances in discos thrice a week ; drinks to the tune and smokes to the flow of the surging adrenaline ; misbehaves and calls it attitude ; moves around on modified sports bikes ; does many a thing beyond human understanding . Well my apologies if I missed out something that should've been mentioned as part of the comprehensive definition. And I agree that engineers ( you know whom I'm talking about ) are uncool , for they can hardly meet the QUALIFICATIONS of a cool person , even if they fulfil some parametric requirements like drinking like a pro does ( but I've seen them lose their colour after a single shot though. See, they don't practice enough .) So , on the basis of our definition , we conclude that engineers are UNCOOL . Fair enough. But it still remains a fact that engineers are gifted, specially in the areas of logical deduction and scientific thinking and that they are not afraid to contest any belief if they don't believe in its authenticity. And the world bears a testimony of such people and their attempts to question even the most OBVIOUS statements. Time and again we've seen them rise from anonymity and challenge Gods of the modern times - Newton and Einstein - and then get lost in oblivion. They have their 15 months of fame and then years of degradation, which goes on to prove that even if Engineers are uncool, they are simply not ORTHODOX. And being a prospective Engineer, I am but no exception to the rule . At this point of time, I'll not say that your definition of a cool person is flawed. I'd rather say that different people have different ways of defining words that are branded as being slang and no suitable meanings for which are found in any of the Dictionaries.

Well, Engineers are uncool if you go by the mythological definition. But I am UNORTHODOX and I choose to mould the definition to suit my needs. I believe that being UNORTHODOX is cool. I believe that challenging some law, knowing fully that your opinion will - more or less - be crushed in its infancy is super COOL. Standing up for whatever you believe in , even if no one else does , that is cool. Facing the dire realities of life ( or lyf or whatever ) and choosing to see them rather than shutting the innate perceptive abilities is COOL. Accepting your flaws and not trying to sweep them under the rug of nonchalance, that is cool. Humility is cool. I'm fine with it even if it shows a lack of the conventional attitude. Isn't respecting everyone cool ? Wouldn't it be cool if someone respected you ? I believe that profanity of language in an attempt to appear cool is highly UNCOOL. Richness of language is cool. I happened to be with some CONVENTIONALLY COOL people the other day. I was shocked to see one of them misspell "opportunity" and no one was able to locate the error even after my reprimand. Illiteracy is definately not cool. Literacy is cool. Wearing whatever you are comfortable in , even if it is not in fashion, is cool. I disagree that Engineers lack a sense of humour. Its just that people don't understand their jokes when they say that " the name of the Rock Band Infected Mushrooms is derived from the symptoms of a water borne disease prevalent in the Rain Forests of the equatorial region". Intellectual humour is so Cool.

Engineers are deprived of the "Cool" tag because they are different. Being DIFFERENT is cool.Its true that they've strived hard to make it to a good college, and its also true that it requires some sacrifices and self-restraints on their part but what is not true is that they don't have the necessary ingredient in them that others pursuing law or management or arts or say fashion designing or whatever possesess , that makes them cool. I believe that anyone on Earth can be cool and we ENGINEERS are no MARTIANS.