14 Oct 08 The Tryst Begins…
A date with your love; a secret rendezvous, that is how “Tryst” is defined. Tryst is the best word that I found in my dictionary to express my relation with technology. It has been my first love since I was a child (thanks to my mom & dad who nurtured my creativity and gave me the best of everything I could dream of).
I was raised in an environment surrounded by all kinds and variety of technical stuff. My dad is an Electronics Engineer and owned a Security System Business unit and an Electronic Service Center (it was a great playground for me; more like ‘Toys r us’ for adventurous kids!). He is a great teacher and its because of him that I developed interest in exploring new out of every aspect of life.
When I was in Junior School dad bought me a computer, it was 286 AT machine (this was in early 1990’s and most of the middle class kids in India did not know what computer meant). That was truly my first knock-out tryst with computers! The first interaction was a Javelin throwing game that I played on its monochromatic CGA monitor, it was fascinating. Though I had played visually more appealing games on my Nintendo NES console but somehow the machine attracted my attention. After a couple of months my dad took it to his office for some accounting/book-keeping stuff and I was devoid of it but I soon shifted my focus back to my video games and usual poking at different gadgets in dad’s shop.
After couple of years, computers were introduced in our school and my love for them was re-ignited. I dived into realms of DOS, GWBASIC and QBASIC, it was again fascinating. In a short span of time I explored Logo, Basic, DBASE, Wordstar, Lotus 1-2-3, FoxPro and nearly everything that was installable on that machine. Soon I graduated to a 386 and then a P-II which I bought & assembled all by myself (it remained with me for next 7 years and is still in service!).
I was good at BASIC and loved the idea of programming. The excitement, joy and sheer contentment that I got by writing small programs that did variety of things was something that I never experienced before. It was this contentment that made me stick to the world of programming. After toying around with all forms of BASIC, I shifted to PASCAL when I bought my new P-II (in class 9th). It was a jump of huge proportion. I was able to do so much more in this nifty language that I couldn’t even dream of in BASIC. However, I was still not up to speed with rest of the world. I used to hear a lot about C/C++ from my school seniors. I was done with PASCAL in a year and now was eager to join the C/C++ bandwagon.
C/C++ opened a different chapter of programming in my life. Throughout my Engineering, C remained the language of my choice. I was ecstatic about programming and used to take part in every technical festival in North India (and never returned without a prize).
At one event it so happened that I was challenged to web-design competition. I assumed it to be a simple static site design competition but it turned out much more than that, they gave everyone a dynamic shopping cart to design. This was the first time I failed a technical competition. It hit me so hard that I decided strongly in my mind never to loose a web-programming/designing competition again. It was then I turned towards PHP, it was the easiest transition I have ever had. After flirting with PHP for a few months I was ready to face the music in another national level techfest; adrenaline was running high, heart was beating at its full, I was elated; I won.
I soon discovered that web enabled my reach to places I could have never reached with conventional programming. I was already a big Internet addict but freelancing added a new dimension to the whole concept. Freelancing enabled me to earn my own pocket money, pay my own bills and do quite a lot of stuff by myself. My love for PHP grew more and more.
Soon I graduated and joined a big Indian MNC in Noida. The organisation was totally Java centric and I was also looking forward to break ice with Java and become a SCJP soon. Because of my active profile I was soon shifted to a live product development project which was to be developed in revolutionary web 2.0 technologies. I was excited and was eager to work on it.
However, as fate would have it, I was assigned the lead role of handling the UI part of the product. So along with Java, I was responsible for creating the UI framework using JavaScript. This was one of the toughest but sweetest transition I ever had. JavaScript was one language that I never wanted to deal with. However, I was challenged to prove my worthiness and I readily accepted the challenge to build a web 2.0 interface using JavaScript. This experience shattered all the myths I had in my mind about JavaScript. I discovered the joy of functional programming, the pain of debugging JS errors, a new world of prototypical inheritance and the wonderful concept of Ajax. It was an enriching experience.
After spending a year and half with this company, I moved on to a small start-up in Chandigarh. At Chandigarh I continued my endeavors in the world of JavaScript and explored couple of different JavaScript frameworks (Qooxdoo, ExtJS, YUI, jQuery to name a few). As of writing this blog entry I am in US working with a new start-up on some superb ideas related to domain of data security.
All along I have been a learner and I think my thirst for more has not been quenched yet. Apart from my regular work I keep experimenting with new technologies and new frameworks. Also, I will specially like to thank all my friends and relatives who summoned me whenever they encountered any problem with their gadgets and computers, thanks for all the enriching experience, please keep providing me such opportunities so that I can learn and grow more.
Through this blog I would like to share my ideas with all my friends out there and would like to gain more from the overall experience. Part perfectionism, part procrastination and commitment to my full time work might lower down the frequency of posts I write but I will make sure that I keep the site alive.
Please feel free to critique my work and findings. I love hearing honest and unbiased opinions so feel free to share your thoughts with me and keep checking the site often!
Tags: Life, passion, prateek sharma
Reader's Comments
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Hi Prateek,
It was really wonderful to read the Post ‘Tryst with Destiny’. I didn’t know that apart from being an excellent programmer , you are also a great writer ! I am sure lot many younsters would get a lot of inspiration after reading your Post.. And I pray that your passion for programming takes you to even greater heights..
Cheers
Amar
Hey!! A wonderful start of a website..congrats!! All I wana add here is that you may have ignored this fact but you are also a wonderful writer…try writing a book sometime…I can suggest a title too… “A GUY IN LUV WITH TECHNOLOGY”
Keep Smiling Buddy!! & Keep Writing
Its really nice to see you “back” putting up an entry on your blog. I must mention it totally took me back to my school days and my “tryst” with 286/386 machine and with Prince of Persia’s first version. I have a pretty similar story as far as school level is concerned
I also must mention that you are one of the most hard working guys I have come across in my life and I wish you all the very best in whatever you do in life. Keep rocking man…I feel proud to have you in my friends’ list
dear prateek
very well written blog keep it up.must read blogs by amitabh bachan they r also superb
Hey Prateek,
Kudos to your write up!
I read all the comments posted by others and agree to them all…tryst is very well brought out…thoughts do reside in each and every soul but to pen them down so gracefully is an art which not everyone is blessed with… .the chain of thoughts, the chronology of events which you weaved is excellent. I always knew this and I guess it’s a right ground to confront that sky is the limit for you…
All the best dear!
Let me know when we can we raise a toast for your next blog…:)
Wishes,
Ranjit
Hey,
I m going to be one regular visitor to this blog, for sure! It was great to see, how your entire journey with technology has grown by leaps and bounds starting right from your childhood. The post itself exhibits your hardwork, keen interest and clarity of mind that u’v persisted over all the years of your life !!
Good good, keep posting
Only one word..fantastic…really if you have passion in life you can achieve anything in life…such is this facinating story of “Tryst with technology”.Hats off to you…
Hey buddy…awesome page with excellent writing…all the best..may u achieve everything u desire…God Bless!!
Comendable and awesome blog…what else should I say dont have words like you..so this maxim proves to be true” coming events cast there shadows before” from childhood you start playing with tech things and see where are you now and still yearn for more….keep it up..
Thats very nice and Interesting too… Thanks to you as well for all your support! Its great to know a techy like U!
Nice work dude..Keep it up..
Alright, i will say what i have to and not just add 1 more praise comment for your technical and writing skills.
I have never known you directly; But what appears after reading this blog is that you are a guy having a very very high opinion of yourself. U have projected everything in the best possible way.
I am afraid your attitude of “i know this and that”, “i always fetched a prize in technical events” and “i always help my not-so-techno friends” will overcome your “quest for knowledge”. All in all, u should be a little
down to earth in your approach towards life.
I beg your pardon if i hurt your fellings But your line of para says that u wanted “wantedhonest and unbiased opinions”.
Assuming, what u have written is true, i gave my honest opinion for the same. I will be very depressed if you delete this post; but it will confirm the point im tryin to make here.
Hope to see u some time.
Cheers,
your blog reader.
Hey,
To the amazingly cocky and hypocritical guy above me ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
I want to point out that the way you presented your “opinion”, you sound just as arrogant if not more stuck up than “the person” that you just described!!
Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
MR. Too afraid to identify himself. I think that your problem with Prateek’s accomplishments is that you yourself were never able to obtain any sort of positive praise or achievement in your entire pathetic life. So to sit there and bash on someone else who was able to make something of themselves is pretty sad!
Actually, maybe instead of wasting your time and insulting someone who is 3 times the man that you will ever be. You should go do something with your sorry excuse for a life and oh I don’t know, get an identity worth revealing.
Besides, what you said up there didn’t hurt Prateek’s feelings. If I know him at all, he probably laughed and waved it off. You on the other hand, should take what I said into consideration and be more pro-active.
So, Starting now…If you want to go and write something like that on ANYONE’S blog, I would recommend that you make sure not to make yourself look like a jealous ass as you did just recently.
GOOD DAY TO YOU!
BYE
Dear Pooja,
Thanks for your humble reply.
First things first. As I already mentioned, I dont know prateek directly and by conveying truthfully what i felt after reading this blog, might have offended the person through whom i know him.
I am sorry if I sounded like an “arrogant” “jealous” loser with a “pathetic life” to you. I wont now go ahead and try to justify myself by providing my accomplishments and honors to you, as it will end up in the same attitude i accuse prateek of.
If you read the blog again, U fill find the blog filled with the words ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘myself’ and ‘my achievements’. His writings like .. went to “every” technical festival in “north india” and never returning “without a prize” really hurt me. Only once in the whole blog he has written about ‘losing’ in a PHP or watever design competition and then too winning it in the end.
Now, I would have been very happy after reading this blog if he would have been humble and more fact based rather than generalizing it to an always win-win situation.
Coming to the ground reality, every person has a different attitude towards life. I have always believed in HIM for all the successes i have had, and keep striving hard each day towards my goal in life. Prateek, I know u r a well motivated and a talented guy. Just dont get overwhelmed with all u have done and keep your quest for knowledge the same as it was in std ninth(approximate), when you were having the old PC u mentioned.
SO, all u guys keep loving prateek and telling him he has gr8 technical and writing skills. Pooja dont just get ur opinions biased on your liking for the person.
Sorry again if i hurt anybody, especially Prateek and Pooja. Even if the way i wrote my opinion was wrong, the feeling with which it was written was true.
Hope to see you too some time.
Cheers,
Prateek’s Blog Reader
Hey Mr. Unknown,
Still haven’t revealed your identity I see. Well, what I want to know is why would it hurt YOU to read his blog. It’s his blog, of course he will write “I”, “Me”, and “Myself”. See, he is the kind of person who says it as it is. If he had written this blog about you, I’m sure that it would be filled with the good stuff that you have done, if any that is. So, instead of being sore about him and what he had to say about himself on his blog, you should congratulate him and move on with your life.
Now, that doesn’t sound too hard does it?
HIS BLOG + HIM BEING THE AUTHOR = HIS LIFE & HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS
It isn’t rocket science.
You didn’t hurt anyone dear friend. Just as you mentioned your opinion on his blog, I mentioned my opinion your comment. So please, keep your pity. I am not being biased; it’s a matter of you not being able to take in anyone else’s accomplishments. Granted that I do not know you, which is sort of your fault, because you never put your name up! You have, however, revealed what sort of person you are.
Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you again. Well, not really but I thought it was be polite to say that =P.
A word to the wise: CHEER UP, SMILE, AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE. Don’t waste your time worrying about what others are doing.
Bye.
POOJA.
Prateek, sorry we have this unnecessary war on here! But I’m at work and have nothing better to do and I do not know what his excuse is! Hope all is well!
Dear Pooja,
I will start off with a story.
There is a guy sitting in his office. He has either finished off his work or better, he doesnt feel like working and needs a break. In addition, there’s no cricket match to keep refreshing the scores. He browses through his gtalk friendlist for any interesting status or friend he would like to chat with. He catches note of a blog link in a person’s status message. He follows the link and finds an arrogant (sorry for my words) sounding blog written in an always win-win attitude. I must agree he was not much happy after reading the blog; but, when he reads comments by other he is quite upset and writes a suggestion for the blogger. THAT WAS IT. The guy has work to do. He will move on in life (even without suggestion of few to do the same)
Now, no prizes for guessing – blogger was prateek and the guy mentioned being me ( who still choses to be anonymous to you.)
U should accept one fact assuming its rocket science that I would be nothing but happy on anyone’s success and accomplishments; because of the fact I being very clear of my abilities, goals and morals in life.
One or two comments (even a blog in this case) is too short to judge a person and that may be the reason I always suggested my opinion and mentioned the point i dint like in the blog.On the other hand, You seem to be obssessed with your thougths about me being a non-worthy, jealous human being who wrote my comments only because i couldnt stand his achievements. Just because a person happen to give his advice to the other, doesnt imply he is a loser not “ENJOY”ing and “SMILe”ing in his life.
Those were my few words to the wisest girl.
Looking forward to hear from you again. ( I believe( after enlightenment from the lady) I was polite in this statement atleast.
Cheers,
Prateek’s Blog Reader
Dear Mr. Morals ,
Everyone reading this blog have seen your abilities (to guide someone) and your morals in life (do eveything by hidding yourself) which are pretty high and including Pooja in your comments, gave us very good picture of who u are.
We do not say person giving advice to others is a loser but we do agree on fact that person who wants to play blind is a defined loser.
Prateek is always open to comments and suggestions, he always welcome them and in case u havn’t noticed he approved your comments on this blog too.
In any case lets just wrap this up. Prateek read all ur High moral words and im sure he will be looking forward to follow them because he always welcome what others have to say ..
and yes one last thing when you start your blog and explain your self, please do send me a link of it .. because I really want to know how u explain yourself without using words like I,Me and Myself…
Hey..
Mr. Unknown,
I just want to add one thing that would be very helpful to you.
You just copy the above story and paste it to some word processor and then just edit it a little bit.
Replace every occurence of ‘I’, ‘Me’, ‘Myself’, ‘Mine’ with ‘Prateek’ and then upload this story to your blog if you have one.
In this way, we can redirect the blog readers like you (who don’t know Prateek directly) to your blog itself. You will also get an extra benefit of high pageranking of your blog as there are more people who don’t know Prateek than the people who know Prateek very well.
I hope you got my point.
————————
Hey, I am here…
http://www.kapilnarang.com
Hey Mr. Unknown
All that I have to say is that maybe you should just stop responding back to comments as of now. If you haven’t noticed, not only do I dislike you but your starting to get a lot of other people who don’t like you as well.
So, I suggest that if you don’t want to feel too sorry for yourself, you should just give up. By the way, the way you described yourself in your previous comment, pity. Your turned out to be more of a loser than I thought you were. Anyway. Much love.
Bye
good god! i didnt really want to interfere but …its really impossible to resist.
For the unknown person – see u must realise why everyone is reacting the way they are, its because you have used some very strong words in ur comment. and not only strong but negative as well. and u say u dont know Prateek. it is very much clear as if u would have know him, as Pooja says, u would have known that he always welcomes negative critisism. he always wants people to tell him where he has gone wrong.
ya. no wait there was one more thing. … yes! i cant judge u. nor i believe anyone here can, on the basis of ur comments. coz what u say at one point in time and space is not only determined by what kind of person u are , but also by ur state of mind at that point. which is moulded by the events that happen around u. so, it is pretty much possible that u were upset or already irritated by something when u read the blog that altered ur perseption for it.
And Pooja, leave it yaar, as far i understand, he is a young kid who has just entered the real world and has a lot to learn. so lets just forgive him and not be harsh on him even if he was rude in his comments.
and as far as my openion is concerned abt the blog, i think it tells us about some big dreams of a very down to earth person. and as far as ‘win every time attitude’ (or what ever phrase he used) is concerned, it is a very good attitude. i think everyone should have that.
and the ‘unknown’ guy should never try read my book as it is soo full of me , i and everything that he might just want to kill me!! LOL!!!
and also being a writer, i thing the first hand narration wrks (for this blog) as it always somewhere or the other, helps us to relate with the writing and the narrator. unless we have a very fixed preconcieved notion abt it, or we really irritated or suffring from a complex (again i am not pointing this out hinting at the person who wrote that comment, just sharing my general observations.)
and also i believe that its been enough and we should just stop this discussion here. there is nothing positive i see coming out of it.
o no Prateek!!! once u upload a comment u cant edit it!!!!
anyway in case anyone has to say anything to me,
u can find me at –
http://rahulsaini.in/
Rahul,
Well said yaar! Let’s leave him to his misery!
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