I had always been fond of computers. I started programming in class 8th. My school teachers taught me only the stuff that was to be asked in school exams, nothing of the box so I used to read books to gain knowledge. My doubts were always doubts as I had no mentors to guide me. I kept going, I developed my first website at the end of class 8th.Then I was introduced to the INTERNET, which then changed everything. It was like I had found a mentor who can now clear all my doubts. I published my first website in the summer holidays of class 9th. Subsequently, I started learning more programming languages as my interest was in it.
Once I went to our district Govt. Engineering College, where I met the professor of Computer Science. I asked him to teach me programming. He first interviewed me and hence agreed to teach me C++. I learned the language in the college, despite being a school student.
After class 10th, everybody started telling me that what I was doing is non-sense and at this age I am supposed to be focusing on my school like every other child of my age and stop this programming. I resisted this fact, not because I hated school studies, but because I didn’t wanted to be like everyone else around me, I wanted a separate identity for myself which could differentiate me from other children of my age group. I have always wanted to work on waste management systems. I met people who could partially guide me but no was able to completely guide me in my programming field.
Not having any mentor, I continued studying on my own, but now I was powered by the internet. Then I opted for further study in web development field, bought some online courses, referred to documentations and learnt all the languages of full stack.
Currently I am a full-stack web developer. I have contributed to the Google Assistant code and got shortlisted as the only ‘school-kid’ from all over India to participate in the final round of Hack-a-Bit, held at BIT, Ranchi.
Kunal Soni
Delegate, YIC IIT Delhi 2019
