Monday, July 1, 2002		Feature

Prompted by school magazine, he is MCSE at 11
Naveen S. Garewal

For a hardworking person, age is no bar. Imagine, barely 11 and equipped with a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification. That is exactly what Harmanpreet Singh, a Ludhiana student, has achieved while still being in Class VII at Guru Nanak Public School, Ludhiana. Harman has achieved this distinguished feat with barely a years coaching at a local institute, backed by encouragement from his doctor parents.

"My goal is clear. I want to be a computer engineer from one of the prestigious IITs of the country", says Harman, as his friends know him. Inspired by a news item two years ago in the school magazine that said that a Class IX student had passed the MCSE exam, Harman, decided to achieve the same result at a much younger age. "At that time, it struck my mind that I should be able to clear the same test in an early class and I did it," he said.

Harman has cleared the first of the six tests in August last year. Between August 2001 and March 2002 he cleared all six tests required to be a certified Microsoft Systems engineer. "Just two days were left for the commencement of annual examination of Class VI when I had appeared for the last test of MCSE. Everyone in my family was telling me not to take the test but it hardly took me 15 minutes to clear it," he claims.

"Harman was lucky to have a computer at home to do all his practice," says his cardiologist father, Dr. R.P. Singh. His mother, Dr Kanwaljit Kaur, a gynaecologist, has been equally supportive of her sons desire to achieve a daunting task at a young age. As of now Harman has promised to concentrate on his studies at school and postpone all further certifications.

Harman wants Microsoft to tell him if he is the youngest person to have achieved such a feat. However, Aditya Aggarwal of Microsoft told him that the Microsoft Corporation does not keep any record of the candidate's age. Proud parents of Harman propose to send the claim of their son to the Guinness Book of World Records and Limca Book of Records.