Well sort of a achievement to say that I have completed 5 years working in the IT industry even before I am 25 . Well to be true I don't hold any professional degree to say I am certified that I am a Software Engineer neither am I pursuing it in near future.

Well I did have a course of 3 years with NIIT, but I did not complete even three semesters of that and the only thing that says that I am a Software Engineer in true sense is a first semester certificate that has some grades and a 95 / 100 on my first project. Other than that I am a Commerce graduate and have a good brain.

Though it dosen't sound quite an achievement to say because so many people have been there done that, but its my journey and dedication that I am proud of. My proudest moment is when I bought my own 2 bedroom house when I was 22 and that will be and remain the most memorable achievment for me to have done with my own efforts and capability.

I am not 24 yet , but if I count other things along I have worked for more than 10 years, starting to work as a office boy in my SSC ( 10th grade ) summer vacations, to working as a waiter in weddings then being promoted to supervising, teaching at a computer institute to finally landing up into software it has been a very long journey.

Though I started in software when I was around 20, I still am not an illeterate as I did my graduation through correspondence and barely got to study for 15 days before my graduation board exams but still passed all my years with ever getting a single ATKT ( Allowed to Keep Terms ) in the entire degree.

I still remember the graduation year, I was working with rediff.com and it was a hectic schedule that had just come up before the exams and damn I could not touch a book till I got the 15 days off for my exams, and with no coaching classes to help me out for the entire 3 years of my correpondence degree my father was aghast when I was playing a game on my PC as soon as I got home the day my leave started, atleast college going people had teachers who could explain things to them, but it was also a hillarious scene on the day the results were announced by the University of Mumbai.

 

I was trying to get through the Mumbai University website the day the results were announced, which always seems to be down on the day they announce results which is understandable, but after much luck I was able to get through and when I typed in the number I saw my results showed that I had failed, I was so dejected and to top it my colleagues at rediff were like its ok it happens and stuff, but I wanted to make sure that I saw it with my eyes that I had failed, so I just rushed to the University as they also put up the results there.

Before I reached there I called up home and asked my mom to give me my hall ticket number which I was confident would be the same that I had entered on the website, but as was my habit I had put it up some place I could not remember after my last paper at the board exams and they could not find it either.

After frantically travelling for half an hour and getting the news that the hall ticket was still not to be found I just cursed myself again for throwing it some place in our house that was less than 150 sq ft then. (It was a habit, I have done that after all my board exams).

Then when I reached university I called back and still no signs of the hall ticket, I checked the number at the university again and found that it was nowhere in the list, as University only put up numbers of the people who had passed out, I also went to enquiry counter to check on it still same news FAILED, I was dejected ;(.

Then suddenly my phone rang and it was my mom on the other end, and to my utter astonishment she repeated a set of numbers… that were no where related to what I was trying to look for the past four hours, in fact I was off by more than 10000 numbers to be true.

I checked with her if she had not got the one from my HSC board exams ( by the way in HSC I had passed with flying colours even having topped my college in the subject of Book Keeping and getting the 6th highest percentage in the board exams at my college ) she re-confirmed that it was the Bachelors Degree hall ticket.

I just ran back to check the results and voila… I did find it and was overjoyed, I had passed, though that was with second class never mattered to me as I had still passed my Graduation studying for 15 days only. With a certain sense of joy I still was wondering what the number I was checking always before my mom had called me up, and when I told my colleagues and friends when I rememebered what it represented they just could not stop laughing, it was my account number for an account I held in a local bank.

Well I can just stop here for a while and take a breath, neways this has been too long a journey into some part of my life for you, I will continue with it in another part, but I know many have already run away and the select few who are doing this I thank you for coming this far.