SAUDAGAR BARDE:
I met a Computer Science student, Saudagar Barde from Solapur, on my way from Bangalore to Mumbai in Udyan Express. He got 99percentile in GATE exams and was heading Mumbai to appear for an interview at IITB for his MTech after an interview at IISc Bangalore. With his permission I am sharing the Q and A that I had with him.

Q. When did you really start programming?
A. Till ThirdYear (5th Sem) programming was like a magic. I decided to focus on GATE-exams then, and that gave me an AIM to look at. All my studies got oriented to GATE exams. Whatever I studied, I started looking for questions in GATE papers. “Pointers” was a big problem to deal with in 5th Sem.

Q. Was Maths a problem for you?
A. When Math Prof was unable to solve our problems we started group-study and got over our obstacles.

Q. How much did you score in your X, XII and then in BE?
A. I got 87.6 and 69.67% respectively and 120/150 in CET. In BE I got 71%. My GATE score the year I appeared for BE exams was 80percentile.

Q. Did you have a job offer?
A. Yes, but due to recession I was not sure if my job offer will materialise.

Q. Then what did you do?
A. I played safe. I had done some background work and had found out info about ACE Engg Academy, Hyderabad. I pursued my GATE studies from ACE which costed me about Rs.8000/-, 12 subjects to study, about 8 excellent profs to teach and a well equipped library to refer to. There were innumerable mock and grand tests which kept us on toes to prepare well for exams. The classes were 2.5hrs/day.

Q. Did you have a computer to experiment on your study programs?
A. No, it was more logical understanding and less programming that is required for GATE.

Q. How did you manage the struggle between staying awake v/s studying?
A. I had 2 more friends with me and we had hired a room in Hyderabad where we studied together. Peer pressure kept me awake.

Q. Did you do group study?
A. Yes. About 20% of the time was group study. It wasn’t planned. Whenever we had a doubt we use to raise it and immediately got it solved by discussing amongst each other.

Q. Do you have hobbies, did you maintain them during your BE days?
A. I am a swimmer. All four years of my engineering I use to swim 1hr daily.

Q. Anything else you want to mention?
A. Yes, we all 3 room partners got 99percentile.

Best wishes to Saudagar and his roomies!

My dear students, there are many obvious lessons Saudagar has for all of us to take back home. Only point I would like to make is ‘spend time on your passions’. My definition of passion is: when you do what you are passionate about, you get energy (as Markus Buckingham says in his book “The Truth About You”). Don’t confuse it with your dreams. Saudagar loves to swim, he did it consistently. Passions allows the fountain of your life energy to stay alive. I get energy when I sweep floor at my home, a lot of girls get energy when they dance. Find out when do you get the energy ? It could be very simple but YOU have to find it and it will enhance your study-dimension beyond what you can think of.

Best wishes!