2012, After school. The final exams were over and my school life eventually came to an end. I was quite confident that I would get good grades. My family had huge expectation from me. They promised me to get a new phone if I get 80+. Good thing, I did. This accompolishment got everyone happy, that my family brought me a new phone. Back then android was unheard of and touchscreen was just a new kid in the block. I still remember the shop (Merina Mobiles, New Road) where we went to buy my new phone. I chose Samsung Galaxy Young. That puny phone cost 12000rs, back then. I can’t imagine now how happy I was. This single purchase was my entry ticket to the world of technology.
It was this time I got a great friend (Prasanna Mishra). We were in same school, but interacted once in a bluemoon. The bridge course classes we attended made us great buddies. This guy was curious AF. My new phone got both of us excited but it was Prasanna who tried out new stuffs like keeping launchers, making, breaking and hacking through several apps. This thing intrigued me. I wanted to play around too. Then after couple of months he got his first smartphone too. It was a cute HTC. We used to be in his place all the time as my place had no internet nor a laptop. Those time gave us great understanding about the android world.
College was all about custom roms, cool applications and android launchers. We were flashing android firmwares and custom softwares like pros. Ok! I’ll be honest, It was Prasanna most of the time but yea, it was his home, his internet and his laptop after all. We were too much into smartphones that we got known for it. Our friends, relatives used to call us to fix their phones. We used to be updated with latest phone releases, android versions and so called specs chart. I believe it was around this time I was first introduced to code. I thought code was only written by highly intelligent individuals and is not for a no brainer like me. Top of that I did not have a laptop too. So, I never bothered.
So, what after college? Engineering? Perhaps, Civil? Everybody had plans for me to join civil engineering. (Echoing voices… Civil Engineers are paid high and has great scope) But, as you might have guessed, technology is what I was interested in and wanted to work on for all my life. I had “the career talk” with everybody. The one and the only talk that went in my head and stayed are my mom’s words “Are you even interested in civil? I do not think so. Everyone says you are good with smartphones. We are not educated like others and we don’t know what happens in either of the fields. So, this decision is completely up to you. I think you should choose what you feel like studying. Money can be earned from either of them right ?”. These were the exact words (Just translated in english) that came from her. I was baffled. These words from her, totally changed my life. I can’t express how thankful I am to you MOM <3. This decision of joining Computer Science Engineering was one of the best decision of my life.
But remember? I still did not have a laptop. My mom and my elder mom were saving money for me to get a laptop as I was insisting on it for long. They saved nearly 30000rs but that was no where close to get a decent one. We were planning to get a second hand. Then, a miracle happened. One day me and my mom were out for some grocery shopping my mom stepped into something. She looked down, bowed and picked up a shiny thing. That shiny thing was a gold ring. There was no one around to ask if it was theres. We stood there for a while but no one came by. So… we kept it, like every good citizen does :P . After we got home my mom held me and told - “Now you don’t have to wait long for a new laptop”. We then went to a relatives jwellery store and asked him how much would we get for the ring? He examined and replied - “I can give you 23000 for this ring”. I literally felt like crying that moment. A laptop I was aiming to get was around 55000rs and the ring that came for 23000rs and 30000rs from savings just made my wish possible. We sold the ring and went to get a new laptop after couple of days. Matter of fact, this blog is writen using the very laptop I am talking about. Yeah, I’m stil using it to this day.
Best thing comes with the worst ones, right? Yeah, that’s what happened next. I was not selected in one of the finest colleges in Nepal, obviously!!. I then got a chance to study in India. Now this, was one of the worst decision of my life. I regret it till date.
I joined BVC Engineering College in Andra Pradesh, India. First year was a nightmare. No internet, No clean gym, No good food, No clean water and basically everything was crap. It was extermly difficult to learn something new. So, all I can do was play basketball and read text books. My family, as usual, had expectations from me to do well. Amazingly, I nearly topped the first year. My family members were happy, but they had no idea that I didn’t like it there at all. Moving on to the second year, the internet improved a bit and I started downloading youtube tutorial videos, smartphone reviews and some informative tech videos to learn in free time. I used to set an alarm at 1 am, 3 am and 5am just to check if I could queue up some other downloads or whether the internet is still working or not. 3 fourth of my hard drive was filled with youtube videos and more than half of it was tutorials. Like this, I starting watching coding videos. They made no sense at all at first.
I was about to quit but the feeling when you get when your code works is heavenly. Overcoming the difficulties and being able to code a simple app gave me drops of happiness. It was like a self-pat at the back. Say “Well done! You’re the best :D.” to yourself. Honestly, I did not love to code when I started. I was just learning to code as a time pass thing. But, you know as Carl Jung said - “You are what you repeatedly do”. I started getting kinda good in coding. Technical things and some cryptic words that was in my course pulled me into it. I started learning more and more and never stopped working on my learning. I topped my batch in my second year (NERD ALERT!!!!). Then the internet became more stable and a bit faster than before. The food became a habit. By this time I always had my hands full. Attending college, playing basketball, learning new stuffs and coding were my daily jam. I barely had time to talk to my friends at home.
Looking back, I am glad I never stopped learning and was off the radar for quite a long to learn and improve. If only I had quit or did not show any interest to learn I would be regretting it a lot today. My friends still say this to me - “You put in your work and got what you deserve”. Missing parties, staying hungry, saying no to long tours, I don’t regret it all. It was all for a reason - A reason to do something for my family and learn to the fullest.
I hope when I read this after a couple of years, it will bring back some memories and a wide smile :)