Sunday, January 23, 2011

Marriage with Microsoft,My second Job offer,Part 1 :)

Micosoft and me ,we have a great bonding.Not from now, but since a decade ago.Let me rewind the pages of my life and present to you all.

My Story Begins:)

#June 2000
I am from a middle class family and I got my education from the best school of my City birgunj,It is a gateway of Nepal and business hub.We assume daily more than millon dollar transactions takes place at birgunj which is just a sub-metropolitan city.Computers were new at that time and we couldn't afford them or you can say I was in mere class 6 and my dad was reluctant to buy on the first go.He asked me get me a BASIC COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE degree from CSE,A computer training institute and then he will be sure that we will use the computer properly:).Till then I was devoid of computer at my home but luckily I had a Cyber Cafe(CC) just below my house and the owners didn't know anything of computers.One fair day, I was passing by that CC and my brother AMIT BHOJANIA(Delhi) asked me to made an email ID ,which was my first email ID (nikhil_18_4@hotmail.com) His Id was amit_18_4@hotmail.com.I blindly followed the legacy of " _18_4 " blindly as I love my brother alot.Soon I started catching up.Internet was NRS 60/hr that times and I started using Internet and MSN Chat.I spend most of the time in that CC,learning and teaching newbies.It was like every regular user thought that I was the boss of that Cafe.I more person I would like to mention "Sushil Agarwal"(in mah facebook friendlist).He is gem of a person,a geek and too creative.We both met,started getting deeper and deeper in computers.Those days computers were very low end and IE didn't clear temporary internet files automatically so we(I am sushil) had to regularly visit Client machines of Cafe and fix them up.We were so called tech bouncers there :).People ask me why do i have a typing speed of 54 words/min.I tell them its since 2k2.We used to call Bill G as "Bill**"(As being close to bihar but respected him like anything,sorry no offences intended) tried making few sites like Khakhor.com(chat startup) but lacked time and proper knowledge.The CCafe boss thought we use internet for free and asked us to do some job.Opening sites for newbies and do some typing/printing jobs.I was having no problem as I got time to sit with computer,my mate :).I started suffering from Intejavascript:void(0)rnet fever,High and very High.We both used to hack passwords Keyloggers,snapshot taking bot,I remember the site (alpinesnow.com and many).I completed my Basic computer course too :).

Happiest movement of my life,my first computer machine :)
My dad on dhanteras'01,I was at my shop handed me a Rs. 55k bundle and told "Go and grab the best system you want".I purchased the system and life was awesome henceforth.My sister gifted me AOE(Age of empire) CD on my birthday :):).I skipped lunch ,dinner ,tutions and played that game.It was great fun :)For me computer was Internet,Windows office,music,Hacking from websites(I downloaded songs by disconnecting the net when I was playing a song on embedded real player online by availing the link after DC) and loads of fun.Literally I knew what programming is but I didn't know how it is done or what are the syntaxs and I was passionate about hacking accounts ,playing games(AOE,motorcross midtown madness,road rash etc)& learning Windows architecture(System,system32,temporary internet files folder etc.).Beleive me people I have used almost every edition of windows(98 I loved it,Me(explorer.exe error),professional WIN2000(cool),WIN2000server(didn't use much),WINXP and now WIN7 :)) and office.

My motivation towards what I loved to do.:)
I wanted to do computer engineering any how.I started researching how to grab a Comp. Sci degree.I started researching online.I found B.Tech with Science background is the only way and respected comp. sci degree around the world.People asked me before appearing class 10 what you will choose I replied Science.They suppressed me by telling you won't be able to cope up,It's not for you,take a commerce degree and handle your business.I din't like them then I ran away from that place of discussion.I started focussing on my studies,knew things won't be easier but I was confident enough to cope with it.I spend less time at CC more on studies.

Fast Forward :)
I gave my 10th board,12 from Delhi and that line by people that I won't be able to cope up was a source of inspiration and dedication.I couldnt grab a good seat on the first go and got NIT Durgapur in 2007.On the very first day ,I saw Microsoft visited this college and hiring few students and hence I thought I got my Ramp to get loaded into the proper locomotive :)

Journey at NIT Durgapur :)
It was a difficult path although I covered and finally reached here.I was very unsatisfied with the college and the standards(now It has been completely transformed and getting transformed).I didn't repeat the mistake bought a laptop in the first year itself and started using it :):).In a farewell party to the batch of 2k8 @Nepal family we boozed.After that I broke around 4-5 beer bottles(my seniors told me next morning when I asked why my hands were burning) fighting between Microsoft and open source(I supported Microsoft like anything,I am a die hard fan).We discussed all tech stuffs there like Vista file search is far advanced than XP search,Why it failed etc.Saurabh dai,Bibek dai If you are reading I hope you can recall.Then I met priyanka and got motivations from my seniors(TOPCODERS ..nitdgp,rajatag12 ).They guided me through repeatedly saying Comp Sci<->Programming.My love for coding and programming increased exponentially and I enjoy doing that.People criticized me, friend didn't like me thinking I didn't give them time.But dudes I don't know where I was in 2nd and 3rd year.I was like LOST!! I was so involved with my work and love I couldn't Context Switch.You can call it as Hibernation :P.We prepared ourselves,coding,spending time in library learning,giving big shot semesters and scoring 9 pointers :):) and on 5th august 2010,I cracked Novell:).In Convo2010 sushil dai visited ,I was tensed about future of Novell,he told me very confidently that in anycase won't be joining Novell:).I knew something else is waiting for me.So I didn't treat any of my Nepal family mates,friends and people at my home.And it's 18th Jan'11 and Microsoft is visiting:):).I will cover the interview experience in next part.Till then goodluck guys.Hope you enjoyed it.

13 comments:

Priyanka Chatterjee said...

nice....did not know so much about the early part of your life....Whatever it is i feel , u love both open source and closed source...that's why you are a part of GLUG , u cracked NOVELL and thereafter MICROSOFT....you are basically a technocrat and about programming , we have lots to achieve, a long journey ahead...so MSFT is not the end :)

nik.agarwal said...

I love technology ,in whatever form it is:) It's not the end but a well start :)

Unknown said...

Rocking...Wish u all the best..

nik.agarwal said...

Thanks saurabh.all the best to you too:) But will miss you,kapil,sankha and suvashis.I came to know sankha more during this MS interview.He is gem of a person.Ananya ,right choice :):)

Rahul Bhattacharjee said...

Congratulations Priyanka! Good luck.

Ayan... said...

Hey! Really feel u Deserved it...Congrats...This was the wost NIT Durgapur could have offered and you've grabbed it. Still a long way to go and loads of opportunities heading your way. Best of Luck.

--
Ayan

Arunabha said...

waao! Indeed .Nikhil u proved that success comes to those who believes in themselves.Its indeed heartening to read thro .I wont say it as a blog but wud rather prefer to say it as a vivid picture and is so lively xactly what a blog sud b like :).I got introduced to Nikhil few months back via Freshersworld.com . Nikhil is indeed a person with cool personality , willingness to create the difference. i still remember our Durgapur campus ambassador's meet at city centre .Nikhil had an exam dat day and by dat time i was too in NIT for some work and after his xam he called me up and i picked him up and we reached CC ,we discussed about ways to create difference and nikhil was indeed an A player suggesting various indeas to add value. With his effort he also organised Tech Talk at NIT campus , Freshersworld.com where he spoke on technology related tools .It was indeed great to hear him.. NIT really proved to be a leadership in all aspect. we are proud to have him in our Eastern Knights Team , East India , Freshersworld.com . and it is also worth mentioning Nikhil is among the top 5 selected for Goa Big Bash 2011 . I wish him all the best ! for life!! Dis is just the beginin bro a lot to achieve ..Cheers Arunabha

Unknown said...

it was so nice of you to share this ..the post filled me with the fiery drive to chase my dreams.. eagerly waiting for its continuation part.. :)
you said:
"(I downloaded songs by disconnecting the net when I was playing a song on embedded real player online by availing the link after DC)" -- but how ??..this has has been echoing in my head since i read your post. i tried .. saving from temporary files.. but that isn't working in windows..
googled it up .. and could not land to a solution .. it will be kind of you to help me out with this ..thank you !! :)

nik.agarwal said...

@ayan Thanks a lot yaar.
@Arun Thanks for appreciation and proud to be a part of Eastern Knights :).
@sneha It was my pleasure to share my experience..I doubted that the blog turned boring,thanks for apppreciation.And Yes,I think I ran very fast with that "......" thing.I shall explain ,It's basically a hack whenever you play a song at smashits.com ,fumaza.com,musicindiaonline.com which supports audio playback in real player embedded on a pop up or a window you don't know the location of the media.So to locate and download the media I used to disconnect(DC) my dialup and error popped up that "It was unable to connect to its server eg. http://xyz.com/abc/data/srer02.rm" and I used to download this link from my IDM/DAP.I used this link to download a compressed song when downloading songs was not so easy as of now:).

Unknown said...

does that dialog box with the server address pops up only if its dail-up connection?? i tried disconnecting the LAN wire.. n ended up with the usual error.."Unable to connect to the proxy server." etc.etc. n the URL in which the embedded system was played is "http://smashits.com/audio/player/frameset.cfm?albumID=31682"..
downloading this URL as expected is resulting in .htm file type download .. :( :(

nik.agarwal said...

I tried this around 2002-2003 and those days server side technologies were not so flexible as of today.So it displayed the actual file link when you disconnected.I shall post the next part soon :)

Unknown said...

no no .. u dont .. jus came across your blog through search engine.. :)

nik.agarwal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.