Hello everyone,I am Jaineel Dalal. In case you don’t know me well, let me introduce myself to you. I am a Robot fanatic, an Automation Geek, but definitely not a Mechanical Nerd. I love robots and everything else related to automation. I want to automate the world. “I-Automate...!”-that’s the motto I follow. “Think out of the box, Think out of the textbook, do something creative”- that’s what I preach. Apart from that I love photography and music. I like classical Indian music and at the same time I love spending time with my girlfriend- ‘My guitar’ ;)
Now let’s get to the point. Here in my first blog, I would like to share my experience about my first internship and how it changed my course of life. Well this is my first blog so please condone any mistakes you find. And at the same time I would love to say- Suggestions are always welcome. Help me Improve..! J
In everyone’s life, at some point or the other some event occurs which challenges the very fundamentals of one’s entire thinking process. You are forced to rethink over the decisions you have taken in the course of your life. You are challenged to answer the questions which you thought would never rise. Your very existence on this planet is questioned. The last sentence may be termed as an exaggeration by many non-believers, but trust me if you have ever experienced this feeling you will know what I am talking about. It cannot be termed as turning over a new leaf, or beginning a second life. It can be called the day when you actually stop existing and start living your original life. A renaissance from a deep slumber, a reawakening from a long period of gestation. The very realization that where you were and what you were doing since then is enough at that point to make you realize that the journey which you were planning to begin has started long ago and you are nowhere in the race.
This realization occurred to me when I was pursuing my internship at IIT-Bombay under ThinkLabs. Before that point in my life, I was aimless about what I wanted to do or pursue. With a stamp of “Failed in AIEEE” over my head, I kind of hated engineering. All I could dream of, was to finish the college as soon as possible, get an MBA degree and get away with this shit. Neither I was passionate about what I was doing, nor I could understand why I was doing it. The only thing I knew was how to mug up. 12th science in Gujarat board had taught me one thing extremely well , “ The way to mug up your path to good percentage..!” I could easily say what Newton’s laws were but definitely could not explain any practical aspect of it. I knew the definition of torque by heart but ask me what it actually means, where is it needed and I would be dumbfounded.
It all started when my very good friend Paresh Mathur got an internship in of the most reputed robotic companies in India (Gridbots Technologies). He was the youngest in our entire year to get an internship. It was he who inspired me to get out of my so called limitations and try for getting one. I had heard about internships taking place at IIT-Bombay but was not sure about it. However when I visited techfest-2011 in January in IIT-Bombay, I came across a stall of ThinkLabs,SINE, IIT-Bombay, where I learnt about a winter internship taking place in late January 2011. Since the dates were not compatible with me, I wrote a detailed e-mail to them explaining who I was, and why I needed this internship and why it was not possible for me to come there in January to learn. I asked them if they had a summer internship and expressed my desire to apply for it. But they never replied. I waited for 2 months, but no reply came from ThinkLabs. Soon, we again contacted them for conducting a workshop in our college in our robotics club named SkyRock. Needless to say, the workshop was a huge success and I got some good contacts at ThinkLabs. I don’t know what happened after that, you may call it good luck, I would call it simply a miracle; but I received a mail from ThinkLabs for summer internship stating that they would like to have me there. Overjoyed with excitement, I soon realized this was the thing. Without a second thought, I applied for it and I got it. My two more very good friends Vihar and Sagar chirped in and soon we were quite a trio excited for our first internship there.
The internship was of just 10 days followed by a project for 20 days. Even during those 10 days the training sessions consisted of just 4 hours every day leaving petty much time at our leisure. The accommodation was done in IIT itself which turned out to be the greatest advantage during these 10 days. We were joined by one more IITian there (Jhalak Patel) who studied in IIT-Indore and had come to IIT-B for his training. Jhalak’s company turned out to be quite a blessing in disguise. We learnt many things from him. Sincerity towards one’s work, dedication, respect for someone who knows more than you, how to keep learning are just a few things to name. We used to have long discussions till late in the night (sometimes uptil 4 a.m. in the morning) on various topics ranging from IITs to entrepreneurship, advantages of JEE exam to taking risks and exploring new frontiers. Those nights were one hell of a night..! No one could sleep even at 4 in the morning, in spite of knowing that we had a lecture at 10. I definitely learnt some very important things during those discussions. At that point, I realized in my life what I had lost. The laziness uptil then had cost me a lot. I was thinking the destination is too far yet, but at that point I realized the journey has not even begun. I realized what I was learning and doing at college was seriously no better than shit..! Staying at IIT-Bombay and with a fellow IITian made me realize what I was doing with my life and where I was heading. This realization brought a revolutionary change in me. It seemed as if I had transitioned from a blithering, blood sucking wanna be MBA idiot to a more responsible, awakened, engineering loving guy.
I gradually started understanding the need to understand what you learn; I understood why it is necessary to think outside the book. I understood why winners are a breed apart even when they share the same flesh and skin as us. The problem is in the topmost part-your thinking process. You don’t like it neither do they. But they do it because it is necessary. They follow Nike’s slogan-“Just do it”. Whether good or bad, if it is necessary just do it. One more important lesson I learnt here is that no one is worthless. You are not the best. Everyone’s got something good. You will start succeeding when you keep the good and filter the bad from everyone.
Today many people ask me don’t you get tired working all day? How can you be so indefatigable? My mum’s worried I will shrink my size further, my friends are thinking I am some loose crack trying to overburden myself with work. But the truth I multi-task because of a very important lesson I learnt during my few days there. The harder you work in this age, better the success you shall have later. Don’t groan that you have so much work, never complain you don’t have time to breathe and you are always busy. The more work you do now, better it would be in future.
Some more important lessons I learnt there included how to balance your work and play, how to avoid being a nerd yet get all you want, how to keep yourself cool in tense situations, how to develop a good observation power and be inquisitive. I kind of remember a small incident here which again taught me an important lesson from Jhalak. We were familiar with the local trains in Mumbai as we had come there earlier during techfest. But Jhalak had never travelled by a local before, it was his first time. We got the tickets and were punching it in the punch counter nearby. Jhalak was quietly observing us doing the needful for first few minutes, then he said, “ hey teach me, I have never done such a thing before , I want to learn too.” If it would have been any of us, we wouldn’t even have bothered to take a look at what our friend was doing. But this guy, had a knack for learning anything that came his way and I loved this quality in him.
However the 2 most important things I learnt here were keeping my basics clear. ( I literally read my entire 12th and 11th physics textbook and revised entire classical mechanics on coming back from the internship). The other was a very important quote: “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” . If you want to succeed become humble and learn from everyone that comes your way. Everyone has some or the other thing to teach, it just depends on how much you can learn; how much foolish are you willing to appear in order to gain a lifetime of wisdom..! Being foolish during this entire training period surely brought a massive transformation in my thinking process, not to mention an overall change in my attitude towards work. The other thing which I want to emphasize here is the need to think out of your textbooks, the need to be creative, the need to be different from the flock. You may survive without that but definitely will not succeed without that. Lastly, I would like to dedicate this first blog of mine to two people who helped me to shape up and reach the stage where I am today. Mathur and Jhalak; this is for you guys. You may not have realized but you inspired me a lot. Thanks..!! J