A few days back a read an article
of Kapil Jain (from Tata Communications) about his 25 years journey of Internet
in India starting with 15-Aug-1995. It makes me look back into my own journey
not from 1995, but from 1996.
So in 1996 I joined NIIT (a reputed Computer Training institute in India) through the Bhavishyajyoti Scholarship scheme somewhere during mid-year. It was the Mumbai, Santacruz (W), Hasanabad Lane centre which was quite reputed those days. It was around the end of the year that Dial-up Internet connectivity arrived at the centre. There were many families invited to demonstrate what Internet was. I was lucky enough to get the first glance, being a volunteer in the centre. It was provided by VSNL those days and due to errors in Telephone lines, the connectivity would drop often. It would probably take a minute or 2 to just load an image in a website. The Internet was also available in 2 variants – Text and Graphical. If you had the Text package, then you would dial using Hyperterminal and then be presented with Linux logon prompt and post login we had to use the Lynx browser which would present the webpage in a non-graphical (Black & White) format. I had a close friend (Anish) who had all the latest things at his house in Vile Parle and other than NIIT, it was his place where I would explore all tech.
