The Joy of Coding: From "Basic language" to coding an AI agent!!

In 8th standard, I walked into a computer institute in Bhopal carrying a 5¼-inch floppy disk. Inside that institute was a machine that could understand instructions — if you spoke its language. That language was BASIC. And the first time a line of code I wrote actually ran, I felt something I had no words for at thirteen. A kind of electric aliveness.

I went on to study Computer Science at NIT Bhopal. C. C++. Hours in the lab, debugging, compiling, failing, and then — that moment. The cursor blinks. The output appears. The code runs.

Then life happened. Thirty-two years of enterprise IT leadership. Delivery at scale. P&L ownership. Client presentations. Proposals. Managing large teams. The code faded. The compiler was replaced by PowerPoint.

Until last night!!

At midnight in Pune, sitting alone, I decided to start coding again. This time using Claude Code — Anthropic’s AI coding agent. I researched and wrote a Python script. Executed it. And produced a live, real-time AI briefing document — fetching actual headlines from the internet — saved to my desktop. Daily_AI_Briefing.txt.

I stared at that file name for a long moment.

Because I felt thirteen again!! I felt the joy of coding!

Now — before any engineer reading this smiles — I know what this tool does in expert hands produces things of breathtaking complexity. What I built last night is, by those standards, modest. A briefing generator. A few hundred lines of Python. Nothing that will make it to GitHub’s trending page.

But that is precisely the point.

I have not written code in decades. I came to this as a beginner. I hit errors. Git wasn’t installed. The PATH wasn’t configured. Python wasn’t found. Every step had a wall. I climbed each one. And when that file appeared on my desktop — real output, real data, real AI — I understood something that I want to say clearly to every senior leader sitting on the sidelines of the AI revolution. Coding in 2026 is not about syntax. It is about intent. You describe what you want. The AI translates. You review. You direct. You refine. The compiler is now a conversation.

I coded first time using BASIC programme on a floppy disk 1983. While doing engineering in early 90s I coded in C and C++. I built my first AI agent in 2026.

The floppy disk has become an AI agent.

But the joy of a running programme? That has not changed at all.

#AILeadership  #ClaudeCode  #AgenticAI  #LifelongLearning

About the Author

Nikhil Datar is a hardcore IT delivery professional with 32 years of experience navigating every major paradigm shift the industry has seen — from mainframes to client-server, from the internet boom to cloud, from automation to the age of Agentic AI. He has led large-scale programmes across Fortune 500 clients spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia, managing portfolios worth hundreds of millions of dollars and organisations of thousands of professionals. Through every technological wave, he has chosen not to observe from the sidelines but to learn, build, and deliver. Today, he is a passionate and hands-on learner of Artificial Intelligence — not as a spectator, but as a builder.

📌 Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are entirely my own and are shared in a purely personal capacity. They do not represent the views, positions, or opinions of any current or past employer, clients, partners, or affiliates.