By SHEFA RAFI
As a tribute to the contributions made by Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, the architect, who installed an irrigation system with water floodgates to raise the food supply level and storage to the highest levels at Khadakvasla reservoir near Pune, his birth anniversary September 15 is celebrated as ‘National Engineers Day’.
Interestingly, his patented irrigation system was also installed at Gwalior’s Tigra Dam and Mysuru’s Krishnaraja Sagara (KRS) dam (This made a history of being one of the largest reservoirs in Asia during that period.
Noteworthy to mention that Visvesvaraya graduated from Madras University in Bachelor of Arts (BA) and later obtained his civil engineering degree from college of science in Pune. The present gen engineering grads need to take a cue from Visvesvaraya’s dedication and determination in creating a record of the sorts as an engineer nonpareil.
Turning the pages of history, it revealed that Visvesvaraya as Diwan of Mysore was honoured with the title ‘Knight’ in 1915 and was appointed as commander of the British Indian empire by King George V. Adding more feather to his cap, he was bestowed with the highest award of Bharat Ratna in 1955 and later became a member of the London Institution of Civil Engineers. He also received a fellowship from the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) Bangalore.
This scribe is reminded of the maiden book by career guru Sivakumar Palaniappan titled ‘Become an engineer, not an engineering graduate’ wherein he had given a clear picture of how engineering grads could turn engineers. Being an engineering grad himself, the young entrepreneur, who is now founder director of Thinkfluence Global is going places thru’ his personality and career sessions. Truly, he didn’t wait for the opportunity, but created an opportunity himself to be what he is now.
And Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya’s contributions as an engineer par excellence should be an eye-opener to engineering grads, who crave for an engineering career. In memory of Visvesvaraya, a memorial stands tall at Muddenahalli, his birth place. Morever, many universities have been named after him including Visvesvaraya Technological University in Belagavi. Happy Engineers Day.
