“It was bulky and only held 200 songs or something like that,” Kunal Bhandarkar (12) said of his original 2005 iPod Shuffle. “But it was pretty cool.”

He received his first iPod from his aunt in India, and he’s been fascinated by them  ever since.

“I was kind of obsessed with them,” he said. “I also kept destroying the ones I had, because I always left them in my pocket when they got washed.  Eventually I got interested in the code aspect and started taking classes outside of school.”

His interest spurred him to transfer to Harker sophomore year, which allowed him to take a wider range of computer science courses.

“I remember the first time I saw him was at our lunch table the first day of school that year,” his friend Jayaad Ali (12) said. “At first, I was wondering why he was here, but after I got to know him, he became one of my best friends. His humor immediately stood out to me, and I remember he made the whole table laugh a few times.”

Kunal, an active member in the robotics team, recognizes the value of reliable hardware in conjunction with software. He first started coding while on his middle school’s Lego robotics team, which instilled in him a deep appreciation of the hardware that lays the foundation for software to function.

“It’s pretty interesting how you can blend hardware and software with robotics and see it come to life just right there in front of you,” Kunal said.  “The feeling you get when it works is the best feeling in the world.”

Despite the tedium of missing brackets and perpetually invalid syntax, among other universal signs of distress for a programmer, Kunal chooses to approach debugging with a happy-go-lucky attitude.

Richa Bhattacharya (12) recalled her own experiences with Kunal, noting that his dry wit and reassuring attitude set him apart from the others.

“Earlier this year he made an hangman game that he was very excited out, and he wanted to test it out with me. I won the first few rounds, and he seemed quite offended. I could already tell he was going to try to stump me, but I still somehow won every time we played,” Richa said.  “Although he’s grouchy when he loses, he always makes you feel like a winner.”

Whether he’s playing Foosball after school or cracking a joke — or perhaps both simultaneously — Kunal stands out for his contagious enthusiasm.

“Whenever I am hanging out with him, I get this vibe of positive energy from him, and he always seems to have fun with everything he does,” Jay said.  “His positive energy spreads onto others, and it is amazing.”