Continuing from my last blog – a student in the university describes how his lab partner and others got into the university. In India, if you have to get into one of the prestigious engineering schools, you have to ‘crack’ an exam called JEE – Joint Entrance Examination. And there is no child with decent education who does not dream about cracking JEE. 

So going back to this lab partner – he lived in a three-storied building with other students. The ground floor was a dorm, the first floor was a mess (canteen), and the third floor was the classroom. And for two years, that’s all they did – sleep, eat, study, eat, sleep. And they got into a prestigious university. They cracked JEE.

The student laughs when he says, ‘after two years of jail; they found freedom – why would they study?’ My intention is not to belittle tuitions or the students who fall prey to this, but to ask – what happened to interest, student’s interest? What do I mean by this?

When I was growing up, my dad got transferred to the IT department of a bank. So, I was introduced to computers at a very young age. My dad being who he is, taught me how to program in BASIC. And I remember printing cars made out of * until one of his friends introduced me to Pacman. By then, I had caught the bug, was good at computers at school (one subject that I excelled at), and that positive reinforcement only grew to where I wanted to do software engineering only. I refused the opportunity to do chemical engineering at a prestigious university to do information technology engineering in an all women’s university (yes, that was a big deal at that age). 

I love coding – I missed it more after I got into management as you never realize what you had when you have it. There is something very creative about coding – it is beautiful. My code was beautiful, with comments every five lines. When I transitioned my code over to others, they would not believe how comfortable it was to understand. It taught me analytical thinking, attention to detail, problem-solving, relationship building (you get to know who the nerds are and keep them happy, and you bully the testers). The software has its challenges – spiritual in some ways. The time when you want to sit through and solve the bug is when you should leave it. It is when you don’t think about the solution that it appears.

As a software engineer, I had found my place in the world. At that time, I did not even know the word passion. I eventually got bored of it because all I was doing was cut+copy+paste – true coding was becoming rare. But the love of coding, the software never left. 

By The Way – this seems like an excellent way to put a plug for my newly published app. I gave in to the desire to code and painfully and joyfully ended up creating an app. 

To download Google Play Store – App Link AND Apple App Store – App Link

Or search for ‘Pick Me Up Anu Morris ‘ on Android and ‘Pick Me Up Morris’ on iPhone.

And looking back, I think it was this passion, ‘interest’ that helped me get through obstacles and difficulties in my career and life. This is my intent – maybe it is time we stop putting a square peg in a round hole. Perhaps it is time for things to fit naturally.

What does this mean – I will leave you with the question because some answers have to be experienced.