How Microsoft has impacted my Life:

Unlike other contestants, I am participating as an enabler in terms of using Microsoft in my day-to-day life and helping others get maximum by use of technology. 

This love affair began 18 years back in 1996 when I used Windows 95 machine to learn to program in BASIC and TURTLE and also used computer to play PARATRUP, WOLF3D and ALADDIN when our kind computer instructor, Mr A Sen, allowed us. I still cherish those first encounters with a PC and chuckle at the misconceptions I used to have. I secretly believed that the instructors asked us to keep our shoes outside the computer room so that there is no dust inside and so that computers don’t catch a virus!

As time passed by, I got to learn computers in school and found it very interesting and scoring too. So, I continued with computers in Higher Secondary and Engineering. This April when I was faced with a choice between IT and other domains as Insurance, FMCG, etc., I had no hesitation in choosing IT as it has been my partner in studies since long time.

But, studies alone do not define what a person is all about, do they ? Extra-curricular activities and hobbies are also important. I was employed at a remote location of IndianOil as officer and I chose on-line learning portals for keeping my knowledge up to date. That I could complete Power Searching and Big Data certifications online, is no less an achievement for the Microsoft OS. Studying through eDX and MIT-OCW also helped me a lot in work and during engineering respectively.

The creation of my blog ‘The wandering eye’ is an earnest attempt to bridge the geographical gap between students and mentor by providing a platform to learn, interact and share their study related requirements. Today it has 80 thousand visitors from all around the globe benefiting by searching for Management, Engineering, High School and Accountancy related informative self-made materials.

I used Microsoft as OS for the preparation of various study materials uploaded on my blog. The journey began when I decided to help my younger sister living far away from my place of posting. Sending the solutions to her doubts through postal service was expensive and slow, so I decided to hook up my family to the internet and reveal to them the enabling capacity of the web. I was also inspired by Khan Academy and the educational videos uploaded for free viewing on the web.

Every day after returning exhausted from work, I used to sit down and work on my Lenovo notebook compiling study notes and learning tricks. I used to scan those sheets of paper and save as PDF on online drives and began posting them on my blog.

This started my eventful journey alongwith wonderful people, a Management school clerk, numerous school kids, a principal and engineering grads, all who had come together to learn and excel in life. Thank you to these wonderful students who have associated with me. It has been wonderful to help you all out. Your anxious emails regarding exams worried me, your small thank you emails touched me and your success in exams pushed me to continue this journey.

Today when I sit to write how Microsoft has impacted my life, I do feel privileged. It is because Microsoft has not only helped me but hundreds of others, those who were enabled by this technology. Technology is a versatile enabler; it's poor man's friend, rich man's pleasure and a magic for curious. When digital technlogy meets communication protocols, a network of enabling devices develops. A millionaire doesn't need to visit a bank, he gets a personal banker to attend to him. But, technology can save half-days salary of an office goer if he can make a RTGS transfer from desktop.

Similarly, besides being the helping hand of people in distress after fiddling with their machines, I derive satisfaction from being able to contribute to making my office paperless. Initially, there was some hesitation among the colleagues in accepting the scan copy of forms, receipts and bills, but my persistence, Windows OS’s stability and reliability helped in pushing the idea through.

Thank you Microsoft for helping me help others and I would like to continue this journey ahead as a MSA. A few lines of my poem to conclude this write-up:

I have a dream 

by Naval Singh

I have a dream.
A dream of an opportunity land
Where no one is denied of a worthy share of chance to struggle,
For struggle we must and
That too with equal gusto as we should celebrate after every struggle we lost.
With that broken nose, that bleeding forehead, that throbbing swollen eye.
That reeling head, those cramps;
That gut wrenching pain of a knife heated in candle-light touching arm muscles to remove a bullet.
These mean that the person has pushed limits today,
Gone for the spectacular.

I have a dream.
A dream for that defiant look from eyes of vanquished.
For that guy will be winner tomorrow.
The mighty Thames can never be interrupted,
Not because the concrete has lost its strength
It is because water has realised its potential.

I have a dream.
I dream for happiness and satisfaction,
In the hearts of millions of people who are unfed, uncared
For they do not beg for alms, they beg for opportunities.

I have a dream.
I have a dream for that confetti slowly descending as
A band troupe plays national anthem far away.
That gold medal hanging proud on chest of an equally proud citizen;
Those glistening moist eyes of silver-haired parents in crowd appreciating
Who saw this dream beginning, building, taking wings and now shining over the horizon.

I have a dream.
A dream for that star providing light to millennia those follow.
Directing ships to safety and providing support to grief stricken lovers at night.
The dream that brings life to homes,
Infuses that desire to push through limits.

But, are dreams enough? No says the mind for one must,
Work towards fulfilling a dream,
Though a hundred rocks, river bed and soil;
To consume that water stream do eagerly toil,
But, flow the stream must, as give birth to civilizations it must.

Civilizations that change the face of humanity and earth,
Civilizations that teach the principle of love and forgiveness,
Civilizations:
Of a naked fakir of truth and non-violence,
Of a humble servant of sincerity and effort;
Of a faithful soldier with watchful eyes,
Of a mayfly which lives the morning, but evening dies.

Mustn’t people live for a dream that they dreamt before,
And plan for such dreams tonight more?
For the people who live their lives as this,
Never find anything in this world amiss.