21st Century Engineering by Anirudh Dhebar

September 2024

The engineer unbound: The joy of tinkering, failing, learning

Years ago, Vakilkaka, a gentleman living with my family in Bangkok, Thailand, challenged me to fix his broken ashtray (it was OK to smoke then). I was 9 years old and had no clue about science or engineering but plenty of enthusiasm for trying things. And failing. And learning. And trying again with a different approach. And failing, learning and trying again with yet another approach. It took a couple of days but I fixed the ashtray and earned 10 Thai bahts promised as a reward.


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