Chapter 2: The Butterfly Effect
Delhi – February 15, 2009 – 6:00 AM
The morning in Delhi was still cool, the fog of winter not yet ready to retreat. A hazy orange glow filtered through the iron grilles of the window as Shiva stood on the balcony of his modest second-floor flat in Laxmi Nagar. The scent of burning wood, tea leaves, and wet earth carried on the air—a familiar smell, a forgotten time. Below, vendors arranged crates of vegetables on wooden carts, and the call of a milkman's cycle bell echoed down the narrow lanes.
Shiva leaned against the railing, arms folded. His heart pounded—not from fear, but from an overwhelming sense of power. It was intoxicating. The world below him looked the same, yet every frame he took in felt like data flowing through a supercomputer. He could see the patterns, the probabilities, the butterfly wings that would lead to cyclones years from now.
Behind him, his mother called out again. "Beta! Bread toast bana diya hai. Don't be late!"
He took a deep breath and stepped inside.
The room he had once found too small now felt enormous. Posters of Aamir Khan and Cristiano Ronaldo lined the walls. A stack of NCERT books sat neatly on a plastic shelf beside a foldable study table. A dusty CPU hummed on the ground—his old Compaq Presario.
He touched it like it was a relic.
A rush of memory flooded his mind: The frustration of waiting for it to boot, the hours spent playing Road Rash, browsing Orkut, burning pirated CDs. But now, it was more than nostalgia. It was his launchpad.
He sat at the desk and turned the monitor on. As the Windows XP logo flickered to life, he stared into the glow with laser focus.
"Time to start small," he murmured.
---
The First Steps
He opened Notepad and began typing furiously, his fingers moving like he was possessed. Lines of code, sketches of algorithms, names of websites and platforms that didn't exist yet.
Bitcoin – January 2009 launch. Satoshi Nakamoto anonymous. Mining opportunity window: 2009–2012 most profitable.
Instagram launch 2010. Buy domain, develop early clone. Consider variations: photofeed.in, picclick.net.
NEET, JEE evolution timeline. Focus on AIIMS, IIT JEE pattern changes – prepare smarter.
He paused only to think about what to prioritize. He couldn't do everything at once. No empire was built in a day. But with his memory, he had the blueprint to win every game—academics, stock market, startups, social media, even politics.
And yet, the key wasn't just knowing.
It was acting.
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7:15 AM
As Shiva walked to his coaching class, he took note of the cracked pavement, the grocer yelling prices, the kids rushing to school. Every sound, every detail—it all felt sacred now. He wasn't just a boy anymore. He was a man who had lived and died in another timeline. A scientist who had seen the rise and fall of empires.
He passed a chaiwala on the corner and stopped.
"Bhaiya, ek chai dena," he said.
The man looked up and smiled. "New customer? Haven't seen you before."
Shiva smiled. "I've been around. Just had my eyes closed."
As he sipped the steaming cup, a small, wiry boy approached—barefoot, probably no older than ten—offering roses wrapped in shiny plastic.
"Bhaiya, Valentine's Day ho gaya par phool le lo. Sirf dus rupaye."
Shiva stared at him.
"What's your name?"
"Munna," the boy replied.
"You go to school, Munna?"
The boy laughed. "School? Roz do time ka khana mil jaye, wohi kaafi hai."
Shiva reached into his pocket and pulled out a hundred-rupee note. He handed it to him.
"Keep the roses. Just remember my name: Shiva. One day you'll hear it again."
The boy ran off, eyes wide.
Shiva finished his tea and smiled. The first ripple in the pond had been made.
---
8:00 AM – Coaching Institute
He walked into the narrow building, its faded blue sign reading: Singh Advanced Coaching Centre – IIT & Medical Entrance. The classroom was cramped, and the air smelled of chalk dust, ink, and adolescent sweat. Rows of students bent over benches, heads down in their books. Some looked focused. Others clearly didn't want to be there.
The teacher—Mr. Bansal—looked up from the whiteboard, slightly surprised.
"Ah, Shiva! You're early today. This is new."
"New year, sir. New me."
The teacher chuckled and nodded, returning to his derivation of Kirchhoff's laws. But Shiva wasn't listening. Not really. He was watching the future in motion.
He recognized faces—future engineers, doctors, one who would become a viral TikTok star in 2021, another who'd make national news for a protest in 2024. He could see all the paths unfolding in his mind.
He took out a notebook and began sketching something new—an idea for a memory app based on spaced repetition. Something like Anki, but localized for Indian exams, with AI-generated questions and analytics.
Note to self: Build prototype by April. Recruit from class—target Rohit, strong in Java. Offer 10% equity.
He wasn't just learning anymore.
He was building.
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Back Home – 1:00 PM
After lunch, Shiva sat with his father, who was skimming through the day's Hindustan Times. The headlines were the same as they had been in his memory.
"Recession Fears Loom as Global Markets Plunge."
It was 2009. The world was still recovering from the subprime mortgage crisis. The BSE was volatile. Property prices were down. Everyone was cautious.
Everyone except Shiva.
He turned to his father.
"Papa, have you thought about investing in stocks?"
His father chuckled. "Kya baat kar raha hai tu? Itna risk kaun leta hai? FD mein paisa safe rehta hai."
Shiva nodded thoughtfully. "True. But some companies are at their lowest right now. What if I showed you which ones will rise in the next five years?"
His father laughed harder. "Beta, tu bhavishya dekh sakta hai kya?"
Shiva smiled. "Maybe."
He didn't push. Not yet. Seeds needed time to sprout.
But he made a note in his journal:
Convince Papa to open Demat account. Start with Infosys, TCS, HDFC Bank. Accumulate till 2012. Create spreadsheet to track returns. Multiply quietly.
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Evening – Rooftop
The sun dipped low behind the city skyline. Shiva stood alone on the terrace, notebook in hand, pages fluttering in the breeze. It was time to organize the next decade.
His goals for 2009:
1. Crack IIT JEE with AIR under 50
2. Build a mobile game using Java and Flash (pre-Play Store era)
3. Mine Bitcoin before difficulty rises
4. Win interschool coding and science competitions
5. Create a blog documenting tech insights anonymously
6. Invest early in undervalued stocks
7. Learn Mandarin and Spanish (prep for future business)
8. Secure copyrights and domains for future tech trends
The list was longer, but he had time. He had the one thing most people never get—a second chance with perfect memory.
As stars blinked to life above the haze, Shiva looked up.
In another life, this city had crushed him.
In this one, he would conquer it.
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[End of Chapter 2]