Archive for the ‘A strong urge to blog…’ Category
HCL > Red Hat > IBM, Pune > IBM Gurgaon
November 16th, 2008
31st January, 06 - when I was still an HCL Tech employee - I had read a Paul Graham’s article - which mentioned that there are two type of people - those who earn their livelihood by doing what they love to do and those who do what they love by earning livelihood from something they don’t like so much.
The transition from HCL Tech (Noida) to Red Hat (Kalyani Nagar, Pune) had directly put me into the first category. Time passed, priorities changed, and with changing jobs, short term objectives also changed - but the long term objectives were still there, visible clearly.
Today, almost 30 months later - I am part of the second group, supporting what I love by doing things that support me financially. The bigger objective is still very much there. Getting back to Delhi with family & my team is just going to put that more into the focus.
Talking of getting back to Delhi - how can I miss the mention of Pune.
Taking the plunge to go and work with Red Hat, away from my family & friends - literally turned me ‘upside-down’. This was my first ever stay away from the family and a ton of things changed with that. Money matters suddenly became important, finding good people to live with became top most priority, finding friends whom I could talk at same wavelength became a challenege and what not. The independence came tagged with a sense of responsibility - which ofcourse took a back seat for the initial period - but it sure kicked in, hard - sooner than later.
When I came to Pune, I didn’t even knew how to operate a Debit Card in an ATM - or even how to deposit a cheque correctly. Ofcourse, driving was supposed to be even out of mention. And I really don’t feel ashamed about it anymore. As I realized, all the people I met during my initial stay in Pune were more or less like at the same page as I was - sometimes even worst!
And that turned out to be the best part!
Living away from the family literally taught me everything I needed. Independence, sense of responsibility & ownership, the missing sense of belonging to my roots, being comfortable with what I am, managing money matters (thought I still am a n00b at it) - and ofcourse driving 
Luckily, I made some great lifelong friends in Pune - the D25 legacy!
Ratish & I met when we were playing against each other in a Tennis match about two years ago at Deccan Gymkhana Club. Though somehow I won that match… but the dude won my heart. We went on to become room mates in just a couple of months - and that was when I became part of the D25 group. Friends @ D25 were exactly what I was looking for in Pune - full of fun when enjoying and trustworthy when in need. Though the original members @ D25 are now scattered all over India, the legacy still lives on - D-25[at]googlegroups.com
Pune is a great city - unarguably the best after Delhi. A probable second home for Delhi folks who want to relocate.
The flight Captain just announced that we are going to land in a few minutes - so I am going to log off now. If you ever have any questions about life in Pune - please feel free to ping me.
Good Bye Pune!
12:41 PM, thousands of feet in the sky.
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Earthquake in Pune
September 17th, 2008
This is probably the first time in my life when I was fuly aware of the quake - and am close enough to a laptop to blog about it. As per timeanddate.com, its 3:20 AM on 17th Sept 08 morning. Lets see, what do the newspapers report tomorrow
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Back to the top!
August 15th, 2008
Google has some awesome tools for Web Masters. I’d recommend them to anyone looking for better Google visibility.
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Dare to Dream?
August 14th, 2008
Dream what you want to Dream,
Go where you want to Go,
Be what you want to Be,
Because you have only one life and Only one chance to do what you want to do!
Found on a profile on Orkut.
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Come Sunday - and we iRock!
August 11th, 2008
The week has just started and wait for the weekend has already begun! Here’s why…
The finals for IRock are scheduled here in Pune and you bet we arn’t going to miss them!
Dodge this - I have just booked 13 (yes thirteen) tickets for this Sunday!
Its also my much awaited birthday party (well sorta :P)
So come Sunday - and we iRock!
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ApnaBill.com team at Proto.in
July 22nd, 2008
Sameer, Sandy and myself - with the Proto.in momento.
ApnaBill.com Team - checkout the slant in the seemingly created skyline 
Pictures courtesy Pravin from LifeBlob (one of the 15 finalist at Proto.in)
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Catching up with life!
June 7th, 2008
Past few months were crazy! An 18 hours work pattern was addictive!
But I am so happy to be back to a normal routine. I finally broke a 3 week long jinx and at 7pm, was all set to hit the gym. Its been long since I last smelled myself sweating - and its was such a welcome change. The combination of Bryan Adams (being directly delivered to my ear drums) and abdominal crunches is awesome… you just cannot believe how much it can motivate you!
Just if I can somehow shift my work schedule -3 hours, I can continue this in realtime (one is not expected to hit the gym at 12 midnight!)
June’s target - get back to 32′ 34′ waist size!
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How do 300 svn commits feel like?
April 28th, 2008
ApnaBill.com SVN repository has seen some real hard work in past few days. We have had over 300 svn commits and 87 live bugs - 22 of which are still open (in new/assigned/lingering state).
These figures make me feel elated, happy - and confident that our release would be devoid of atleast these 87 bugs
Time and again, people have questioned me about these bugfixes in ApnaBill.com code - “Is your code that buggy?” - erhm, well no.
We track both bugs and new feature requests together (a skill that I picked up while working with Red Hat), thereby giving us a uniform outlook of the pending tasks. Besides, new features when tracked via bug reports produce a quality changelog. What was done, how and why - its important that these changes get documented while the feature is still in development phase. Makes future debugging a whole lot easier…
All what we need to reach there is - “Focus“.
We are planning a special discount program for our Beta registrants (though cannot promise on that yet!) - So please signup for our Beta Launch - if you havn’t done so.
Back to squashing more bugs for now… 
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ApnaBill.com
April 8th, 2008
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Whats the time dude?
February 3rd, 2008
Generally Saturday mornings are for catching up on sleep or early morning shows at Gold Adlabs - getting up is the last thing on everyone’s mind!
But today was different! Everyone was up at around 11′ish - even Kartik (KK) came by (he’s going to be the newest member of D-25 group). And as always, the first thing to do while finishing up the morning chores was to check out the “Pune Times” section of the newspaper - and the thing that caught my attention were the number of “Flat 40%” sale advertisements! - John Players, Peter England, Woodland and what not!
So - Mahesh and I finally teamed up to check out the stuff at these outlets, specially John Players and Woodland - since they were the closest to our home (just 3 kms). Its been loooongggg since I went out shopping for clothes. The last time I remember buying clothes was almost a year ago - and that too from Pune’s bargain market - Fashion Street!
Apart from clothes, I was also missing my watch! Its been more than 3-4 months since both of my watches broke down, beyond repairs. Infact the more used one underwent many repair sessions before I finally decided that it was time to get a new one. And no replicas this time! Though there is nothing wrong with wearing a replica - its just that a “non-replica” has its own charm. - and price tag too!
So, 5pm and we were out in the sun - on a shopping spree! Sun was incidently hotter than expected (I was wearing a red jacket which Rama gifted - thanks d00d). We started off with John Players outlet - and I must say, they have an excellent collection. With 40% off on all collection, it was a good deal. I bought two shirts - a blue checked on white and a white striped on brown for just INR 350 each - not a bad deal atall! Mahesh bought 3 shirts - all for gifting his friends. Next was Koutons outlet - and they had a whopping 50% + 40% off on all range. Mahesh got a nice fitting Blazer/Trousers for himself. I tried few things but then later thought otherwise. We also visited Lee, Reebok and other outlets but nothing seemed worthy enough. Lee had some nice pair of jeans but I wasn’t interested in buying them on fresh prices lol.
And then was the time for THE stuff which was on my mind all day long - a wrist watch! I wanted a nice looking wrist watch for myself within my price range of upto 3 grands. I had done this market research about wrist watches earlier as well - with a very stringent criteria - “circular dial”, “numbers on the dial”, “digital display on the dial with an analog display”, “metallic straps” - and I found that either I have to buy something from Tissot’s range (starts from 18 grands and above) - or seriously rethink about my criterias. So today, I started out with a completely fresh mind with all criteria’s taking the back seat. I planned to take a brand new look at all of the available collections once again. Timex and Titan were two brands on my hit-list.
So - where do we start? Titan was first shop we visited. Had a look around - the watches on display were either too simplistic (golden dials with black straps) or too costly - starting INR 7,000 and above. Naah! Next in line was Lifestyle Mall - the Men’s accessories section had some nice wrist watch brands on display but again - same problem. However, I did saw some good Timex watches there - they even had some discounts running. I picked one watch as a fall back option and decided to check out Pune Central. Mahesh was playing pretty cool all along - as usual, giving his expert opinions on every watch I pick up - infact, he did chipped in some good suggestions lol
I’ve been previously to Pune Central’s Men’s accessories section in my previous watch hunt. I knew what I was dealing with and where can I find the watches which’ll keep my pocket & wrist both happy. Infact, I even bought Mom’s birthday present from Central itself So, again Timex watches turned out to be far more appealing and suiting than Titan, Citizen or Casio. And this time, since I had no preset criteria about the watch I was going to buy, I had a wide variety in front of me. And after about 30 minutes of checking out watches (3 customers finalized their orders in front of me) I zeroed in on a Timex watch. It was a watch with a circular dial, white background, a perpetual calendar and hands for seconds/24-hours apart from the usual stuff and a brown leather strap. In short, it was almost completely different from the ones I wanted when I first went out for watch hunting (talk of those stingent criteria ). But I fell in love with the watch then and there.
The price - 5.5 grands - INR 5,500
I was so damn confused! The one watch, out of the hundreds which I had checked out in the evening - was priced much above my pre-decided price range of INR 3k. What to do now? - Called up Sameer (my bro) - “Dude, if you like the watch - go for it, but make sure that you stick to it for the time to come. Take it as an investment!” - I have never spent that much on a watch and the decision wasn’t going to be easy for me. Though there was a discount on Timex range at Lifestyle Mall, they didn’t had this model on display. So either I had to buy it from here, or forget it.
An idea struck & I called up JustDial services to get a list of authorized dealers of Timex across Pune. Talked to a few of them to check up about discounts, etc & each confirmed negative. That means, what discount was being offered at Lifestyle, was going to be only in that Mall.
We had one more place to visit before I was going to finalize my decision - Pyramids Mall at MG Road - and me and Mahesh were on the move once again. Getting a parking slot, big enough for my Bike was a problem at MG Road - on weekends, its like all of Pune has descended to MG Road. We managed to find a free parking slot for the bike & went ahead into the Mall.
At the entrance, was this guard who was frisking everyone. As we entered, we were also frisked - and as Mahesh was again giving his expert comments on the level and uselessness of this frisking procedure, my eyes were searching for the Men’s accessories section & to my surprise, just 10 steps away from the entrance was the Timex authorized outlet!
The instant we entered the shop, I asked him to pull out model number T2M429 - he showed me 4 different types! Luckily, the same watch was available here with a metallic strap and with more beautiful orange + white dial - splendid! It took less than 5 minutes to finalize the order and get it packed! This was a big deal for me - taking care of this watch was going to be a big responsibility - whatever! I was prepared!
Timex Retrogrades Collection - T2M431 - INR 5,495
The day ended with a munch at Cafe Coffee Day, with all the members of D-25 having a good time, munching on veg puffs, eggless cookies and coffee.
So in the end…
Total shopping in the day - INR 6,245
THE Watch - INR 5,495
Satisfaction - Priceless!
The sentence thats going to be on my mind for some days to come - “Whats the time dude?”
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8 laps!
January 18th, 2008
Yesterday, I ran 6 laps - up from 5 laps the before yesterday. Today’s target was 7 - I completed 8!
God! 8 laps - 4 kilometers - thats a personal record!!!
The day when I’ll complete 10 laps is not far - not by the current standards
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6 laps - 3 kilometers!
January 17th, 2008
Yes, that was on my agenda today when I left for Jogger’s park.
From past some days, I was consistently doing 4 laps (2kms) nonstop. Towards the end, a 50m sprint to the end point would mark the finishing of the last lap. Yesterday, I somehow stretched it to 5 laps. Stopping the adrenaline rush towards the last lap does it all.
So today, I decided to stretch it even further! 6 laps - this is a record of sorts for me. I never used to run 6 laps (3kms) together at a stretch - even when I played Tennis fulltime!
Tomorrow, I am going to crack the 7 laps jinx! Its going to be a personal victory of sorts!
The only problem in this equation is that running around the same track bores me to death! Thats one of the biggest reason to run anticlockwise on the track - while everyone else walks/runs clockwise. lol - watching people as they go past is one good thing that keeps me distracted from the boredom of running on same track again and again (those 6 laps!). - What will happen if I someday decide to run 10 laps!
BTW, this is not all in the fitness schedule - add to it 100 crunches and 500 skipping
–someone wants to get back into shape! lol
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हजारों ख्वाहिशें ऎसी की हर ख्वाइश पे दम निकले…
January 1st, 2008
2007 proved to be one of the most important year for my aspirations. The single most important thing that I had envisioned when I was still in college (maybe even before that) - changed state from just being an idea to a business plan and then into a real entity. Yes, my own startup. The legal entity was formed and registered on 20th December ‘07 - I still remember when my Mom called up to give me the good news! It all started with just an idea - when I saw my roomy (Subu) unhappy about the fact that he has to walk a neat 1km to get his mobile phone recharged. The idea struck me like a lightening blow and I instantly called up Sammer & Sandy to get their views. The idea changed forms many times - from being a mobile app to finally being a web app. The team happily settled with the web app plan
Whatever be the idea - I totally enjoyed the churn! Bringing together the best of minds and taking them along to start something profitable gives me an immense kick - something that a job can never offer. Nurturing something from the very start & see it grow is almost like being a parent of a child. Best programming practices is almost comparable to telling your kids what’s good & bad for them. And if your venture is profitable - its almost like experiencing Nirvana - you own your own destiny!
We are still to launch our first product - ApnaBill.com - eventually that will happen! And with my new year resolutions, I plan to make it happen no later than Jan end
Another interesting thing that happened this year was me joining IBM and then travelling to Atlanta. Going to USofA was a unique experience - it just reinforced my decision to stay in India. The opportunities here are immense - specially because we are still a developing nation. US is good if you need quick money - but nothing beats India! Nothing!
Talking of IBM, I cannot leave out Ruby on Rails from this post. RoR has opened a gateway to commercial web applications for me. Ever since I graduated from college, I hated PHP, never liked the way it was used to write web apps (no offence to hundred’s thousands of PHP developers & the PHP community - just a personal dislike) - but getting introduced to RoR changed it all -”in a snap”! Today, I am proud being a RoR developer. Even the startup is spun around Rails.
Oh yeah, how can I miss my dance performance at Foot Loose - IBM - I broke a 3 year long jinx that I cannot dance. I still remember how my friends used to laugh at me. We practiced hard for a full week before getting onto the stage - messed up our music CD in the first run - fought the judges, got another chance & performed again at our best! We never got past the judges - but I am happy! We all were! And above all that, now nobody can say that I cannot dance
Ok, so cutting the chase - Here are the resolutions for dear ‘08
- Launch ApnaBill.com on or before 31st January
- Be back with family
- Pizza holiday in January (more months to be decided laters)
- Dedicate 1 hour, 5 days a week to fitness - jogging (gym maybe)
- Play Tennis once a week atleast - keep bugging Ratish/Kapil/etc
हजारों ख्वाहिशें ऎसी की हर ख्वाइश पे दम निकले
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Avenger says SOS - Apache came to help!
December 18th, 2007
Moments after I crossed the Kalyani Nagar ICICI ATM on my bike - coming back home from office today evening - the bike suddenly felt very heavy & started to choke up! It felt as if fuel tank had emptied out. My Avenger has a big 15 litres petrol tank with 3 litres of reserve. I dragged the bike to the street light lit part of the road & tried moving the petrol knob to reserve… to my surprise & utter horror, it was already there!
Some a*s-h*le must have fiddled with my bike when its parked inside IBM. With even reserve finished, I had absolutely no petrol left in the tank. Dragging the bike to the nearest - 4kms away - petrol pump was the last thing on my mind! Asking an auto-wala was again out of question - going to Koregaon Park Petrol pump in the evening & coming back would have costed me atleast 100-150 bucks!
Calling on my roomy’s for help was one of the (& only) options - but point is, whom to call? Anna would have had slept (or would be getting ready to sleep), Rama would be busy with movies, Subbu dosnt has a bike, Ratish was not to be disturbed (newly weds are best when not disturbed 
)…
Did I miss out Mahesh d00d? lol
He was actually the first one on my list to call. I knew that in such a problem, he would never say no (even others would have not said no - but I didnt wanted to disturb their regular schedule either). Once on the phone, pat came his reply - “Maku, where are you right now, just gimme your location” - & a subtle smile came on my face - we had a solution to the problem!
Issues didnt ended there. Once we reached the nearest petrol pump (actually there are two of them - opposite to each other, on both sides of the road) - none of them was happy filling up petrol in a bottle (we had a crushable Bisleri bottle). To my relief, Mahesh had a PerlPet bottle in his bag which he uses everyday to drink water in office. Unhappily, he even gave up that bottle to fill petrol in it.
Point to remember - Dont ask any petrol pump station to fill up a crushable bottle - he’ll never fill it up!
Once my bike was back to normal again - I got Mahesh a Chicken Maharaja - his favourite, from McDonalds!
Today, Mahesh d00d saved my world for me!
In other words - as he put it - “Avenger says SOS - Apache came to help!”
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When everything had a first time…
November 4th, 2007
Mahesh’s first blog post reminded me of my own first post - which was wayy back in Nov 2004, at 1:11 AM and coincidently from a system running Ubuntu (I just installed Ubuntu Gutsy on my laptop - more on that laters).
Check out http://makuchaku.blogspot.com/2004/11/everything-has-first-time.html for kicks!
Wishing Mahesh all the very best for his blogging
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