Fly High in Sky

The first mention of aeronautics was in the writing of ancient Egyptians who described the flight of birds. Ever since, the fascination to conquer the sky has driven the growth of aeronautical engineering. A combination of Greek words aer and nautike meaning sky and sail, this branch of engineering deals with the design, manufacture, fabrication and maintenance of flying vehicles such as airplanes, helicopters and missiles.

One of the most challenging fields of engineering, this job requires manual, technical as well as mechanical aptitude. Aeronautical engineering has a wide scope of growth with technological developments in aviation. An engineer in this field can further specialise in structural design, navigational guidance and control systems, instrumentation and communication and production methods. One can also specialise in a particular product such as military aircrafts and helicopters.

Discussing job opportunities, Sriram, professor and head, department of aerospace engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, adds, "There are two major segments for employment, the traditional government sector and the newer private sector. The traditional sector would include agencies such as Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as well as organisations like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). In the private sector, we have multinational corporations. Of late, software companies are taking engineering analysis projects from the likes of Boeing and Airbus and they are then hiring aeronautical engineering graduates. There are a small number of openings in the maintenance segment also, which would require separate training."

This field is not alien to the Indian education system and is very popular amongst the students. In Tamil Nadu, there are about 5,000 seats for this specialisation. It was introduced in the IITs in the mid sixties and has been on the rise ever since. Internationally, countries pioneering in aeronautical engineering education and research are Germany, France and Russia.

Aeronautical engineers usually work in teams, bringing together a vast range of skills and technical expertise. Aeronautical engineers need to be physically fit and fully dedicated to their work as this is a very demanding field. A high level of mathematical precision is vital and as Sriram explains, "Aeronautical engineering requires strong background in mathematics and physics. It involves a fair amount of modelling and analysis using abstract mathematical tools, so amath aptitude is essential. A starting salary is in the mid range between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 6 lakh per annum."

Gurala village in Amritsar

Off a thinly inhabited road at Gurala village in Amritsar, Punjab, Karnail Singh holds his parishioners as a conductor holds his devoted audience. "Praise the Lord," he chants. A group of 150 men and women throw up their hands, puppet like, and repeat the praise. On site there is a bragging generator, a parked Maruti Omni and a poster of Jesus Christ on the wall. Singh's church is called Church of Jesus Love, one that both mainstream churches and Hindutva parties love to hate.

Singh is one of the thousands of preachers who have come up across the country, altering the way the gospel is spread and conversions are carried out. These freelancers of God are growing while mainstream churches are facing a decline in their missionary activities. Even as Hindutva groups raise concerns over Rs 10,000 crore in foreign contributions coming into India every year from abroad, mostly for missionary activities, independent churches are turning out to be the biggest beneficiaries of the funds.

Singh, a first generation convert from Sikhism, has been spreading the message of Christianity for the last 10 years. "During the last one year, I started attracting more people to my church. Last year alone I baptised over 34 Sikhs and Hindus," says Singh. The 58-year-old former farm worker mixes music with his preaching. "This is my choir," he says, pointing to his daughters, who have just completed a diploma course on Bible preaching. "I run my own church. I don't want to report to any other mainstream church. I report to God," he says.

A kilometre away from Singh's church is the Believer's Church in Gurala, which came up in December last year. It is one of the newest links in the "church planting" movement, a process that involves setting up a new church under a preacher with a membership of 10 to 20 believers. These churches are almost always unaided by formal missionary structures but remain connected to their network.

Crawling Infra Great Opportunity

It isawell known fact thatRome was not built in a day. It took hundreds of strong men and several years to construct its mammoth and impressive structures. However, it took just one person to envision the city. Working on the same lines, a civil engineer is responsible for planning, development and construction of cities. Adding to the demand of such professionals is the rapid growth of infrastructure in the country.

According to Brand Marketing India Pvt. Ltd. (BMI) there are more than US$270 billion worth of projects-under construction or in the pipeline-in India's infrastructure sector. Also, the investment in infrastructure is likely to rise from 5.15 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) during the Tenth Five Year Plan period (2002-07) to about 7.55 per cent during the Eleventh FiveYear Plan (2007-12). D. N. Singh, professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay says, "Government is pumping in cash in all spheres of infrastructural development. Private players are also investing and it is all set to grow many folds. However, dearth of civil engineershaspropelledtheappointmentof outsourced professionals. For instance, for manyof our national projects engineers from Thailand and Malaysia are recruited." He adds that currently subjects such as forensic engineering and engineering law are the hot favourites. "Public health engineering and environmental engineering are also new concepts that have gained much popularity among students," says Singh.

The nature of work of civil engineers, being inter-disciplinary requires working together with people from different fields such as architecture and managers. There is growing demand for civil engineers with a higher degree of specialisation. A post graduate degree (M.Tech.) can be an option if students want to specialise or research (Ph.D) in the same. 

"There are about 40 odd institutions that need faculty. Civil engineering is like the field of medicine where experience and expertise are required. Many consulting firms also want experts," adds Singh. Most civil engineers are being lapped up immediately post graduation-a trend that is fast catching up-due to growth in infrastructure. They can start with anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh per month. But remuneration also depends on expertise, more the experience, larger the package.

Calcutta offers will never think of disowning the city

Something that can never happen in any other place on this planet can easily happen in this city, Calcutta or today's Kolkata. Real and unreal, cruelty and affection, terrible indifference and unnecessary concern all await silently at every nook and corner of this city. Anybody who has discovered this and absorbed this absurdity that Calcutta offers will never think of disowning the city. It changes your rationale, your attitude towards living and your sense of identifying between reality and magic! In this very city I have seen men and women walking by and cars buses and rickshaws driving by a dead man's body which was probably still warm, and at the same time I have seen a school boy helping three blind beggars to cross a busy Calcutta road.When I first came to this city as a college student I was amazed by these paradoxes. I grew up in various parts of India, mostly in small townships. My father was an Indian Railways doctor and was transferred to a different place after every two or three years, so, when I started getting associated with this city I looked at it from a third person's point of view. Even now, after sharing all these days and years with Calcutta, I look at it without any bias and yet it startles me.Around 30 years ago, almost every youngster of this city wanted to become a poet. They had the passion, madness and urge. So often someone would stand in the Maidan and start reciting his poems loudly, ignoring or rather rejecting the cacophony created by the heavy traffic, the tram and the phaetons (which were still one of the regular means of transport in Calcutta). After a while a small crowd would invariably gather around the promising or not-so-promising poet and they would lend a serious ear to him. Today, I see most young men and women of this city dreaming of becoming filmmakers. You can find a script ready in their bags. I have met so many, who have left their jobs just to pursue their dreams. I remember, some twenty years ago, a man was arrested for stealing books from National Library. Later it was found that he had been stealing books from various libraries not to sell, but to read them. He had a library of his own. He would steal books all day and read them at night. I knew a man who was an IIT engineering graduate and then took the job of a postman. His happiness lay in delivering the letters to their rightful owners. All these things can only happen in Calcutta, not in Bangalore, not in Delhi, Nasik or Bombay.In this city, people queue up from the night before, sit on the staircases and stand in the passages of a packed theatre just to watch a Jean-Luc Godard film. Where as while I was in Paris, I remember somebody telling me, "Nobody watches Godard here, if you want to see his film go to the university."I would share a personal experience that I treasure till date. Many years ago, two poets, one famous and the other not-so-famous, were trying to get back to their homes late night. They were drunk and happy. Suddenly a double-decker bus appeared on the road, on it's way for a night's halt at a garage.The famous poet stopped the bus and told the driver that he is so and so and that the driver should take them to their place. The driver took a Uturn, towards the home of the famed poet. The poets, in return, sung a whole cascade of songs just for the driver. The famous poet was none other than Shakti Chattopadhyay and the other was myself.This city treats its people strangely. It won't let one stay 'normal', it can make you a Maidan-poet, a thiefcum-collector of books, a passionate postman, a music loving bus driver and for sure a revolutionary. These incidents, the city and its people have crept into my poems and my films many a times and finally it didn't let me stay impersonal to it as it was never impersonal to me

Print Media is the Oldest form of Media in Inda

Though print media is the oldest form of media, it is still on the rise and has witnessed a year-on-year growth. According to the Registrar for Newspapers, Government of India, in a year (2005-06) over 2,000 new newspapers are registered in India. These promising figures point towards increasing job opportunities in this field. 

"In India, the print media industry will continue to boom because of reading habits cultivated over generations. In print journalism, one can diversify into many fields and explore other avenues. Cartoonist and book designers are highly respected. Publishing, writing, photojournalism and other media specialisations will also continue to do well," explains Om Prakash Verma, professor in journalism, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Reporting and editing

Digging deep, finding the story and presenting it responsibly, a journalist's career is action packed and requires passion and complete dedication to excel. Print media offers opportunities in newspaper, magazines, news agencies and Internet portals.

A reporter's job entails finding and filing stories according to the publication's requirements. This involves a lot of field work, where journalist get the chance to meet people and fish for relevant stories. Whereas an editing job demands involvement in every stage of production, from planning to publishing the news. They work on the layout and add final touches to an article.

Fine writing skills, attention to detail and a good command over the language is important for journalists. Starting salary in this field can range from Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 per month for graduates and over Rs 10,000 per month for postgraduates.

Formal education provides a basis to break into this highly competitive field. Courses in journalism and mass communication are offered at gradate and post-graduate levels. Graduates in any field can apply for the post-graduate programmes.

Photojournalism

A picture speaks a thousand words and this art of story telling through pictures in known as photojournalism. A vocation that can turn into a profession, the passion for reporting and photography is important to excel in this field. This profession requires a journalist to capture emotions and events and make the readers feel as though they were part of the event. Three important elements to excel in this field are timeliness, narration and objectivity.

Though no formal degree is available in photojournalism in India, photography is part of journalism courses and different photography classes and diplomas are available. Internships and working under photojournalists is a path many newcomers take to build their portfolio. Starting salary is usually Rs 8,000 per month.

Editorial illustrations

Remember reading the cartoon strips in the newspaper or laughing over an illustration, of a politician? Cartoonist and art designers create drawings for the print media to visually represent ideas, concepts or stories. These illustrations frequently created for the editorial section of a magazine or newspaper, provide a visual appeal, represent data and often add a humours approach.

Illustrations can be in the form of cartoons as well as graphs, charts and maps. They are meant to help drive home a point. Art designers mainly specialise in illustrating data work in the print medium. Whereas cartoonists sketch a person or an event.

Cartoon courses are available but are usually combined with animation. This is a specialised area and creates the opportunity for a hobby to develop into a career. To break into this field, excellent drawing skills are imperative. Developing a portfolio and getting your work recognised is important in this niche market. The starting salary in this field is Rs 6,000 per month.

Printing

As the need for news and information has grown, the print industry has also evolved. Aligned with the publishing industry, printing has developed into a well established career option in today's media-driven world. Printing books, newspapers, magazines, periodicals and journals, denotes a huge amount of work and many job opportunities.

A degree in print technology after school, or a diploma, helps make a mark in this industry. Short-term certificate courses are also available is different aspects of printing. These specialised courses offer placement opportunities in the printing industry. Engineering level courses provide an effective training that look into the machinery as well as printing paints that are used for printing.

Students who want to become printing technologists should be familiar with pre-press and post-press techniques. Pre-press techniques include preparation of image carrier, letterpress, lithography, gravure and flexography. Post-press techniques include finishing operations such as cutting, folding, binding, laminating, and embossing and packaging. The starting salary for a printing technologist ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000.