Chapter 3: Seeds of the Future
Delhi – February 16, 2009 – 5:30 AM
The first rays of sunlight barely touched the smog-laden sky when Shiva's alarm buzzed. He didn't need it—he had been awake for hours, mind racing through calculations and plans.
Today wasn't going to be an ordinary day.
Today, he would plant the first seeds of his empire.
He rolled out of bed, grabbed a notepad filled with sketches and strategies, and began listing immediate actions.
Priority Tasks:
1. Secure early Bitcoin mining setup
2. Begin online freelance work for micro-earnings
3. Locate cheap domains for future business ideas
4. Scout for old computers and GPUs
5. Draft patent ideas for tech he could pre-invent
He pulled out the savings he had from birthday gifts and random tutoring he had done—a measly 2,800 rupees.
Not much, he thought, but a kingdom can start with a single coin.
---
6:30 AM – Laxmi Nagar Cyber Café
The neon sign buzzed overhead as Shiva stepped into the tiny cyber café. It smelled of sweat, cheap sanitizer, and machine oil. Rows of aging computers lined the narrow room, their fans whirring like dying crickets.
The café owner, a heavyset man with a thick mustache, nodded at Shiva. "Pehli baar aaya hai kya, beta?"
"Haan uncle. Need one hour."
Shiva slid fifty rupees across the counter.
He chose a machine in the corner and set to work immediately. First, he created a Gmail account with an innocuous name. Then he opened forums he remembered from the past—Bitcointalk.org, Slashdot, early Reddit. Primitive, chaotic, yet full of opportunity.
He downloaded the original Bitcoin whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto and saved it to his flash drive.
Mine early, he reminded himself. Difficulty rises exponentially after 2010.
He joined forums anonymously, asking technical questions as if he were a beginner, learning about mining setups, block rewards, and early transaction methods.
Patience, Shiva. Play dumb. Hide brilliance.
He also searched for second-hand computer parts—outdated GPUs that could still run primitive mining software.
He made a list:
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
Radeon HD 4850
500W power supplies
Cooling fans
Cheap, abundant in 2009. Worth a fortune in a few years.
---
8:00 AM – Breakfast Table
His mother served him hot aloo parathas as the radio blared old Bollywood songs. His father sat across from him, reading the financial pages, grumbling about layoffs in the IT sector.
"Paise ka zamana khatam hone wala hai," he muttered. "Sab kuch digital ho jayega ek din."
Shiva smiled to himself. You have no idea how right you are, Papa.
Between bites, Shiva casually dropped a suggestion.
"Papa, my computer is very slow. Can we look for cheap parts in Nehru Place this weekend? Maybe I can fix it myself."
His father raised an eyebrow. "Kitna lagega?"
"Three-four thousand. Maybe less if I bargain hard."
His father grunted. "If you can get second-hand cheap, theek hai. But no wasting money on games, samjha?"
"Promise," Shiva said, crossing his fingers under the table.
---
10:00 AM – School
At school, Shiva's mind was only half-present. The lectures on calculus and electromagnetism seemed trivial compared to the symphonies of innovation playing in his head.
During recess, he sought out Rohit Sharma—a lanky boy with glasses who would, in another timeline, go on to work for Infosys.
"Rohit," Shiva said, approaching casually, "you're good at programming, right?"
Rohit shrugged. "Bas thoda bahut. Made a Snake game once."
"I have an idea. Small project. Mobile game. Simple stuff. Want to build it together?"
Rohit hesitated. "Mobile game? Java ME?"
"Yes. We'll split whatever money we make, fifty-fifty."
Rohit's eyes widened. "Real money?"
Shiva nodded. "Real money."
The bait was set.
---
2:00 PM – Planning the Game
After school, they sat on the school's broken concrete steps, sketching the basics.
Shiva outlined a simple but addictive game idea—a side-scroller with an Indian twist, using themes like rickshaw races or cricket ball chases. Low graphics, high addictiveness.
Rohit was skeptical. "Who will buy games in India? Phones are too basic."
"Not now," Shiva said, eyes gleaming. "But soon. Very soon. And when it happens, we'll be ready."
Rohit agreed to meet on weekends to start coding.
Another seed planted.
---
Evening – Local Electronics Market
Later, Shiva wandered through the chaotic Nehru Place market. Stalls buzzed with the chatter of vendors hawking everything from pirated Windows CDs to cracked mobile phones. Shiva bargained ruthlessly, playing the innocent schoolboy card.
By sunset, he had in his backpack:
One used Nvidia 8800 GT
An old CPU case with decent airflow
A cheap second-hand motherboard
Two 500GB hard drives
Cost: 2,500 rupees.
His savings were nearly gone, but the first mining rig was coming together.
Plant today, harvest tomorrow, he thought.
---
9:00 PM – Bedroom Laboratory
Back in his tiny room, Shiva dismantled his old computer with surgical precision. His hands moved with a calm confidence he never had at eighteen.
Within hours, he had a Frankensteined machine running Ubuntu Linux. He installed early Bitcoin client software and joined the nascent network.
The screen blinked:
Mining Started.
It was poetic. A boy mining invisible coins on a cobbled-together machine while the rest of the world slept, unaware that those invisible coins would one day be worth millions.
Shiva leaned back, exhausted but exhilarated.
This was only the beginning.
---
11:00 PM – Reflection
Before sleeping, he opened his journal.
Daily Summary:
Started Bitcoin mining
Recruited Rohit for mobile game
Found cheap GPUs for expansion
Laid groundwork for freelance earnings
Idea: Begin blogging anonymously about "future tech trends" without revealing future knowledge
He closed the journal and stared at the ceiling.
In another world, this room had once felt like a cage.
Now, it felt like a command center.
The butterfly's wings had begun to flap.
And the storm was coming.
---
[End of Chapter 3]