A Survey of Indian Engineering College Students Desk Grafitti

Dad just took a quick trip to BITS, Pilani, a college campus in the wilderness of Rajastan, to do some recruiting. After barreling through five hours of thick fog in the dark through the bumpy country roads and a few hours sleep at the local guest house we arrived at the campus.


I often think about how lucky I am not to have had to fight my way through the tough school and college entrance process that these good people have to do. Now after seeing the job selection process for these "freshers" I think about how lucky I am not to have to had do that either.

After putting on a short PowerPoint presentation about our company (including data about the starting salary) we give an hour and a half written exam in a FREEZING cold room:


About half of these students were sitting for my software exam, out of which the top three or four were to be selected for a face-to-face interview. While wondering around waiting for the students to finished, I noticed the grafitti on the desks.

Now when we think of grafitti back home, the themes I can remember typically run like this:

• Somebody's name
• Somebody's name with their girlfriend.
• Gang-related scribbling
• Doodles
• Unspeakable obscenities

So to further probe the psyche of this young and vibrant country, here are some examples of Indian College Student desk grafitti from with some accompanying thoughts. I put these in order of the amount of each type that I saw:

1. Technical Doodlings

Lots of Matmatical Formulas

Some C code

An electrical circuit

I asked some students what this was all about. Was this a way to cheat on exams if you happened to get the right desk on test day? It didn't seem like that kind of scribbling and the students said that your chances of writing down the exact right problem were not that high anyway.

What they said was that on a lot of their tests, they are not given any scratch paper and they end up working things out directly on the wood of the desk instead.

Lesson: Even in the face of scarcity, these students are able to make do...or they cheat a lot in obvious ways.

2. Multinational Company Names

Microsoft- Mahish Babu

Wipro happened here

Preeti, Priya Dipu, Rimpy, Rakhi : Got ekas (first) job offer: Infosys, ..., Scomain

Lesson: This was really interesting. These students have beaten all odds, one out of thousands, working harder than you or I can ever imagine to get into a place at a good school like this one. The ultimate pinicle of their success will be landing a good job at a multinational company, making a starting salary of ten to twelve thousand a year, living the good life.

When sitting in a boring class they dream of days ahead, doodling on their desks the names of these companies like we would doodle the name of a high school girlfriend, lovingly circling the name, filling it in: Wipro...Microsoft...Oracle... *sigh*

3. Inspirational

Information Systems Association Prestya - Where Excellence is the Criterion!!!

Will Miss U BITS Pilani

Dare to dream - Care to achieve

Paul Priya Aarthi - Friends Forever

Lesson: One thing we love about India is how unabashadly sentimental it is. It's a very nice break from all the cynicism and sarcasm that is around these days. The actors in the movies still burst into song, run through the fields and hug trees. And why not? Dare to dream! Care to achieve!

3. Doodles

RIP: In memory of all the people who have died of boredom in this class.

The swastika here is a Hindu symbol of God (not a Nazi thing)

Lesson: In this regard, we are all the same. When class is boring, might as well draw a picture. When the exam is tough, calling on the powers of heaven by drawing some religious symbol may be your only hope!

4. Love

Some like one
Some like two
I like one
That are you
Ninnu aa lahi hai (Ninnu is coming!) - Chubham
Where are you my sweet?

Lesson: Out of the hundreds of desks I looked at, this was the only love note that was to an actual person instead of a multinational company. Clearly that sort of thing is not really on these students' minds, or at least it is buried down deep. Maybe the prospect for many of an arranged marriage when they turn 27 is enough. This may be more representative of the typical attitude:

Girls stay away from them

Happy Vishwakarma Puja!

Today, September 17 is Vishwakarma Puja. I was happy to learn that there is actually a Hindu God of Engineers. Vishwakarma is his name and he is supposed to have designed temples, palaces, missiles for ancient warfare, and the Universe.

One really neat thing here is the sense of the sacred that is everywhere. Today engineers and craftsmen stop and worship their tools. At our office a priest came into one of our labs and some offerings were made and prayers given:


Although not a Hindu myself, I think it's pretty neat that people stop and pay attention to what makes their livelihoods possible. Especially in my profession of engineering there is a lot of pride we take what we make.

Of course we never use our bare hands, we use tools and they came from somewhere. The next generation of computer chips are designed using computers that have in them the previous generation of computer chips running sophisticated software. The tools that are used to do what we do are the really astounding part of the whole deal. And those tools were in turn designed and built using other tools. And so on.

Once you take into account all the effort put into generations tools and infrastructure, one engineers' contribution to anything we build is but a small fraction of the overall effort.

And when considering our Maker who gave all those tens of thousands of people upon whose shoulders modern engineers stand their hands, minds, and inspiration, we can easily say that we do almost nothing. Just tiny little tweaks to move the whole thing forward.

So although taking a day for engineers to worship their tools might seem a bit funny to us, we should take that anytime over us engineers taking all the credit for our creations to ourselves!

Grandma and Graham

IMG_0285.JPG
Originally uploaded by merindarich.

Grandma was so sweet with Graham, holding him on her lap while Mindy packed and playing little games with him while Brandon played hymns on the piano and Janielle sang in the background.

Indian Wedding Fun

We went to our first Indian wedding and arrived too late for the family celebration at home (which I think we weren't actually supposed to go to anyway), and we sat in the living room while everyone readied themselves for the bharat--the procession/parade to the wedding place. Graham made many friends while we waited.

At about 9:00 pm the bharat began. We went less than a mile in about two hours. Generator in a truck powering chandelier lights along the way, a full brass band blaring music, fireworks, and lots and lots of dancing. The men did most of the dancing and almost always with other men. Rich was loving it. I was enjoying it, but worried about Graham's ears and getting hit with a firecracker!

At one point the trumpeter decided Graham needed his own firsthand, lasting memory of the wedding. Let's hope he can hear later!

This is Merinda at the wedding party lawn with lots of lights and glitz. I wised up this time and didn't wear black. By this time it was 1:00 am, Graham-Bam was fast asleep, and we gave up on the wedding actually STARTING and went home!

Our First Indian Wedding Reception

Okay, I know this is a really hideous picture of me, but it captures the glitz and the awkwardness I felt at this party where I had no idea what the social rules were! We drove two hours from our house for this big outdoor party, and everyone kept scolding us for not having the baby's head covered. It wasn't that cold! As you can see I was wearing sandals and my toes weren't a bit cold. But it was very fun. Lots of yummy Indian food and the people were so inviting. They had huge tables set up outside with just appetizers and then a huge empty room with a buffet dinner served. Everyone stood around eating while the Indian music boomed. The bride and groom were on a stage and groups of people kept going up to take turns having their picture taken with them.


One of Rich's co-workers was the groom and as the party warmed up all the men (no women) started jamming on the dance floor. Rich saw it as a time to pull out all his old moves from the 80s.


Rich's Indian co-workers were visibly impressed.

A Day in the Life of Mindy

So there’s never a dull moment in India. Here’s the play-by-play run-down of my day:

4:00 am Isaac woke up complaining his arm hurt. I think it’s growing pains. I gave him some Tylenol after distracting him didn’t work and he finally went to sleep.

4:30 am Couldn’t sleep so I emailed and blogged on my newly set-up computer

6:30 am Took a very quick shower in order to have hot water before it ran out

7:30 am Sent Isaac off to school with Rich and the driver

8:00 am Tried to figure out how to direct Sarita and Sudhir to do the things I want around the house and while I was thinking they were working and I realized they’re doing pretty much everything I would ever do and more. The only thing we’re really missing is a good cleaner to scrub the bathrooms with so I can see how really bad or good they are. Still looking for that . . . Have yet to see Comet or anything like it.

9:00 am Received a surprise visit from the American Women’s Association (AWA) Welcome Committee Chair Sandie Axelson. She lives down the road and was stopping by to make sure I was finding my way to the meeting

9:30 am Sent Sudhir to the market to buy laundry soap, bread, and stuff to make cholle for us (which turned out to be garbanzo beans).

10:00 am Went to the AWA meeting at the Delhi Golf Club. It was extremely posh, and I was (again) very under-dressed and the only one with my children. But I brought Sarita with me to help and it was nice. I met several moms with young children and got an idea of what AWA is all about. They do shopping trips and culture meetings and community outreach programs.

12:30 Picked Isaac up at school and we had lunch (hamburgers and mint chip ice cream cones) in the cafeteria with Marcia and her kids (Thomas & Ellie) along with several other families from Belgium, Australia, Korea, and somewhere else in Europe.

2:00 pm Returned home from school and fed Graham.

3:00 pm Received a visit from a merchant selling stools made of rope and bamboo. I told him I may be interested in buying some and he said he’d come back in a half hour with the stools I was talking about buying.

3:30 Received a visit from our driver’s sister. It turns out he sent her because he doesn’t speak English very well and wanted her to tell me that he doesn’t want to work for us anymore because he can make more money as a taxi driver and wants to make sure we can survive without him. The irony of this is that we have another driver lined up for next month and were trying to figure out how to tell him!

4:00 pm Merchant returned and I bought two stools and three cute little kid chairs and a table for 1000 rupees (about $20).

4:30 pm Went to this amazing fruit and vegetable market called Ohkla Market with Sarita, Isaac, and Graham while Russell stayed home with Sudhir and did puzzles. While Graham slept in the car with Maraj (the driver) we braved the market. It’s basically this long dirt road with people sitting on either side with big piles of produce in front of them. It’s loud, smells of animal dung, but the produce is beautiful. Sarita walked the whole line asking prices and then we turned back around and got the things we wanted at the best prices. We got a huge bag (so heavy that Sarita and I had to carry it together) of potatoes, tomatoes, cauliflower, onions, ginger, and cilantro for about 100 rupees ($2).

5:30 pm We got home and Sarita realized her cell phone was missing. I think someone stole it from her at the market. She went to her room to make sure she hadn’t left it there and came back and I could tell she had been crying. I would cry too if I’d lost a cell phone that had cost me almost one month’s wages! I wished they'd stolen mine instead. I called Rich and he suggested we just buy her a new one. I agreed—after all, we call her all the time and use up her minutes anyway.

6:30 pm I fill up the bathtub a whole three inches or so for the boys to take a bath (that’s all the hot water there is). We read “Homer Price” (Thanks, Aunt Amy!) in the kitchen so we can watch Sudhir make chapatis (like wheat tortillas).

7:00 pm Isaac and Russell eat their chapatis at their new little rope bamboo table with cheese and apple juice. Daddy gets home and holds Graham and practices saying his numbers in Hindi (he’s been learning them from Maraj while he drives him around). We’re so glad when Daddy comes home!

7:30 pm Isaac slips on the water draining from the washer and bites his tongue and starts bleeding. Daddy flees to the bedroom for two hours of conference calls (he added that part—I’m not bitter!). Russell asks me to pick him up and take him to bed.

7:40 pm Two men show up to assess our air conditioning needs. They say we need 12 tons of AC power and Freescale has currently only allowed 7 tons. We’ll see what the next guy says. The landlord’s daughter returns my call from earlier that day and assures me that she’s sending someone to REALLY fix the leak in the wall upstairs so it stops growing mold, but it will take a week or so. Glad we haven’t moved up there yet!

7:50 pm Isaac goes up to the roof to hang laundry, which he’s been begging me to do all night. Last night he was lamenting that he has to go to school and miss out on all the laundry fun (“When I go to high school, it will be even worse. I won’t get to do ANY laundry!”)

8:00 pm Isaac goes to bed.

8:15 pm Sarita and Sudhir finish cleaning the kitchen and I finally get to try their yummy cholle (garbanzo bean soup with cilantro, red onion, lots of garlic, and tomatoes) with chapatis.

9:15 am My day goes full circle and here I sit doing the email thing again. Phew!