Misadventures of a Software Engineer- The School Days

How can the misadventures of a SW engineer be un-noticed at school. Although my journey as a so called engineer started in college but as we say, "Coming events cast their shadow before" arthat 'Poot ke paanv palne me hi pehchaan liye jate hain' so my school days were no exception. One of the earliest memories which I have and are worth mentioning come out of class seventh. This was the time when I joined this new school. My father was totally against it and wanted me to continue with my older school. But I was fed up. So I needed a change. I din not know whether this new school was good or bad but I desperately wanted to join it. In fact I bought the form myself, wrote the examination, cleared it and got the provisional admission slip. All my dad had to do was to sign the fee cheque.

So here comes my first day at school. When I entered the class, it was probably a free period. Class VII A E/M. English Medium was a big thing for me as my earlier education was medium less and not so enchanting. How will be the guys? Do they always speak English? How will I survive? These questions were haunting my mind. When I entered the class, the guys were busy playing cricket with the chalks and hard board while the girls were chit-chatting with their handkerchiefs in one hand and waving the other hand in a typical girlish way. A monitor like creature was trying to calm them down. By the sound of my footsteps, class thought in a jiffy that it was some teacher and for the spur of a moment there was pin-drop silence and all eyes stared at me. Then there was a galore of Ho-Ha-Ha…..

I was about to cry. Seeing giants at the backseat and chintoos at the front seat and studious and seemingly intelligent guys in between. My heart surely was not beating but drumming. All of a sudden a seemingly aged and mature guy rose out of nowhere and said-, “Ao beta” (come child come)

I raised my eye-brows pointed my index finger towards him and signaled through eyes “Did you Identify me”

“Haan, pehchaan liye beta”

This was Manish Bhatnagar, my childhood enemy…..I was about to freeze in the scorching heat of June.