Friday, January 29, 2010

My journey - Part 1 - I was different

I thought my love for gaming began during my junior college days, but today I realize that the seeds were sown much before!


Hailing from an orthodox middle-class Tamil Brahmin family in a small village of Kerala in Indian I never imagined that I would be game designer some day. That was a profession unheard of. It still isn’t that popular in India.


July 18 of 1984 saw Beverly Lynn Burns become the first woman Boeing 747 captain in the world.
(Ya, the fact is ripped off Wikipedia! :P)


She made a difference! When she was celebrating there, in another corner of the world, I was born! :D
(Did that make an impact? No..? *sigh* I thought it sounded so cool!)
.
(Plz ignore the fact that it was also the day the ‘San Ysidro McDonald's massacre’ took place… Let’s look into the good things here… Maybe my violent streak is because of that…:-S)


Studies came easy to me atleast till college ;). Classical music and dance was spread across my family and as per tradition, I learnt a bit of all! Temples and prayers were like food and water. Girls’ dresses were restricted to uniforms, long skirts-blouses, sarees, half-sarees, churidhars (which too came in later)! 
No kidding. It was a small village with elderly people still binded to old traditions, values and superstitions.

In midst of such an orthodox society, my broad-minded dad gets me a jeans and tee from town side! I was damn excited and I couldn’t wait to wear it! So wearing my new jeans and tee, I stepped out of my home and all the village kids including my friends were surprised rather shocked. It was a rare sight back then. I carried it out with confidence. I felt different, I felt I broke a stupid rule, I loved it!

Then it was time to show it off at school and similar reactions there too! It probably sounds stupid now, but it was a big deal then!

Back in school, computer lab sessions were my favourite. Once taught I could remember the procedure forever. During free periods, I would take few friends and head to the computer lab and start playing games.
Little did I realize that the future was calling out to me! :)


to be contd…


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You can find the whole series here: My journey


5 comments:

  1. OMG! Now this is something unexpected!! We even share the same date of birth!! LOL.

    Oops, Hope Im not offending you!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is the problem with us Indians, we set a low bar for ourselves and are happy when we reach there.

    Like you are so excited that you are a game designer, just because you come from a small village. But unless you make something world class your passion and hunger for excellence should never stop.

    We really need to have more self respect when we compare ourselves to the world.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi 'Anonymous',

    As you can see this is about the journey, which I've not even completed. I don't know how you got the idea that I'm content with whatever I've done so far.

    It is indeed a big thing for me to be in a field which never existed in my part of the world. If you have misunderstood between excitement and being content, then it's either my mistake that I can't convey or that you tried too hard to read things that do not exist.

    On another note, if few people are content, why is that a problem? Some people are like that. They are pretty happy with what they are, who they are and what they have done. Who are we to judge? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I found the post to be insightful which i think can happen only when someone is being very honest. Keep em coming!

    P.S - Going by the 'anonymous' comment, i think your blog just got
    more popular :D

    ReplyDelete