Education . . .

I have taken a long way to finish my education, still feel some times like i could have continued till PhD. But badly my education ended at the b.tech level it self. I had no idea what a computer is when i got the admission into the intermediate computer science education, a + 2 course that is offered to the people who get a 75% distinction in the ssc standard. 1st year i didn't attend any of the classes properly. And i used to take books from my college buddies just before the exams. There was a situation, i was not aware that a class called Engineering Electronics. One of our lecturers used to conduct this class every Sunday. Just one month before the final exams i came to know about this and attended only once class. Then i realized that i have missed a lot more such classes. I didn't feel bad about it because i had the confidence that it is just a 3+ hours exam, i can write some thing and pass in it. But the thing is that i didn't have any material with me and its not a easy subject too. But some how i got one of my friends book for 2 days, read it completely and wrote the exam. Whole class was surprised about my result. I passed that exam with very good marks. That's how my +2 ended. I used to spend lot of my time sitting at the skate land. It is a place where kids learn recreation activities.

Right after finishing the +2, luckily i got the admission into the second year of diploma in computer science and engineering. Believe me i am from a middle class family and my family couldn't support for my education at that time. But some how i convinced my parents and with the suggestions of my father in law, i got the admission in to the DCME. There were so many instances where lecturers got impressed with my knowledge and programmings skills in computers. I still remember one of my lecturer named "Vasundhara" she used to highlight the students if they did some thing interesting and good. I was one in that simple list. I used to play with Data Structures in the 2Nd year itself, and this madam used to pose me good questions. She promised that she would give a gift to the student who would come college first in the final year. I came but unfortunately, when i went to collect my certificates from the college, she already left the job.

Lets ffwd to b.tech . . .

Then coming to my B.Tech education, i was not in a mood to take up this course as my family needs support from me in all the directions. But i couldn't kill my interest and there was a miracle happened and i got the financial support from no one to get the admission. I really spent a perfect student's life in my b.tech. Believe me i was able take Reference books from the library. More over i used to read the books not in my syllabus. I don't know how, but i used to be pointed out by the lecturers to explain few topics. And i used to take it up from my side like i got the chance to prove my self. There were 2 incidents which i still remember. There was a class on DBMS and the lecturer was seriously telling about the importance of normalization and its advantages. Since i found the class like the narration of text book, i started thinking about an algorithm. But unfortunately the lecturer noticed it and increased his volume little. I thought it was because of some lady or student and was continuing my work. Right after few minutes he called my name and asked me to explain what he had told to the entire class. I had to do it no other chance to escape. So i went to the Dias and started in my way explaining 'what is normalization' advantages. Randomly i have chosen some sample data and explained the advantages by using that example. It was so nice and the entire class became fan of me, including the lecturer too. He never disturbed me after that in his class.

Another incident happened in my final year. There was a question in the internal exam asking 'What is step-wise refinement ? Explain it with the Merge-Sort Algorithm'. Actually this was not at all part of software engineering text book by Pressman. When i saw the question in the exam, it made me recall some thing that i had seen in algorithms+data structures = programs by wirth book. So i answered well with my simple English. After a week, professor distributed the papers to all the students and finally asked that question to the whole class, no body responded. So he called my name and said, only one person from this class wrote the perfect answer for this, and requested me to explain my answer to the whole class. I was feeling little shy but i know internally that i got one more chance to guide the class. So i took a small chalk lying on the table and delivered the lecture. This lecturer became close to me after that class and was so friendly.

By reading this blog entry at least you could have felt that i would have undergone a studious education. But you would have to admit me that it was not studious, it just happened like that and more over i had no one elder to me who could guide me to take up more challenges continuing education further till MS and PhD. The thing is that i don't like is procrastinating the work or tasks. I all ways wanted to finish the tasks as early as possible so that i can get some more time to think for new ideas and interesting stuff.

I have attended, few programming contests, one national (University) level technical quiz competition, you can see in the picture above. May be i will explain my experiences on these things some other time.