Congratulations to you all, we have withstood with all the challenges thrown upon us in 2008. It was not without its price, however. But steel is forged through fire, and like it, we have been made stronger. We are seem to have prepared for what the 2009 brings to us.
We saw how our financial capital Mumbai was burning from Terror attacks; But we also saw how our brave soldiers safeguarded it from turning into ashes.
We saw how Heavenly Taj Mahal Hotel was overnight converted into Hell; But we also saw how quickly we brought life to it.
We saw how SENSEX hovering at 21K slipped to 7.5K levels; But we also witnessed how our economy is leading in recovery.
We saw how Global Economy bubble got burst; But we also saw how our Banks are far from any disaster.
We saw how Recession, Crude Prices, Inflation beating our daily lives; But we also saw, how quickly dust started settling down, bringing back some smiles.
We saw how homes flew away from affordable prices; But we also saw how quickly values dropped during other Crisis.
We saw how Indian auto was hit by foreign auto because we were far from perfection; But we also saw how a small yet innovative Tata Nano gave a whole new direction.
We saw how King Khan & Chopra together can also make audience angry & cry; But we also saw “A Wednesday” proving a movie with a simple concept can also fly;
We saw how everyone use to point fingers at us giving all Gyaan; But we also saw how mouths got shut with our ChandraYaan.
We saw how a CM’s Birthday celebration can kill Few of us; But we also saw how that can kindle a fire of anger and awareness in all of us;
We saw how political campaigns ruin the traffic & affecting everybody’s life mightily; But we also saw people helping each other with food & water vitally.
Certainly many challenges still await us, but we saw our problems giving birth to new opportunities. And, with a heavy heart, we saw the mighty opportunities giving birth to the most terrible Crisis. We saw things grow and change. And, of course, we saw some things never change. But one thing was clear - that no matter what awaits us, terrible or wondrous, we will always be ready. And of that, I am proud.
Friendship needs no words - it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness. Today we are celebrating 15 years of our glorious friendship and it appears like this is only the beginning of the exciting journey. Stinky Summer or Cozy winter, Nikker or Blazer, As primary poolers or professional Scholars… we always managed to pull fun out of it.
The Beginnings:
As far as my memory goes, it was 1993 I moved to Gulbarga & joined Jeevan Prakash School for my 4th Grade. Just before the day before my first day at school, A bunch of kids were playing in sand, poured in my backyard for construction of my neighbor’s house. As soon as they heard invisible noise “HEY!!!” , they all ran away. I did manage to notice a guy almost covered with sand running like “Quick Silver” superhero & disappeared. Next Day morning I realized that guy is studying in same class as mine “4th A section”. It was none other our very own ABHAY.
It didn’t take much time to notice a guy always surrounded by a bunch of folks, as if all the limelight is on him. I met this Energetic jumping Jack in a day or two & got to know that his name was “MUKESH”. And in some marriages, like you get ‘sala’ free with your wife, I got an Artist (who had already colored all the images in his text books) with Mukesh. He was good at studies, excellent handwriting & great command over English. Not to mention explicitly, it was “IFTEQAR”.
And so is our journey kick started. If you could find one guy in school campus, you can easily find rest 3. We were so crazy that, Mukesh use to go to Ifteqar’s home then they would come to collect me…. We all 3 would go to Abhay’s home to go to School, and all by walking. This use to triple the distance for both Mukesh & Ifteqar.... but who cares? We were having all the fun under the sun.
Writing examinations for the blind, School Band, Scouts group, Science Exhibitions, School Drill on Saturday, School events, Sports(especially Kuntlippi & ChainJ), X-mas Drama (Birth of Jesus)..... and list continues. We Rocked in every opportunity offered by School. Like they say, Good time passes quickly; 3 years of primary school came to an end & 7th Grade was knocking the door. Perhaps, the sadest moment of our friendship: The Separation.
Separation:
This was the time when Abhay moved to Chikkamagalore, Ifteqar moved to Christ Convent, I moved to N.V School leaving Mukesh all alone again. But, we all managed to meet in every opportunity we could which has continued till date. The latest adda is Mukesh’s home every damn weekend. Today we all have grown up, matured working professionals but when I look back… our ground rules have remained same & they will never change. Unconditional friendship, Fun, illogical discussions, adventure & leg pulling remains at the center of our bonding.
It’s fun to know that all 4 are very distinct & have virtually nothing in common. Let’s take a look in alphabetical order:
ABHAY
Company: Robert Bosh, India
Trivia: Shy natured, very matured guy who thinks more & talks less. So innocent, that he will not bit your finger if you put it in his mouth (he licks itJ. That’s a different thing anyway).
He is truly a 21st century Indian, who lives in a modern world but knows values of our tradition & significance of it. He is the guy who would go to Goa for holidays & yet visit Hanuman temple there.
Career: Even though he is an intern in Bosh, he already gained visibility for his good work on regional language compatibilities on Win CE platform. One more reason for his visibility around is due to his food consumption at officeJ. Embedded & automotive are his areas of his interest & TVS XL super is his favorite ride.
What’s Good: Calculative & keeps an eye on his spending. Simplicity & thorough analysis to take any steps are his noticeable qualities. Some quotes/statements/jokes that come from Abhay shakes us all like a lightning in Summer.
What’s Bad: He is often looked as boring and resembles 40+ years man, neither so adventures nor crazy enough like rest 3 & often Lazy.
IFTEQAR
Company: enStage
Trivia: Silent, innovative guy with the blend of intelligence & hard work. Good at art & painting. Has a passion towards automobiles & computers. Apple lover working on Sun platform. Once Mukesh’s follower back in school days, but now screwing him back, in big time without his attentionJ. Sings better than Mukesh but merely shows it.
Career: Quickly gained domain knowledge & became a key resource for the company. Visited more than a dozen times to client location for implementation, integration & training. He was one stop solution for team members for any clarifications needed.
What’s Good: He’s got tremendous potential, passion to do different & be different. With Good technical knowledge & strong fundamentals he has lot more to offer for his organization in coming years. Always be there when called upon help including in their final exams; not by giving ‘chitthi’ but by writing their examinations. He can walk for miles together without tiring (by the help of couple of chargers).
What’s Bad: Excellent Individual contributor & lacks management skills. Doesn’t give much attention to health which might hit back in later stage. Sleepless nights takes his energy away in the morning. Need to work on his marketing/selling capabilities.
MUKESH
Company: JP Morgan Chase
Trivia: He is also known as Team Leader because of his outgoing capabilities like no other. Humorous, chatter box, aggressive in nature. A great music lover & often show off with his guitar but hardly can play Sa-Re-Ga-Ma.
Career: 4 awards in less than a year speaks it all. Service industry is the right place to be in as he has been giving service of picking up & dropping all relatives to bus/railway station. He is already seen as the SME/resolution expert for all prioritized requests. A Masters degree could add feathers on his hat.
What’s Good: Excellent communication skills, quickly mingles with people & finds no difficulty in dealing with strangers. Humor is the key to his personality. Quick learner without much efforts(even in exams). Helping nature. Practical adviser.
What’s Bad: Lack of interest & laziness in further trainings/studies. His humor is more based on leg pulling which makes people embarrassed most of the times. Not as much of sensitive/sensible. Need to work on his food habits. Weird hairstyle which he thinks cool, sucks big time:). Sometimes overrides others expectations because of his interest. Could be seen as Bossing around.
SANDEEP
Company: Dell Inc
Trivia: Also known as “Chameleon” because of flexible/adjustable nature with everyone and “Sant Shishunaal Sharif” for being more formal than required(or for pretending to be?). A multi dimensional man who keeps an every all that is happening around. An Internet geek & computer freak. Cartoons, movies & computer Games makes his day. Though sensible in nature often rocks the boat for the heck of it. Also an Atheist. A party Animal.
Career: Started career as SE then quickly became SSE & now moved to take up IT Business Analyst role. Has a magnificent focus on career & organizational growth. Highly professionalism qualities, open attention on market & industry study, strong knowledge of Technical, Domain and Business makes perfect competent in corporate world. However, rest 3 folks call his current role as “Dalaali”. Endless wish list & Big dreams in eyes & works towards making it reality.
What’s Good: Purely practical & Career oriented and yet Sensible. Not an orthodox & has an open mind of thinking yet understands & respects other people’s believes & feelings. Good acumen of finance, investments. Adventures & ready for any challenge. Formal/focused within the office & freaky outside the office. People count on him when every second counts because of his easy to approach quality.
What’s Bad: Given an opportunity, tries to sell himself as much as possible. Doesn’t like rejection and expects success/glory at every moment. “I get what I want at any cost” attitude. “Winning” seems to be everything. Often seen as ‘Cunjoose’ in his friend circle(Hey, which isn’t trueL). Doesn’t prefer to participate in relational activities, often leaves family members & relatives with disappointment. Hates to be institutionalized.
19th May 2007 SUN Technology Summit Taj West End, Bangalore
5th Of May 2007, On a cloudy Saturday Morning I received a mail from Sercon, a known business events organizing company. At first, thought might be a spam but realized that it was an invitation from SUN Microsytems to attend Sun Technology Summit 2007.
WoW! I couldn’t wait anymore to know the sessions of the event. Sun’s vision on AJAX and Web 2.0 Framework, Java SE features, Web Services & SOA, Dtrace, ZFS & Open Solaris’s Evolution….. and few more
On 15th May I got confirmation mail and invitation ID to attend the grand event on 19th May @ Taj West End hotel. Event was from 9 AM to 4 PM. On 19th after dropping an email to my Manager & Team Lead that I will be leaving soon from office to attend an event, I left at about 12:30 to attend the happening event of the year.
When I reached, I was told by the lady at the reception that event has been cut down to 2:00 PM and it’s already 12:45. Damn! “Look lady, I have been invited by the manager @ SUN and I have confirmed that I can attend this at any time since I had other prioritized work. You may confirm with him…..”
Ok Ok sir, sorry for any inconvenience, please sign here….. and here is your badge & the event catalogue. (Heheh, the trick worked).
There were two session halls. I decided to attend the session on "Dtrace", in hall 1 than the session on "Java persistence API" in hall 2, as I had nothing to do with API’s. I entered the hall, the session was almost half done. There were more than 250 people in the hall. Some seems to be bugged up, some were sleepy, some were talking on the phone to their friends sitting in the other hall to know what’s cooking there but most of them were seriously involved in the session. Somehow, I managed to get a seat in the 4th row. By the way did I tell you that “DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework for the Solaris Operating environment. DTrace provides a powerful infrastructure to permit administrators, developers, and service personnel to concisely answer arbitrary questions about the behavior of the operating system and user programs.” I enjoyed this session not only because a beautiful lady from HCL was sitting next to me but the presenter explained very well the in n out of DTrace.
Before going to hall 2, I attend the session on “ZFS- The last word on FileSystems”. ZFS stands for Zetta File System is world’s first 128 bit filesystem and has lot of good features . Then I moved for the session on “OpenSolaris: A Software Evolution”, by a SUN developer from India itself. Phew!
With that all sessions got over, and the best part of the event: a free “Lunch in Taj”. One can only dream of it… The food was damn tasty, I never had such a heavy, tasty & expensive lunch before. There were N number of stalls of salads, juices, rotis, curry, veg-non veg, chats and much more…. All people ate like as if they were hungry since ages. Typical Indians :0).
After finishing the lunch I was heading towards the parking zone, with office & pending tasks in my mind. But while coming back, I noticed few people were standing in a circular way surrounding one tall person. Out of curiosity I went near by to have a closer look…
Couldn’t believe….., it was him. “Scott McNealy – Co-founder & Chairman of Sun Microsystems”. WaaaW! Man, I just thought I might see him today from a long distance, but this much close. Dream come true ;0)
I decided to take his autograph & have a little conversation. As soon as the other delegates left & decided to pitch in…
Sandeep: Hello Sir, I am Sandeep. McNealy: Hello Young man. Sandeep: Sessions were very useful. Thanks! McNealy: Thank you. Sandeep: Can I have your autograph please? McNealy: Oh Sure, by all means. (He opened his wallet & took his business card to sign on it.) “There you go….” Sandeep: Thank you, would you mind a photograph…….. McNealy: Why not? …. Sandeep: Great!
(I asked help of a person passing by. "Hi, can u please take a picture of mine n McNealy?" )
McNealy: OK… Sandeep: By the way I work for DELL McNealy: Oh! That’s great, what do you do? Sandeep: I belong to Dell eCommerece division. McNealy: Very Interesting. All the best. Need to go now, few more meetings. Sandeep: Sure, thanks again. Have a nice day. McNealy: Yup. You too.
Picture: (McNealy's Business card with Sign)
During that moment I felt like a senior board of director meeting McNealy to decide some business strategy. So simple and smiley pal. Great experience. But, but but………, when I looked into the picture. “DAMN! it’s little blurry due to hand shake while clicking”. Oops! Literally felt like punching that guy. Anyways can’t do that, so decided to go back to the office with the OpenSolaris DVD and NetBeans CD in hand.
All in all it was a wonderful experience, the sessions, lunch & "meeting McNealy" Really a Dream come true. All the best to McNealy & the SUN team.
