My First Crush

Posted by dreamz2achieve on 11/06/2009

This post was triggered off by an interesting conversation started by Chetan Bhagat on twitter (Yes I am on twitter @Pooja_Gupta). He asked all his followers to tweet about their first crush. No doubt, an interesting parady of tweets followed this.
Well, this lead me to think of mine. Though, it might sound crazy, but I had my first crush (and yes it still exists) in III standard. My father brought him home one fine evening and introduced him to all of us. I stood behind my mother gazing at him dreamily, completely awestruck by his simple looks yet immense power. Then I heard the magical words from my father's mouth that he was here to stay with us forever. Yes! he was our new family member. He spoke english, but not our kind. My father said that he had a different set of rules for english. My father told us that he will teach us how to talk to our new family member and that I can spend 15 minutes every evening after school with him under my father's supervision.
I welcomed our new family member with an open heart. He was none other than our FIRST COMPUTER.
Every evening, I would rush to meet my computer. I loved to watch him startup (or as I later learned 'bootup'). The sequence followed during booting became a permanent imprint in my mind. I knew the exact statements which flashed on the screen (though I had no idea of their actual meaning), the sequence of lights ON and OFF on each of its parts - CPU, monitor and keyboard (I later learned that this is known as POST : Power On Self Test). My father taught me how to play Pacman and my fingers started moving deftly on the keyboard.
Few months later, I joined standard IV and guess what, a new subject was added to our curriculum - Computers. I guess I was the only student happy with the addition of a new subject and also a member of the handful of students wo had met Mr.Computer before. Computer course at school started off with an introduction to computer, its evolution, its different parts and finally moved onto the simplest of computer languages - LOGO. I was fascinated by the small turtle moving steadily on the screen and that too on my instructions! Even the simplest task of drawing a square on the computer screen,now seemed the most important and meaningful task to me. I would go back home and replicate all the tasks on my home computer too. Writing FD, BK commands of LOGO became the top highlights of my day. Needless to say, I scored highest in my computer exams at school. My favourite question would be the booting procedure and I would happily describe it the way it was imprinted in my mind.
Today, as I sit in front of yet another computer and write this blog post, I thank ny first crush for all the decisions which it had made simpler for me: Be it selecting my subjects in XI standard, engineering branch, industry in which I want to work and many more.

9 comments:

Comment by Vineesh V on November 6, 2009 at 10:51 AM

No wonder you are in one of the most desired IT organization. Lucky to have a comp in 3rd std. I still remember how I had to struggle to play a movie CD, when I got my first PC in 12th std. Things change a lot.. 4 years of engineering with the best minds of the nation taught me many more things about computer that, any university could ever teach me... http://vineeesh.blogspot.com/2009/11/taxiwala2.html

 
Comment by Puneet on November 7, 2009 at 2:34 PM

I shouldve seen that coming. Computer as first crush isn't remotely interesting.

 
Comment by Anupam Mishra on November 10, 2009 at 1:06 AM

Very well narrated.
I think there is a writer in you.....do explore it !

 
Comment by dreamz2achieve on November 10, 2009 at 1:23 AM

Thanks Anupam Mam.

 
Comment by Madhav Shivpuri on December 16, 2009 at 7:54 PM

Pooja,

This is the time I came to your blog (thru link from Trak.in) and the first post I find, this one, is really well written with a nice bit of surprise - breaking the news of what was your first love adds a tinge of humor.

Yeah, my first love I wish was a computer but it was a girl (and I had no luck there!). Anyway's the first time I saw a computer was on TV and I saw people use computers and for their work, I wondered how people could see what seemed to be really tiny letters on the screen. This curiosity turned to interest and I had the opportunity to study computers in my pre-university, graduation and also did a couple of years of Aptech. Now I have been working in the IT industry for more than a decade, and cannot spend a day without the computer, particularly the internet.

Well, though not being my first love, my computer has stayed my love and I have been loyal to it for a very long time now :-)

(By the way, if you are interested in blogging for me at www.lifestyles.co.in, do let me know at madhav (dot) shivpuri [at]gmail.com).

 
Comment by dreamz2achieve on December 16, 2009 at 9:06 PM

Hi Madhav,

Its great to hear about your love for computers too.

 
Comment by Anonymous on May 31, 2010 at 3:38 AM

Interesting post...
My first crush happened when I was in class 10 :(
Regards
AK
http://business-fundas.com

 
Comment by Ashish Gupta on November 22, 2010 at 10:08 AM

Great to have a PC so early in life. I am sure it modifies the way we think. Many things on a machine, that would be learnings for others, would be intuitive for you!

PS: Stumbled here via Pravin :)

 
Comment by dreamz2achieve on December 11, 2010 at 1:23 AM

Thanks Ashish. Yes, you are right. Becoming PC friendly so early in life surely did change my life and that too for the better. :)

 

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