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February 22, 2011
I was recently asked to write memoirs of my college life for a guest editorial for my alma mater’s alumni newsletter, and I jotted down a few thoughts while reminiscing the past. Long-time readers may not find these stories new. For the others, I have hyperlinked the related old stories for your online reading pleasure:
Every time I remember PESIT, it reminds me of three things – hectic schedule, great peers and great teachers. In hindsight, that’s what a good life is all about.
Let me explain.
About the hectic schedule – PESIT made us attend a lot of classes and do a lot of extracurricular activities. Like any other typical student, we used to curse our fate for that. When I look back now, it was a great training for us to prepare for life “in the real world”, i.e. the professional life. They prepare you for the hustle. It’s not enough to have opportunities, it’s how you make use of them that matters.
Speaking of peers – we had quite an eclectic batch who had a wide range of interests which made for interesting discussions. Today, they are musicians (
Speaking of teachers – there are two teachers who have made a distinct impression in my mind and my appreciation for computer science – Shrividya madam who taught us Compiler Design (I’m a Computer Science student) and
Seniors – There are many
In fact, that was what led me to my interest in entrepreneurship and technology. Let me give you two examples.
Entrepreneurship – Back then, in the days when dial-up internet was the fastest service you could get, it was hard to get the latest versions of Linux which used to be multiple CDs, for example, 3-4 CDs of 700 MB would take months to download over dial-up. So we hit upon an idea to acquire such CDs and then sell CD copies over the Internet. I think we were in 5th or 6th semester at that time.
Technology – When Red Hat Linux 9 was released, thanks to LinCDs.com, I got access to it early and was learning my way through and learned a few things. In CS stream, we have to write a project using databases. Everyone used VB and Oracle. My project partner and myself, influenced by our seniors, wanted to use open source, so we requested to use Qt and MySQL respectively instead. This was met with resistance from our lecturer saying
On the same note, we used Qt to build the user interface of our software. At the last minute, we were informed that we had to write an installer that we have to run in front of the external invigilator to install our software on any new machine. Other students had it easy because Microsoft Visual Studio would automatically generate it. We had no such alternative. So I ended up learning Python language and writing the installer in that because that could run on any machine. One thing led to another and
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Lastly, I want to thank all my teachers in PESIT, I am constantly amazed at their untiring efforts in teaching students and working towards their best interests despite the students’ general lackadaiscal attitudes. I hope this small note reassures you that you are all making a difference and I thank you for that.
Swaroop C H
Student of 2004 batch of B.E. in Computer Science.
Note 1: Special thanks to Sriranga Chidambara for sending me the scanned copy of the printed newsletter.
Note 2: No, that photo and profile was not my idea.