This Diwali, I was back home, enjoying all the usual traditions. It was nice to catch up with family, exchange gifts, and do some last-minute shopping for decorations. Of course, there were also those less fun parts—like getting pulled into chores!
Things like cleaning the fan, taking down curtains, then putting them back up. I wish that Urban Company offered their services in Jalandhar so that I could delegate some of these 🫠
Anyways, I was about to book my return flight to Bangalore, but then I paused. I actually enjoy working from the office, but most of my team probably wouldn’t be around, and without them, it just wouldn’t be the same. I’d been feeling a little low, honestly. Life had just started to feel a bit too predictable — idk, what exactly is the trigger for this.
I figured maybe I needed a change of space, a break from the usual. I’d actually been thinking about working from Vietnam or Bali for a month, but then I found out that the weather there isn’t great in November, so I let go of that plan. That’s when I started thinking about Manali instead—a change of scenery but still closer to home.
There’s something about working from the mountains that just felt… right. A little peace, a little fresh air, and, of course, some good old-fashioned mountain vibes. I hadn’t thought much about the packing until my mom reminded me, to better start pulling out my winter clothes! She directed me to the storeroom, where all our warm stuff was tucked away.
The Storeroom
Now, our storeroom is like a little time capsule. We’ve got these old storage trunks that every North Indian family seems to have—filled with extra blankets, winter clothes, and all the things we only bring out once a year.
As I was digging around, sorting through layers of woolens, my eyes caught on something up on a high shelf, tucked behind some larger boxes. It was dusty, black, and very, very familiar: my first desktop computer ✨.
Just seeing that old cabinet brought back a wave of memories, like finding a lost treasure from another time. This wasn’t just any desktop; it was ‘the computer’ that introduced me to a world I’d only glimpsed before.
I guess, you can also say that it kind of changed my life and made me what I am today :)
We bought it years ago, actually for my sister, who was staying in a hostel at the time. I must’ve been in 4th or 5th grade back then. Until then, I’d been using my dad’s office desktop whenever he’d take me to work with him. I’d sneak in some Solitaire or 3D Pinball for Windows, tapping away at the keyboard with tiny hands.
But then this desktop arrived at home, and everything changed. I still remember that first moment, hearing the Windows XP startup sound for the very first time—
Even now, I can feel that rush of excitement. The first game I fired up? Road Rash, obviously! Zooming down pixelated roads, I was in heaven!
My sister was supposed to take this entire setup to her hostel, and it was quite the process—packing the monitor, speakers, keyboard, and, finally, the CPU. But luckily for me, her first trip only included the UPS. That meant I still had a few golden weeks ✨ left to enjoy my time with the computer. And I made sure to make the most of it.
I even had this little habit back then that, looking back, feels so innocent. Every day after school, right before lunch, I’d unplug a random cable from the back of the CPU—just for fun, really. My mom had a strict “post-lunch power nap” rule, so I’d have to wait a couple of hours before I could rush back and reconnect it.
I wanted to see if I could remember which cable went where. One time, though, I messed up with the aux cable from the speakers. Remember those days? CPUs had those 3.5mm jacks in green, blue, and pink for audio.
I plugged it into the wrong port, and—no sound. For an entire month, I was convinced I’d broken the speakers 🥲. Then, one day, I randomly tried the middle port, and voilà, sound! I felt like a mini tech wizard. 🧙🏻🪄
And oh, the PC Magazine days! My sister had a subscription, and every month, a new issue would arrive. I’d wait eagerly, not just for the magazine itself, but for the CD that came with it.
Those CDs were packed with tools, mini-games, and demos. I tried to collect every single one of them. There was this little Flash interface that would pop up, and I’d dive into it, exploring all the cool software they had included, pandas antivirus, Call of Duty etc. Each CD felt like opening a gift!
I vividly remember Vol. 13 No. 8’s disc being one of my personal favourites! I couldn’t find that CD in my storage, but here’s an image of the spanish version for reference
While digging through the storeroom that day, I also stumbled upon some of my old school textbooks. Three of them, specifically, hold a special place in my heart. I’d asked my dad never to get rid of these books because they each played a part in my early love for tech.
One of them was from 8th grade, and it had this chapter on “Visual Basic 2008” Now, our school actually skipped this chapter, but one day while flipping through, I saw a screenshot of a basic traffic light app. It was just a simple interface—red, yellow, green buttons—but I was captivated
Before that, I’d been learning C and C++, but let’s be real, pointers were like a cruel joke for a 12-year-old 🫠. Everything was just text on a screen, Character User Interfaces, line by line. But here was something different: an interface.
Looking back, I think that was the first spark that led me to care about design. I saw that code could be more than functional; it could be beautiful.
Then, there was Cracking the Coding Interview, the famous book that made the rounds among everyone dreaming of working at Google. I was in 9th grade when I got it. I’d decided I wanted to work at Google someday, so I googled how to get a job at Google (yes, very meta).
Somewhere along the line, I found an article that mentioned this book, and I started grinding through DSA problems. Imagine: studying algorithms before I even knew what competitive exams were!
Of course, not every adventure with the desktop was smooth sailing. I remember one summer when it just stopped working out of the blue. My parents called in a technician, but he couldn’t find the issue. The motherboard wasn’t even giving a post code. He thought it might be the motherboard and suggested taking it to his shop, but we decided to wait until my sister came home.
I, however, couldn’t stand the suspense. Alone in the house one afternoon, I just sat there staring at the CPU, talking to it like it was my best friend: “Mere computer, mere best friend. Please chal pado na.” (Yes, that sounds dramatic now, but those were the days.)
Determined to fix it, I found a knife (screwdrivers were nowhere to be found) and unscrewed the back. I took a dusting cloth and gently wiped down every part I could reach. After putting it all back together, I hit the power button… and nothing. The blue LED blinked, then shut off.
I sighed, prayed a little, and then suddenly, it hit me—I’d left the cloth inside! 🤦🏻
It was blocking the CPU fan. I carefully opened it up, took out the cloth, and tried again. This time, the LED stayed on, the monitor flickered to life, and I heard that XP startup sound. I was on cloud nine! When my parents got home, they couldn’t believe I’d fixed it myself (I kept the knife part to myself).
From that day, I became the “computer genius” of the neighborhood (years later, on my farewell, my school also awarded me with a special ‘IT Tycoon’ trophy lol). And soon, I developed my own monthly “CPU maintenance” routine.
Every month, I’d disassemble every single part—motherboard, RAM, CPU fan, the processor itself—just to give each component a good cleaning. I even bought thermal paste, thanks to YouTube and Linus Tech Tips, and would religiously apply it to the CPU every month. I wanted that computer running as smoothly as possible, and each cleaning session felt like an act of love.
Looking back, if someone had asked a younger me to write an essay on “My Best Friend,” I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second. I’d have gone all in on “My Best Friend is My Computer.” This wasn’t just some ordinary machine—it was my partner in almost everything I did.
My first software, Hotspoter, was born on this very machine, an app that let me experiment with networks and dive into coding.
I even made my first earnings through it! I still remember the thrill of getting paid, that feeling of doing something that someone found valuable.
And then came my first freelance gig, which led me to GitHub, the treasure trove of code from developers all over the world.
My first website? Hosted on this very desktop. It was basic, sure, but building and hosting my own site felt like a milestone.
This machine was there through every “first” of my tech journey.
And now, years later, it felt almost wrong to see it just collecting dust in the corner, unloved and forgotten. I thought, why not put it to some use?
I decided to transform it into something useful, something it could be proud of: a NAS (Network-Attached Storage) unit. I got the idea after seeing this in-house web scraper/crawler Hari uses at work. His setup is a bit more sophisticated, but it sparked something in me. My old friend could still have a purpose.
I was itching to plug it in and get started right away, but I knew better. The computer hadn’t been turned on in years, and the last thing I wanted was to fry the motherboard out of sheer impatience 🫠. So, I hopped onto Amazon and ordered a new power supply & some thermal compound. Since this PC would probably be running non-stop, I needed something reliable.
Once the order arrived, I opened up the computer case for the first time in ages. Dust had settled into every corner, so I gave it a good wipe down, making sure it was clean enough to breathe life back into.
I swapped out the old power supply and applied a fresh layer of thermal compound—small but essential steps to get it running smoothly again ✨.
Holding my breath, I pressed the power button for the first time in years. The screen flickered to life, and there it was—the GRUB bootloader! I hadn’t touched it since I’d set it up to dual-boot with Windows 10 and Ubuntu.
Just seeing it felt like opening a time capsule, like this old friend was coming back to life, picking up right where we’d left off ❤️ :)
I spent some time browsing through old files, memories flashing with every folder I opened. It wasn’t fast; in fact, it was sluggish as hell. I couldn’t imagine using it for regular work or even casual browsing, but hey, it worked. And that was enough for me.
Since Ubuntu was already installed, I updated it and set up Samba to turn the computer into a basic NAS, giving me quick access to files over my home network.
1sudo apt update2sudo apt install samba
I did explore a bunch of options before settling on this setup. There’s TrueNAS, Unraid, OpenMediaVault powerful choices, each with unique features. But I wanted to keep this project low-key, a simple experiment to see if I’d even use it in the long run.
If you’re looking to set up a NAS for the long term, I’d recommend TrueNAS. It’s solid, reliable, and packed with features that make it ideal for a more robust, long-term setup.
After setting up Samba, I configured it to share specific folders and adjusted permissions, so I could access everything I needed across my devices on the local network.
To make sure the NAS was easy to reach, I assigned it a static IP address by configuring the DHCP settings on my router. This way, I wouldn’t have to deal with changing IPs each time I wanted to connect.
For remote access, I did a fair bit of research. I went down quite a few rabbit holes, exploring options like creating SSH tunnels, setting up OpenVPN, and even looking into WireGuard. Each had its own set of complexities—configurations, ports, permissions, and more.
While all these options were solid, I wanted something straightforward, without too much tinkering. That’s when I discovered Tailscale, which turned out to be the simplest solution.
It’s a great alternative to traditional VPN setups and made it straightforward to reach my NAS from anywhere, giving me the flexibility to access files securely from any location. (P.S. No they’re not sponsoring this blog post)
After all of this, connecting to my home PC from Mac is as simple as turning on Tailscale, getting the IP, opening finder, followed by CMD+K and typing smb://[IP_ADDRESS]
And so, my old friend is back in action.
It may be a bit slow, maybe a bit worn around the edges, but it’s still here, still serving a purpose, just like it always has ❤️. This “treasure box” is living on, a little relic of my past with a new purpose for the future.
Before leaving the storeroom,
I picked up those textbooks that had meant so much to me and placed them in my bookshelf back at home.
I smiled, thinking about how a skipped chapter led me to discover my passion, how a challenging book pushed me to aim higher, and how a simple traffic light simulation opened up a world of design and creativity. ❤️ 🙂
These books now sit proudly on my bookshelf—a reminder of the journey, the challenges, and the joy of discovery.
P.S. While going through some old files, I stumbled upon a photo of my desktop setup from almost a decade ago. Yep, those LEDs you see? I installed each one myself, carefully hooking them up to the computer’s power supply.
And yep, that’s a poster of Steve Jobs’ “Crazy Ones” quote on the wall behind <3
Looking at it now, I can’t help but feel a wave of pride and nostalgia for those days. Back then, it felt like the coolest setup ever! :)
