Chocolates and Ice Cream

Can you live without Chocolates and Ice Cream ? May be Yes, but the answer is definitely No for Chinni.

She tasted chocolate when she was around 1 year old, there has been no looking back since then. I have only one snap depicting her craziness for chocolates Here it is

This was when she was 1.5 years old. She has tasted varieties of chocolates from around the world and that too at an early age. Not everybody gets such a chance, only this generation does.

Couple of days back when I returned from office she insisted for a walk. For a moment I thought "let me take her out for some time, since she is bored at home". Her intentions were pretty clear and clever. As soon as we stepped on road she started guiding me the path. I understood her intentions within no seconds, but I was curious to know how will she execute it. The path to the store where she can get chocolate is clearly imprinted in her mind. She took directly to the store without any confusion. And I was amazed as usual.

I didn't have any other option than getting a couple of chocolates. She was more than happy when I bought her cadbury's dairy milk and popins and said enough which pleased me more than anything else.

Her grandpa gets orders everyday when he is going for a evening walk, either he has to get chocolates or ice cream. That's not all. When he returns, she his both hands to verify if her demands have been met. None the less, her mom too get orders when she is going to office, in case Chinni is awake early.

The chocolate commercial ads are her favorite ones. She watches carefully without blinking her tiny winy eyes for a milisecond.

And here is the latest snap of Chinni enjoying ice cream.

The memorable interviews

Its been two weeks that I have started travelling to office in bus. The first week was difficult and always the thought jolted me to switch to my car. But things got going from the second week. I have almost reached the point to say "I am used to it" although I get bored for 1 hour in the morning and 1.5 hours in the evening. A  flash back on how my career as software engineer started reminds me couple of  interviews that i failed miserably, may be stupidly and idiotically that I still laugh at myself. I do similar mistakes even now, looks like interviews are not my cup of tea!

I am here going to write down a couple of my conversations in those initial interviews. And this is gonna keep me busy while travelling  in bus. The first interview was with Sapient in The Park hotel, Bangalore. I had cleared written test, so the second round went something like this. Answered most of the fundamental computer related questions. Discussion started with data structures. Sorting techniques, queues, stacks, fifo, lifo and then came the linked list. I had answered all questions and may be this was his last one on linked list. 

What do you do if I have a new object and want to add it the existing list? 

I don't know what struck to my mind. Immediately replied, without giving a thought, create another list and join them! 

No points for guessing i was rejected. I still regret that answer. Had I answered it correctly my experience would have been 6 months more now. 

 

There was another hr interview with Sysarris. Just a few days before I had made up my mind to spend my time reading books not only technical but others too. I had picked up a book by Stephen Hawking's called The Time Machine. It was quite interesting and had read about 10 to 15 pages. Being proud that I had cultivated reading habit updated the hobbies column in my resume! Flashback over, lets jump back to the interview. 

 

The hr interview went fine for the first 5 mins. He then looked into my hobbies section and asked which book have you read recently? Tell me the story! I was baffled for a moment since its a science fiction. Replied "No, I have just started reading it." and that's it. I was rejected.

Went back to hostel and updated hobbies section by removing "reading"! Then came interview with wipro. The gap wasn't much after my interview with Sysarris. I failed in hr interview again. Why? The first question
that a senior hr asked was what is sanjeevani solutions? I had mentioned my project experience in sanjeevani solutions. He asked me in such a rude manner I didn't know how to answer. By the time I was about to start second sentence he said "you may leave"! It was sheer bad luck.

Woman, especially N

This post is dedicated to the most wonderful woman of my life, though there are couple of them but still N is really special. Decided to write after thinking the contribution of women in my life, on Woman's Day. Truly speaking life is all about women, be it either one's birth, growth, education, marriage, children or child's growth ...... and it's a life cycle. At every stage you come across one.

If I had to dedicate this post to Mom then it can't be just one post, have to be series of posts. Well, let's move on.

N has tremendous energy, patience and perseverance. Just taking an example of a day's routine, it starts off at 6 am the only way to catch office shuttle at 6.50 am. I would be in deep sleep even when she has left. It's been past 4.5 years that she has been waking up so soon to reach office. Just imagine ..... 4.5 years is a pretty long duration to even stick to a company. Her office work will not be less tiring than me. Now-a-days she reaches home around 7.30 pm, but there have been days when she has reached even beyond 9 pm. 

The day doesn't end, in fact it starts. She cooks, of-course Mom helps too, for everybody and separately for Chinni. N has to spend time with Chinni as soon as she returns, Chinni will be waiting for her at the door steps. So she plays for some time. For Chinni, it doesn't matter if mummy is tired or hungry. After food is prepared, feeding it to Chinni takes not less than an hour. Its never a straight forward feed. She has to sing, dance, tell stories, divert her mind and only then the mouth opens :)

Now it's her time for dinner. And believe me, there has not been a single day where she has food peacefully, not even on a weekend.  Finally, the day ends at around 11.30 pm or 12 am when Chinni finally gets tired and sleeps. There is one more if clause. If Chinni had a nice afternoon nap for 3 or > hours, then even God can't predict at what time she will sleep at night.

And then again wake up at 6 am the next day.

This is a very typical day of N's life. Weekends aren't any peaceful. She has to take care Chinni each and every minute. This is not all, she has to go through family problems, fights with me, pressure at work and what not. Phew, there are many more things to explain and form beautiful sentences for this post. But that's not what I want to present here.

The main theme of this post to convey how much energy she has, how much dedicate she is and how much concern she has for her family. Definitely a man can't do woman's job. Hence I would like to salute N on this Woman's Day and wish that let God bless her all the Happiness and fulfill her desires.

Confused

Don't know what I want, was in the same situation after completing 12th. I really hate this period. Feel like pressing the fast forward button and hold it until 8 to 10 months have passed by.

Dated :  2-Mar 2011

Professional Life

Its been around 6.6 years working in Software industry and hardly I have enjoyed it. To put in numbers, the last 3 months have been good enough to say I have enjoyed. It sounds astonishing not to have enjoyed most of it, "why is it so?", which has to be answered by none other than me.

Here is my analysis. This analysis not only comes out of my experience but also out of the discussions I had with several companies during my job change recently. I don't know if you, the one who is reading it, might find it untrue and I don't compel you to accept it. Because it is about me and not about you.

Let me start explaining the analysis with a particular discussion I had with a very reputed company. The first round was a telephonic interview. I could clear it with struggle. The questions that were asked were so practical, not everybody could answer them without having actually faced them. It made sense.

The Second round was face-to-face which didn't last for 15 minutes. All that the interviewer wanted to know if I had worked on a large enterprise application for a long duration. I literally didn't have an answer. I looked at my resume and found it hard to convince him, given an opportunity I can prove myself. But why would any company venture on such a candidature when the market is so lucrative and plenty of such professionals are available ?

So what should I conclude from that interview? I was really disappointed not being selected due a reason out of my reach, of not working in a large enterprise application of a large duration. After several days of thinking and scratching my head, it appears that the guy was interested in extensive knowledge that I could procure working in an application for a long duration. Be it either a small application or a large one, it really makes difference working in it for a long duration. You would have surpassed most of the hurdles developing an application, getting it in production and supporting it to run smoothly. Am I right ?

There can be arguments of gaining knowledge of an entire application even being associated with it for a short duration. But there is a difference, a considerable difference. And this analysis reveals that I never had the complete understanding of any of the projects that I have worked on, quite astonishing. This analysis is not true though, but I can't defend it confidently. Why ? Because even though I have worked in projects for long duration, I am not in a situation to recollect each and every bits and pieces of it.

How does it related to not being satisfied with your work? Yes, it is proportionally related. The fun and pleasure working with a project for a long duration is substantial. You get comfortable with the environment, team members, work and you grow along with it. That's how you achieve the growth and gain the knowledge you need.

A very good example is my Dad. He worked in Davanagere Cotton Spinning Mills, Gadag for around 18 years. Can you believe it? He had gained so much of knowledge, faith and trust of workers/management that even after 18 years of leaving it, they call and talk to him now. How surprising and feel good factor it is when a colleague remembers you after 18 years?

Why did I enjoy the last 3 months of my job? Since 2 years, I had always felt that I wanted a change. I really didn't know what was it. After I returned from HK, I was put into a project where I was the senior developer. Somehow I felt the responsibility to help the team members with their problems and giving them the guidance. It was then I realized that all I wanted was change in Role. I was more than ready to play a Lead role. I was fedup playing individual contributor. I wanted more responsibility, may be a different responsibility.

And then I felt you start enjoying work if there is a change at regular intervals in your career. Doing the same job for several years will make you loose interest. May not be true for everybody. And if you are successful in the role you are playing, then definitely there is lot of fun at work. How can I forget the money factor? It plays a vital role too. Given a perfect role and less salary, the job is no fun. You will definitely feel less worthy and loose confidence.

In my terms, success in professional life is a recipe of change in role at right time, knowledge and a deserving salary.

Pappaaa.......

Most of my posts are some how related to the topic "sleep" when it comes to discussing Chinni. This one is no different.

On a week day, N will be very desperate to make Chinni sleep asap and get some good sleep for herself. Alas, its has been a dream which is going to still remain as a dream for couple more years.

11.30 pm, the other day, N had already struggled for more than 30 minutes to make her sleep. All the tricks were done. I finished watching World Cup match, thought both are fast asleep so let me not disturb them. Entered our bedroom with utmost care without even making a hush, occupied a very little space left over for me and slept quietly.

Not even 30 seconds had passed, a feeble voice speaks........pappaaaa? And I find N is snoring.