Pre-Award vs Post-Award

8 girls from various engineering institutes were awarded the  “Google Women in Engineering Award , 2010”, I being one of them. 24 girls were invited to attend a two-day Conclave at  Google Hyderabad. It’s been a major achievement for a girl still studying in 2^nd year of her B.Tech. I have been quite fascinated by the thought of analysing myself in the pre-award and post-award scenario. And well here is the thing.

Pre-Award :

I am interested in programming and problem-solving. I am quite happy solving cute puzzles, knowing about various programming techniques etc. but did not think of the bigger picture. I am not known to many people in my college and am quite satisfied in writing code , watching movies / series , spending time thinking in my nice small room.

Now comes the more fun part or should I say the funny part. Hmm… it might come to you as a surprise but I have not travelled by air in the last 7 years and well yes, I felt quite foolish to ask my friends and even googling about the nitty-gritty in air- travel :P. Nor have I travelled this far all alone by myself. This is the first time I am going to visit a place in South-India and am quite excited.

Post- Award :

I am exposed to the better world around me. I am amazed to see people involved in various projects involving different areas in Computer Science. That motivates me to work on some current areas in Computer Science which are having widespread applications and are intellectually satisfying too. Once I take up enough courses in my BTech , I guess I will have figured out what interests me the most and I hope to pursue it passionately. The other thing that I have learnt is that it is always good to know about things happening around you, be it in the industry or in research. Not merely because it may give you an edge over others but also because it helps you to appreciate your own work or passion and reveal many possibilities of where you can apply your ideas.

Coming back to college after having won this award, suddenly people start recognising you. It kind of gives me a weird feeling. It makes me happy that people notice but at the same time it makes me feel some sort of a responsibility that I have, in making other girls aware about this wonderful opportunity and helping them achieve it. In a way, this idea of a ‘Women in engineering award’ is awesome. It really motivates girls in engineering and lets them get rid off their own inhibitions and makes them ready to pursue what really interests them and thereby contribute to society.

Hmmm after having visited Hyderabad all alone by flight , I have come to a conclusion that air-travel is much simpler form of travel and that I loved the travel part. I dont feel panicky of travelling all alone anymore. And ya , Hyderabad simply rocks!!Well finally I got some cool stuff with “Google” on it  😀 . I feel more attachment for this stuff than I feel for the award.

Everyone feels some sort of a sense of achievement after winning such an award .. but believe me the feeling is nothing compared to the feeling I get when my rating increases in Topcoder or even when I submit a medium level problem in SPOJ or when I solve a DP  ;).

As its always true , the best interpretation of any experience always comes in retrospection and I would like to come back and add something more to this post when I will have lived a little more of my life  and when my musing becomes mature enough.