KYCean - optimystix

Presenting July 10 Know Your CEan . This KYCean session is super lengthy ( 😁) . See , Opti helped us in compensating the delay is putting up this one. But in all a Very profound session between CEan Geeky ( Sorry - Opti) and CE.

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CE :Hi Rishabh, Its interesting to know that you are a student and a business man,and we all can very well see you are an active member of CE. So how do you manage to fill in all in 24 hours?

OPTI:Being in ICSE board (during my school days) has taught me to study qualitatively and not
quantitatively. In many engineering universities (including Mumbai University), the emphasis is
more on rote learning and acquiring more marks, something which I haven’t been doing. The
syllabus, I believe, is fairly easy for students and there isn’t any need for regular self study on
them. The amount of study covered in college is good enough to score a descent grade. I prefer
to spend my time on acquiring more knowledge and nothing other than the internet can be a
great source for it. The internet is basically a junkyard, one must know which items to pick from
them to gain something useful out of it. My exposure to the internet over the years has taught
me exactly that and I am able to use it to my advantage.
When am not in college, am on my computer reading stuffs online and it was one such instance
when I came across CrazyEngineers and I loved the idea behind CE. There’s so much to learn
and so much to share over here at CE. I love reading articles and post shared by CE members
and it has become an addiction lately!
My model of business doesn’t require me to spend much dedicated time on it. I do it as a hobby
and not as a full time work and I’ve tried to keep a low profile with it as I know I won’t be able to
provide adequate resources in form of time and money if it were to boom suddenly. Sometimes
I do get pressurized by the demands but that’s how one learns and I am on the learning curve.
There has been no previous experience of running a business in my family and I am trying out
everything on my own. My own parents did not know about it for a few months after I started
it and I told them only after I started achieving positive results with my experimentation. The
whole past 8-9 months have been quite hectic for me managing all of the things and the coming
months will be more testing than ever!

***
CE:How do you see you future after your engineering? Can we see you working hard to
bring up your business or you might crave for more knowledge and opt for higher studies?

OPTI:Honestly speaking, am ill suited for cubicle jobs. I want to work on something innovative in
the field of computers. I am more interested in research type of work than those mechanical
soft coding. I plan to do Mtech (hopefully from the IITs) after I finish my graduation. After that
I wish to work in some software company, mostly to gain some professional experience in
the field. After maybe around 6-8 years I may consider quitting the job and may spend more
time on independent activities and with my business. As I have said, I started the business
only as a hobby and for my intent to do something good to the people and I will continue to do
so. During my working (in the company) years my dad has agreed to take over and manage
the entire thing while I chip in with my extra time. And later on I may sell it off or continue but
I haven’t thought concretely over it. At the moment, I want to complete graduation, try and
complete post graduation as soon as I can and then take up a proper job with some company.
Ofcourse, I would love to work with CE if I get an opportunity!

***
CE:What made you start a new business? There are many computer sales and repair centres ,
so why again another one? Is there anything special about 'RnD Computers' ?

OPTI:I had gone to a computer shop with a friend of mine, to buy a dvd rom I wanted to replace on
my friend’s computer. There was a customer before me so I was waiting for him to finish with
his deal. That customer was a middle aged man, and from the looks and the way he spoke, it
seemed he was the kind of a person who didn’t know much about the computer. From what I
understood, he had recently bought a new pc from that very shop and had come back to ask
if his computer was safe from something he had heard from his colleagues (he meant virus
and other malware). The shopkeeper explained that viruses can be extremely harmful for
computers and can damage the system in no time and the customer was visibly worried. But the
shopkeeper added that there was a solution to it and that it’s called Anti-Virus. So the customer
asked if he had one with him and he said he had it. The shopkeeper explained that he had a
good anti-virus and that it costs INR 1500, but since he was his regular customer he would sell it
for only INR 1200 and he gave him a cd of Avast Antivirus!
That incident got my blood to boil and I had to walk out. I would have interrupted but I had
learnt not to do so from my similar past experience. What that shopkeeper did was completely
illegal and unethical as he was selling something for an exorbitant amount that came for free,
but this kind of thing happens everywhere. I failed to stop it at that moment but I made up
my mind to do whatever I could to prevent such things from happening. The only thing that I
could do was to think of a venture where I could sell and repair computer stuffs for cheap to
these gullible people. So I started off my RnD Computers (it’s got nothing to do with research
and development, it is just based on names of the two people who constituted it) with my
roommate whom I took as my helper. The repair services were sold for INR 20 to a max of INR
100(approx ½$ to 2$) whereas others did it for INR 250 and upwards and computer/spares
sales were done well below the prices asked for by the local computer vendors. It would please
me to see happy and content faces on the customers and I also got to see funny moments
when customers were left with gaping mouths as they could believe low rates we charged them.
I did the work more as a hobby than anything else. It is a home to home service and other
related works I carry out from my rented residence and so did not care for the small profit I
made.
What I had thought was that seeing my cheaper rates the local rates would eventually come
down but I understand that will take some time as I am still a small player as against those
established ones but I have already started to create a dent into their business.

***
CE:How do you see your Studies /Real experience go together? It's sure is useful but can you
exemplify instances ?

OPTI:Many people object to my way of studying and going about my work saying that I need to stop
my extracurricular activities and focus on getting more marks. Somehow I can’t make myself
do it as my interest lies not in rote learning and securing higher grades but in acquiring more
and more knowledge. I cherish the activities I involve myself in. And in many places instead of
derailing my studies, it actually does complement my studies at college. For example, there are
many subjects taught in our college which were supposed to be difficult but I never studied them
and I still managed to clear them suitably to the envy of my hostel mates. The real fact is that
the stuffs that I am learning from the internet, the hands on experience with my side business
and other extracurricular activities are helping me with these studies too, and in a much better
way. Other people are studying theory while I get to know both theory and their practical
applications and that helps a lot where you have to think analytically.
Like Steve Jobs says, “you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them
looking backwards,” and I do follow the same thing. I follow what my heart says, what my
instinct says because one never knows which of the dots will get connected in the future..

***
CE:Looks like your parents are full-on support to you. Can you talk about your family?

OPTI:My father is a mechanical engineer by profession and my mother is a housewife. My
father had left his house at the age of 15 to join the Navy, struggling long and hard
and as such is a self made man. Being honest and hard working as he is, he commands
great respect and admiration for his work right from the peon to the company
executives and as such he has been a great source of inspiration to me. I come from
a modest middle class family that was able to just meet its needs but still they have
sacrificed a lot (any parents would do that) and have tried to give a lot to me. I have
studied in one of the finest schools in the country, I have generally got whatever I
wanted (my modest wishes of course) even without asking for them. They always
supported me in my endeavours and have guided me when there was a need to. I get
reprimanded strongly when am going wrong but in general, they have a lot of trust on
me and allow me to do what I want to do. I respect and value these things and these
act as the driving force for me to excel at whatever I do.

***
CE:If not computers what else fascinates you? I believe everyone has an artistic side of
them, be it writing, painting, music or dance or any of the 64 arts. DO you have any
such?

OPTI:I used to do a lot things such as drawing, Taekwondo, swimming, playing musical wind
instruments(I was in my school and college band) and I was good at outdoor sports too, but
all that stopped when I started my 9th grade because I couldn’t cope with their timings. And
everything finally stopped for me when I was midway through my 9th grade because my parents
got me a computer. Ever since then, I’ve devoted most of my energy and time on computer;
whether it was playing games or learning some new thing out of it.
One interest that I still have maintained is reading. I used to read a lot and I still do. Back in
school days, I used up our extensive library and later when I got access to the internet, I have
been scourging it for information too. Am too inquisitive and can’t usually wait to check out on
something if a related thought crosses my mind. I read on all topics and I believe in gaining as
much knowledge as one can, because no one knows which of those may come handy in future.
But if you talk about fascination, it would be observing things and trying to create a solution for
them (sometimes even though a problem doesn’t really exist). I try to put myself in imaginary
situations and try to get a feasible and efficient solution to them. I was always fascinated by
strategy based and similar games which made one think and react to given situations. My
problem is that I think a lot, often more than what is necessary.

***
.Now the tit bits (very random questions ) ( thanks to Opti - they are no more tit-bits 😁)

CE:What if one fine day you wake to find yourself - computer illiterate?

OPTI:Well, I guess it would be a relief to me. I have avoided a lot many things and a lot
many people ever since I got addicted to computer. I was an introvert from the
beginning but now I seem to have become a reclusive individual and I would really like
that to change. In my quest for (digital) knowledge, I am missing all the knowledge and
fun that nature and society has to offer.

***
CE:.Do you believe it is possible to acquire 100% literacy rate ?

OPTI:Can’t comment much on other countries but for India, I would like to distinguish
between probability (theoretical chance) and possibility (practical chance) when I face
such questions and with regard to the former I would say yes, but if you are talking
about possibility then I would say no. The main reason is that people have become
corrupt and highly selfish. There are hardly people left who are honest enough or are
patriotic. We see crores being gulped by politicians and even more misappropriated
through scams. But what happens to them? No one knows anything about Telgi now,
Satyam’s Raju is being treated royally in a 5 star hotel-like hospital and he doesn’t
even have to attend courtroom sessions. The government has arranged for costly video
conferencing equipments for his convenience. Even the terrorist Kasab has enjoyed
crores of tax payer’s money being spent on him. The irony about this situation is that
the terrorist is enjoying probably the best security our country can afford whereas
most tax payers in our country do not get even standard security that the government
promises them.
I have seen what type of teachers we have in schools in our villages. Most of them
are far from being qualified for the teacher’s post. Even the engineering colleges in
many places all over India have pathetic faculty. We can’t achieve 100% literacy like
this. There are severe flaws in our education system but no one cares about correcting
them as long as they are getting fed and bribed. There are individuals trying to make a
difference to the society (and Mr Kaustubh is one of them) but we need more of them.
I strongly believe that the British did us great favour by coming to India and bringing
about great reforms in our country.

***
CE:Do you believe in life outside earth?

OPTI:Yes, I was interested in space and the universe ever since one of my uncles had givenme a nice illustrated book about space and astronauts, when I was around 8 years of
age. Indeed, being an astronaut or a space scientist (and physicist later on) were one
of the careers I had eyed upon when I was a kid. I was always fascinated by UFO’s
and aliens whether I was reading about them in Satyajit Ray’s stories(one of the 1st to
document such ideas in novels) or watching some documentary on Discovery channel.
After all, can one tell me what special are we, the humans on this planet Earth, that
God (or whatever things) exclusively created us or caused us to exist? Isn’t there a
possibility that there may be other beings somewhere down the universe who may not
require oxygen to breathe but may be living on some other element or maybe they
weren’t human like at all! There are so many archeological evidences for these too.
Even with current technology, engineers and architects say they can’t build something
like those pyramids in Egypt in 20 years. How did those Egyptians manage that feat in
that time frame with ancient technologies? No one has got answers to those. We can
always speculate and that is exactly what keeps fueling innovations; be it in form of a
product or an idea.

***
CE:What was the motive behind finding water on moon?

OPTI:Ever since the stone ages, man has been on a pursuit for knowledge and this has
continued down the ages. And it is all about power and survival. Many people believe
that governments are foolish to spend billions into such space programs. But it’s what
human beings are about. The specialty of humans is about being able to adapt to
adverse situations and being able to survive. The same is being tried here I guess. We
are looking for answers that will help in understanding why, when and how we have
survived the evolution through the years and these data will help us survive another
several centuries perhaps.
Water on the moon is an important discovery. For the past 40 years NASA has been
saying that there wasn’t enough evidence to suggest presence of water on the moon
but all of a sudden the findings by Indian Chandrayan-I seems to put behind that 40
year old claim! It is good news anyways and it opens up possible avenues for alternate
sources of water, fuel, knowledge and a possible location to settle in case of destructive
calamity on earth. That is why we are continuing our search for water, life and fuel on
other places outside our own planet.

***
CE:Do you believe in 2012 disaster?

OPTI:I am an avid reader of supernatural stuffs but when it comes to believeing them,
I prefer to pit supernatural against science and believe the one whose case is the
strongest (or maybe a mixture of the two). I don’t think there is an imminent danger
of being wiped out of the face of the earth. People have been regularly making
blunders when it comes to interpreting prophecies and Nostradamus doesn’t say that
on some particular day and year earth will be wiped out. He only said (as per some
interpretations) that around that period there will be a gradual increase in natural
calamities and those elements will eventually bring our destruction. We cannot deny
this fact that earth has seen more calamities in the past decade than is usual and one
may believe that more is yet to come. The thing with the Mayans is a bit sketchy as
again it is how the recent interpretations have been made with their theory about
alignment of the stars but NASA has put those claims down saying there is no such
alignment to be seen in recent years. It is all over on their website. I guess (and hope
too) the year 2012 finds same fate as 1999 did.