i have an mtech in mech engg. and currently i am working as an ra at my alma mater(iitk). i have been interested in programming ever since i realized that the code that i used for my thesis was rather shitty. having read some of k&r c, numerical recipes etc, i want to learn how to, to use the expression "code beautifully". i used to think that it is some sort of an innate ability or something, like people being able to perceive absolute pitches, but lately i think that a lot of hard work and reasoning goes into it.