Authorspeak: Why I wrote this book?

"Today we find computers being used everywhere. This was not so some thirty years back. I became aware of the use of computers in our lives when I got a computerised marks sheet for my tenth grade examination in June 1976.A few years later, I was formally introduced to computer science during the undergraduate course in science at Nizam College, Hyderabad. An introductory course in FORTRAN IV – a computer language released by IBM in 1962 – made students learn basic programming without seeing or touching a computer. .....Over the next two decades I was exposed to computers and had a chance to report on the so-called 'computer era' in the 1980s..... In 2000s, while reporting for American technology news network, Cnet.com, I realised that interest about the Indian industry was growing in America and yet there were a lot of misconceptions. The same was the case with new generation of Indians who were introduced to the sector in the past one decade or so. This prompted me to do a full book on this sector.

When I decided to write a book, the first thought that came to my mind was the story of IBM and Coca-Cola being ‘thrown out of India’ during the Janata Party regime in 1977. Somehow this story had remained ingrained in my mind since my adolescent days. Then as a reporter, I kept hearing different versions of this story. So, I thought here is my story line – from IBM leaving India in 1977 to IBM’s comeback in early 1990s. To the journalist inside me, this appeared to me a killer plot. Barring the IBM’s exit and the period of early growth of the industry till 1984, I was a witness as well a recorder of all major events in this period. But when I started researching into IBM episode, I realized the story actually begins when early computing machines came to India in the pre-independence days. That’s how the plot got extended. Much of research and writing for this book took place between 2005 and 2007. I made multiple trips to Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad, besides work done in my place of residence – New Delhi. This is the journey of this book, in brief."

-From author's preface to "The Long Revolution: The Birth and Growth of India's IT Industry"