During a long weekend at home, I felt that I was missing something very important in my life: a productive environment and a community that I had in college. Many others likely felt the same, all trying to stay innovative and productive in an environment that lacked those elements. From this simple idea, we started HackerLand with the motto of creating a community for designers, innovators, and programmers all in one place....
After an awesome first year, we moved to a new hostel located inside the college campus. The first few days were filled with the fear of ragging from our beloved seniors. We had a very negative view of ragging, but eventually, we began to understand that those seniors were becoming our guardians and friends. What we believed to be ragging was actually what we needed in real life: the ability to communicate, step out of our comfort zones, and develop other essential skills....
In my drop year in class 12, despite being one of the strongest believers in myself, I almost started thinking that all my dreams were going to die. Maybe this was my destiny. Perhaps my chemistry teacher was right about me, and maybe I would not be able to achieve anything in my life. All my dreams started fading. But engineering college was my way out from my darkest time, and it was like a dream come true....
Upon arriving at college, I encountered people from outside my state who didn’t know Bengali, and I didn’t know much Hindi. We stayed in a hostel room with six students, located in a vintage building that used to be a jail of the King of Burdwan. I saw a vintage Kaman in the jungle area of the hostel, and there were also some old locked rooms that used to be the nachghor (dance hall) of the king....