Its a new year and its a new beginning for me - I AM BACK TO INDIA - yes, its true!!
Voila..what a ride it has been for the past 5+ years in Amrikka. First the education, then the internship, followed by dozens of job interviews across US, finally settling down in NetApp and enjoying every bit of work there. And just when I was entering my comfort zone, I rock the boat again - by paying a tangent visit to Pune and then moving to Bengaluru - the IT hub of India.
After all variety is the spice of life and I am not afraid of change..am I?
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Sunday, November 22, 2009
blog "abhi" baki hai mere dost
I am still alive.
Life is going on. not much to write about. the same old stuff.
Personal life is full of play viz table tennis (I entered the advanced bracket of NetApp Singles Tournament 09), cricket every weekend (i got named as the WALL in batting and highest wickets taken in NetApp Premier League), lawn tennis (at least as good as last year with the killer drop shots and chop/spin).
professional life is merry, NTAP seems to be beating the competition. stock's up 150% in last 6 months.
Life is going on. not much to write about. the same old stuff.
Personal life is full of play viz table tennis (I entered the advanced bracket of NetApp Singles Tournament 09), cricket every weekend (i got named as the WALL in batting and highest wickets taken in NetApp Premier League), lawn tennis (at least as good as last year with the killer drop shots and chop/spin).
professional life is merry, NTAP seems to be beating the competition. stock's up 150% in last 6 months.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Namaste 2009
Let me first wish each and every reader of this blog a very happy and prosperous New Year!!
What should I say about the year 2008? Should it be any different from what other people think? For the most part, I agree with the experts that 2008 was a tough year. But isn't it true that adversity reveals character? Or so I believe. How will 2009 be? better than 2008, worse or just status quo? I dont have the answer to these questions.
As an individual in this world, our job remains to stay focused on what we can do, what we can control. We shouldn't be too bothered about what happens externally or at least try not to.
Too often, we try to learn new things and explore new options. 2009 is the year to start refocusing on your strengths, what can you do best, being creative. How can you become a 80/20 individual? What value do you bring to your organization?
Let me end by a few nice quotes to start off the new year:
Give me a single place to stand, and a lever, and I will move the Earth - Archimedes
Take away our 20 most important people and I tell you we would become an unimportant company - Bill Gates
Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell - Sir John Templeton
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest - Benjamin Franklin
What should I say about the year 2008? Should it be any different from what other people think? For the most part, I agree with the experts that 2008 was a tough year. But isn't it true that adversity reveals character? Or so I believe. How will 2009 be? better than 2008, worse or just status quo? I dont have the answer to these questions.
As an individual in this world, our job remains to stay focused on what we can do, what we can control. We shouldn't be too bothered about what happens externally or at least try not to.
Too often, we try to learn new things and explore new options. 2009 is the year to start refocusing on your strengths, what can you do best, being creative. How can you become a 80/20 individual? What value do you bring to your organization?
Let me end by a few nice quotes to start off the new year:
Give me a single place to stand, and a lever, and I will move the Earth - Archimedes
Take away our 20 most important people and I tell you we would become an unimportant company - Bill Gates
Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria. The time of maximum pessimism is the best time to buy and the time of maximum optimism is the best time to sell - Sir John Templeton
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest - Benjamin Franklin
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Markets in Turmoil
Last week there were some unexpected events in the stock market landscape. I am witness to one of the biggest kind of collapse of financial companies in US, something which is said can happen only once a century..definitely triggered the blogging side of my life which was dry for long.
It started on Monday when Lehman Brothers, one of the big companies on Wall St decided to file for bankruptcy. Well, that was just a drop in the ocean, other banks soon followed suit. AIG was on the verge of doing the same when the Federal govt decided it needed to rescue AIG. Had it not been so, we could have seen numbers as high as $1 trillion in debt. Next, Merill Lynch said it was out of the game too and BoA, my bank around the corner decided to swallow it saying "opportunity that cannot be missed".
Uncle Sam was watching fun from White House and then decided that to prevent his approval ratings from dipping further and help the "taxpayers", govt had to do something. Thus the entry of the SEC which has promised to pump-in $700bn to rescue Wall Street. This news set the stock market soaring 300 pts.
And while all this is happening, Obama and McCain, the presidential candidates are doing blame game to garner votes. While me, I am watching on sidelines looking at my stocks go south day after day. Just happy enough to not have invested in Lehmann.
After all they say Goldman is the gold standard, then why settle for silver?
It started on Monday when Lehman Brothers, one of the big companies on Wall St decided to file for bankruptcy. Well, that was just a drop in the ocean, other banks soon followed suit. AIG was on the verge of doing the same when the Federal govt decided it needed to rescue AIG. Had it not been so, we could have seen numbers as high as $1 trillion in debt. Next, Merill Lynch said it was out of the game too and BoA, my bank around the corner decided to swallow it saying "opportunity that cannot be missed".
Uncle Sam was watching fun from White House and then decided that to prevent his approval ratings from dipping further and help the "taxpayers", govt had to do something. Thus the entry of the SEC which has promised to pump-in $700bn to rescue Wall Street. This news set the stock market soaring 300 pts.
And while all this is happening, Obama and McCain, the presidential candidates are doing blame game to garner votes. While me, I am watching on sidelines looking at my stocks go south day after day. Just happy enough to not have invested in Lehmann.
After all they say Goldman is the gold standard, then why settle for silver?
Sunday, June 29, 2008
What am i upto?
As few of you might have observed, I was lazy about blogging for the past quarter. I got engaged in something really neat - yes, reading! Its been a while that I had read a book beyond the academia. This caused a bit of unrest within myself as i realized too much time was being spent watching TV and surfing the web and I would rather use that time fruitfuly. Some of u may ask what i have been reading that got me so engrossed?
It all started one day in office when I told my manager to suggest me some book to read as I was really bored on weekends and we walked to his cube (yes thats right, managers at NetApp have cubes, not offices). He handed me a book 'Execution The Discipline of Getting Things Done'. Wow, i thought, i never realized there would be an entire book dedicated to how to get work done. Thus started my reading journey.
I read the book in about 1 months time and that stimulated interest in management books. I immediately enrolled in the County library and borrowed couple more books. I am happy to have read some good books over these past few months including 'Built to Last: successful habits of visionary companies', 'Good to Great: why some companies make the leap and others dont', "Winning - by the maestro Jack Welch", 'Six Sigma Breakthrough Strategy', 'How to Get Rich - by Donald Trump' and 'What (really) works' to name a few.
All of these have shown me some new paths to think, analyze, measure, improve and manage my day to day tasks better than before. i highly recommend readers to grab one of these whenever they get a chance.
So now i have informed u of my current activities - u know what I am upto!!
It all started one day in office when I told my manager to suggest me some book to read as I was really bored on weekends and we walked to his cube (yes thats right, managers at NetApp have cubes, not offices). He handed me a book 'Execution The Discipline of Getting Things Done'. Wow, i thought, i never realized there would be an entire book dedicated to how to get work done. Thus started my reading journey.
I read the book in about 1 months time and that stimulated interest in management books. I immediately enrolled in the County library and borrowed couple more books. I am happy to have read some good books over these past few months including 'Built to Last: successful habits of visionary companies', 'Good to Great: why some companies make the leap and others dont', "Winning - by the maestro Jack Welch", 'Six Sigma Breakthrough Strategy', 'How to Get Rich - by Donald Trump' and 'What (really) works' to name a few.
All of these have shown me some new paths to think, analyze, measure, improve and manage my day to day tasks better than before. i highly recommend readers to grab one of these whenever they get a chance.
So now i have informed u of my current activities - u know what I am upto!!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Recent Developments
Past 2 months have flown fast, so fast that I forgot blogging. But hey, i m still here.
So what should I talk about?..India trip ? US Presidential Elections? Economy? Recession or maybe stick to the tech industry in general.
Trip to amchi Pune was nice. It all started with a good long Continental flight to Mumbai's Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The airport has been significantly revamped, streamlined immigration process, cleaner toilets and now comparable to airports in the US. The experience in working at Symphony office was good, met a few people, some ex-Calsoft buddies. Biking - thats one thing i miss here and it was a delight to drive down the Pune Banglore bypass highway on my Splendor. Also attended cousin's marriages and ate a lot of food - as usual grew fat. Celebrating my 25th birthday in the serene abode of Lord Keshavraj in the Konkan region, a few kms from the Arabian sea - boy, I like that.
Coming to presidential elections - hmm Obama seems to have a slight edge over Hillary at this time and I am all excited to see who gets nominated. For the republican side, McCain had a cake-walk defeating Mike Huckabee by a huge margin. In the process of following CNN coverage, I atleast have basic knowledge of the election process here - something like US Politics 101.
Economy - this is my hot topic of discussion these days at lunch tables. I see the dollar weakening each day and think of what would happen tomorrow. The scene is scary when they talk of job cuts in manufacturing companies and some tech companies too. Stock prices have fallen and Google broke its 52-week low - is that the end of glamorous Google stock? well maybe, maybe not. Unless M$ and Yahoo! work up something really fast!
Recession - ya i think its here, but would not last too long. I do see fewer crowds at restaurants. 2009 should show signs of recovery.
Tech Industry - Macworld was a disaster as far as i am concerned. Apple failed to click this time. VMware is unable to sustain its growth rates in the 1st quarter of listing its IPO - how bad is that ? stocks have fallen 50%.
NetApp - yes thats our new official name now. My company launched a new branding exercise to increase our footprint in the storage industry. That should help us get into more data centers. Personally I liked the new logo, looks like the Gateway of India and a gateway to growth for companies. Go further, faster NetApp, i am with you.
So what should I talk about?..India trip ? US Presidential Elections? Economy? Recession or maybe stick to the tech industry in general.
Trip to amchi Pune was nice. It all started with a good long Continental flight to Mumbai's Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The airport has been significantly revamped, streamlined immigration process, cleaner toilets and now comparable to airports in the US. The experience in working at Symphony office was good, met a few people, some ex-Calsoft buddies. Biking - thats one thing i miss here and it was a delight to drive down the Pune Banglore bypass highway on my Splendor. Also attended cousin's marriages and ate a lot of food - as usual grew fat. Celebrating my 25th birthday in the serene abode of Lord Keshavraj in the Konkan region, a few kms from the Arabian sea - boy, I like that.
Coming to presidential elections - hmm Obama seems to have a slight edge over Hillary at this time and I am all excited to see who gets nominated. For the republican side, McCain had a cake-walk defeating Mike Huckabee by a huge margin. In the process of following CNN coverage, I atleast have basic knowledge of the election process here - something like US Politics 101.
Economy - this is my hot topic of discussion these days at lunch tables. I see the dollar weakening each day and think of what would happen tomorrow. The scene is scary when they talk of job cuts in manufacturing companies and some tech companies too. Stock prices have fallen and Google broke its 52-week low - is that the end of glamorous Google stock? well maybe, maybe not. Unless M$ and Yahoo! work up something really fast!
Recession - ya i think its here, but would not last too long. I do see fewer crowds at restaurants. 2009 should show signs of recovery.
Tech Industry - Macworld was a disaster as far as i am concerned. Apple failed to click this time. VMware is unable to sustain its growth rates in the 1st quarter of listing its IPO - how bad is that ? stocks have fallen 50%.
NetApp - yes thats our new official name now. My company launched a new branding exercise to increase our footprint in the storage industry. That should help us get into more data centers. Personally I liked the new logo, looks like the Gateway of India and a gateway to growth for companies. Go further, faster NetApp, i am with you.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
manatle bolu kahi
ह्या वरशीची आस्ट्रेलियन ओपन ग्रान्डसलाम स्पर्धा फारच चुर्शिची होत आहे. रोज संध्याकाली मारिया शरापोवा, आना इवानोविक, रॉजर फेदेरेर, कोह्ल्स्बेर्गेर ह्या सारखे अनेक दिग्गज स्पर्धक खेल्तात अणि आमच्या सारख्या सोफ्त्वारे एन्गिनीर्स साथी टी एक मेज्वानिच असते. विशेष म्हणजे विल्लिंस भगिनी दोघिही एकाच फेरित हर्ल्या. अनद्य रोद्दीक्क ची ५ सेट मधे रंग्लेलेई मैच बघून अत्यानंद झाला. शिवाय नोवाक जोकोविक ची शरापोवा वर केलेली नक्कल तर बघ्न्यसर्खी आहे. इतकी हुबेहूब करतो टू, की कही विचारो नका..यौतुबे.कॉम वर कदाचित असेलच.
साध्य टीवी वर चालू अस्लालाए अन्किन एक अवद्ता कार्यक्रम म्हणजे "ट्वो एंड अ हाफ मेन". हयात दोन भवन्दा एंड एक भावाचा मुलगा ह्यांचे लोस एंजेलेस जवाल्च्या बीच वर असलेले घर ह्यावर चित्रीकरण केले आहे. ही कॉमेडी सीरियल बघित्ल्यावर मन अतिप्रसंना होते व स्वय्पक करायला जोश येतो, असो.
माझी लड़की कम्पनी नेत्वोर्क अप्प्लिंस ही फोर्तुने मसिकत्ल्या १०० बेस्ट कोम्पनिएस मधे १४व्य क्रमंकावर अली. इतक्या चान वतावार्नत काम करायला मिलते आहे हे नशीब वाटते. बाकि सर्व क्षेम. कलावे , आपला अभिजित.
साध्य टीवी वर चालू अस्लालाए अन्किन एक अवद्ता कार्यक्रम म्हणजे "ट्वो एंड अ हाफ मेन". हयात दोन भवन्दा एंड एक भावाचा मुलगा ह्यांचे लोस एंजेलेस जवाल्च्या बीच वर असलेले घर ह्यावर चित्रीकरण केले आहे. ही कॉमेडी सीरियल बघित्ल्यावर मन अतिप्रसंना होते व स्वय्पक करायला जोश येतो, असो.
माझी लड़की कम्पनी नेत्वोर्क अप्प्लिंस ही फोर्तुने मसिकत्ल्या १०० बेस्ट कोम्पनिएस मधे १४व्य क्रमंकावर अली. इतक्या चान वतावार्नत काम करायला मिलते आहे हे नशीब वाटते. बाकि सर्व क्षेम. कलावे , आपला अभिजित.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
pahila marathi blog
माझ्या ब्लॉग चाह्त्यान्ना अभीजीत देव्धार्चा सप्रेम नमस्कार. नवीन वर्षाची सुरुवात आपण एक छान मराठी पत्राने करावी ही इच्छा होती. संगय्चे विशेष म्हणजे पुढील महिन्यात मी पुन्यनागारित जाणार आहे. घरी आई व पप्पा खुप दिवस पासून वाट पाहत आहेत. त्यांना भेटायला मी ही आतुर झालो आहे.
आज अजुन कही सांगत नही, फार झोप आली आहे. पुन्हा लवकरच भेटू. कलावे, आपला अभीजीत.
आज अजुन कही सांगत नही, फार झोप आली आहे. पुन्हा लवकरच भेटू. कलावे, आपला अभीजीत.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Sporty Sporty
Better late than never, i have understood the importance of physical exercise in life. Thats given rise to my n number of outdoor activities since I graduated. It all started one day during my MS when a friend invited me for a game of tennis at VT. Since I was almost done with thesis (this topic often haunts me even now), I accepted the invite. I did not even have a racket to play. Inspite of playing it for the first time, I instantly liked the game. Then when I moved to Raleigh, I made it a point to search for a tennis court and an opponent, who also happens to be my roomate.
Thus started the era of evenings full of tennis. Occasionally, other friends joined in for a game of doubles. Then some fine day, I observed that we had a table tennis aka ping-pong table in our office breakroom. So we started that too. Friday's Beer bash was devoted to 2 hrs of TT from 3.30pm to 5.30pm - the beer + the food.
I also tried my hand at foosball, which I am not good at yet!
One fine day, my good old friend invited me for Basketball. And then i tried that too, although got too tired too fast.
The regular game sessions are helping me to keep mind fresh from the otherwise mundane computer activity or senseless surfing on the Internet. Bye for now as i need to go to play my next game!!
Thus started the era of evenings full of tennis. Occasionally, other friends joined in for a game of doubles. Then some fine day, I observed that we had a table tennis aka ping-pong table in our office breakroom. So we started that too. Friday's Beer bash was devoted to 2 hrs of TT from 3.30pm to 5.30pm - the beer + the food.
I also tried my hand at foosball, which I am not good at yet!
One fine day, my good old friend invited me for Basketball. And then i tried that too, although got too tired too fast.
The regular game sessions are helping me to keep mind fresh from the otherwise mundane computer activity or senseless surfing on the Internet. Bye for now as i need to go to play my next game!!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Exploring Sunnyvale
Past two weeks I had a hell lot of fun. I flew in to San Jose, CA for company training along with 10 other fellow engineers from RTP. We stayed at Sunnyvale right behind Netapp campus.
On day 1, we had a meeting with our top executives. There we got a chance to interact with Netapp founders, CEO's. It was good to know their views about the company, the growth strategy and a chance to ask lots of questions too. Later in the day, we visited the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk and then Stanford university followed by amazing Hyderabaadi cuisine in Palo Alto.
Then from the following day, came the real test of our patience. We had back to back training sessions starting from 8.30am to 5pm with hardly any breaks in between. The worst part was this kindof day was going to be for 2 weeks. There was no way I could survive the loads of information.
After a couple of days, the sessions seemed better as we dived deep into the internals of netapp technolgoies, products, etc. It suddenly became interesting as we were been trained by engineers who had actually iimplemented these technologies.
We also got a chance to roam around the bay area and meet old time friends mostly Calsoftians who were now in the bay area too. On the weekend, we went to the Mystery point, Napa valley, San Francisco downtown, 17 mile drive and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The training was a wonderful experience and it helped us in team building as well. Hope to get more of such west coast trips and have more and more fun each time.
Jai Ganesh!!
On day 1, we had a meeting with our top executives. There we got a chance to interact with Netapp founders, CEO's. It was good to know their views about the company, the growth strategy and a chance to ask lots of questions too. Later in the day, we visited the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk and then Stanford university followed by amazing Hyderabaadi cuisine in Palo Alto.
Then from the following day, came the real test of our patience. We had back to back training sessions starting from 8.30am to 5pm with hardly any breaks in between. The worst part was this kindof day was going to be for 2 weeks. There was no way I could survive the loads of information.
After a couple of days, the sessions seemed better as we dived deep into the internals of netapp technolgoies, products, etc. It suddenly became interesting as we were been trained by engineers who had actually iimplemented these technologies.
We also got a chance to roam around the bay area and meet old time friends mostly Calsoftians who were now in the bay area too. On the weekend, we went to the Mystery point, Napa valley, San Francisco downtown, 17 mile drive and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The training was a wonderful experience and it helped us in team building as well. Hope to get more of such west coast trips and have more and more fun each time.
Jai Ganesh!!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Elaborate Dinners
This might not really be a blog topic..but who cares.
These days we are having quite elaborate dinner menus. Its as if the 2 years during MS were not enough to explore all cooking skills. We roomies take turns alternately.
The process starts with switching on the 37 inch television with either Everybody Loves Raymond or Friends in the background.
1) Then we wash utensils. (5 min)
2) Cutting the onion and chopping tomatoes and chilly (3 min)
3) Heating oil and tadka (2 min)
4) Mixing up the vegetables and garnish + cooking, etc (20 min)
5) Rice cooks simultaneously (see we use parallel processing concepts here too)
6) Yummy, foods ready..well not yet
7) Heating the tava and baking rotis (8 min)
8) Hmm..lemon on the side, lemonade in the glass
9) and sit back, relax and enjoy the dinner.....(30 min...ya i am slow everyone knows that by now)
10) Whats in today for dessert?..cake, ice-cream, cookies (10 min)
11) End it with Masala supari and sauf...wow eat like a king!
Total time spent: almost 2 hrs..who really cares when i have all the time in the life after office...after all "paapi pet ka sawal hai"
watching myself grow in size day by day!
These days we are having quite elaborate dinner menus. Its as if the 2 years during MS were not enough to explore all cooking skills. We roomies take turns alternately.
The process starts with switching on the 37 inch television with either Everybody Loves Raymond or Friends in the background.
1) Then we wash utensils. (5 min)
2) Cutting the onion and chopping tomatoes and chilly (3 min)
3) Heating oil and tadka (2 min)
4) Mixing up the vegetables and garnish + cooking, etc (20 min)
5) Rice cooks simultaneously (see we use parallel processing concepts here too)
6) Yummy, foods ready..well not yet
7) Heating the tava and baking rotis (8 min)
8) Hmm..lemon on the side, lemonade in the glass
9) and sit back, relax and enjoy the dinner.....(30 min...ya i am slow everyone knows that by now)
10) Whats in today for dessert?..cake, ice-cream, cookies (10 min)
11) End it with Masala supari and sauf...wow eat like a king!
Total time spent: almost 2 hrs..who really cares when i have all the time in the life after office...after all "paapi pet ka sawal hai"
watching myself grow in size day by day!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Past 2 months
The past two months have been a whirlwind. I had a number of experiences.
Before relocating to North Carolina, we had to move our stuff, clean the apartment, etc. We rented a 17'' U-Haul and drove down 220 miles each way. It was a wonderful experience - getting to know how the huge truck operators drive daily numerous miles to supply goods throughout the country.
The next day, I then drove my Civic from Blacksburg. I immediately noticed the comforts of driving a car as opposed to a U-Haul. Having a car in US makes life so easy - suddenly going to the grocery, getting to office daily, going places seems a lot more enjoyable - especially when you own a Civic.
Moving is a big pain and we tried to settle down as fast as possible. We bought a couch and cute coffee tables for our hall, lamps for the perfect lighting, grocery to feed the stomach, and on top of all, tennis gear to get started on serious fun!
Daily routines are now much better than college life..evenings seem more productive than just studying or working on thesis or merely surfing Internet. Instead, there is a whole gamut of things which we can do - gym, tennis, dining outside frequently, hanging out with friends and watching a movie over tea are some of the options.
This is the real world.. the 9 - 5 job and then fullto dhamal..
Soon we will fly to California for our training and then job life will pickup more pace with the project transforming from prototype to release phase coding. Looking fwd to lots of learning at NetApp .. have fun!
Before relocating to North Carolina, we had to move our stuff, clean the apartment, etc. We rented a 17'' U-Haul and drove down 220 miles each way. It was a wonderful experience - getting to know how the huge truck operators drive daily numerous miles to supply goods throughout the country.
The next day, I then drove my Civic from Blacksburg. I immediately noticed the comforts of driving a car as opposed to a U-Haul. Having a car in US makes life so easy - suddenly going to the grocery, getting to office daily, going places seems a lot more enjoyable - especially when you own a Civic.
Moving is a big pain and we tried to settle down as fast as possible. We bought a couch and cute coffee tables for our hall, lamps for the perfect lighting, grocery to feed the stomach, and on top of all, tennis gear to get started on serious fun!
Daily routines are now much better than college life..evenings seem more productive than just studying or working on thesis or merely surfing Internet. Instead, there is a whole gamut of things which we can do - gym, tennis, dining outside frequently, hanging out with friends and watching a movie over tea are some of the options.
This is the real world.. the 9 - 5 job and then fullto dhamal..
Soon we will fly to California for our training and then job life will pickup more pace with the project transforming from prototype to release phase coding. Looking fwd to lots of learning at NetApp .. have fun!
Friday, June 01, 2007
I m done!
I defended my Masters thesis on May 14, 2007. Friends immediately asked whether that means I have graduated....but I always had some other task still at hand. I had to do revisions to my thesis draft, which seemed endless.
Then finally, on May 25, I battled to meet the thesis submission deadline and at 4.59pm, I managed to drop it. Then family members asked..am i done now?
And my answer again was..no, the graduate school needs to approve the work before issuing the degree. So i waited for Memorial Day weekend to pass. In the meantime, I passionately searched for a car and found my true love - the Honda Civic Sedan. I drove home my "power of dreams".
Then, I went for long drives, listened to music and caught up on other activities such as swimming. My parents arrived in Blacksburg after their 18 day whirlwind tour of the United States.
And now, on May 31, I received email from the Grad School conveying me the good news that the thesis had been accepted without any changes. I couldnt believe it.
I immediately ran to the university to collect my degree...the one dream i have been pursuing for the past 2 years.
I came home and rejoiced with parents - "maa mai BA pass ho gaya...wah beta..maine tere liye gajar ka halwa banaya hai"
Finally, I must say that I m done !!!
Then finally, on May 25, I battled to meet the thesis submission deadline and at 4.59pm, I managed to drop it. Then family members asked..am i done now?
And my answer again was..no, the graduate school needs to approve the work before issuing the degree. So i waited for Memorial Day weekend to pass. In the meantime, I passionately searched for a car and found my true love - the Honda Civic Sedan. I drove home my "power of dreams".
Then, I went for long drives, listened to music and caught up on other activities such as swimming. My parents arrived in Blacksburg after their 18 day whirlwind tour of the United States.
And now, on May 31, I received email from the Grad School conveying me the good news that the thesis had been accepted without any changes. I couldnt believe it.
I immediately ran to the university to collect my degree...the one dream i have been pursuing for the past 2 years.
I came home and rejoiced with parents - "maa mai BA pass ho gaya...wah beta..maine tere liye gajar ka halwa banaya hai"
Finally, I must say that I m done !!!
Friday, April 27, 2007
Preparing a Talk
Many people – especially technical folks like me – focus way too much on the data that they want to present to their audience. Tom always asks me how I want the audience to feel after my talk. Before I learned his technique, my answer would be something like, “I want them to feel that they understand the design goals and architectural details of ?”
At this point Tom would interrupt: “Feelings are one word. Angry. Proud. You know – emotions.” You can have a small phrase describing what the feeling is about. “Disappointed in our performance.” “Proud of our new release.”
Next, Tom would ask what I wanted people to do differently after my presentation. He argued: “If you don’t want them to do anything different, why are you wasting your time talking with them?” If you’ve reached an important milestone in a project, like a key code-freeze date, you might want people to feel proud of what they’ve accomplished so far, but to keep working hard until they’re done. If a project is way off track, the feeling of disappointment in the progress so far could motivate people to accept and engage a new approach. If a competitor is beating you, perhaps anger will help drive action. Part of the trick is to choose actions and emotions that naturally reinforce each other.
When you are clear on the feelings and actions that you hope to inspire with your presentation, then, and only then, should you start to worry about the content – about what data to share to inspire those feelings. You can say, “I want you to feel excited about what you did,” but it might work better to show the sales figures or benchmark results that prove people did a good job. Then the audience will naturally be excited. Or if the results are bad, naturally disappointed.
When I start with feelings and actions, it makes my presentations much better. Good content is important, but it’s only a tool. Feelings and actions are the goal.
At first, I struggled with Tom’s method because I wanted to share too much information. Now, I’ve learned to appreciate the elegance of finding the smallest amount of data required to drive the feelings and actions I want. For exhaustive detail, a web site or white paper is a much better communication tool. Sometimes go read the white paper is the action I want to inspire. Even in a classroom setting, lectures don’t replace textbooks.
I used to worry that removing details would result in over-simplified presentations. Now I believe that my job as a public speaker is to over-simplify.
But I still try not to over-over-simplify.
-- reference: http://blogs.netapp.com/dave/
At this point Tom would interrupt: “Feelings are one word. Angry. Proud. You know – emotions.” You can have a small phrase describing what the feeling is about. “Disappointed in our performance.” “Proud of our new release.”
Next, Tom would ask what I wanted people to do differently after my presentation. He argued: “If you don’t want them to do anything different, why are you wasting your time talking with them?” If you’ve reached an important milestone in a project, like a key code-freeze date, you might want people to feel proud of what they’ve accomplished so far, but to keep working hard until they’re done. If a project is way off track, the feeling of disappointment in the progress so far could motivate people to accept and engage a new approach. If a competitor is beating you, perhaps anger will help drive action. Part of the trick is to choose actions and emotions that naturally reinforce each other.
When you are clear on the feelings and actions that you hope to inspire with your presentation, then, and only then, should you start to worry about the content – about what data to share to inspire those feelings. You can say, “I want you to feel excited about what you did,” but it might work better to show the sales figures or benchmark results that prove people did a good job. Then the audience will naturally be excited. Or if the results are bad, naturally disappointed.
When I start with feelings and actions, it makes my presentations much better. Good content is important, but it’s only a tool. Feelings and actions are the goal.
At first, I struggled with Tom’s method because I wanted to share too much information. Now, I’ve learned to appreciate the elegance of finding the smallest amount of data required to drive the feelings and actions I want. For exhaustive detail, a web site or white paper is a much better communication tool. Sometimes go read the white paper is the action I want to inspire. Even in a classroom setting, lectures don’t replace textbooks.
I used to worry that removing details would result in over-simplified presentations. Now I believe that my job as a public speaker is to over-simplify.
But I still try not to over-over-simplify.
-- reference: http://blogs.netapp.com/dave/
Sunday, April 22, 2007
We are Virginia Tech
We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.
~ Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor, poet, activist
We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.
~ Nikki Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor, poet, activist
Monday, April 16, 2007
Tragedy at Virginia Tech
This incident that happened today at Virginia Tech would go in US history, albeit in a wrong way and I am sad to be a part of this.
I was boarding the Blacksburg Transit (BT) bus today morning and we were just about to move; when the BT radio cracked with a siren to stop all buses going to campus. Apparently, there was a gunman loose on campus. I immediately returned home to log on to the internet and check the status. Within minutes, we got an email from the university saying all campus was in lock-down mode. Our local news channel confirmed the death of one person in the shooting. News slowly trickled in of more casualties initially starting with 7 and moving to 32 by the end of the day; all caused because of a shooting by a guy who reportedly shot 40 shots. Dateline NBC aired interviews of 2 students who witnessed the incident and luckily survived this tragedy.
This shootout surpasses all previous records and VT is now part of history for the worst ever campus shootings. We all are shocked to find all this happening in such a "safe" town of Blacksburg. It will take a long time in healing and regaining VT's pride as a great educational institution. Let us all pray for those victims and hope such a thing never happens again anywhere.
I was boarding the Blacksburg Transit (BT) bus today morning and we were just about to move; when the BT radio cracked with a siren to stop all buses going to campus. Apparently, there was a gunman loose on campus. I immediately returned home to log on to the internet and check the status. Within minutes, we got an email from the university saying all campus was in lock-down mode. Our local news channel confirmed the death of one person in the shooting. News slowly trickled in of more casualties initially starting with 7 and moving to 32 by the end of the day; all caused because of a shooting by a guy who reportedly shot 40 shots. Dateline NBC aired interviews of 2 students who witnessed the incident and luckily survived this tragedy.
This shootout surpasses all previous records and VT is now part of history for the worst ever campus shootings. We all are shocked to find all this happening in such a "safe" town of Blacksburg. It will take a long time in healing and regaining VT's pride as a great educational institution. Let us all pray for those victims and hope such a thing never happens again anywhere.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Past 2 months
Followers of this blog will notice a long gap. Worry not friends, i m still alive. The last two months have been a flyer, literally. I travelled coast to coast a couple of times. But all that has settled down now - the patience has 'paid' off, again literally. I have decided to join NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP), a leading storage software company. I am all excited to be a part of this great company which ranks in the top 10 Fortune Best Places to Work For, even above the likes of Microsoft!
Ok, that was the journey till mid-March. I was in Blacksburg for the entire last month (i cant believe it myself). Had to catch up on my thesis implementation. Once things began to work and experiments gave success, i moved to writing. I have almost finished writing a draft at this point and passed it on to my advisor for reviews. Today, is the 1st time in last two months that I dont have anything to work on ( i expect to get more work tomorrow after my meeting; but this very moment needs to be enjoyed to the fullest). Ate loads of Kaju -draksh icecream that we got from an Indian store, followed by rasgullas!...Blogging seems to have actually helped me in writing skills - thank you Blogger!
Ok, that was the journey till mid-March. I was in Blacksburg for the entire last month (i cant believe it myself). Had to catch up on my thesis implementation. Once things began to work and experiments gave success, i moved to writing. I have almost finished writing a draft at this point and passed it on to my advisor for reviews. Today, is the 1st time in last two months that I dont have anything to work on ( i expect to get more work tomorrow after my meeting; but this very moment needs to be enjoyed to the fullest). Ate loads of Kaju -draksh icecream that we got from an Indian store, followed by rasgullas!...Blogging seems to have actually helped me in writing skills - thank you Blogger!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Meet my Valentine
This year's V-day is going to be a memorable one. I am going to introduce u to my valentine..take a guess..who might it be..bolo bolo, socho , socho..accha chalo bata hi deta huun..its Washington DC airport!!
Now listen up..heres what happened...i am returning from San Diego and I land safely in DC. Then i come to know that the weather is real bad here with lots of snow making it unsafe for flight departure..so my flight to Roanoke gets cancelled.
I try to pacify myself a bit saying its ok, u r not the only person affected by this..there are thousands of others here who have even missed international flights due to this....i wait in the United Customer service queue for 2 hrs only to be given the boarding flight for my flight for Feb 14, ya V-day.
I promptly book a hotel in DC and spend the night there. Then i come back on V-day to board my morning flight, but since conditions havent improved, i am rebooked for a flight for 10pm that night...now this is no more fun...i decide to make some plans for the day at the airport only hoping that the flight will depart at night...
Firstly, i purchase internet for a day costing $10 out of my pocket and do my emails quickly. But i realize that, emails wont keep me busy for the day, so I make up my mind to catch up on thesis work...yes coding at the airport, grab a coffee and some cookies and code for food..drink, code, drink, code..ok its lunch time and i am caught up in a strange coding issue. i eat a hearty meal at Subway, order a Hot Chai Latte and sit back...the tea immediately helps to solve my problem and i realize i have done enough for the day!!
So now, i get into serious orkutting, blogging (which is why you r reading this one)..probably destiny wanted me to experience V-day with Washington airport...wish me luck so that i reach BBurg safely by today!
Now listen up..heres what happened...i am returning from San Diego and I land safely in DC. Then i come to know that the weather is real bad here with lots of snow making it unsafe for flight departure..so my flight to Roanoke gets cancelled.
I try to pacify myself a bit saying its ok, u r not the only person affected by this..there are thousands of others here who have even missed international flights due to this....i wait in the United Customer service queue for 2 hrs only to be given the boarding flight for my flight for Feb 14, ya V-day.
I promptly book a hotel in DC and spend the night there. Then i come back on V-day to board my morning flight, but since conditions havent improved, i am rebooked for a flight for 10pm that night...now this is no more fun...i decide to make some plans for the day at the airport only hoping that the flight will depart at night...
Firstly, i purchase internet for a day costing $10 out of my pocket and do my emails quickly. But i realize that, emails wont keep me busy for the day, so I make up my mind to catch up on thesis work...yes coding at the airport, grab a coffee and some cookies and code for food..drink, code, drink, code..ok its lunch time and i am caught up in a strange coding issue. i eat a hearty meal at Subway, order a Hot Chai Latte and sit back...the tea immediately helps to solve my problem and i realize i have done enough for the day!!
So now, i get into serious orkutting, blogging (which is why you r reading this one)..probably destiny wanted me to experience V-day with Washington airport...wish me luck so that i reach BBurg safely by today!
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Finding Neverland
Here's a list of places i have visited so far:
Blacksburg, Roanoke, Washington DC, Boston, Tampa, Gainesville, Orlando, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Raleigh, Santa Ana, Irvine, Malibu, Bakersfield, Houston, Atlanta.
Here's whats left (interestingly, this list is short!!):
New York, Chicago, Grand Canyon, Pittsburg, Salt Lake City Utah....this shouldnt take long if history is an indicator.
Blacksburg, Roanoke, Washington DC, Boston, Tampa, Gainesville, Orlando, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Raleigh, Santa Ana, Irvine, Malibu, Bakersfield, Houston, Atlanta.
Here's whats left (interestingly, this list is short!!):
New York, Chicago, Grand Canyon, Pittsburg, Salt Lake City Utah....this shouldnt take long if history is an indicator.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Catching up!
hmm..its been almost 2 months since my last blog and its time to catch up to events in life...bro got married, everyone's happy back home and things are finally settling down in Blacksburg aka Kalewadi, Virginia. The semester started on a fine note with lots of desi home made sweets to relish...and Chitale's bakarwadi too!
Then i had my first meeting with my advisor and it started heating up, although BBurg shows -7 degrees Fahrenheit currently..
need to get some real work done in a short span of time...interviews have picked up some pace as well and i have started my usual habit of going places...my hidden success i wud term it..akki wud understand this better...
hope to reenter the blogging world..lets Go Bloggers..lets go Hokies!
Then i had my first meeting with my advisor and it started heating up, although BBurg shows -7 degrees Fahrenheit currently..
need to get some real work done in a short span of time...interviews have picked up some pace as well and i have started my usual habit of going places...my hidden success i wud term it..akki wud understand this better...
hope to reenter the blogging world..lets Go Bloggers..lets go Hokies!
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