Smart India Hackathon

Giveup? No!! Its too maintstream :P

So a bit about Smart India Hackathon for those who already don't know. It is considered to be the World's biggest Hackathon which comes under Prime Minister's Digital India movement. It was organized by @mygov and @IndiaKaIdea in association with AICTE, NASSCOM, NIC & MHRD to innovate new ideas and use technology to bring about the changes that the country needs. 29 ministers participated in this and came up with 698 problem statements they actually face. Around 1200 teams who got selected out of 7531 teams of 6 students each coded for 36 hours at 33 different places across the country.

Now back to my story, I haven't met much passionate girls in my college and when my friends told me about Smart India Hackathon, I didn't know how I will participate but anyhow, I made a random team with all beginners with thought of, that at maximum, I won't get selected but at least would have tried. I worked hard to motivate and inspire them to give their best for the competition. Then I made a team in a day of 6 members with advice from my best friend Isha Gupta (we are soul sisters) and worked hard on our proposal. That's how I made a team.
I didn't expect everyone to give their 100% as I was ready to give and yeah that was the case with some members of my team and one thing I learned is that a little wrong decision can make us regret later. But even after that, I had made the decision and I need to control my adrenaline to not get the frustration out and become a hindrance in my performance.

Last month, I wrote about IWD' celebration on 6th March 2017 where I was disheartened to not get the women's achiever award but still I tried to be positive that God might have something bigger for me which actually happened and then I got to know about the selection of my team on Smart India Hackathon on same day. At that moment, I didn't know what this journey has more for me and that it will be life-changing for me.

After the selection, I was freaking out as we didn't have the mentors and nodal center wasn't providing the mentors as they have limited. So, I asked everyone in my reach to be our mentor. I even framed a message to post everywhere including Fb, LinkedIn, GDG slack channel, WhatsApp stories, and what not. And finally, Ankush sir suggested me two mentors Mr. Arpan Garg and Mr. Ajay Bhatt. I couldn't be more thankful to Ankush sir, as they provided me the best mentors I could ever get in my life. Both of them, stayed with us for 36 hours and mentored and motivated us to give our best. And I give the credit of this winning to both of them. Without their mentoring, it wouldn't be possible for us to not only win but also to give our 100%.

We arrived at Bhopal on 31st March 2017 scorching from the heat of the city. Both mentors reached separately by flight to the venue, Sagar Institute of Research and Technology. Our whole day got spent in the registration for the Hackathon. 

Coding starts from 1st April 2017 8:30 A.M. to 2nd April 2017 5:00 P.M. 

I rigorously coded and worked on my products (Android app and website) with my team and our amazing mentors Arpan Garg and Ajay Bhatt for 36 hours continuously. Not only that we also interacted with mentors and ministers from NCPCR and Government of India. By continuously getting the feedback from others and trying to work on flaws in the system, I hope we have created something useful for the nation that will help make sure children get their right to quality education.

I finally also got the achievement of working for 36 hours continuously.

After explaining our product to the various panel of judges in each round and to the other members of NCPCR, we were hoping to be in top 8 and finally, we made it to top 8. During the final pitching of 8 teams, we all strictly get 5 minutes to explain our product to the panel of judges. Well, we were the only team to complete it on time. As estimated by another member of the team, it was 4 minutes and 30 seconds. So, yes we rocked it there and got the hands of applause from judges (well they were people at good posts). 

During the prize distribution as the prizes from bottom to top were not ours, tension in the team started to build up as we expected to get at the most 3rd prize. And after the 2nd prize, we were about to cry that's when the speaker said Modiji always say "beti bachao, beti padhao" (Save the girl child. Teach the girl child.) And that's when we realized that yes we are the winning team. All the hard work finally paid off. All the courage to keep going paid off. Yessss!!! we won the world's biggest Hackathon. We just ran to the stage in excitement and was congratulated from the esteemed group of officials and ministers. My speech as the Team Leader of winning team was the happiest moment of my life.

7 months back on 2nd September 2016, I lost the chance to participate in my first Hackathon and was fallen apart. It was biggest nightmare of life to met that accident and get hospitalized and go through that surgery. And now, on 2nd April 2017, I won the World's Biggest Hackathon "Smart India Hackathon" organized by AICTE and Government of India under NCPCR category. It was difficult to stay on my dreams but now it has proved its worth. It's not like I never got failed but it's I never gave up. So, many times I have fallen but have always got the courage to rise again stronger. From a dream to my love, coding has become the most important part of my life. From not knowing what actually I was doing in C++ to just asking for my laptop even in ICU, I have come a long way to fall in love with the magic of technology with each passing day.

Dreams come true if you don't give up on them. When I first enter the premises of college, I realized that no one knows the name of Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University. At that time, I enter college with a dream that I will bring glory to the name of my college and on 2nd April 2017, I finally achieved that. 

This day just marked a beginning of another roller-coaster ride in my life and I expect to have a lot of fun and amusement on this ride too. 

I won't give up, as giving up is too mainstream.

#girlteamrocks #allhailIGDTUW #sih2017 #narendraModi #NCPCR #TechnoTwisters
#androidqueen #javaqueen (by Isha Gupta to me)