The Magic of learning C# via Microsoft Visual Studio 2013!

This is a beginner’s view, and I must say that I am really new to programming. I was doing a beginner’s course on C# on Microsoft Visual Academy, as part of the Microsoft Student Associate program. And I downloaded Visual Studio for that purpose. And in this blog, I would like to talk about how cool I found the whole package.

For anyone out there who is wishing to begin his/her journey of programming, I would say C# on Visual Studio platform is a wonderful way to get their way along the darkness, if you know what I mean. Object Oriented Programming is not easy. But if you have a tool like Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 in hand, you would really find a cool tool in your hands to get started.

The coolest feature of VS is the IntelliSense that pops up all the time while you are typing code. And if you pay attention to it, most of your coding errors with simply vanish. It’s just like a helpful teacher while you are learning to code. It’s there for you all along, and there for you for free. If you are patient enough, you can teach yourself a lot about C# with VS 2013. Just keep going and keep typing out those codes.

VS 2013 can be downloaded at: http://www.visualstudio.com/en-US/products/visual-studio-express-vs

And if you are willing to start learning C#, I would suggest you to take a free course by Robert Tabor (Bob Tabor) at Microsoft Virtual Academy. The course name is C# Fundamentals for Absolute Beginners. It’s a wonderful course, and you would learn a lot by beginner’s standards. To access Microsoft Visual Academy you simply need to create a Microsoft account (Live/hotmail etc) and sign up to Microsoft Visual Academy using that. It’s that simple!

Keep going. Good luck to all!

How Microsoft has impacted your life and how you plan to bring a change to the society being a Microsoft Student Associate?

Mircosoft, over the years, has become an integral part of our lives. As we switch on our computers, the familiar sound and the sight of the colorful windows greets us.

The best thing about Mircosoft product is probably its user-friendly approach. I have painted stuff on MS Paint way before I ever held a real paint brush in my hand. So have a lot of people my age. Drawing those chess-boards by painting the whole screen black and then using the eraser to make the white squares has been a part of our growing-up period. I remember when our teacher would give us tasks on Logo or BASIC in primary school, we would do it with a grumpy face. Smiles returned only when the teacher allowed us to Paint!

Times passed, and other Office products slowly replaced Paint in our lives. College reports are all about Ms. Word. Copying-Pasting, Finding-Replacing, Styling… all through Word. Then entered into our world technical presentation! And presentation simply equates to MS Powerpoint, so much so that we use the words presentation and Powerpoint interchangeably.

All in all, Microsoft has intrinsically become a part of our growing up phase and continues to assist us in our school and college projects and reports. As it is, it is safe to say that it would continue to do so well into our professional lives.

The concept of being a Microsoft Student Associate is new to me. But it seems like an exciting business. Though, it’s clichéd… yet indeed, 21^st century is the age of technology. But there exists a large mass of people who have not been part of this technological revolution. Any revolution can be successful only when it touches the commonest of the commoner. As India emerges as a stronger economy with time, it is essential to connect those who have so far not been part of this new trend. Every school should be equipped with computers. It would be a dream come true to convert each classroom into a smart class, connected to computers, internet service etc. The sooner these kids learn to use the tools of the new trade, the better would they be able to perform later in their lives. It is said that in India, there is a huge mis-match between industry requirement and that what is being provided by the educational institutions. Bringing children closer to the technological revolution, introducing them to programming concepts and other tools at a younger age might help decrease this gap. Also, there exist a number of people who have done simple jobs manually all their lives; and all of a sudden there is computerization and this section of people has suddenly become overwhelmed by the huge change. It is our duty is bring this category of older people at par with the current technology.

Being part of MSA program, I hope to realize all these dreams. It would be wonderful to be part of a student community which strives to bring about a social impact through technology. I hope that being part of this program, I might be able to be part of a solution to the above-mentioned problems and many others that the MSA program strives to solve.

Change is here. Let’s embrace it, and help others do the same, with Microsoft!

The Passing Days

Ploddings of feelings reptilia

Indecent, inappropriate

Yet, a bliss forbidden

Stretched across a band of darkness

Stretched to the point of exhaustion

And sweeteners no more work

Yet, life is a bliss

The sun-burnt days of cocktail summers

Friends, memories, forgotten tears

And screenshots of simple desires.

An Autumn Song

If I could wear your smile
Or be as stringent as you are;
If I could look above the thinning skyline
And spread my hands like a bare-thread scarecrow,
Filling my lungs with  solid mass of solitary air,
I would not muse again
Or let me voice break.

I watch the sparrows gather twigs
Make careful nests, in clumsy evenings,
when I have no place to visit,
no men to see.
I watch the rain make patterns on window sills.
I watch and make a thousand wish
Placing a detached eyelash on the back of my hand
I smile, inward,
Miss certain roads, certain avenues,
Certain fallen leaves before Summer came.

Past and Present merge
I turn over a new leaf
All the time knowing,
It's not that I don't love you anymore.
Rather, my love, like a pouting child, has hidden her face
In stubborn and childish anger,
In deaf refusal,
Alone, so alone.

To Mars

I can see Mars from my window
Against a chalky grey sky
Bulging out, red eye of the Devil,
A pole of my solitude


Every day I walk beside all
And your hands brush against mine
Every day I murmur under my breath
The calm of your eyes
The undulation of your lips.


And beaming sunshine in gleaming vessels
A deceased telescope
 My Mars watches out for me
Every day he is farther
And every day I am alone.


Give me a hand to dream
A mumbled care to hold
Give me a silence for the gorging tears
And a kiss for my soul.

On Life and Memories...

Life mocks memory and 
Tears trickle down
Gloom of days gone by
Blues of stuffed desires
And
Desires of stuffed blues
By gone days of gloom
Down trickle tears
And memory mocks life

Pangs...

I have seen her lying on her back … her fair hand over her slightly-agape mouth to stop the choking sobs. I have seen her cheeks glistening, lines culminating at the corners of her mouth. She tasted their saltiness, too lost to wipe the streaks off. Her voice grew nasal. Every time she had to talk she cleared her throat, sneezed and lied that she had caught a cold.

Thus she deceived her room-mates in a place far away from home. Walls changed colors, rooms changed shape. Surprisingly, back home, her mother always found out. Perhaps the poor lady thought of it as a result of homesickness. Assuming it as the only cause, tear drops would inadvertently taint the mother’s cheeks as well. She could not have been farther from the truth.

I have seen her lying thus on her back … eyes staring blankly at the walls, thoughts racing in her mind, always keeping pace with the tears on her cheeks.

He didn’t care. I don’t know how long she would.