Back in 1988, I was graduating from Class XIIth. Those
days, the country had just woken up to a new dawn and new rhetorics were
trying to penetrate through the masses. Our school had been fortunate
to get some 286 PCs in Sep 1987 and we would eagerly go to the Computer
Class to gaze and marvel the polythene covered PCs. My Computer Teacher
had been a tenant in our house and would take a special interest in my
Class's introduction to this new technology. We were happy to write a
few lines on these machines and especially the programme- Hello World.
Before, I could attain a meaningful knowledge on the PCs , the heat of
Class XIIth and the pressure to join a professional college mounted on
top. The only agenda in the life was -To deliver a good result and
follow it up with a seat in the medical college or the National Defence
Academy (NDA).
By Jul 1988, I landed at the and the stringent routine at
NDA Wing wiped off whatever little I remembered of my connect with the
PCs. The introduction to PCs came again during the Second Term when we
were ushered into an introductory capsule by Maj KL Vishwanathan
(Kelly)/Fox/42. Maj Kelly was a pioneer of the NDAs Computer Lab and the
Fox Connect did ensure a decent time marveling at the miniaturized TV
screens and the neat type writers connected to them. The grand routine
of the Academy and the perpetual fear of losing the OP Shoes ( which had
to be kept outside the PC Lab) did ensure that the Shoes remained safe
and the PC knowledge remained scant. This situation was made complex
with the availability of an air conditioned environment in the lab and
various aromas leaving the Cadet's stockings!! A delirious sleep was all
that we could manage in this technology intensive cabin.
Computers remained an enigma all throughout the Engineering Degree at
Naval College of Engineering where Lt Commander Sabu John/Fox/62 was at
helm. Sabu Sir with his cool demeanor and soft skills imparted the
programming skills to our batch. Programming is not everyone's cup of
tea and soon we all realized that we needed to practice harder. Many a
Sundays were spent in the PC Center of the College with those big Floppy
Diskettes which always fell pray to the wet weather of Lonavala. A
failed attempt to retrieve these floppies invariably was followed by
some hard thinking and planning over a few hard pegs. A few of our geek
seniors,peers and juniors were constantly evolving with these machines.
Soon , many of them were spending mid-night fuel at the PC lab, loosing
their sleeps, gave up on sports, drinking and traveling to town. They
wore disheveled looks and soon greyed up. We looked at them with awe and
worried about their well being as we constantly saw them with
programming books in tow.
The email bug hit us all hard and one fine day Lieutenant
Sandeep Asolkar/Fox/75 took me to a standalone PC in a library and I had
my first Hotmail account. It was a eureka moment as I received the
first email from Sandy Sir and the ease of handling the 486 over 286
dawned on me. Soon as I got my 5th Pay Commission arrears, I bought my
first AMD Athalon enabled Desktop in 1998 at Visakhapatnam with a
similar configuration as that of Col Alok Bajpai/Fox/52. The PC was
coupled with a slow Landphone of BSNL. The internet was slow and one
could take a walk and come back to find the site opened up. The
connectivity matrix started to grow. This Desktop served me well till
2008 when finally it died due to an old and heat loaded AMD Processor
but not before it criss crossed from Visakhapatnam to Mumbai to
Wellington to New Delhi. I did feel sad when I had to bid farewell to
this machine when it refused to wake up at the repair clinic.
I exchanged my old PC with a new configuration HCL PC with
a flat screen for 20,000/- at a shop in New Delhi. This PC brought in
some good luck and with the 6th Pay Commission, we got in a Laptop, a
Note Book PC and many smart phones (as these phones do not last for more
than 2 years and you cannot throw the old ones away!!). This desktop
has been occupying a prominent corner of our house. It does get powered
up but is now unstable as its processor has deteriorated faster than the
AMD. The availability of multiple options and a panache for speed to
complete the many tasks, we forget to use this machine and it stands in
one corner as other machines get powered up to accomplish our missions.
With changing times, convergence and miniaturization have become the
buzz words. The World is experiencing a new tide and new traditions are
stepping into India. This is the time to change and move on with the
crest. This is the time for my bulky desktop to finally leave our home
along with its table and accessories. A thin laptop is all that I need
now to move on and accomplish my passions. A click of a button would
wipe off the data of its hard disk and then the hard disk would be
crushed forever. It has done its job and I need to clear the space to
let new things move into our house.
Legacy is a good memory only if it has served its purpose.
The change has been ushered in and its legacy has begun.
No comments:
Post a Comment