Meet Gourav Khunger a 16-year-old Android app developer. He runs genicsblog.com an open source platform for developers to share technical knowledge. He speaks about his journey .
What fascinates you about technology?
The ability to turn my imagination into reality. Having a solid technical background helped me build software tools and apps that didn’t exist. In this modern world, having basic tech skills is a must.
Tell us about your journey of finding your passion.
Until Class VI, I had almost no involvement in extracurricular activities. One day my father showed me an advertisement for an Indian digital payment company. and pointed out the things they are doing with their app. This kindled my curiosity to learn about the interface of their app and about the tools used to build websites. This, combined with the basic web development lessons in Class VI, got me to explore different kinds of technology using the computer we had at home. I used the Internet for the first time to learn about website development. I set up my first website by leaming about coding from an educational website. This was about five years ago. But I soon realised web development wasn’t something I wanted to pursue as a career. I wanted to do programming languages such as Java, Kotlin, Ruby, etc. So in Class VIII, I got into app development, and since then I have worked using many coding languages on different levels of projects. Today I maintain 20+ open source projects, and also write technical articles to help others become better software developers.
Recently, you became one of the youngest to receive the Google Associate Android Developer certification.
It is a certification that says I have the industry-level skills required to be a professional Android developer. It is not a course certification, but an eight-hour-long programming test where one has to work on tasks on a real Android app project that Google provides. There’s a coding interview too, and that’s how one can be certified.
What projects are you currently working on?
I’m currently focussing on my developer publication genicsblog.com and my open source app JekyllEx. Genics is a public blog and open source platform where software developers can share their technical knowledge by writing on topics they are passionate about. It has about 600 monthly readers now; in January it was only 200! JekyllEx allows people to manage their Jekyll-powered blogs from their smartphone without the hassle of needing a desktop.
What’s your vision for this fast-growing world?
My vision is to build software and also create content that would help people upskill their knowledge in software development. I believe that free and open-source software is powerful. Most of what we see on the Internet today would not have existed if it weren’t for open source. So I would definitely continue to work on my open source projects.
Do you have any message for society?
I would like to change society’s mindset that kids can’t do anything without formal education. During the recent lockdowns, we saw a lot of people with mind-blowing ideas that have the potential to change the world. I believe that people should have an open mind and trust their kids by letting them pursue careers in any field they find interesting. Teaching kids to be passionate about what they want to do is a lot better than forcing them to change to something they might regret later. As for the kids, my message is believe in yourselves because you can do anything you want. When you know that you have the potential, go for it and earn your place in this world!
Picture Credit : Google
