‘Hostel life prepares you to deal with anything that life has to throw at you’

He was brought up in Delhi having heard the name of Apeejay – be it the various schools in and around Delhi-NCR or the Apeejay Stya University (ASU). This is because the name is closely linked with his family. His sister studies in one of the schools of Apeejay and his uncle, Dr Parikshit Vashisht is also associated with ASU. Meet Akshay Anthony, who is a senior network security analyst with Cisco.

While he may not have studied at Apeejay when he was in school when it came to choosing a college for graduation, he opted for The School of Engineering and Technology, one of the eight schools of ASU as a medium of graduation where he pursued Computer Science and passed out in 2020.

“Even if I write an entire book about ASU, it won’t be enough to describe the contribution the school has made in my development and career path. My four years of pursuing BTech in Computer Science and Engineering have been truly amazing. The exposure and opportunities that I got at ASU have been a blessing,” Anthony said.

Excerpts from the interview.

You are from Delhi. Why did you choose to live in a hostel?

It is a little tough for day scholars to understand this, but all hostellers will give you the same answer – it was one the best days of my life. It is very necessary for students to stay in a hostel and experience this life – to understand ways of life.

I would like to add that the facilities at ASU were very good including the room and the mess. I would say that it was up to the standard that I was expecting from ASU.

What does hostel life teach?

 There are a few things. When a person enrolls to live in the hostel, he/she is just out of school and there is very little that he/she understands about what’s happening around them and questions every decision they may take. But slowly, hostel life teaches you how to cope with whatever life has to throw at you. For people who live with parents, when they live independently, the freedom goes to their head and they waste a lot of time pursuing things that have very little relevance.

But the student has to understand that once the programme is over, they will be stepping out into the real world and there will be nobody to mollycoddle them or come to their rescue; they will have to deal with issues on their own. Hostel life prepares you to deal with anything that life has to throw at you. Being in a hostel helps you build a career in the corporate setup.

Where are you working, and what does the work entail?

I am, at present, working with Cisco, which is a huge domain for electrical and computer services. I work in the networking engineering domain as a senior network security analyst. I provide security to companies; Cisco has different clients globally and my job is to ensure that the services we provide are secure and no one can hack their data and communication.

Even if I write an entire book about ASU, it won’t be enough to describe the contribution the school has made to my development and career path

–Cisco, Senior Network Security Analyst

Why is securing data becoming such an integral part of our lives?

Security is the future of data. Everything that we do in our daily lives needs to be secured. Take an example. In journalism, if one is shooting a programme or even watching TV, it should be through a secure channel. If your present is not secure, your past and future are automatically compromised. Even cybersecurity and Cloud security are huge domains that are sub-parts of network security. Every little action that a person does is linked to networking.

What were some of the skill sets that you learnt at ASU that are coming in handy now?

While this is somewhat disjointed with the question you asked, when I was at ASU I was the founder of a dramatic society – Thespian. But managing that society and understanding the nitty-gritty of it, getting things done have pushed me towards entrepreneurship. While my present job description is totally different I better understand how things move.

What has been the best part of being at ASU?

It gives you the freedom of doing anything you want. This is the main aspect that students must understand is that in other colleges, one is burdened with lots of things that you will never use in the future. In other BTech colleges, there are four Math papers, at ASU we have two. ASU knows that a Computer Science engineer doesn’t need to study too much Math.

When I was at ASU, I learnt Spanish. But the language is coming in handy when I deal with clients who speak the language.

Why is Computer Science such a popular programme to pursue?

Today, everything flows down to Computer Science. Here is an analogy – all rivers end up in the sea; Computer Science is that sea. Everything is automated. A friend at ASU did mechanical engineering. Today, he is a project manager for a company that designs projects for mechanical management. In the end, he too is doing what I am doing.

What advice would you like to give to present ASU students?

I don’t have a lot of experience to give advice but there is one thing that each Apeejayite at ASU must do – try and understand what the professors are saying in class. While it may not make much sense now and the faculty may appear to be dragons but they have seen the real world and are preparing you to face the same. Just because they are giving you assignments to do, it doesn’t mean it is a waste of time, they are helping you build a smoother career path.