Chapter 3 - Flashback No.1

That Monday night wasn't quite a good one. This time, without a reason, without a dream, without anyone following me and without falling into a pit, I woke up... For no apparent reason! It was as if I wake up at this time every day. I jsut couldnt help my eye lids close. As I lie flat on my mattress, again, without a reason, I went back a few years back in my thoughts. May be around 3 years. 1998 to 2001: 3 years in my life that I enjoyed the maximum!

As I walked down the roads of EAC for the first time (for those who don't know what EAC is, just understand that it's the college where I graduated from...), I could find those nasty looking guys eagerly awaiting the freshers to barge in so that they can start their raging business. I was with my mom then seeing the college for the first time. If everything went well, she could confirm a seat for me by paying a small donation - that donation because I couldn't even get a second class in my pre-degree! The place was pretty huge, some rubber trees shading the college with some paddy fields on the other end. There was a lot of greenery around and I kindda liked the place. It was, though, very unlike a usual Kerala college! This was a pretty new one and was yet to build a good / bad reputation.

We met up with the principal, then had a chat with the accounts team, paid up the amount to my relief and returned without much happening there. My eyes, like any teenager, were around to see my future classmates around. Ah yes, there was that expected mischief in my intentions. (I couldn't help smiling thinking about it this night...).

The classes started a few days from then and there I was promptly placed on the first bench. I always wanted to carry that 'good boy' image with me wherever I went - I was not faking but I always felt good when people felt I am good / innocent! The classes started in a very usual way with 'Teachers' coming in and introducing themselves and then asking each one of us to get up and say aloud our name, background etc. This happened once every lecturer came in for the first time and it was disgusting. a few days passed by and I was getting to know a few people by name - I never failed to follow the policy 'Ladies first'!

Once I was done with the ladies, I slowly started interacting with a few of the guys around. And it was on one such day that I met up with Sreekumar (I call him Sree). I was sitting on the 2nd bench and as I turned my head to my right, I see this dark, lean guy smiling at me, the lips stretching ear to ear. I gave a smile back and then we exchanged whos and whats of us. Days went by and we got to know each other pretty well.

He was from a middle class family, one of the 3 sons of a mom who was trying hard to fight all odds against life and move on. He was the 2 amongst his siblings. His mom had come a long way to work and teach them all and graduate them one by one ever since their dad passed away years back. I should mention this - she is one of the most successful people I have ever seen n my life!

So myself, Sree and around 30 others had joined to graduate as computer graduates. I had done a few small time courses while I was doing my pre-degree and this small stint gave me a sense of superiority amongst other guys in the class. Little did I know then that Lotus123 and some DOS commands are not the be all and end all of computers. In the labs, as the professors started off with DOS, I was proactive in running commands myself. And it couldn’t get better when I even started teaching others. It slowly started getting bad as the days progressed and the professors slowly got into Pascal, C and a few other programming languages. That is when I started feeling the heat. And Sree didn't fail to turn the table around - he was now my teacher. man, this guy rocked when it came to writing logic - he was one amongst a few other studs in our class. I should mention names of Suneer Hassan, Arun Prabhakar and Tinku Mani who displayed great programming skills then.

Logic comes from thinking - Good logic comes from good thinking... When your intention is to show off, this logic doesn't quite come to you. And a lot of it has to be naturally instilled. And above all, like anything else in life, to do it skilfully, you need to embrace it and love it. Of the brain get tired.

'Dude, you are writing a program now and you need me. Come back to me'
'No, let me first checkout whether she is noticing me or not. I can always write a program later' 'Listen to me, you can do that later. If you don't get these basics right, you are already on the wrong path'
'Now Shut Up, will you!? I know what I am doing, you better be mute for now!'
Time and again I won my arguments with brain... I muscled him to stay shut!

To be continued...