Hardeep Singh Kohli

A personal appreciation

Home computing pioneer

Born: October 2, 1967

I always wonder how different I would be had I grown up with a sister rather than just the two brothers.

Basically they were an Indian family. Think about it. They all lived in the same house. They all worked in the family business. They were riven with feuds and fights and infidelities. Not to mention the mandatory misunderstood alcoholic aunt/wife/sister-in-law.

His one word response conveyed myriad meanings, from dumbfounded disbelief to intense incredulity. “Really?”

While I definitely pushed him, it is preposterous to suggest that I intended my cousin, Surjit, to go into the Christmas tree, causing it to fall, the Perspex cover of the record player to crack, a number of selection boxes to be irreparably damaged, and the angel (atop the tree) to fly across the room before coming to an emergency break against my late grandmother’s forehead before tumbling downward into her almost full bowl of daal. While my extended family is happy to reminisce about many Christmases past, this single, solitary Christmas Day has never, is never, and will never be mentioned. It is only ever referred to in hushed tones ... we call it 'Monopoly-Gate'.

It was one of those utterances that was always going to put my back up. It’s up there with the most provocative and pompous of all pedantry.

THERE was a joke that I loved as a wean. It involved Julius Caesar, Brutus and a tube of Smarties. It goes like this … Brutus bought a tube of Smarties. He gave it to Caesar for safe keeping.

I WAS never a big fan of Lent. As one of only two non-Catholics at my Jesuit school (my wee brother being the other), I always felt like I should partake in my fellow students’ abstinence but was aware it might seem like an overly needy desire to fit in. But then again, in this age of increasingly conspicuous consumption and the Mammon of materialism, any exercise eschewing excess can only be a good thing.