Advise Needed] Mechanical engineer trying to venture into ML

Hello fellow redditors,

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As the title suggests, I am a mechanical engineer with a masters in mechanical design from a top institute in India. Directly after my masters, I got a job but left it after exactly one year to pursue civil services. And that decision has left a 3 year void in my career sheet. During these three years, the most I have been in touch with tech/science was through random personal automations using python and digital notetaking systems or a few readings here and there. I don't know if they have anything to do with each other, but I am lazy (for repetitive work) and have an eye to optimize /automate my workflow. The later led to me learning python, a bit of git and css/html.

With regard to my prgramming skills, I learn quickly and had good grades in all the computer science courses we had at the college (C++, DSA and Modelling-Simulation). I have also programmed in Matlab for basic usage in research and also in LAMDA for nanomechanics/molecular simulation.

At my work, I had written a python code to automate the process of model setup for FE which reduced the human intervention from very menial routine work (hindi: gadha majdoori).

As for my mechanical engineering skills, I am good with CAE softwares and can readily work with them. So first thing I am doing right now is applying in various positions in the same domain as I had worked 3 years ago. All this while, I got introduced to the world of Machine Learning, AI and Deep Learning. So, I wish to learn ML to slowly venture into that line.

So yeah, my question here to the CS veterans is, how to start with the learning, from where, what can I expect from the field and how much time is necessary for be able to get a decent opportunity
in that domain?

Currently, I have started with Andrew Ng's course on Courcera: Course 1 of Deep Learning Specialisation. https://www.coursera.org/learn/neural-networks-deep-learning but it seems rather theoretical to me and without implementation it will be difficult for me to grasp (I feel).

Also, I explored fast.ai course which follows top-down approach unlike Andrew. I haven't committed to it.

Kindly guide. All kinds of opinon are welcome.

PS. I am 28yo