When A Small Town Dreams Big…

Last week, I mentored at the NationSkillUp<>GeeksforGeeks workshop in Patna. 300+ students showed up to learn how to build websites. Most had never written a line of code before. Some travelled hours just to be there.

I work remotely for rtCamp, participated in the Google Summer of Code in 2022, and have been coding for a few years now. But honestly? None of that prepared me for what happened in that room.

See, I’ve always been frustrated with Patna’s tech scene. Or lack of one. All the good stuff happens in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Pune. Here? Nothing. Despite having genuinely smart people everywhere.

So when GFG said they’re doing free workshops in Patna and wanted me to mentor, I leapt at the opportunity because I wanted to see what would happen if we actually gave people here a real shot.

The workshop was simple: build and deploy a portfolio website in 2 hours. Start to finish. No prior experience needed.

I walked them through HTML basics, CSS styling, GitHub forks, and deployment. Nothing fancy. Just practical stuff that gets you from zero to having something live on the internet.

What really moved me were the students themselves. Kids who woke up early, people who came from Dhanbad, from villages near Gorakhpur, from small towns in West Bengal. They spent money on travel, took time out of their regular chores, all because they believed learning this stuff could change something for them.

Their questions hit different, too.

“Can I make money doing this?”

“Do I need to move to Bangalore to get a job?”

“Is this actually possible for someone like me?”

Someone like me. That phrase kept coming up, and it broke my heart a little. As if being from Bihar automatically disqualifies you from building things.

By the end, everyone had their own website online. Their own URL to share with friends & family. Their own small proof that yes, they can build things. The excitement when they saw their sites go live, some literally started clapping. One student immediately texted his friends to show them.

Afterwards, a quiet participant came up to me. “Sir, I’m from a really small place. My family thinks a lot of money, time are required to learn coding, and it is only for people from tier-1 cities. Today changed that for me.”

That conversation will stay with me for a long time.

I’m grateful to GeeksforGeeks for believing Patna deserved this opportunity. For making it completely free. For understanding that access to learning shouldn’t depend on your family’s income or which city you were born in.

I’m also grateful to Quad AI School of Technology and Management for providing such a welcoming venue. Their facilities were exactly what we needed, and it was refreshing to see an institution that understands the importance of creating proper learning environments for tech education in Bihar.

I’m grateful to rtCamp too, in ways that go beyond my paycheck. Their remote-first culture taught me that meaningful work can happen from anywhere. That companies can invest in talent regardless of geography. They gave me the freedom to spend my free time doing stuff like this, and honestly, that flexibility is what makes giving back possible.

But mostly, I’m grateful to those students. For showing up. For asking tough questions. For believing that spending their day learning something new could matter. Their energy reminded me of why I fell in love with coding in the first place.

This workshop was a start. Not the solution, but a real start. Patna needs more of this, more workshops, more mentors, more companies willing to invest here. Maybe even a WordCamp someday, or proper tech meetups where people can actually network and collaborate.

The talent is here. The hunger is definitely here. These students proved that. We just need to build the community around it, create pathways that don’t require leaving home.

Every time someone from Bihar has to move away for opportunities, we lose a potential community builder. But every time someone learns they can build their future right here, we get stronger.

Looking forward to many more weekends like this. To seeing some of these students at future workshops as mentors themselves. To watching Patna’s tech community grow one workshop at a time.

The foundation is being laid. Now let’s build something beautiful on top of it.