Hi Steemit! I am Bijay Bogati Working as a Senior Android Developer in Nepal and this my journey to Coding.

dayslight (46)in #journey • 8 years ago (edited)

When i was kid about 11 years old there was a big black book named Visual Basic 6 which was so heavy that i could barely pick up with my one hand. It was a dusty book and you could smell the scent and realize that it was an old book which was not touched for a long time. I happen to open that book and begin to explore the pages. I was supposed to understand the word in it and trying to get in my head what it was meant for but i couldn't even get on a single point understanding it. I found that it was my brother's book. My brother lives in Japan and he is a computer engineer. So i thought it was higher level educational book and closed it for that day.

So later that year when my brother came to Nepal I asked about that book and he told me it is a programming language book which is called Visual Basic. He explained to me saying you could do a lot of stuff when you know programming, you could even built some game from it. The game part was exciting for me as you know every kids love playing game. He added saying when you know coding you can earn a lot even if you don't go to school or have higher education. Programming is it self a bigger education.

I was so excited that i decided i will be learning programming from today. I begin to study that book but the funny part was that i was not even understanding what it was saying and i didn't had a computer at home and internet was far from even imagination. I begin to search words on dictionary but it was making me confuse more and more. So i ended up dumping that book after reading some 10-20 pages.

There i was introduced to new concept where i found how coding helps to build programs and games. I was an average kid in my schooling days after i reached to class 7 we had a computer course. We use to learn basics of computers on how to operate things and some history stuff. There was a chapter in our computer book where we learned some basic of programming it was called q-basic. When we had a practical class of computer the blue screen with white letters were the most exciting thing for me . I was so keen on doing stuff on q basic that i would have surprised my teacher on how i learned so fast and complete my stuff first then most of the other students would take time on understanding the concept. When i remember these days i feel like i was born for coding :) .

Some how i passed my schooling and later joined college for higher secondary education. I choose Science faculty and my class use to start form early morning 6 till 11:30 pm. In the middle of the year i discovered that there was a computer class for the management students whose class use to start from 10 am onwards and the computer class was at 2 pm. There was a option for science student that if we were interested on some subject then we could join the class, so with out any delay i joined the computer class but the problem was that i had to wait 2 and half hour for that class and with empty stomach it was a challenge for me. I use to go to my home for the lunch which was 30 min ride on my bike up and down. So it was a little bit stressful for me to attain the class but some how i managed for my interest on talking that computer class.
It went for some month and later i discover that there was a chapter in my course book where we have to learn Visual Basic 6. I was so excited knowing that i will be learning visual basic programming which i had interest since when i was little kid. I went to my home and begin to search that big black book and opened it after 5 years. When we were learning that course it was funny to see how i had underlined the words and wrote the meaning on that book. It was funny moment when i realize that the words meaning and programming terms were hardly syncing. We use to have a exam and i was the one who always score high on computing :D

But later that year it was really getting hard for me to travel back to college to attain my computing course. It was really frustrating that at the end i decided to drop my computing course the expenses for traveling was getting high and i also had to focus on my major subjects. So i dropped my class for computing but my interest on programming was not over. I passed out from my high school after 2 years and was looking for my bachelors degree course. I came to Kathmandu for my higher education and without any doubt i joined Information and Communication Technology ( IT) as my major. Everything was fine but the course work was too expensive and i had to stay away from my home in new city which was again challenge for me but challenge was accepted. I found dormitory and came to Kathmandu so my college life was in its first phase. I was away from home, had to deal with expenses it was more then what i had thought. There was a lot that i had to deal with and i was not doing well in college as well. We had to learn some new programming language which was not getting in my head. It was JAVA i had heard that it was the most powerful language on programming but coding in DOS was really frustrating as i was GUI guy. That year i couldn't pass my JAVA subject. It was pressure for me. I had something in my head and was working on Visual Basic 6 i was building program for hotels to deal with reservation and overall management but in other hand i was not able to pass my exam. So during the term break i came back to my home town pokhara. It was a long break and i was thinking i will be working on my own project on visual basic so for the internet connection i had to go to my uncle's hotel they had a wifi over there. One day i was working on my stuff and suddenly one guy came to sit beside me. He was a customer and was staying on my uncle's hotel. He asked wifi password and was doing his work. Later he peek on my laptop screen and asked me what i was doing. I told him i was working on some project on visual basic 6. He was surprised and told why are you using visual basic 6 it is an old programing language and i replied to him this is the only thing i know on building program. He smiled to me and introduced himself. He had a software company in Kathmandu and was there in Pokhara with his employee for some tour and he said i use to work on visual basic 6 and was in middle of some stuff and was looking for person who knows visual basic 6 and he offered me a job. He gave his visiting card to me and ask me to call him if i was interested. I was really surprised and just smiled. I was getting my first ever job and was really happy.
So after my vacation ends I went back to Kathmandu. I called him and went for a meeting with him in his company. There were a lot of people busy doing stuff on there computers. I was introduced to every one and was given computer and my own desk it was a happy moment. He described what i will be doing and i was ready to do my job. My job was to work on his project which was Bio attendance system. There was a hardware which was called biometric attendance system and we were building software for that. At first it was hard for me but from his support i was doing well and learning a lot of stuff.

After some month there was a question on my head am i here to just work or if he is going to pay some salary to me. That was really funny moment when i remember now. It was over 5 month and i was never paid single penny for my work. I asked to my colleague and they suggested me to talk directly with that matter. So i learned that in work you have to talk with out talking no one will ask you for your need. So i decided to talk to my boss and went to his room. I said i was expecting salary for the work that i had done. He told me that i was still learning stuff so he was not paying money for that but i urge that i was really expecting salary and it will be harder for me working with out getting payed. So he asked me what was my expected salary. I was really confused it was the first ever heard question to me, confusingly i told him Rs.10,000 this is equal to $100 per month. He smiled and said he can not pay me that amount of money but will pay me half of it i.e $50, immediately I said ok :) it was better to work getting paid then to work for free. So it was my first ever salary and i was happy for that. $ 50 was enough for my pocket money but was not enough for my regular expenses. So i started learning and earning money from that day. I use to work hard on my job there was college stuff going on and i had to balance my job and study at a same time. While i was working, there were senior friends who were much experienced and was planning to run there own software company. They asked me if i know JAVA as they know that i have to learn java on my college course book. They introduced me to mobile technology and wanted me to learn Android Development. If i was able to show my progress then they told me they would hire me. I begin to search for the android development related books and find out how it was done. I prepared my laptop downloading eclipse and android sdk and begin to explore. I found out that it was really fun to code on android and see result on our mobile instantly. So i started learning and learning android development. After learning for 6 month and trying out with some different application development i told them i was now ready to build some apps. They had already left the current office that we were working on and was working on there own. So i joined that company as an Android developer after working for year and a half on my first job.

They told me i will be paid $100 per month and will increase my salary according to time and my performance. I was happy boy as after 1.5 year i got previous job expected salary :D . So we begin to develop app, there was one ios developer which was senior from his work and other was me junior android developer and rest team were working on web app and database system. It was fun office as all of us were like friends and working environment was really cool. But things didn't got well for them as the fund was not sufficient to be provided to us and project was talking long time then expected though it was not our fault but budget and time frame didn't matched. One day they call me and told me that they were unable to handle cost and project as they were short on budget so they asked me if i was interested working on other company which was looking for an android developer. Understanding the situation I told them yes and i was referred to that company and went for the interview. It was UK based company the job was pretty good and there were other android developer as well and pay was also high so i joined the company.

Job was going good but while working i was not able to give much time on my studies. It was little bit frustrating for my grades and my family. They wanted me to focus on my studies rather then work but in my inside mind i was thinking i don't need to study the course as i was earning and learning on the same field of Information and Technology. In my job i was really doing well we had build some cool apps and was also nominated as world's top app and we were in 10th position on the list rated by guardian magazine and that app was also featured on BBC's Click Program it is called Blue Badge Style (BBS) and similarly we were building official survey app for 2012 olympic which was held on London. We were doing so well and bonus and party was enjoyment of my life. But in other hand i was loosing my grip on my studies.

I had really made a thought that this is more worthy then my college degree and begin to think what my brother use to told me when he describe that big black book that programming it self is higher education for what you need in life to earn and spend on you livelihood. So eventually i dropped out from my college. After that all my focus were on my job and Android development. And i was really doing well. We build London's first party finder app, I build BBS on blackberry ( i did alone so i added I ;) ) so it was going well. I begin to work as a freelancer where i used to get payed hourly, In a sense I was really focused on money and addictively working on building apps. In year or so i build more then 5-6 apps and my salary was also getting high then most of the people earn in Nepal but i was loosing some important stuff from my life. I was loosing friends, my girlfriend, my sleeps, my educational degree and my family trust. I was earning but not able to save single amount of money. It was really getting bad. Sometimes i had a lot on my pocket but sometime i wouldn't even had a single penny in my pocket. My habit of spending was really getting bad. I was not into any kind of drugs addiction or something like that but when it comes to spending i was limit less and it was beginning to ruin my life. I changed company from that where i was paid much higher and i was following money.

I could say my work was good and they had paid me for what i deserve but sometime i feel that valuing work on money could make one arrogant :) . Its been more then 4 years since i had started doing job and working as a programmer and i had learned so much lesson in life that might be fruitful in this journey and i am only 26. My friends says that i am doing so much well and they really praise me for my good work. My family had always been supportive to me on every mistake and happiness that comes around. I am now in company where my boss and my friends are really helpful not only in my work but as a mentor and friends in life. Its been year and half since i have joined this company and i am now more focus on life rather then pay and work stuff and it has always been great. I have learned that people should focus on their own happiness in life and do things what make us happy and everything in life can be balanced. I have learned that life is also like a programming apps there are a lot of test case that failed but eventually you fix it so that it might not cause any trouble in future :) and that test case will always help you realize and take confident on you work and its similar to life as well.

I dont' know if i am being able to say my stuff through this blog or not. I don't know if this blog came to what i had thought.

i was writing and writing and stuff from other circle were keeping on adding making content jumbled :D

But it was it.

This was my journey to Coding.

By the way this is my First Blog and i think i will be learning how to blog in coming days as well.
Now from my brothers help i am learning and really interested on Block and Chain, Bitcoin and some DAO ideas and Steemit.
Sorry I don't have any Photos to share currently :D

I am very much excited on contributing to this community and seeing this world of Steemit getting bigger (which of course will be).

Here are some link for apps that i had build.

#kathmandu #nepal #coder #nepali #coding #indroduceyourself #android #pokhara #steemit #programming #development

8 years ago in #journey by dayslight (46)

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Hi Steemit! I am Bijay Bogati Working as a Senior Android Developer in Nepal and this my journey to Coding.

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