The Table Tennis Diary

Since long time I wanted to write this down. Finally I am doing it. Again it is coming at 3AM, another 3AM post. May be I should make a label for it...hehe. This time I was playing table tennis till this time.

 It all started in school 7th grade. We had a table tennis tournament going on. I was not even included in it, don't know why, but I stayed and watched the game. I had a liking for it since then. After I watched a couple of games, they gave me kinda wild card entry and I played a game. Somehow I won it, I played 2 more and I won them too. Eventually I was the champion, against everyone's expectations, a boy who was not even considered good enough to play in the tournament had won the tournament. Rising and triumphing against all odds has occurred more than once in my life. Getting on campus placement in Infosys was also the same, and many such instances.

 After that victory I got a table tennis bat upgrade. Earlier I had a very simple bat worth 45 bucks. After I won, dad bought me an expensive Belbot bat. It was a wonderful bat, and I used it all the way till my Infy days.

 I remember how my game was then, I always had a very defensive game. When I won the tournament in 7th grade, my only focus and complete energy was to just receive the ball and hit back, no fancy chops or smashes, just keep it simple, and be patient. Even now I can say, I have that quality, and I have developed a few more. I do not want to boast myself, but now I have a very wide range of shots, my biggest strength is still in defense, I can return smashes, most of the time when it is unexpected by the opponent.  Also hitting smashes as a surprise element works well for me. However the thing which I believe works the most is the thinking part of the game.

 I think and strategies a lot when I play. A lot of thought goes into my each service,  especially when playing doubles. I try to win maximum point in my serve, studying the opponent position, his style of play and the previous serve done, I make sure I put in the best serve. Also another thing I have become good at is placing the ball, it helps a lot when returning serves in doubles.

 To be frank I do not have a very good and frequent smash game, but I have a lot of other things to compensate for it. I can proudly say I can hold my own, and have done that against every player I have played till now. I have lost, I have learned, but I have fought, and I have persisted.

 Another good quality I have developed is smart usage of table tennis bats. There are various types of bats, some heavy,some light, each with it's pros and cons. I use appropriate bat as per situation and opponent. Even today, after office when I went to play table tennis with my good friend Akshath I was using a heavy bat.   Then another player came, I was not doing well against him, I realized the reason and immediately switched to lighter bat. I could not save that game due to high lag, but I did win the next 2. He is a pretty good player, and I can proudly count that as another accomplishment in my table tennis career. 

Amdocs World Hackathon 2014

I remember in 2011 when I was doing my Masters from Purdue School of Science. I was the CS Rep for IEEE, and there was IEEE international 48 Hackathon which was going to happen. I had to be part of the organizing team, and I also wanted to take part in the event. I sent email to my class distro. No one replied. I approached a couple of guys, but even they turned me down. I was a bit disappointed then.Come 2014, and life has come a full circle. God provided me another chance with the Amdocs International Hackathon 2014. This time I did manage to build a full strength team and submit my entry. It was a 24 hour Hackathon.

The date was 16^th September and the time 8:30AM. I reached the center and the instructions overview session was going on. It lasted around half an hour. After that me and my friend took a stroll in the garden to do some brainstorming. The theme of the Hackathon was ‘Internet of Things’, so we wanted to be out of office as it would enable us to see more things  and think of possible novel ideas.

We went to the office after that and had meeting with the team and finalized the concept and the product we wanted to build. We also finalized the business flows we will implement. There is a saying, if you have 12 hour to cut a tree, use 10 hours to sharpen your axe! All plans ready, we made arrangements for laptops to be used, and at 3PM we were fully ready, and started working!

The team we had, we are all good friends, and there was going to be lot of fun for sure. The primary aim was to enjoy and have a good time, along with completing the product. We coded all night, and we did have a working product with 3 business flows working as expected without bugs. It was more than enough. We had built a smart internet of things system on the cloud in 24 hours. We had also added decision making skills to it using AI. We were very tired, but the happiness and satisfaction took over more!

It was a great experience for all 5 of us: Atul Tripathi (Atul ji, Behtareen, Dhurandhar, ATITT), Saurabh Hote (Jaykant Shikre, Hotteeeeee), Rahul Singh (Cheetah), Vinil Mehta (Vats) and myself Kartik Vyas.  Thank you guys for helping me in fulfilling my dream, your support was exceptional and this would not have been possible without you guys! I will definitely never forget those 24 hours of fun and coding!!

18th June, 2014

 Another date blog post, and a post after long time! I had pretty hectic work in office for last 3 months, was feeling tired, took a vacation and went to Gujarat. Visited Rajkot, Baroda, Anand and Bhanvangar. 4 cities in 9 days, lots of siblings masti, lots of home food, card games, and eventually gaining a few kilos at the end of it all!

 I visited Rajkot first, I was really surprised by the amount of development in Rajkot, I could see lots of premium apartment buildings, actually more than I have seen in Mumbai. The highways in Gujarat are also incredible, to be frank I have visited US, and some top cities in Gujarat have infrastructure facilities and development of similar to what you would find in the US!

 Did a lot of shopping in Rajkot, then I went to Bhavnagar, it is a very memorable place for me and my sister. We just used to love playing on the big swing in the yard outside the house and brushing in the open air tap every morning! As soon as I sat on the hichko, I felt an indescribable feeling, it was good, it was happiness, it was wonderful indeed! Went to our kud-devta Dhudiya-dada temple in Babara, which comes between Rajkot and Bhavnagar. Performed our family traditions there, and back to Bhavnagar.

 Went for the movie Fugly in the evening with my little PhD sister Nidhi, it was a big mall indeed, movie was nice too! After that had some exotic hot bhaijias, tomato and capcicum bhaijias to be precise! :D Went to Takteshwar mahadev temple after that, weather was wondeful, cool and windy. Takteshwar is a temple on the hill, and you can see whole of Bhavnagar from it!

 Next morning started for Anand, first time visit for me. Reached there and meet mota mama and all. Anand and Valabh Vidyanagar are next to each other, Valabh Vidyanagar is the biggest educational hub of Gujarat, where a lot of NRI students come too! Visited my brother's college where he is Assistant HOD, the infrastructure and cleanliness of the college were really commendable! Really impressed!

 Went to Baroda after that. Played cards with Snehal, had Punjabi food, a relief after 9 days of aamras and Gujarati cuisine, also had Pav Usal there. Started by journey back home from Baroda! It was a wonderful refreshing trip, and a memorable one indeed!

 Coming back to the subject now, today we had Kaizen fair in office, and my idea was selected as one of the top 12 in my unit. I was given a stall and I was presenting my idea to all visitors and the judging panel. A new experience indeed. I was a bit nervous all day, but did all the required preparations, started getting good feedback from the audience and then it all went well!

 Also finally ordered Moto E for mom, form flipkart today. This has become like booking tatkal ticket in irctc...lol. Also today is Sparsh's 4th month birth anniversary, Kaizen fair achievement dedicated to you big guy!

100 posts..5 years..

 I started blogging in 2008. My first post was on my mom's birthday that year. Also it was, when I just finished my graduation in Computer Engineering. I really love writing, I have passion for it, also I believe it is a very good way to look back at time, and relive some wonderful and special moments in life.

 I remember my first ever job at First Source, I was waiting for my joining date at Infosys, and wanted to do something productive. It was a wonderful experience. I worked for one month, just attended training for our client British Telecom. Project name was Talk Talk. Then came the moment, 20 days in my first job, I got joining date of Infosys. I spent very short time at First Source, but it was my first job. I had a lot of fun, and I also learnt a lot.

 So 10th November 2008 was my joining date at Infosys. I can see this was one of the most crucial period of my career. Working for such a big company, I was nervous and excited. I was definitely overwhelmed when I saw their Mysore campus. I am really proud to be associated with Infosys. I posted a couple of experience, one after one month at Infosys and one after six months. I feel great reading about the wonderful time I had there. Also there is the Transformation post on how I started spending lavishly on branded products, and the One year completion post. I was in MQ training during that time in hyderabad.

 I moved to Bangalore for my first production project. It was for MQ Support, client was Northwestern Mutual. I remember the post of Christmas 2009 in Bangalore, I really looked different then. I really had nice time in Bangalore with lots of parties and outings. 13th feb 2010 taught me a few things too. My time in Bangalore was wonderful. I learnt a lot in my first project, also I had lots and lots of fun.

 Then I had health problems, I had to undergo back surgery. I was on leave for more than a month. Once I resumed office, I joined Pune campus of Infosys. Another chapter in Infosys history, after Mysore, Hyderabad and Bangalore. I worked in the Hinjewadi phase 2 campus of Infosys. It was for microsoft project. I really liked the food there, lots of options. I specifically remember the super size paratha we used to get in the BPO cafeteria. I stayed in Pune for couple of months, and then I was back to hyderabad on short term transfer.

 I had lot of night shift in hyderabad. So lot of time to write philosophical stuff, mixed with astrophysics. I stayed in the guest house in hyderabad. 28th November 2010 was again a memorable day. I got a new mobile, Samsung Wave 723, it is still working great for me! Another post coming from night shift in hyderabad, which I am proud of: The Rational Philosophical Thinking.

 Then came 2011. A very memorable year for my life. The year when I went to USA for the first time. A year when I quit Infosys. A year when Indian won the cricket world cup.  Also 2011, was the time when I started working on my sci-fi novel. The Untitled Series.  Also 2011, was when I completed 10 years of vyaskartik2001. I started my grad studies at Purdue School of science. I could not adjust to the live by yourself lifestyle in US, I also could not manage job along with studies. Food and weather were also a problem. All these factors resulted in bad health and coming back to India.

 I started searching for a job. After 2 months, I finally got a job as a contractor in Amdocs. Amdocs is a lot different than Infosys. Here, employee care is given more importance as compared to Infosys. The work culture is great. Lot of fun events throughout the year. I am also lucky to be in a good team with good management. I will finish 2 years in Amdocs soon. Time has certainly passed quickly. I have lots and lots of memorable moments at Amdocs, one of them being meeting Anna Hazare. I have not written any post about life at Amdocs, like I have done for Infosys, but I do have lots of photo albums on facebook of the wonderful time I have had here.

 Also I have blogged a lot about cricket in this blog. Like every Indian I am an avid fan of cricket. I have also blogged a lot about technology, something you would expect from a Computer Engineer. Today is 29th Dec, 2013. Everyone has plans for the 31st. I don't know what I would be doing, but today I felt wonderful recalling the past 5 years of my life. Hope 2014 is a wonderful year for everyone!