A memorable Pune – Mumbai trip!

There are a lot of people like me who do frequent too and fro from Mumbai to Pune and vice versa. Thanks to technology there are even more options now to travel, mainly the blah blah cars service. You get a chance to meet a lot of interesting people. Well last weekend was an experience worth mentioning about, met and learnt from interesting people indeed.

I have had a few blah blah cars journey which were really good; however this was not blah blah car this time. I was waiting at wakad looking for a transport to go to Mumbai. I normally get down near airport, so ask drivers if they go till there, there was another person who also wanted to go there, and so we started hunting for ride in pair!

After around 20mins, finally we got a ride. Our journey started, it was a pretty silent ride till Vashi. There was a couple sitting at the back (it was a SUV), they wanted to get down at Vashi and did not inform in advance, we took the Vashi flyover, the girl started shouting. Clearly it was her fault, driver did not argue back doing the sensible thing, and apologized, and the couple got down after VAshi flyover.

After she got down we all started talking, with the 'it was her fault' thing. Then we were continuously having talks till I got down. I normally talk to drivers about how important it is to drive safely, etc. I always make a point to keep an eye on driver, make sure he is driving properly. Then it came to drunken driving, at that time he started to tell his story..

The driver was actually a constable on duty. He had a glorious past, he lost all thanks to his drinking addiction. When he was in second year of engineering, he appeared for police constable test and came first. He got sanctioned at a very good place; he was at the best possible place, having a boss who had lot of power politically. I will not go in to details for confidentiality purpose. He actually said: it was like he was flying in his career, everything was working great for him!!

Then he started drinking, slowly he got addicted to it, he lost his glorious post, he lost a lot of money, he lost his health. He went in to rehab, he got better and came out, then he became over-confident, and got addicted again, in all he went into rehab 4 times. Finally he was able to get rid of his drinking habits, but by that time, he had lost a lot in life, and his family also suffered, but his brothers were always there to show him the correct path.

Due to good work in his glorious career, he had earned 3 flats, he had sold one of it for want of money to drink, still he has 2 flats. He is also the owner of the car we were riding in, he did not need to do so much driving, but he said he had lost a lot and he wanted to cover up in his life. He wanted to work hard and buy more cars, and earn more. He has 2 daughters, both are studying, and he works hard for his and his family's bright future.

There was another guy sitting behind, listening to all this, he asked him what happens in rehab. The driver said, the person who is addicted to drinking forgets everything, in rehab they teach him everything right from brushing your teeth, cutting your nails, etc. They bring the person to his teen position, where a person has to choose between 2 paths. It is an opportunity to choose the right path and live a good life. Normally in teens we are confused and easily get tempted to do the wrong things by seeing others. Peer pressure is also there, it is important to take the right decision when you are at that age, and you need your parents for guidance, and you need to listen to them. Well he didn’t say all of above, some of it is added by me here! Anyways, he did raise this point, and it encouraged me to write about him, and about this trip.

The guy sitting at the back also had a small apparent issue. He had ordered a cake from a site the day before, hoping it will be delivered by midnight, but it was still not delivered the next day till 6pm.He called a lot of times to the site, still no progress and he finally got pissed off. He contacted his lawyer, and is going to file a case against the cake company. I was pretty surprised seeing the last part, as such thing I had only seen in the movies, and read in newspapers happening abroad. He told me consumer laws are pretty strict now, and consumer had a lot of power. He was someone who knew a lot about laws, as he was an entrepreneur related to field of manpower onshoring, and was affiliated to government of India. He told a lot of interesting things, some of it I did not know. Learnt a lot from him too!!

So that was the wonderful journey I had, this is one of the many reasons I like travelling, you meet interesting people and hear interesting stories!!

Working in shifts 101

It is a wonderful Monday morning. Its 6:30AM in the morning, I am sitting in my balcony of flat 302. There are some clouds moving around, there is a lot of chirping of the birds, a pleasant breeze is moving around and the temperature is wonderful 22 degrees. I got up at 4AM fresh midway of my 4 day long weekend. I had night shift last week and have same next week. It has been almost 6 years in IT industry ,I have worked in shift majority of the time, wanted to write this down since long, finally doing it.

When I joined Infosys as a fresher I had around 6 months training in Mysore campus, and then I got allocated to the unit: IMS. It stands for Infrastructure Management Services; it involves mainly supporting client infrastructure and more importantly working in shifts. I started working ,initially found  it tough working through the night as it was something new, also had some back problems, but I went along my merry way.

The first thing about working in support domain and consequently in shifts is accepting it. I never thought or asked why am I working in shifts, I accepted the fact that I have to and found peace within. I see a lot of freshers these days who don’t want to work in shifts, sometimes you have no other option and to be happy you need to accept that you have to do it, only then you would be able to do it happily.

Working in shift has a lot of advantages as well, we get home pick and drop in cab free of cost, we get shift allowances and we also get wonderful long weekends like the one I am currently enjoying. There are some cons as well, like it leads to obesity if you don’t have proper diet and exercises. Also your body cycle changes frequently and I would not recommend working in shift all your life, I am planning to stop it once I get married towards end of this year. However initial phase of the carrier, when you are young and energetic you should do it if you do not have any other option.

I want to give some tips about working in night shifts especially based on personal experience. First thing is don’t sleep in office during shift, because if you have some sleep then you will not be able to sleep properly when you go home, and consequently feel tired the next night. All this affects your performance at work. So be awake all night, and make sure you eat at least twice in the night. Make sure you eat something before you sleep, as it is hard to sleep on empty stomach. Make sure you have curtains in your room, no noise disturbances, and also if you want, wear an eye mask. Sleep for at least 8 hours and make sure you are fresh when you get up. Drink a lot of water throughout day and night.

Working in night has never been a problem for me. I like it in fact as there is comparatively less workload and we also got night shift allowance, however I am experiencing some difficulty in changing of sleep times after night shift to other shift currently. I was not doing night shift in Amdocs since couple of years and doing it now so perhaps not used to this. Hopefully I will adjust soon. Well its 6:45AM now and I have also booked a 9AM show of the movie Terminator, one of the perks of working in shift, you get to watch a movie on Monday morning, when majority of people drag themselves to work!!!

A new chapter in the Table Tennis Diary

This is in continuation to my previous post on my passion and love for table tennis. I am in Cognizant now since 2 months. Initial one month was a bit hectic, I was in EUR shift and that is the shift where workload is maximum. Today is my last day of night shift which spanned over 2 weeks, it was less workload comparatively. I utilized my time in doing some project related learning.

There was a break in my gym’ing too due to change in shift and some back problem. I am good now, and gym is also back on track. I go to gym before office, and then I feel fresh and work through the night. Today was a very good day, not only did I have good stint at the gym, but also got to play table tennis first time in Cognizant.

It has been couple of months since I left Amdocs, and did not get a chance to play table tennis. I played today after the break. It was good, the table here is different compared to Amdocs. Also there are 2 tables here in the room compared to one in Amdocs. This table is slower as compared to Amdocs one, and I had to adjust my game a bit.

Surprisingly I did well today, 100% wins. Not bloating about it, my friend had a thin bat, and I found form soon. We also did some practice before the first game. I am trying to be humble here, because this is something very close to me, I really love playing table tennis. Winning or losing is not important, it is more important to play and enjoy! Looking forward to many more stints with the blue table…

Downfalls of Digital and the Internet Age

So it is 5AM in the morning. I am in night shift. Today is my second day of night shift in the new company. No this is not the downfall I will talk about; I am fine working in night. I accept it, what I want to talk about is the disconnect among ourselves, and among our friends and family which has come along with the addiction to social networking.

I am an avid facebook user since long time. I won’t say I am addicted to it, but I use it often. Technology like any other Science can be a boon as well as a blessing, depends on how you use it. Like you can use Nuclear power to generate electricity to power cities, you can also use the same nuclear energy to destroy cities. Same is with facebook, I use it for constructive purpose, to stay up to date with the latest in technology and also the happenings around the world. Also getting an update on friends, but one must remember to be in touch with friends on other mediums apart from facebook, and I imply digital mediums on a bigger scale.

I did not have WhatsApp till last year. I had a Bada OS mobile of samasung, and they did not have WhatsApp for it. I switched to Google Nexus 5, and started using WhatsApp, first couple months were those characterized by novelty of something new, I confess I used to ping a lot of friends and waste lot of time. Then I started using it only to stay in touch with close friends and family. Important thing is how much time you can afford to give to such things, and how much time you actually give. I do not spend more than half hour a day on WhatsApp.

Few more things I am proud of are living without a TV for over 3 years, and that too happily, living without a mobile for more than a month. I am in the business of IT, and I have passion for IT. However I am not addicted to it, I can live without it. I like the real world more, I enjoy the sunrise, I used to do that first thing in the morning in Magarpatta City apartment. I enjoy travelling, I enjoy partying with friends in real life. Yes there are a lot of downfalls of the digital age, but it is up to you on how much you can control yourself, and how much you can utilize the technology, rather than technology utilizing you!!!

UEFA Champions League 2014-15

I had a complete disconnect from football while in Amdocs. I stayed 3 years without a TV and as I have said before it was intentional so that I could focus on some studies. Now I am living lavishly, independent room in a fully furnished spacious flat. Really enjoying it.

We had not subscribed to sports channel before.  However thanks to Tata Sky upgrade we got one month access to all channels including HD. Coincidently the UEFA Champions League semi-finals are going on. I got a chance to watch the same in HD. Off course I did not watch it Live due to office timings, I saw recap the next day.

The first semi-final was between Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich have had injury problems recently and missing their key players. Barcelona had won the first leg at home 3-0, and that is a big advantage of 3 goals. In the second leg Bayern won at home but also conceded 2 goals. Barcelona going to finals on 5-3 aggregate. One thing to highlight about Barca in second leg was a lot of unselfish play. Players playing for each other, one of the many such instance being Neymar a goal away from hatrick passed a ball when he had a good chance to go for goal in second half.  Bayern had lost their away leg in quarters too against Porto, but thrashed Porto 6-1 at home to reach semis.

The second semis between Juventus and Real Madrid. A very high chance for an El-Classico Champions League finals. Juventus won the first leg at home 2-1. Everyone expecting a thrashing by Ronaldo and company in the second leg at Madrid. However Juventus put on an inspiring performance to hold Madrid 1-1 at home to knock out the defending champions. Juventus have a good team with a mix of experience and youth, and they work well together in defense and have good strikers too. Not to the scale of Messi and CR7, but good enough to give Barcelona a good fight in Berlin….looking forward!!!

Ye Hain India Ka Tyohaar!!

So the world cup got over with Australia winning it comprehensively. Barely a week later IPL starts. This is the 8^th edition of IPL. This one is a bit special for me and I am enjoying it too. Having lived without a TV for over 3 years, it’s like a novelty indeed!

Today is third day and third match between Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals. First two matches were good. KKR beating Mumbai Indians at home comfortably, and Chennai winning a last ball thriller against Delhi Daredevils, and that too by just one run. Delhi have been very miserable in last two seasons, wining only 5 matches  total, hopefully they would do better this time.

Today’s match is between Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab. It is Punjab’s thundering batting vs Rajasthan’s potent and plentiful bowling attack. Rajasthan were struggling with the bat, James Faulkner salvaging them with a useful knock at the end. Currently the score is 121 for 5 for Punjab chasing 163 odd; ball seems to be in Royal’s court as of now!!

What else, new job is going well. My onboarding will happen in project coming Monday, things will get busy hence. Today was a fun day in office, we played game in office. A lot of people participated there were 4 teams, with 5 members in each team. Aim was to throw maximum balls in a bin from a distance. Eventually our team won, had fun and got chocolates as prize! Team name was MAVERICKS, guess who suggested it!!

Big news of today was Snapdeal.com buying freecharge startup with $400 million. The founder of freecharge is just 35 years old, has a B.A. in Philosophy and is a MBA dropout. He is from a business family, but if you think his concept was very novel, very useful, and instant hit. Definitely deservers it and he said in an interview today in TOI, he is still going to continue and keep improving and expanding freecharge website.

Life is Good

Today is 3rd April, 2015. It’s around 10 days since I started my new job. Currently I am in the initial training phase. I am into a new domain now, that of investment banking. I will get to learn a lot and am looking forward to it.

I also moved my residence. I was staying in Magarpatta City, which is 2 hours’ drive from my new office. So I have moved closer now in Balewadi, this is just 20 mins drive from office. Here houses are more spacious then Magarpatta City and real estate is also more affordable. I am currently staying in a wonderful 2BHK flat on 3rd floor. The name of society is Mount Corsica, the area around is still developing; and similar towers are coming up. There is not much nearby, but with time, area will develop too.

Currently I have not yet started working in shifts due to training. I have a pretty nice schedule made up. I get up around 8 or so. Listen to songs on TV, my favorite channel is E24, they show songs of 90s and early 2000’s, feel good for the ear, much better than Honey Singh kinda headaches. Moring I prefer soft music, while doing work out, honey singh stuff is welcome.

Speaking of workout I have joined gym again. The name is Oxyfit. I had joined Abs from April 2012 for a year. Had a break for a while, used to do workout at home, even now I used to do at home. Was checking out my office campus and found this gym, I checked it out, it was pretty neat, lot of equipment’s and they are all new as well. I asked for the fees they said they have a 50% discount for couple of days I got the discount thankfully, got a great deal of 10k for 1 year membership, will utilize it well.  Yesterday was first day and I burnt 600 calories… #FeelingProud

What else, I am having the time of my life with my fiancé, the more I know her, the luckier I feel, and more thankful to God too. Little Sparshu is also doing great, had a nice first year birthday celebration party. Going to day care now and doing well.

World Cup just got over last weekend, Australia won it for a record 5^th time. They beat India in the semis add New Zealand in the finals. India did well in the World Cup to reach till semis, had an unbeaten run till then, against all the initial expectations it was a commendable effort indeed. Australia was just too strong on the day, we tried our best, but the better team won. Another important happening is Sania Nehwal is now World Number one in badminton, that is a remarkable feet indeed. Badminton is played in a lot number of countries compared to cricket, badminton is also not that popular in India, and to achieve this feat is simply outstanding…Kudos Sania!!

Life & LOTR

I had started watching ‘LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring’ last week, but saw only half an hour, could not complete it. It’s an almost 4 hour epic. I finally got some time, and started again today. Really felt wonderful, now that the Hobbit series is also complete, it makes much more sense and much simpler to understand completely. The cinematography is also superb; the narration of the female voice in the starting with the mystery genre music is fabulous. Middle earth depiction is also incredible, I am not seeing this first time, but the more I see it the more I like it. Also I thought of my good friend Dishitbaba…(like we are friends as Bilbo and Gandalf ;) )who encouraged me to see this more than a year back, I saw the LOTR series first time and simply loved it.

Not blogging much these days, am pretty busy. Lot happening in my life. I changed my job. Now I am in Cognizant, back to Hinjewadi, felt good going there again after Infy stint. Also new challenges to look forward to and new things to learn.

Another wonderful thing is that I got engaged since the last post in this blog. Life is amazing, I am really lucky to have such a wonderful future wife, and I am thankful to God for the same.

I am going to leave Magarpatta this weekend, stayed here for more than 3 years, had lots of fun, and made lots of friends, Seasons Mall and Amanora Mall were like second home. DC was a frequent, almost daily trip too. Amdocs was also a wonderful journey, but change is the only constant in life, and you should keep moving, keep exploring and keep learning. Last post from Roystonea…hasta la vista!! 

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. 

The Poker Diaries

 To start with, this is like my 6th post in September. Well actually it is 6th post in less than 6 days...lol. The reason behind that is my Optimus Prime is down, and I have an office laptop for a week, so utilizing it to the fullest, and quenching all my apetite for blogging! My last post was kinda milestone for me, I had done major changes in my blog layout and widgets, so that post was to maximise space utilization in the new layout. I put in around 2.5 times the pics I normally do, however I am very happy with the end result.

 So life is awesome as it is. \m/ Today is Sunday, today and tomorrow is week off. I slept pretty late last night, around 04:30AM, as yesterday's post was pretty big, informative and required to put in some time, but hell I am passionate about blogging, and many of my master pieces in this blog have come after 2AM....lol

 Getting to poker, I was pretty sure I had blogged about it before. So I did a quick search in the blog using the search widget on the blog. This is what I found, the blog is from 1st Jan, 2011. I read it and went down the memory lane. It was the time in Infosys Pune DC. #ItFeltGood , and that is the reaosn why I write. I was new to poker than, learning and progressing, the title of the blog post is pretty slick: Today? Four of a kind , well that is something you would expect from me, won't you! I am not very humble I know, and that is something you would expect from me too!! :)

 My wonderful sister had gifted me a steel case, James Bond style poker set as my birthday gift when I was in US. I used to play a lot of poker in US, and she sensed it and got me this. I am really thankful to her for all that she has done for me, and the support and advice she has given me, every now and then...Thanks Bhaku...Love You..

 Let's talk more of poker, I bought the poker set here last month. Started playing with my good amigoz Anshul a couple of times. Today was a bad day for me, I was short of sleep, and not thinking straight. I thought I had a full house, but I actually just had a set of 2 pairs. Another reason is I was playing 5 card poker with Mohitbaba yesterday, and I play Hold - em poker with Anshul, so mindset was a bit different there too. I suffered a heavy loss, I managed to survive somehow, and had something after 3 hours of poker. 

 I learnt a lot about human nature today. I learnt that it is something important to loose in life. Winning is important, but something losing teaches you a lot more. You rethink where you are in life, what are your priorities. I had pending work of iron man since 3 weeks, only after loosing today I competed it. I also have to study, I also need to control my spendings. I need to take care of my health, need to work out and have proper sleep. All this and more would not have come, if I had not lost today, so am grateful for what happened :) 

My Internet History

I remember it precisely. The year was 2001; I had just finished my 10th grade board exams, never used internet before. I went to a local cyber café for the first time, and asked them to help me setup an email id. Rediff.com was pretty popular at that time in India. I signed up, my name is Kartik Vyas, I tried for an id like kartikvyas@rediffmail.com, it was already taken, and this is a pretty common combination. I tried some more combinations, didn’t work, finally I ended up  with myhearwiillgoonkartik@rediffmail.com...it sounds pretty funny now, but I was pretty new to the internet then.

As far as technology is concerned, we had dialup internet at that time, when I first got internet at home. In the cyber café I am not sure, may be they might have had cable connection, but still it was not broadband, I am pretty sure! I used to go a lot to the cyber café, Yahoo Messenger was a big craze then, going in to public chat rooms, and then trying to start up a conversation with strangers. I think the last I remember; I had around 120 strangers in my Yahoo friends list! J

Another thing I used to do a lot was search for wallpapers of cars, and cinema celebrities, and email everyone, I was one hell of a spammer then! I used to also send e-cards to friends and relatives. I was also using email to be in touch with my long distance relatives. There was no social networking back then, no WhatsApp or Facebook.

Also I had my first desktop computer at home in 2003 before I started undergrad studies, I think it had a floppy drive, which is not seen these days! I don’t remember the configuration exactly but I guess it was Pentium 4 maybe and 256MB of RAM. Comparatively I have a DELL mini monster laptop now, it has 8GB RAM, 750GB hard disk, 1 GB inbuilt video graphics, and second gen Core i5, I got this back in 2011, and it was my second laptop.

I started my undergrad studies in Computer Engineering, and I can definitely say the initial stint with the internet had a big influence on my decision, I had curiosity to know how things work, and I wanted to learn it all. During engineering I learnt programming, I learnt RDBMS, and many other courses, I used to use internet voraciously to do research related to my courses. In my university we used to have well equipped labs, but it was only for study purpose, only faculty had internet access, and they had broadband connection.

Social networking started for me around 2006, I started using Orkut, and I remember it was exciting and a bit addictive too. In 2008 I got an invite from a friend to use facebook, compared to orkut I found facebook interface of 2008, a bit less user friendly, but then slowly facebook started gaining ground and we all know the rest!

After I graduated I got a job in a big MNC, I worked for 3 major clients. Everything was online, we were working for big clients and dealing with a lot of sensitive data, and had a lot of responsibility. There were 3 level access till I could reaches my cubicle! J

One thing I am proud of is a failed startup I had back in 2010. Cloud computing was a novelty then, I had done some research, and was planning to build a startup to provide cloud based solutions for business users. I had commodity and retail market in mind. I also had registered a domain, and designed my site from godaddy.com. It was not in India back then, and I had paid them in dollars, they had a ton of tools to work with. Everything was there, only I was still nascent and could not build a working product. Eventually I thought of trying again later when I am more prepared and more experienced.

I used to do a lot of research at that time, wrote papers about Cloud computing and SOA. The passion and curiosity I had when I started using internet in 2001, I still had it in 2010 and I still have it now. Although due to time constraints of a full time job, I cannot do much research but I try to do as much as possible, I read a few papers and saw some videos on BigData last year, I also completed a course on coursera itself of the same.

So, this is my own history of the internet! Hope you had liked it!

*I had submitted this essay as part of the Coursera IHTS course of University of Michigan. I am publishing this now as grades are declared. Please do not copy for any future sessions of this course. 

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!!

Maggie @ 3AM

My last post was also at 3AM, I had prepared a soup. I had to struggle, and innovate, but I was determined and eventually succeeded in preparing the soup I wanted to.  It’s 3AM again, I have morning shift tomorrow, I started watching Gangs of Wasseypur, and got hooked!

I felt like writing something. I was thinking what to write, I put the water for boiling, decided I will write after eating my Maggie. But then, I roamed a little, just couple of rounds in the hall, and some memories came to my mind, I was also looking at my life currently, and bang I’m in the groove! My fingers type automatically and my mind directs it on what to type, it feels like all this is happening subconsciously, I do not need to think or analyze much! Well that’s how it has been since my first post in 2008, and that’s how I write, I don’t know about others, but I guess this is natural to me!

So let’s go back in time. I was a teenager; we were 3 best friends in school. We used to go for walks in the evening. We used to pull each others leg a lot, all of us had admirable sense of humor (hell we still do), we also used to discuss issues; typical teenage life crisis. One day, we were discussing what do we want in life? I still remember what one of my friend said, he wanted to have enough money to have a home, a car, and should be able to go out for a movie with family every week. He is a CA now, he married to a CA. I guess he has definitely done justice to his aspirations, and perhaps even more!

The other guy, he is into business. He completed engineering, started assisting his uncle in business and he is now doing his own business. And then finally me, I did not talk of any plans on what I wanted, I did not have a list then. I do not have a list now, but I do have some aspirations, there are some things in life I want to be, and they are much beyond getting a car or getting a house. Money is not a unit of measure for what I want to do in life, those who have been very close to me will realize what I am talking about! Even the lady who took my ‘Verbal Communications Test' at Infosys knows about it, she had asked me: 'What I want to be in life?'

Present day. I have 5 years of experience in IT industry. I have worked for some of the biggest and most reputed companies, not only in India but also the world! My school friends would not have expected me to reach these heights, I used to be good in Maths and Science, but was an average student overall. I never even got a first class till 9^th grade. I was not part of any particular group of friends, I never have been. I am friendly with everyone, and I have some close friends, but I have never been a ‘we are a group of amigos’ kinda guy!

I worked my ass off in 10^th grade, burned the midnight oil and prepared for the board exams. They were pretty good, however frankly speaking even I was not expecting to get 81% in SSC, having never got a first class before. But, it was a lot of dedication and a lot of studies; I guess that was the first major achievement of my life!

Today when I am able to sit and write a blog in Magarpatta City, Pune working for a MNC, and being able to spend on all my wishes and enjoy my life to the fullest, I can proudly say I have done pretty well. I know many friends who have done much better, but I don’t wanna compare myself to anyone, I wanna compare myself to the guy in his teens, who was hanging out with his best friends that evening, chatting about what we want in life!

Life @ Star Date 67942.9

Today is Star Date 67942.9, and the state of my mind is same as it was around SIX years ago. It was 30^th July, 2008, 03:25AM in the morning and I had a curious little mind, searching for answers. I just had to get my thoughts out and I blogged them out. That was the time when I first wrote about Life, there are 18 labels in my blog about Life, some philosophical, some experiential.

The things I want to write about is that between the first Label of Life and the 18^th, I have learnt a lot, I have grown a lot. I have experienced successes, experienced failures. Had a lot of happy moments, and also lot of sorrowful moments. However I have learnt one thing, the harder you fall, the stronger you are when you get up. I have learnt that it is important to be happy, but it is also important to be sad, because unless you don’t experience darkness, you won’t realize the importance of light.

I always wanted to do something important, something useful for humanity. Having high goals and dreams often comes with a price; the mind often achieves what it envisions.  I have experienced this many times, when I hope for something to happen, it really happens. I have also had a lot of deja-vu moments in my life. But I still contemplate what the limits of the human mind are. How powerful is the human mind and what is the source of its power? I dint have many answers in 2008, which I have now, may be one day I will have all my answers!

Life @ 67942.9 is going very well. I am rocking away on my Nexus 5, also read about the upcoming Nexus 9 tablet, looks to be a good one. Also I got myself my favorite Digit magazine’s 13^th anniversary issue. The weather is wonderful in Pune, the onset of monsoon, it is very pleasant and windy, and there is happiness all around.

The FIFA World Cup 2014 is going on, and sadly I am not following it much. I don’t know, I have lost my interest in Sports. I remember watching a lot of Football (mainly EPL), Cricket, F1, Tennis and WWE when I was in school/college. Now I do some reading, some social networking, and I watch a lot of movies. I can arguably say, I have watched over 70% of the released movies (Hindi, English) of 2014 in cinema hall!

I am going through a very good phase of my life, but I am choosing happiness over my goals. It is really funny; there are basically two types of people. One who just want to enjoy life and not think about anything else, and one who are goal oriented. I am a mixture of both. I realize that if I am very happy, it means I am not focusing on my goals, and vice-versa.

Life is about experience, life is about meeting new people, knowing them. I have met a lot of people through school, college and my jobs. You learn from them, you interact with them, you become very good friends, sometimes your good friends have to go away and you feel sad, but then you find more friends. Happiness and sorrow is a state of mind, HELL… EVEN LIFE AND DEATH IS A STATE OF MIND!!!

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!

14th April, 2014

 One of those date blogs again. More importantly, another post for this year. The amount I blog is directly proportional to the amount of happiness in my life. I have blogged a lot in past few months... :)

 So today was 14th April, 2014, Monday. A day which everyone hates, first day of the week to go to office. For me it's a week off. There are lot of perks in production support. You get one week off on Monday, it helps for a movie buff like me, you get cheap tickets and shows are never full!

 Today was the plan to watch Rio 2. Also that I had watched Rio before, I was looking forward to this one. It was up to the expectation, liked it. After that, had my favorite Mexican cuisine food for lunch, and off to another movie: Bhoothnath Returns. I had not seen Bhoothnath, and did not have any expectations from this one, I went because my friend recommended it as a good movie. Well he was damn right.

 It is a laugh out riot movie. Amazing performance by all, especially the child artist. Really fun to watch movie, and it also has a message in it. The importance of voting, and what happens when you consider Voting day as a holiday and go out on a picnic or just relax. This is a very bad mentality among us Indians, first we don't vote and then we keep blaming the government.

 Well for starters, this movie did inspire me to go to Mumbai, just to vote, I won't have a holiday, as voting date in Pune and Mumbai are different, I will still try my best to go to Mumbai and cast my vote. I want to make a difference. We all should make a difference, and work towards betterment of our society, rather than just complaining and criticizing the government for not doing anything.

 The difference between us and the developed countries is that, in developed countries, everyone not only cares for upliftment and betterment of their surroundings and country as a whole, but they also come forward and take action. This is the thing we should practice too, I know it is easy to say and no one really cares. But to start with, lets just make sure we all make our vote count, let our vote make a difference...

Google Nexus 5...

 To start with I would like to look back in time. It was 28th November, 2010, when I bought my previous phone. Samsung Wave 723, it served me very well for more than 3 years. It has been a wonderful journey, and I will always remember you for all that you have done for me. Your 5MP camera with LED flash, and the 5.1 surround sound were notably outstanding. However, all good things come to an end my friend, it's time for both of us to move on. 

 The date for the upgrade of the phone in my life was 3rd March, 2014. A big upgrade too, Google Nexus 5, the phone of the year in 2013, and I would be a proud owner of it. The moment it came in front of my eye, my happiness knew no limits, I was on cloud 10...(cloud 9 is very dreary) It was like a wonder of the world is in my hand. The first time I turned it on, it said Google and I was like WOW…I finally own the great legend, the great masterpiece of my time.

  

 I went outside and got my sim-card cut, so that it could fit in this one. Then I registered my google account with the phone….and the rest they say is history. It is a wonderful phone. Superfast, super slick and super light. You get a feeling of pride holding it. Touch screen is very responsive, loads of Android features and applications. My previous phone had bada OS, and not many apps available. Finally, I am now on WhatsApp! The camera of the phone is too good, it has 8MP primary, and 1.3 MP secondary. I clicked a few shots in office yest, they came out wonderful.

 I also got Android 4.4.2 Kitkat pre-installed.  One of the icon called “Play Games” was not opening, but then after the apps update, it is working fine now. One can anyways access all the Games from the PlayStore. I have bought the 16GB version, and I have around 12GB available, I would have been happy for anything above 10GB, and so I am.

 One thing I noticed, and it is a known fact that Android phones eat a lot of battery, on an average the battery lasts a day and a half max. However, the charging is also ultra quick, or may be because my handset is new.  Lot of security features are available, there are 5 ways to unlock the screen, we can do it using Slide, Face Unlock, Pattern, Pin and Password. Lot of other administration features also available.

 My laptop seems redundant now, the only time I would use it would be to write my blog, or type an email, everything else would be done from the phone now…

Finally, thanks a lot to my sister and jiju for the phone, I am really happy to have it and am enjoying it a lot!!

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!

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag: The Legend of the Flying Sikh!

 Well it's Monday evening, and I have a day off. Monday's are off now, as I work on Saturday. It feels really good, Saturday is not that hectic, so it's like 3 days of off every week. Life is going good.

 Yes, so back to the subject. I saw this much awaited movie today. The movie is really good. Nice music, wonderful acting by Farhan Akhtar. Also, the way, the story was told, is a bit similar to it was in Rang De Basanti, it's wonderful direction, by the same director: Rakeysh Mehra. Also Farhan Akhtar, has really worked hard to get the fadu body, which he shows off, ever so often in the film.

 The best part of the movie was, Milkha Singh, beating the Pakistan competitor in Pakistan by a big margin in the end of movie. We always love to beat Pakistan in sports, don't we?

 I just went through the wiki page of Milkha Singh, and everything in the movie is written there, in the same sequence. I was looking for some extra information. I din't get much, apart from the fact that, he was 1 of 15 siblings.

 Achievements of Milkha Singh include, winning the gold medal in the Common Wealth Games and the Asian Games. That is really a moment of proud for us. He was a top contender in the Olympics of 1960 as well, he did a mistake and came fourth. He slowed down in the final parts of the race. He was in fact leading the race at one point. Ne ways, he had went through a lot in life, and he has done us proud. He is still, the only Indian athlete, to have won and individual gold medal in the Common Wealth Games, and yes...wonderful movie, must watch!