My story is not of a guy who gets what he wants fighting all the odds. It’s of a guy whose fate was decided partly by the forces not completely under his control and partly by his nature of picking the road less taken. More of exploration than sheer ambition. And also a story that is still in the making and one that’ll always be.

I grew up in a small but ambitious city of Vizag on the eastern coast in a humble family which loved to play cards and watch cricket. If there is one thing in common with the kids from there, it is a sarcastic sense of humor and a passed-on dream of cracking IIT-JEE. My dream of becoming an IITian (not an engineer) is more of a default.

Choosing‌ ‌a‌ ‌lesser‌ ‌known‌ ‌career‌ ‌discipline.

Vizag, in those days, was like a paddy field, producing grades of to-be engineers. Few go out as IITians, few more as NITians and the rest simply aspiring engineering students from swarms of colleges in and around the city. The definition of success in life was so obvious to me that when I didn’t qualify JEE in my first attempt, I wasted no time in giving it a second try. Life is simple when goals are clear, right! So another year of intense yet structured preparation in a healthy competitive environment alongside a wonderful company and brilliant tutors, I made it through. Secured a rank. Celebrations, parties and lots of video games followed. After the sugar rush of success slowly waned, reality hit me.

What next?

My friends with clearer subject interests were more certain of their choice of trade. Math freaks went for Computer Science. Physics lovers went for Mechanical and Electrical. No liked chemistry much. But I was moderately good at all three of them and didn’t have any favorites. The dreadful task of choosing a career seemed more daunting to me than qualifying the toughest entrance exam in the country.

To make matters ‘easy’, a handbook came along with other information brochures from IIT Admissions office. It had a long list of finely printed opening and closing ranks (of the previous academic year) of different departments across IITs. That list to some extent determines one’s fate. It skews our own thinking and I like to call it the academic pecking order. The one that’s robotically followed year on year and influencing students’ choices. So, here’s how it goes. If a department had a higher closing rank than another department, meaning, if top rankers preferred it over something else, conclusions are somehow made that the department itself is better than the ones below. Similarly, if an IIT ranked below another IIT in the list, we judge it to be inferior. Whatever be the case, it sure made my life easy. Less work for my lazy brain to do. I narrowed my options to the top seven IITs (they were 15 that year). I had fewer options to choose from that way. With the help of my online research, I was very impressed by the beautiful campus of IIT-Madras. Also, it’s close to home. So, I made sure my preference list had those departments in IIT-M above the rest.

That’s when I heard about ’Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering’ program at IIT-Madras. Actually, that name rung a bell. A few years ago, I saved a paper clip about a featured article on that discipline in The Hindu. It almost felt like a call of destiny, or I was young enough to believe so. I felt like I should take it. I didn’t know anyone who graduated from that program to advise me. The night before the final deadline, I went over to the beach in Vizag, sat down on the shore and stared at the distant sea. I could see a few ships approaching the port. It’s hard to explain how I got convinced. But I did. I made up my mind. For the first time in my life, I made a choice. I resisted the urge to follow the crowd. I chose Naval Architecture over other options and brought it up in my preference list. But what is Naval Architecture? I didn’t have an answer at that time except that I knew it had something to do with ships.

As expected, I got a seat to pursue Naval Architecture at IIT Madras. The pecking order works with razor-sharp precision. Thus began by the next phase of life - college. It sure as hell looked as good as in the pictures on the internet. I had never seen a library that big in my whole life. There were monkeys on the campus too. The first few semesters are common for all the streams. The level of math definitely went up from what I was taught until 12th grade. It didn’t intimidate me though. So if you like engineering math, it means you like engineering. Because no matter which discipline you choose, you have to deal with it. Lots of it. I tried to balance my time between academics and other things - mainly movies, TV shows, new music, etc., But one thing blew me away, the Centre for Innovation (CFI) at IIT-M. As I stepped into the building with a senior who wanted me to help him on his graduation project, I was stunned. They were exhibits of student-made robots, cars and even airplanes. I knew at an instant that I was meant for just that and became a regular visitor. I assembled a CNC foam cutting machine. It was so cool. Learned how to operate a drilling machine, a lather machine, soldering, welding, you name it. All by myself. That’s the best part.

Managing academics wasn’t a big problem for me. I could follow most of the courses. The courses from the fourth semester started to get a bit more department specific. Few of them are dry and a few not so much. I trudged along. Most of my time was in CFI anyway.

I tried my hands on a variety of things. A team project on an autonomous underwater vehicle in CFI, an assistive device for children with cerebral palsy, a simple microphone and many other things that don’t even have a name. In 2014 summer, we won the national competition in autonomous robotics called SAVe and qualified to represent India internationally. It’s a moment no money can buy.

I interned in a senior’s start-up in a design firm serving offshore clients and ship owners. Converted my internship project into my graduation project and worked on finite element analysis, a kind of advanced strength analysis of a ship. I found it extremely challenging. The process of figuring things out, of making assumptions and failing, of seeking a lot of help and getting some and an eternal the hope of getting the right results excited me. I always had a couple of problems on my head at a point of time.

With a few good internships under my belt, a decent academic record and most importantly a will to stay in my field, I got recruited in a very reputable company in the marine industry. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be in a place which is a solutions provider to all things marine. The level of exposure I got about my industry and knowledge I gained in the past four years is immense. I deal mostly with high-speed crafts and composite materials, something that’s totally new to me. I interact with clients from boatyards and medium-sized shipyards all around the country on a daily basis. I got an opportunity to meet some of the wonderful people in my job. I see a huge potential for India to be a maritime power. Water-transport is still underutilized in this country and steps are being taken slowly yet steady in that direction. A lot of people ask me, what does a Naval Architect do? It’s straight and simple. He/she solves problems related to the marine industry. Design problems, construction problems, maintenance problems, operational problems, and the list goes on.

Advice‌ ‌for‌ ‌aspiring‌ ‌engineers.

A lot of engineers complain about the lack of creativity in it. They feel it’s mundanity. Applying the same formulae over and over again. Yes, I get it guys. Not everyone is building cool robots like the popular images of tech guys seem to evoke these days. But it is necessary. That’s how you get initiated. Slowly, you will rely less on all those formulae and tools to solve problems and more on your intuition and system thinking. Think of it like piano practice. I had to go over a C-Major scale for a 100 times before I could play a tune. It gets more natural. It’s the same with anything. It’s how the subject tests you.

If there is a piece of advice, for an aspiring engineer, It’s this.

Engineering, unlike science, is not often times cutting edge. It is 90% of the time being calculative and 10% of the time being creative. The calculator part is boring yet necessary to shape that engineering intuition in you. The creative part of it is applying that strong engineering acumen to solve a unique problem which confounds you once in while and questions everything that you think you knew. And maybe you’ll stumble upon an idea that can change something, however small or ground-breaking that maybe. Until then, keep calculating, get better at it, get faster at it, figure out ways to speed it up, maybe invent new formulae and shortcuts. Remember guys, it’s engineers who invented the computers to solve their problems and not the other way round. We all hear about the advances in computing every day in the news, be it machine learning or DNA as data-storage. We need these break-throughs to touch every field, from chemical engineering to civil, from naval architecture to nanotechnology, from mechanical to material science. Don’t be afraid to step out of the order. Don’t be afraid to take the road less traveled.

Now, had I got the chance to go back in life and do things differently, would I do the same things again? Of course not. Who would waste that chance like that? I’ll probably do medicine. Or sports maybe.