After completing my 12th, I said to myself for the last time "Am I fit to pursue Engineering?" and my conscious spoke to me in binary - I landed up in a rural town called Kopargaon. All geared up to learn bits of programming, life was more pitches in making good friends and simply chill. After all, it was a hostel life.
My 4 years doing Bachelors was a joke - I never took an advantage of my unusual qualities or shall I say talent to sit and learn to code? Even after finishing my BS degree, I still lacked good coding skills. Life went a down hill. Economy struck in year 2001 and I was out on the streets finding a job in a universe full of unemployed programmers. I remembered the time when my father was keen on me to engage myself with a shippe life. I took a step forward and started looking for suitable jobs not necessarily related to my field. Somewhere in Hiranandani Complex, Mumbai; Hiren and myself just got out of an interview from a call centre when we met this aweful or shall I say awe-inspiring person trying to win us over to join a consulting firm focusing on call centres. Initially, it sounded like a good idea and so we spoke about $alary. Package of 25,000 Indian rupees with abso-freaking-lutely zilch is what we should be expecting 5-10 years down the line. We smiled and walked away to grab something to eat. Unable to control laughter on what the lady suggested to two pitiful job seekers, I thought of further education. Narrowing down my options, a Masters degree from US was the best and easiest pick.
Programming still nowhere in my radar, I came to Binghamton, NY for a Masters degree. Life became more challenging that what I had expected. I slogged for 2 years coding and seeing myself turn as one of the regular geeks you must have seen in "Pirates of the Silicon Valley". My advisor got the hell out of me and I started taking pleasures in writing programs.
I completed my Masters last year and was recently up in Binghamton for my graduation ceremony which most of you must have seen in my previous blog. I must admit that I have learned a lot and see myself being evolved as a real software programmer with above average calibre. While still happy with coding, I might be losing my tolerance and patience for mindless rules, regulations and internal politics. I will stop coding when I don't need the money. How about opening a subway?
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4 comments:
Haah ... not a subway for sure... we can think of something better. Well, memories of Hiranandani garden is still fresh in my memory. God has his own way of making things better by takeing a hard way. Guess thats how we learn and thats how we progress.
I am sure you are and will always go great.
-- H
Do you know franchising a Subway requires more than a quarter of a million these days at a prime location? A good investment I must say...
Hello, this is Phoenix Man. Good to hear you finally became a man, skilled in programming.
No matter how you choose to direct your life from now on, at least you achieved your basic dream, learning and making a living as a programmer.
do you have a blog?
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