1st Jan 2021
I'm starting this blog post on first day of new year. With positive intent and high Hope that this momentum will continue throughout the year.
Just to set the background for this post. I passed out of college in 2004. It was a Diploma college so I received an advance diploma on completion of course. I had campus placement in college itself so I joined my first company after 2 days and thus begin my professional life. Even during college I had this inkling that a diploma holder gets far less than a degree holder unless he is outstanding which quite evidently I was not. Partly because of that and partly due to peer pressure I had enrolled into correspondence degree course AMIE. Many of my other friends were also pursuing the same course and many others were doing BA, LLB, BCA etc too. Some of them managed to clear it in the college itself and some others in the initial years of job after college. I could neither clear in college nor immediately after joining my first company. To cut the long story short, ultimately I had to give up on the idea of acquiring a degree or higher education and make peace with the fact that I will remain a diploma holder only.
Now its around 16 years since I passed out from college. Even though I changed many jobs, department and roles randomly, sometimes due to factors beyond my control. But for many years now, I have some order in this chaos. In some way or other, I'm associated with packaging and Robotic automation which remains constant while job change. Plus the fact that I have more spare time than earlier due to working from home and many universities are offering online courses due to pandemic. I felt that time was just right for me to enrol into and get the degree of Robotics. And the cherry on the cake was when I found out that even IIT is offering online course on Robotics. I grabbed the opportunity with two hands without any second thoughts.
I enrolled in this course from NPETL through IIT Kanpur. It was taught by Prof DK Pratihar.
Unfortunately I lost track of exact date when the course was starting as it was postponed a few times. As a result of that I was late in very first assignment and thereafter only playing catchup till the very end. Like a stereotypical engineering student, I was submitting the assignment on last dates. Nonetheless I went through the motions and completed all assignments. There was no way I could have cleared the exam required for a formal certificate so I skipped it. It was a sobering experience for me which made me realize that I need to study more and focus on basics not relying on practical experience at all. Secondly it was Deja vu moment for me after more than a decade as I remember that I used to give up on exams when I was pursuing degree while in college.
The good thing is the courses are of 8 to 12 weeks duration so I could again enroll in similar course with different teacher this time as each teacher has their own unique method of teaching. In fact I have already joined another course due to start in around 2 weeks time. Hopefully second time will be a charm.
However I need to pull myself by the socks if I want to succeed this time. It around 16 years since I set foot outside college and there too it was more practical based approach in my college. It requires constant effort with Discipline to master any new skill or gain mastery. I have been known to fall short in these aspects
Now is another chance to set things right. I could feel that my discipline will be severely tested as cracking the exam will need daily studying. The subject selected is also pretty complex one.
I got reasonable results on writing blog post in early morning even though the arrangement is only few weeks old. Hence I'm thinking to allot some time in the morning to study on Robotics subject too. The problem is that I want to utilize morning me time for exercise and physical fitness too. Combine that with freezing winter mornings where you do not want to come out of cozy bed and you get a perfect recipe for failure.
PS : My second course has started too and I'm already having thoughts of leaving it as I find the first assignment too tough. When I planned on having a go at this course, I thought it will be relatively easy as the concept will not be totally alien to me. But I underestimated the fact that generally it's more difficult to clear any exam on second time if you are not mentally strong and demons from last time will raise their head at any opportune moment and remind you about the futility of whole exercise.
Plus last time I took some shortcuts which affected my petty badly. I have to avoid falling into the trap of going the same way again.
