Computers..

Computers. I remember the day I saw one first. But my introduction to it goes even before that. Long back, in 1987-88 every Saturday Dinamani will publish a supplement called ‘Sudar’. Now they stopped it. But when it was published, it was like the window to the outer world of science for me. Every week I used to wait for Saturday just to read it. I read about computers also in that. It was amazing but was hard to understand also. I can visualize a Television, where images were shown, but a calculating machine?. I had a solar calculator those days. It was the latest gadget I could put my hands on.

I think it was in 1988. I was in eighth standard. Everyone in my school was talking about the computer classes. It was a Saturday, June 26. I saw a computer. It was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. There was only a keyboard, which had the CPU and all other stuff. All you have to do is to connect it to a TV and you are all set. I don’t know even today whether anything else was needed. We were told we could write programs in a language called ‘BASIC’. Our teacher was a professor from Madurai Kamaraj University, Prof. Krishnan (who also happen to be the brother of our correspondent). I still have my first computer class notes. It starts with a ‘Computera Thunai’ on top. The classes were every Saturday afternoon. I have to forgo my Saturday’s for the class. It was too mysterious to let go off it without a try. Although we saw the computer the first day, we didn’t do anything on it for 7-8 months (except a game of chess now and then).

We studied about the parts of computer, binary mathematics, and basics of ‘BASIC’. Then we were allowed to compile and run a few simple programs. I still have the program I wrote for calculating every day expenses of a house. Although the first class was full, when we ended the year, there were only a few of us who are still interested. By the next year, there was only 4-5 of us in every class.

Then I got to know about Natarajan sir and ‘Aditya Computers’. Actually he is an uncle of my cousin and so an uncle of me. When he met my mom and dad in a wedding or something, he asked about me and immediately enrolled me in his center. So now my Sundays are also gone. It was probably the end of 1989 or 1990. The classes were every Sunday morning 11 to 2 and every Saturday evening if I wish to learn something more. The problem was not only that I am losing all my weekends. I have to bicycle 3-4kms either way also. The center was in the third floor of some building in Netaji road. It was just a big hall with chairs and black boards. There was another room where the computers were kept and another room, which is Natarajan sir’s room. There were two instructors, Jothi and I forgot the other one’s name. Since I had an introduction to ‘BASIC’, I was able to amaze everyone with my knowledge.

But most importantly, it was here I was able to see the internal parts of the computer. We actually open a computer and Jothi will tell us all about the pieces of strange looking parts with their strange looking names (‘bus’! ‘Port’!).

One of the constant encouragements for attending classes came from, what else, some of the beautiful girls in it. I did manage to speak to one. She was a very beautiful and intelligent girl. I wonder what happened to her. I learned DOS, FoxPro, WordStar, Pascal, BASICA and some intro to C. I went there for 2-3 years. Those are days with Windows 3.1. It was such a wonder to see colorful windows popping up and giving out crazy messages, one can never understand. Although I was constantly trying to find excuses from attending classes, my mom forced me to attend constantly. Natarajan sir was also another inspiration. But I have stop going there once I completed my HSC exams.

I moved into Thirunelveli to continue my engineering studies there. Once into the college for a couple of years, I saw that people are going out to study computers. Some of us in our year also enrolled. It was a place called SDJ academy. I think I enrolled in a course for Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro. I forgot what else was included. Classes were every Tuesday and Thursday evenings 7-9pm. A van will come to the hostel to pick us up and will drop us back after the classes. Although it sounds a wonderful thing, I remember trying to hide from the van and miss the class.

In fact I don’t remember learning anything worthwhile while studying in there. It was more my fault than theirs. Students will go even on Saturdays and Sundays for additional computer time. The focus on those days was more to impress the girls than anything. That in itself was a distraction from learning.

I remember Poos and Sriram attending the classes without fail. Poos even went to the morning classes (at 6-6.30am) whenever possible (although I sniffed a shady motive to that!). But I know for sure they learnt a lot more than me anyway. When I remember the classes in SDJ, I remember sleeping. I found it so boring and I had no idea I hated it so much. It almost made me hate computers.

But then I realized that it just isn’t my way of learning. I want to sit in front of a computer and raise all hell and learn something at the end of the day. That is what works for me. To sit in a class and listen to someone going all gaga about some stupid windows form is not for me. Once I realized that I stopped going to the classes.

Now I am a computer professional after all these fun days of learning. I certainly learned a lot after becoming a programmer. But I will always remember those wonderful days of learning I may never have again. .