Academic and Creative Writing Journal Vikram Karve: March 2013

Saturday, March 30, 2013

SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING - Meaning and Definition

SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING
Meaning and Definition
By
VIKRAM KARVE

India could not capitalize on its Scientific Developments since our Engineering and Technology were weak.

There is no use pursuing scientific research without strong engineering capability and robust technological base.

There is no use inventing and discovering new things if you cannot utilize your inventions and discoveries for the benefit of mankind.

Once when I was talking to some youngsters I realized that they did not know the difference between Science, Engineering and Technology. Do you?

In many research organizations even Engineers and Technologists are designated as Scientists.

Do you know what is the difference between Science, Technology and Engineering?

Or can you tell me what is the difference between a Scientist, a Technologist and an Engineer?

Let me try to elaborate, in as simple a way as possible:

SCIENCE and the SCIENTIST

The principal goal of a Scientist is to publish a paper.

Now-a-days, the sheer manner in which so many papers are churned out it seems that many papers are seen to be written, not written to be seen.

Of course, a genuine Scientist will try and ensure that the paper must be written to be seen and not seen to be written. Science is the reasoned investigation or study of natural phenomena with the objective of discovering new principles and knowledge of natural phenomena.

TECHNOLOGY and the TECHNOLOGIST

The principal goal of a Technologist is to produce some physical change in the world.

Technology is the practical application of science.

Technology includes the skill, technique and knowledge of the manipulation of nature for human purposes, using scientific results and knowledge.

ENGINEERING and the ENGINEER

The principal goal of an Engineer is to design, create and produce new tools, machines and systems for practical human means by exploiting technology.

In order to exploit technology, the engineer applies scientific principles to practical ends such as the design, manufacture, and operation of efficient and economical structures, machines, processes and systems.

Thus, Engineering is the professional art of using technology (the practical application of science) for achieving the optimum conversion of the resources of nature for the benefit of humankind.

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell,

a Scientist studies nature

a Technologist manipulates nature

an Engineer exploits technology for human purposes.

While Scientists may, at times, may conduct scientific studies for the sake of discovery, Engineers and Technologists always try to have in mind the ultimate benefit of humankind and results of their work are invariably beneficial for human purposes.

Engineering is the art of optimally using technology and is primarily concerned with how to direct to useful and economical ends the natural phenomena which scientists discover and formulate into acceptable.

Engineering therefore requires the creative imagination to innovatively apply technology in order to obtain useful applications of natural phenomena.

It seeks newer, cheaper, better technologies of using natural sources of energy and materials.

So it looks like the Engineer is the one who is most useful to society and humankind, isn't it?

Dear Reader, do you agree?

Or do you feel that the Scientist is more important that the Engineer?

Or do you think there is no difference between Science, Technology and Engineering?

Please do give your views and comments.

A Gobbledygook Definition of ENGINEERING

Now I have tried to tell you in as simple a way as possible, but if you prefer Gobbledygook read on – The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development has defined Engineering as follows:

The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and property.

I think I’ll end with a quote:

"A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering." - Freeman Dyson

VIKRAM KARVE

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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About Vikram Karve

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer and blogger. Educated at IIT Delhi, IIT (BHU) Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and is currently working on his novel and a book of vignettes and an anthology of short fiction. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories and creative non-fiction articles on a variety of topics including food, travel, philosophy, academics, technology, management, health, pet parenting, teaching stories and self help in magazines and published a large number of professional and academic research papers in journals and edited in-house journals and magazines for many years, before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing and blogging. Vikram Karve lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

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THE MEANING OF MORALE

MORALE
The Meaning of Morale
By
VIKRAM KARVE

I am sure you have heard of the term MORALE – especially if you are an HR person or a Military Officer.

But tell me, do you precisely know the meaning of the term MORALE…?

If you google the word MORALE to find out the definition, you will get a plethora of confusing gobbledygook.

The reason is clear – MORALE is an intangible entity which is easy to experience and feel, but which cannot be precisely defined.

So I will say only this.

MORALE comes from three factors:

1. Having an important job to do.

2. Feeling that you are doing it well.

3. Receiving recognition for your good work.

That is all there is to it.

Morale has got nothing to do with money.

Morale is all about recognition, and respect which flows from recognition.

Of the three R’s of Human Resource Management:

1. REWARD
2. RECOGNITION
3. RESPECT

Reward has got the least to do with Morale - Recognition and Respect contribute much more to raising morale.

So if you want to raise MORALE you must focus on the three points mentioned above and ensure that the employee gets due RECOGNITION and consequential RESPECT.

I will end with a quote by General George S. Patton on the importance of Morale:

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.

It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

VIKRAM KARVE

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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Friday, March 29, 2013

ABSURD LOGIC - SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE NEED TO DRINK MORE ALCOHOL

HUMOR IN UNIFORM

Here is one of my retirement musings on what I feel is an absurd interpretation and ludicrous implementation of the Rank Has Its Privileges or RHIP Concept.

I am posting it once more for you to read, enjoy and ponder over ... Cheers

ABSURD LOGIC - SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE NEED TO DRINK MORE ALCOHOL

ALCOHOL and OLQ (OFFICER LIKE QUALITIES)

THE PARADOX OF LIQUOR QUOTA

Humour in Uniform

VIKRAM KARVE

Disclaimer:
Read this post only if you have a Sense of Humour.
This is a spoof so take it with a pinch of salt and have a laugh.
Cheers...!!!

Conventional wisdom says that as you grow older you should reduce your consumption of alcohol and drink less liquor.

However, the Military Canteen Stores Department (CSD) seems to think otherwise.

The more senior you become the more liquor you get.

Yes, your liquor quota increases according to your rank.

I don’t know the exact liquor quota nowadays, but in our time, junior officers got about 12 bottles of booze a month, the mid-level officers got 14 bottles a month, senior officers got 16 bottles a month and flag officers got unlimited liquor.

Well, the numbers may have changed, but the logic remains the same – your liquor quota increases in direct proportion to your rank.

Going by this topsy-turvy logic one may draw the inference that the more senior you become the more liquor you are supposed to drink.

Conversely, as a corollary, one may surmise that promotion is directly proportional to your drinking capacity or alcohol tolerance level.

In a nutshell, this liquor quota conundrum seems to be like a vicious cycle:

1. SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE NEED TO DRINK MORE ALCOHOL

and

2. TO BE SUCCESSFUL YOU MUST DRINK MORE ALCOHOL

Yes, the more booze you can drink and the more alcohol you can imbibe, the greater are your chances of promotion to higher ranks.

Ostensibly Career Prospects are linked to Drinking Capacity – THE MORE YOU DRINK THE HIGHER YOU GO.

Let me now digress a bit:

AN EXCEPTION PROVES THE RULE

By the way, at least in my case, this “promotion is directly proportional to drinking capacity” theory did not hold true.

For had this premise been foolproof, then yours truly would surely have become an Admiral; because in my heyday, I could comfortably polish off more than half a bottle of Rum in a drinking session.

Sadly, now I am a teetotaller, but during my early navy days I loved to drink and was a passionate drinker with great drinking capacity.

If career prospects indeed depended on drinking capacity, I should have certainly gone high up the promotion ladder.

But maybe, I was an exception to the rule.

And maybe an exception proves the rule

Jokes apart, I feel that this absurd logic of a “pecking order” for liquor quotas is a rather bizarre interpretation of the RANK HAS ITS PRIVILEGES (RHIP) concept. In fact, it is a rather feudal approach taking rank based discrimination to absurd limits.

Can you please tell me by what logic does an elderly ageing senior officer require to drink more alcohol than his much more younger and youthful junior?

In fact, if you ask me, it may be more prudent to give more liquor quota to young carefree bachelor officers and keep them in “high spirits” rather than facilitate senior married officers to drown their sorrows in alcohol and damage their health, besides ruining their family life.

This RHIP discrimination continues after retirement too, despite the fact that once you retire you relinquish your active service rank and become a civilian and are considered equal in status with all others.

So while you are in service, your Promotion Potential is directly linked to your Drinking Capacity (also called Alcohol Tolerance Level in medical parlance).

Your drinking prowess will not only enable you reach high rank while in service, but it will also ensure that (in view of your high rank) you get a higher liquor quota even after retirement.

And now, someone tells me, even the paramilitary forces want to join the liquor quota bandwagon and are applying the same bizarre RHIP logic for determining liquor quotas and want to continue the same rank-consciousness after retirement too.

The uninitiated must be wondering what is this liquor quota I am talking about?

Well, maybe some veteran can correct me, but as far as I understand, this liquor quota concept seems to be relic of the Raj.

The genesis of this liquor quota probably goes back to the days of the British Raj when a British Officer serving in India away from home was given a certain amount of liquor at concessional rates.

After Independence, like most rules and regulations made by the erstwhile British rulers, this concept was continued.

Yes, in many cases we continue to follow archaic “Royal” traditions in our services which even the British have done away with long ago.

One wonders whether the British still have a liquor quota for their servicemen and ex-servicemen.

As far as the Royal Navy is concerned, I read somewhere that British Royal Navy has discontinued the daily “Rum Rations” given to sailors on board ships which was a centuries-old tradition from the days of the “Rum Bum Lash Navy” (or Rum Sodomy Lash Navy as Sir Winston Churchill is alleged to have famously quipped).

This day, 31 July 1970, the last day when Rum Rations were served to sailors, was observed as “Black Tot Day”.

Whether this “perk” of subsidized liquor is good or bad is a debatable issue. But it is certainly an incentive to drink alcohol; at least it was in the erstwhile days of prohibition and when drinking was not quite prevalent in civilian society and there was hardly any good quality Indian Liquor.

But nowadays, post liberalization and globalization, the choicest of liquor is freely available all over, and since most states levy various taxes on CSD goods anyway, there is hardly any price differential between the CSD and Civil rates, so gradually a day will come when this “quota” will become irrelevant.

It is interesting to note that whereas there is “rank bias” in the entitlement of CSD liquor quota, there is no “gender bias” as far as booze is concerned.

Yes, as far as drinking alcohol is concerned, lady officers of the army, navy and air force have equal opportunity of imbibing the same amount of liquor as their male counterparts in the same rank.

In the services, as far as liquor quota is concerned, it is only rank that matters - gender does not matter.

Cheers for gender equality.

In fact, there is gender privilege in case a woman officer outranks her male colleague. A senior female officer will get more liquor quota than a junior male officer.

That calls for a drink!

But coming back to the moot point, I still have two sets of unanswered questions in my mind:

1. Are you supposed to drink more alcohol as you get senior?

Is there a correlation between Rank and the amount of alcohol you need to imbibe?

Do successful people need to drink more alcohol...?

2. Is drinking capacity the key to career success?

Is promotion to senior ranks dependent on your drinking prowess?

Do you need to drink more alcohol to be successful?

Is there merit in the “truism”: The More You Drink The Higher You Go

Will some “veteran” be so good as to enlighten us?

Till then, Cheers – enjoy your “quota” - have a drink!

VIKRAM KARVE

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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