Whenever somebody asks me for my qualifications, these days I usually avoid telling them. My past experiences had not been good. Since then, until I am very sure about certain education level, my reply to the same question usually varies.

The first funniest response, that I got, dates back to my engineering days. I had just got admission into the electronics engineering. During vacation, my aunt who usually stays in the village had come to our house. She asked me what you are studying. Having just taken admission into one of the prestigious colleges of Pune University, I could not resist the temptation of telling Electronics Engineering. The problem arose then and there. Her knowledge of ‘electronics’ was limited to the television and radio. And she absolutely had no clue regarding ‘engineering’. The nearest she could think of engineering was the railway engine. Why would you want to repair radios and TV’s and drive engine at the same time?

During engineering, we had software subjects as well. When I was recruited by a software firm in the early 7^th semester, this chap asked about what my work will be. With two semesters to go and already a job in hand, I told my work will be in computer software. I totally forgot that for others there is no difference between hardware and software; what they know is computer as a whole is one piece, developed by Intel (because of Intel inside stickers) and Microsoft (Windows). After much explaining, to my dismay, what he finally realized is that I will be working on computers, he promptly told me that his computer is not working and insisted that I have a look. All my explaining that I don’t know how to repair a computer invited further criticism for me. Finally when I did have a look at his computer; his RAM had come out of the socket, which was preventing his computer from booting up. Thank god, that saved the day for me.

There are few more such examples, will collaborate and post them later.