Let me illustrate the whole story in the form of a timeline…
1988
This cool chota hanuman like dude (ME) was born in the Kottayam district of Kerala. Mom was a housewife; Dad was not having any permanent job or any good source of income. Lived in a century old BIG house with lot many rooms and secret places to hide treasures (even though we didn’t had any) that was gifted to my grandpa’s father by some King of Kerala for his good works.
1992-1995
We moved to my mom’s native place – Kollam and I started going to a government school of a small village Ezhamkulam in Kollam district of Kerala till class – 2nd. Meanwhile mom got a job offer from Jalandhar (Punjab) and we planned to move there. She got the job as a Laboratory technician in a reputed (Charitable) hospital. As it was a charitable hospital, her salary was also too low. I still remember her first income in 1995 was approx Rs.1500. But the best thing was – apart from the salary, the management also gave us free residence on the first floor of the same hospital that was located in the prime location (Model Town) of Jalandhar. My dad also got a job nearby as an electronic mechanic and things started working out well.
1995-2005
Now, the issue was regarding my schooling. I didn’t knew even a single word of Hindi. So, it was not possible for me to start from class 3rd where I left in Kerala. I had to start from U.K.G (Class 3 minus 3 years). Huff… a loss of precious 3 years. Somehow I managed to learn Hindi and Punjabi along with English and other subjects. In this time-frame I also switched three schools (Punjabi medium -> Punjab board -> CBSE finally). I jumped few classes as I was good in academics. 2005 was the year when I completed my 10th class. I scored 89% in C.B.S.E and was ranked second in my school. That was a moment of joy and pride both for me and my parents.
2005-2007
Opted for Non- Med stream and after a lot of ups and downs, I was able to get through my 10+2 exams in 2007 with a score of 86%. Meanwhile my mom gifted me my first PC in 2006 (We bought the one with the lowest configuration and borrowed money from relatives and even neighbors).
Those big speakers on the right aren’t branded.. My dad got them for me from one of his friends.
I was very much attracted towards programming and I made several small projects.
Jungle Ball – Game in Flash
Morse code message transmitter and receiver
I was also an electronics enthusiast and had even made a small Time bomb (:-P) that worked too… I made clap switch that operated on your clap sound and could turn on or off any electrical appliance at your home. I made radio that can work without the use of any power source, Bluetooth dongle range increasing device, and many more.
2007-2011
As I never in my life went for a coaching or tuition, I was not that much aware of the competitive exams, IIT, AIEEE, etc. I did all my preparations on my own and the result was – couldn’t clear IIT / AIEEE/ BITS. Finally we have CET for Punjab and I cleared that with rank – 1500. I got admission in India’s largest university (L.P.U) in IT stream. I did well in my academics and bagged 85% in my B.Tech. I was the hacker and programmer of my class… I used to hack my college computer passwords so that my friends could play counter strike (Game) on those computers. I had good knowledge of Phishing, SQL injection, DOS (Denial of Service) and several other hacking techniques. Once I posted the Phishing technique on a blog I had on blogger.com and I got a comment from someone (I believe it was a real and not a spam comment) on my blog that said something like – Your blog is teaching unethical hacking practice to the general public. You should discontinue your writings on this topic and remove your blog entirely from blogger.com or we might need to reach out to your local govt. authority to file a case against you. Please consider this as a final warning.
Web security
Blogger (A product of Google)
I was scared like hell and deleted all my blogs… Even the personal ones!!
During my last year, I worked on a project – A web browser using Java language. The browser I made was something unique and had some features that were not available in any other web browser at that time. My browser had the feature wherein user can create different accounts inside the browser itself and one user cannot view the browsing history / bookmarks etc of another user on the same PC. This was something unique and no other browser had this feature. I even tried to patent this idea… but was unable to even start the process because of the cost involved. Nowadays i think Google chrome has this feature of logging in to browser using your google account.
Yuvaa Browser – The web browser I made in Java
Another screenshot of my browser
At the same time, I got a job placement through Campus placement drive in a reputed MNC. Before securing the job, a few days back… I sent a mail to Alok Bhardwaj – (founder of Hidden reflex) with the details of my web browser and the idea behind it. Alok and his team developed India’s first web browser – Epic browser.
He was impressed by my resume and my idea but, I never called him back because I already got placed in a good company and I didn’t want to risk things at that time.
2011-2014
Moved to Noida and started working in a MNC. Enjoyed life to the fullest. Partying with friends, bike rides, bowling, night out, movies, music…etc.
Night-out in Noida
Got engaged to my sweet wife Deepika and moved to Chennai as she got a job there. Got married in May 2014. Started my venture – The South Indian Store in sept – 2014. Got orders of more than 100kg in 4 months and have 100+ returning customers.
2015
The day came when I and my wife made one of the biggest decisions of our life – Booked a 2BHK flat in Chennai on 1st Jan 2015. phew…….
That was my long… good / bad luck story in short. The hard-work we did and the good luck that was there throughout my 27 year old journey helped me achieve this milestone. Everything happens for good. I believe this sentence from the bottom of my heart. I skipped several incidences that happened in-between. Just highlighted the main turning points of my life to keep it short.
Thank you for reading my story and please ignore all the grammatical errors… I am not a good writer at all!!!
Anoop Nair (Co-Founder | The South Indian Store, Selling South Indian Snacks online )
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