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  • Takeaways from Our Small Talk With Dr. Vijay Bhatkar

    Kaustubh Katdare

    Kaustubh Katdare

    @thebigk
    Updated: Oct 21, 2024
    Views: 1.0K
    CEans, our #-Link-Snipped-# is now live in our #-Link-Snipped-# section. If you haven't read the interview yet, I'd *strongly* recommend you to go through it. It's not only motivating but also educates us. I want to discuss takeaways from this exclusive interview with Dr. Bhatkar and I plant to make this a regular activity for all our future small talks.

    I like the answer to the following question the most :-


    CE: What do you like & dislike the most about current breed of engineers & engineering students?

    What I like about the engineers and engineering students of today is that they’re young, they have zeal and they have self-confidence to face the challenges of the 21st century. What I don’t like about them is that they are obsessed with their salary package, rather than knowledge and abiding will to learn. ...
    Dr. Bhatkar isn't suggesting you to stop making money altogether for the want of education. But he wants us to be introspective and find whether we're blindly running after money sacrificing our thirst for knowledge? He further says -

    Engineers are supposed to solve problems, under constraints, ingeniously.
    Beautiful statement that summarizes what engineering is about! As engineers, we are supposed to solve problems! Engineering equips us with technical knowledge to solve the problems. But have we learned to 'identify' the problems first?

    Share your opinion and your favorites takeaways from the interview 😀
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • May 3, 2012

    PS: I'm expecting actual 'responses' than simple likes to above post.
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  • Vignesh Raghav

    Member • May 3, 2012

    The sayings were true ...well qualified engineers are biased with salary packages . Problem is they are not recognized for their works .They are being nullified 👎
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  • ISHAN TOPRE

    Member • May 3, 2012

    Tinge of patriotism in the interview. I remember he spoke more than the allotted time in TEDx talk. He was simply inspiring.

    From the interview I can spot something to do in coming decades. I strongly object to this sentence-
    US$ 80 billion industry
    .

    Why? We have our own currency and still we are being evaluated in US$. Can we reverse this trend? It is a challenge before us. Let Angry India(?)... Nah Bharat do it!
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • May 3, 2012

    #-Link-Snipped-# : We're discussing our takeaways in this thread. If you want to express your opinion about why Indian industry should be valued in INR than USD, start another thread in the debate section, please.
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  • ISHAN TOPRE

    Member • May 3, 2012

    That was a takeaway friend. Read the interview carefully.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • May 3, 2012

    Looking forward to more responses from our regular CEans 😀
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  • Ankita Katdare

    Administrator • May 3, 2012

    1) “Can we do it? I said, “I have not seen a supercomputer as we have no access to supercomputer, I only have seen a picture of Cray!”
    2) “How long will it take?”, he asked. I promptly replied, “Less than it took for us in trying to import Cray from US. And we could develop the whole technology in less than 3 years. And we could develop the whole technology in less than 3 years!” He smiled and then asked,
    3) “How much money it would take?” I replied, “The whole effort, including building an institution, developing technology and delivering India’s first supercomputer of YMP capability would cost less than the cost of Cray YMP, including its site, installation and commissioning!! This immediately pleased the PM and the C-DAC mission was approved on the model of Sam Pitroda’s C-DOT.

    What an awesome way to convince. If it had not been for this conversation, we might not have seen the PARAM coming to life.
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  • Manish Goyal

    Member • May 3, 2012

    View of a man , when I showed him this interview

    LOL.. good point. He must have been a smart man, that he didnt mention this on his blog, but went to a blogger on crazy engineer and whispered him "this is my personal conversation with Rajiv Gandhi and here I am criticizing Indian bureaucracy, despite being a government employee, go and spread it"
    and a narcissist as well " This immediately pleased the PM ".
    and best part he wanted a secretary before he wanted an engineer 😛
    Get a more authentic source dude, time to grow up.
    Is it really authentic
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  • Ankita Katdare

    Administrator • May 3, 2012

    goyal420
    View of a man , when I showed him this interview

    LOL.. good point. He must have been a smart man, that he didnt mention this on his blog, but went to a blogger on crazy engineer and whispered him "this is my personal conversation with Rajiv Gandhi and here I am criticizing Indian bureaucracy, despite being a government employee, go and spread it"
    and a narcissist as well " This immediately pleased the PM ".
    and best part he wanted a secretary before he wanted an engineer 😛
    Get a more authentic source dude, time to grow up.
    Is it really authentic
    About whose authenticity does he talk? Mr. Bhatkar has spoke about this conversation in person at a talk before a huge audience.

    In other news : Mr. Bhatkar is soon going to be Director of IIT-D and has been nominated for the post of President of India too.
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  • ISHAN TOPRE

    Member • May 3, 2012

    goyal420
    View of a man , when I showed him this interview

    LOL.. good point. He must have been a smart man, that he didnt mention this on his blog, but went to a blogger on crazy engineer and whispered him "this is my personal conversation with Rajiv Gandhi and here I am criticizing Indian bureaucracy, despite being a government employee, go and spread it"
    and a narcissist as well " This immediately pleased the PM ".
    and best part he wanted a secretary before he wanted an engineer 😛
    Get a more authentic source dude, time to grow up.
    Is it really authentic
    Tell that person:

    We have problem assembling our own PC, installing OS, Installing software and antivirus.

    While that man almost single-handedly made first Indian Supercomputer. Let us be a little more respectful.
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  • Gurjap

    Member • May 4, 2012

    What I don’t like about them is that they are obsessed with their salary package, rather than knowledge and abiding will to learn. ...
    That sounds very nice. Except we get a little disillusioned as we get through the college years. The society decides a man's worth from how deep his pocket is; and even engineers have to live in a society. As for knowledge and ability, doesn't THAT tend to increase your package?
    But Mr Bhatkar's point has been made before and will continue to be made. I don't mean to be irreverent though.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • May 4, 2012

    #-Link-Snipped-#: Not really. I think what he meant is perfectly alright. 'Doing What You Love' or 'Have a thirst for knowledge' does not imply that you'd not make enough money if you did that. Most of the people just lose their interest in exploring things and adopt to being robots after joining workforce. I've seen it happening to 99% of my friends.
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  • Gurjap

    Member • May 5, 2012

    I wonder why
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • May 5, 2012

    Gurjap
    I wonder why
    I think it's natural. Unless you're into R&D; the nature and type of work is almost defined. There's no room for innovation and even if you innovate, you've layers of management to sail through.

    Then the work hours, stress and deadlines take out the motivation and enthusiasm to do something part time as well. It happens to most of the people. People then tend to believe that they're better settled in their regular lives and don't want to take up anything else that stretches their brain muscles. That's why you'd see a lot of people spending their entire weekend sleeping! I've often wondered why people sleep longer on weekends! 😀
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  • Gurjap

    Member • May 5, 2012

    Nice observations, Biggie 😀. You aren't a part time psychologist, are you?

    Anyway, it was amusing how Dr Bhatkar quoted Steve Jobs (a bit wrongly), a man completely different from him. I mean, Jobs really did live this "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" thing. He was a decadent man who shunned all authority, hated the government wasn't ready to be anybody's "descendant". That doesn't sound much like Dr Bhatkar's profile.

    And I wonder how I am expected to "transform India" 😛
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • May 6, 2012

    I had an opportunity to meet with him at TEDx talk. I think it'd not be right to compare the work and lifetimes of Steve Jobs with anyone from India. India is totally different from other countries in terms of almost everything.

    The background Dr. Bhatkar comes from makes his story more interesting. It's the culture that we have that makes things work differently for us.

    For example, how many of us have really funded our own education than using parent's money? How many of us are comfortable working at Pizza Hut to manage our own expenses? Similarly, how many of us would have access to a Venture Capitalist who'd invest in two uneducated boys working out of a garage? And how many of us would really have customers willing to buy these electronic machines that apparently didn't do much productive work back then? How many of us have access to hacker clubs (real hacking clubs, I mean) where like minded electronics hackers would share their inventions to form a 'community' which later evolves into an ecosystem?

    Steve Jobs's story is extraordinary; but then he's had a different background. I'd find Indian success stories more inspiring than Steve Jobs'. There are plenty of them! Just that they aren't given much hype as Steve's.
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  • Gurjap

    Member • May 6, 2012

    Maybe that has something to do with the man Jobs was. He knew how to present himself, his company and his products. This man knew what people wanted. Maybe not what people really needed.... but what they wanted.. as in the aesthetics. Notice how all iDevices look like artwork of gloss and aluminum? How many Indians do what Jobs did?

    But I digress. Supposed to be talking about Dr Bhatkar..
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