“During my second year, I worked on a small speech recognition project using MATLAB. The idea was, I would say a Bangla vowel out loud and the computer then would display it on the screen. It wasn't anything special. But it was very near and dear to my heart. I still remember the day when after hours of work without any visible progress, everything sort of clicked. I said 'অ' and the computer did what it was supposed to: it displayed it! What I experienced at that moment was pure, unbridled joy. I don't know how it would feel to teach your own child the alphabet. But I'm
willing to bet that what I felt wasn't very different. I even gave it a name: Asha. Hope. Giving your project human names might seem like a childish thing to do. And it probably is. But to me, it wasn’t. Overall, this was one of the best moments of my life. I don't know what the greatest feeling in the world is supposed to be. But the feeling you get when you make something that works has to be up there!”