OBC (OS Backward Class)

Shraddha, my cousin gave me a call today morning, “Can you get me one book named TPS online exams for Information Technology 12th Science?”
“OK”…I could just say one word in deep sleep.
“12th Science has computer subject? Oh yeah! It was one of the electives during my time also!” I recalled. But I couldn’t get that subject due to limited seats in std 11th and therefore not even in 12th :( I still remember my father tried his best to have that subject in my syllabus because he just had one innocent thought in his mind that ‘Camputer is the future of today’s world’…they used to call ‘Computer’ as ‘Camputer’! So whenever he used to get any chance to make us computer literate he used to make use of it at best of his capacity (financial).

Actually during college days ‘Computer’ was not a new entity for me, I had ‘computer’ as an additional subject in my school during Std. 5th till Std. 8th but most of the time we used to play some games on it or some basic DOS commands. Off course we had no idea how does this machine called ‘Computer’ start but one thing was 100% fit in our mind…As soon as you see some white letters appearing on the already black screen followed by a colorful Windows 95 picture, it assures your that the computer is getting start now :). After my schooling I had already missed an opportunity to get to know the new OS (98 & Linux) in Std. 11th or 12th and I also I had no idea what does ‘Cyber Cafe’ mean at that time in 1999-2000. I was just familiar with the terminology Y2K during that period and that was the only thing I knew about computer. Computer has four main parts that are Monitor, CPU, Keyboard and Mouse, with this limited hardware knowledge I got admitted into computer engineering in 2001

Imagining myself becoming a ‘Computer Engineer!’ that thought itself was simply amazing and it was dream come true! (On very first day I had no idea about the nightmare of B.E.) I was sitting in the lectures with smiling face whole day like ‘Rancho’ from 3 Idiots as everything which was happening around me was unbelievable for me!!! Very soon after few days I started feeling little bit bore. It was not happening the way I used to dream of Engineering. It’s all about ‘Computers’ and since I join the college I had never seen the computer in any of my lectures!!! Where is that device which I had used in my school days?

Finally!!! That day came, when we had our first practical session for language ‘C’. I was very excited about it as well as bit nervous too. We were divided in 4 batches for the practical and my friend, who had better idea about computer than me, was in another batch! Off course during HSC and after that I had visited to few of my friends who had computers at their home and from them I could get one addition that, now instead of ‘Windows95’ picture you are expected to see ‘Windows 98’ picture on the screen when the computer is about to start, then take the mouse and start playing with this device using cursor. It was that simple!!!

We entered into the computer lab, there were so many computers! I had never seen these many computers together at one place before!!! We had one separate computer for every student! At that moment if someone would have had questioned me “What’s the difference between Secondary School and Engineering college” I would have promptly answered, “When there are 5 students sitting on one computer then it’s secondary school and when there is one computer for each student then its engineering college!!!” First half an hour our professor taught us something about some ‘vi editor’ and all. I was so awestruck about that whole environment and also because of that A.C. I was extra cool and hence whatever my professor told us that all went miles above my head!!!

Finally that moment came for which I waited for almost 4 years! We were asked to turn on our computers and do the practical. I clicked the button of the CPU. That ‘Beeeeeep’, Aaah!!! I was feeling as if I am about to take off from that launch pad with the sound of that CPU fan!!! White letters started coming on the already black screen…I smiled with some fulfillment and I was waiting for that picture of ‘Windows 98’ to come…2 seconds gone…5 seconds gone…10 seconds gone…I waited calmly…finally 2 minutes gone…Those white letters stopped changing on the screen but still that picture of ‘Windows 98’ didn’t come. Now I got little bit worried!...What went wrong?...or did I actually miss to see that picture of ‘Windows 98’?...no but then where is that lush green wallpaper of mountain with blue sky which used to appear on my friend’s computer along with ‘START’ button on left hand side bottom? I was not able to see either of it on the screen! I got confused now!

Now what to do? How will I operate it using mouse?...Yess!!! I reminded of Mouse! “Let’s move the mouse, may be after that it will work!!!” I opened the drawer swiftly to grab the mouse…hey but where is it??? There was only keyboard under the drawer. I literally checked all the drawers of the furniture but didn’t find even real mouse inside it! “What is this happening with me???” I was not just worried but also frightened now! How will I work now without mouse? It was complete chaos!!!

I looked around. No one was there at my right, I looked at my left. One guy was sitting next to me and he was doing something with the keyboard. From his behavior I could guess he had some experience of computer.
“Hi, I am Arun, What is your good name?” I asked him
“Hi, myself Amit” He replied.
That’s all! It was enough of introduction to convey my worry to him
“Actually…I am not able to find my mouse…also that ‘Windows98’ screen didn’t appear on my screen. Can you please check what’s wrong in my computer?”
He smiled and said,
“These all are UNIX machines!”
“What?..what is that UNIX?”, I questioned him.
“Unix is an operating system. We do not require mouse to work on it. We can work using keyboard!!!” He explained.
We both smiled at each other. Off course he laughed on my illiteracy behind his smile but I smiled with a realization that ‘Boss, this is computer engineering and it’s not going to be easy. Every day you got to be ready for surprises!!!” :)

Today when I work on UNIX command shell and type ‘bash’, I smile inside with a thought, “This UNIX really ‘bashed’ me once!!!”