'IT' Happened to Me - Part 3

When we look back, perhaps most of us realize that there were some moments, which, then did not sound dramatic at all; but ultimately became the turning points of our life. Many times, such moments do not even become turning points. We let them pass. Our lives are that way uneventful, well, in most cases. It is these moments that suddenly take us to unexpected territories. We realize this only in hindsight.

Perhaps the most significant moment in my life also arrived completely unexpectedly. I could not have recalled it vividly, either. But since this series makes me pause and think about such moments, it now resounds loud and clear.

I have not travelled much within India, so I cannot talk about an equivalent place, but in Pune, we have 'FC Road' (and perhaps Camp). Youngsters throng FC Road every single day. What they do there is immaterial. If you are a teenager, invariably you land up on FC Road from time to time. The buzz is too much to stay away from. It is 'the' happening place. You just want to be there. In Solapur, we had Navi Peth, perhaps as the poor cousin of FC Road!

In my school and early-college days, we actually used to stay in the very busy area of Navi Peth. So, many friends would land up there in the evenings and we would just have a leisurely walk, talking about anything and everything, and having a great laugh. I had done reasonably well till the 10^th standard. Like many of my friends, I had become completely aimless and clueless during the 11^th and the 12^th standards. Some may not believe this, but I was so engrossed in my cricket statistics hobby that I had not cared about even finding the difference between doing engineering or simple science graduation. Forget knowing about IIT. Naturally, my performance during the 11^th and the 12^th standards was dismal, to say the least. Consequently, after the 12^th board examination, I could not get admission in the only engineering college at Solapur 'in a decent branch' (aka mechanical, E&TC, production). The least preferred branches were civil and computers. With my 'eye-popping' marks, I could have perhaps got the last seat in one of these branches in case any seat became vacant in the second round of admissions.

While reality was hitting me, I simply decided to walk away from all this and took admission for BSc. I knew I was reasonably good in statistics, thanks to my real hard work in cricket statistics. Somehow, and perhaps foolishly, I had assumed that it would automatically make me decent in the statistics subject. Therefore, I decided to pursue BSc in either Statistics or electronics. Today, the circle is complete, and many students go for BSc Statistics, because they want to get into Data Science! As a result, getting an admission for BSc Statistics has become very difficult. When I did it, you could literally 'walk in'. Actually, you could walk into almost any course, but my marks were not good enough for a 'walk in' to the engineering course. Medical was completely ruled out. I had given up biology in the 11^th standard itself, simply because I hated the idea of becoming a doctor. Do not get me wrong. Without doctors, one cannot even imagine what would happen to us. However, my parents were doctors, and naturally, every other family that we knew of was also a doctor family. Naturally, conversations would always centre around patients, other doctors, hospitals, cases, etc. That would bore me to death, and I had decided long ago that I would not become a doctor myself. Now, my marks were helping, too; even though because I had given up biology, my 'shiny' marks would not have anyway become a hurdle in me not becoming a doctor!

Cutting a long story short, I was aimlessly pursuing BSc (hopefully Statistics). But that had to wait. The decision about choosing one's specialization had to be made up in the second year. Meanwhile, in the first year, we had common subjects. That was again quite boring. I did not enjoy Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics; but I had no choice. College was becoming miserable. Our teachers were mostly good, but my mind was elsewhere. I was just not enjoying any of these subjects. I was drifting away. And then it happened!

One evening, while we friends were having the usual walk at Navi Peth, we saw an advertisement for a 'Computer course'. We had barely heard about computers. This was going to be a 6-month course, thrice a week, in the evenings. We laughed and joked about it (like everything else, as you do, when you are a teenager). But somehow, three of us decided to at least inquire about it. When we went to the institute, I saw a computer for the first time in my life. We all thought that a computer was 'a better version of a typewriter'. We had a typewriter at my father's pathology lab. My father would not only diagnose the cases, but type out many reports himself. Now, we three casually enrolled for this course. It promised us to teach Computer Fundamentals, WordStar, Lotus 1-2-3, BASIC programming, COBOL programming, and 'an advanced subject of' C programming.

None of us had even the slightest of clues about any of these. But we decided to give it a try, nevertheless. So, we got enrolled for this course. Cycling was never a problem in those days. We used to go everywhere on the cycle. This computer institute was also near my home. So, that was not a problem, too. So, four evenings would now be reserved for roaming the single 'happening' street in Solapur – Navi Peth, and the remaining three would be used 'for learning about computers'.

That was really all to it. But who knew this would be that moment, which would transform my life completely? So, it is moments like these that perhaps make or break your life. I was lucky to capture it. It made my listless and boring life (other than cricket statistics) suddenly very exciting. More about it next time …