Awesome lines !!!

“Don’t ever let someone tell you

that you cant do something.

Not even me. You got a dream,

You gotta protect it.

When people can’t do something themselves,

they’re gonna tell you that you can’t do it.

You want something, go get it. Period.”

-- Will Smith (From the Pursuit of happiness)

Thank you 2011

2011 was an year of intense learning. It helped me taste success and also failure. For the first time in life, my heart developed a sense of respect towards failure. I witnessed a change in the way i am approaching things after i started working for a company. Work life definitely brought some clarity regarding career and made me realize my strengths and weaknesses. One positive change that i had seen in myself is that i started to question conventions. And this opened a wide spectrum of options which were not evident to me before. I consider myself fortunate enough to have colleagues with diverse backgrounds. What can be better than learning something from each one of them ? After a while, the cardinal number of my knowledge set increases by some amount.

2011 made me understand that:

“Learning is more important than earning”. Success and money will naturally come along.

“A good design can have a great impact on the overall success of software”. Why just stick to software? It applies to many things in life. Should thank the design lead in my office for an awesome workshop on “Seducing designs”.

“No person is a loser”. He just doesn’t fit in the existing system that he is in. He needs to find the right place to grow.

“You can avoid a fight the very next moment, by being patient for a little longer.”

“Meditation is nothing but concentrating on breathing process”. How often do you feel the rush of oxygen touching your nostrils on its way into your lungs?.

“Great teams in this world are formed by people who love each other”. How often do we work whole heartedly for the wellness of another team member?

“The law of attraction will drive you into work, so that you can achieve your goals”. I am not talking about the classical law of attraction in physics. To know what i am talking about, you need to read “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne.

“Reading books make you wise”.

“Nothing in this world is interesting/boring”. It is just our willingness to engage that makes us come to a conclusion.

“Show some gratitude towards every aspect in life”. You will start loving your life and you will really begin to LIVE it.

“Comparison is the source of all problems in this world”. I feel a one line excerpt to support this statement is impossible to phrase. It certainly is “Food for thought”.

“Social networking sites are making us lazy”. How many of us remember the birthdays of our best friends? How often do we bother to meet them in person? What alternative means of communication are we using other than chatting apps ?. As a practice, i am trying not to log into Facebook chat from the past 5 days. Feels great :)

“If you have a problem, face it. Don’t facebook it”. Although it is a saying i had seen on facebook, it made a lot of sense to me. Putting a post abusing/criticizing a person doesn’t do any good than clearing the way for a fight in public. It doesn’t make you superior/wise. It just shows your incapability to face the problem. If you love your mom/dad/friend/someone, just tell them personally and see what wonders it can do to your relationship. Similarly, abusing in public forums never makes the other person better. Just think about it.

“You have leant something when you realized that you know nothing”. How awesome and true this line is.

What/Where do you end up (with) is purely the result of your past. You can change your present so as to see a better past in the future. Confusing?. Then read it again :) It makes sense.

“There is never really “nothing”.There is always something going around.”

“Like” thoughts attract each other

I was gifted with two self-help books by my sister on my last birthday. She was one among the very few people who knew that i had profound interest in picking up books of such kind and reading them. I came across an interesting idea which the author shared in this book. She said “Positive thoughts attract more positive thoughts.” This may be in contradiction with the famous laws of attraction we study in physics. But she certainly had strong reasoning behind what she stated in her book.
When a person says something to himself, his mind searches for thoughts that support his idea.
Tell yourself : “You are an exceptional cricketer”. Your mind searches for every possible reason to support this particular statement.
Tell yourself : “You are no good in studies.” Your mind digs out all the failures you had in your academics in the past to support your statement.
This is strange but still is very true. When we think of something positive, our mind attracts many more positive thoughts. When we think of something negative, we will have many negative thoughts crowded in our mind supporting the former thought. This justifies the statement “We are what our thoughts make us”. Gaining control over what we think requires a lot of practice and focus. Once a person aces this particular process, he finds what he wants.
This seemed like a very powerful insight to me and i felt the need to share it.

Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?

More than two months had passed since i came to Hyderabad and started working in a start-up company. The atmosphere here is exactly what i had envisioned before i took up the decision to work in a company like this. I really love the energy with which people work here and how they find fun in what they are doing. I should consider myself fortunate enough to be associated with such a brilliant team. “It’s all about working with people whom you love” says one of the founding partners here. This statement moved me a lot and helped me understand how great teams are formed.

Few days back, i was in a dilemma (when i got an offer to stay @DeepRedInk and lead the tech space ) whether to continue working here and be part of a budding organization or leave to TCS next year. And then, i asked myself one question : “Where do I want to see myself 10 years from now ?".

- A question that i had first come across during our training and placement classes in our college. And frankly speaking, i had no answer for this particular question. In a generation where almost every guy/girl i come across is certain about what he/she wants to do after graduation, i was one among the very few who were confused.

Management has been one of my cardinal interest’s from a long time. But then, i also have profound interest in software development. Being part of an organization which enables me to contribute towards the development of next generation apps certainly is exciting. It provides me with the dual benefits of learning and professional growth. But then, i was really not sure about what i should take up. I was completely confused whether to prepare for CAT or GRE. Every area in IT field interests me. So i told myself not to go for an MS until a time when i am sure about the area in which i want to do research. MBA right after BTech, would be like studying management science subject for 4 more semesters and enjoying the riddance of education after that. And i see no point in doing it, as i am in no hurry what so ever to complete my education.So, i was left with only one option – work for a company and discover what i want to do.

I had come across many people who felt that my decision was wrong. All my uncle’s asked me to get into a PG course as soon as possible. But then, i kept telling myself to follow what i strongly believe in. There is no point in blaming some person ten years from now, if at all i end up doing what he/she wants me to do and be a tired employee who no longer enjoys his work. I don’t want to blame some guy who told me do something, when i feel dissatisfied and tired of my profession.

And so my answer to this question is “10 years from now, i want to be happy and peaceful.”

20 years from now?

“I want to be happy and peaceful”.

There was a point when earning money seemed everything in life. But when i ask myself “What’s the whole point in being the richest man in the graveyard ?”, the idea of earning lots of money and living a luxurious life seemed foolish and equally stupid.

Reminiscence

I had a bad sleep last night and woke up early in the morning to drive my dad to railway station. Whenever this happens, I suffer from severe headache. I tried my best to recover, which included listening to soothing numbers, sipping cup of hot tea and at last some medication. Three hours passed, but nothing seemed to work out for me. More importantly my headache was getting worse. Meanwhile I heard few noises outside my house. I felt irritated and ran out of the front door in anger. When you have a bad headache, even a small noise will naturally spice the headache up.

When I gazed from the porch I saw few young children playing cricket. So, there is this young kid taking guard. Another guy took a long run up and bowled the first ball. The batsman was bowled.

The kid then said “Dude, this is trial ball. I am not out.”

The bowler looked even more furious and agitated than what Shoab Akhtar would look like when the umpire gives a decision in favor of the batsman. But then he had to go back to bowl the next delivery.

Suddenly, I remembered the days when I played cricket along with my best buddies in the park constructed by revenue department of Visakhapatnam in our colony.

It was hot summer and the heat was scorching back then. Round about 12 noon, one can witness eagles roaming in the sky.I was wearing red T-Shirt that day and my friend Harsha was bowling to me. And I was caught and bowled the first ball.

So this was my statement immediately after I got out -- “Dude, I am not ready. And I really thought that this was the trial ball.” [I really don’t remember in what sense I made such a statement, but I was really embarrassed to give up my batting after the first ball. I was so desperate to bat all day.]

Harsha was furious. He had to do something to pull my leg. He said, dude Murthy, you see the eagles up in the sky? They don’t like red colour. They will fly down and put a hole in your head with their sharp noses.

I was scared. Although what he said makes no sense at all, I was scared to death. We were 11-13 year old kids with eyes filled with innocence. And then, I cried badly. Harsha and another friend of mine were laughing so hard. I dint have a damn clue about what was going through their minds. But then I had to continue my batting with lots of fear in my heart about the eagles.

Whenever I stepped on to the front foot, I used to stop abruptly seeing some guy gazing at the sky in astonishment. Whenever an eagle was flying down, I ran back to the shade under a tree nearby. This went on for the next 30 minutes. Eventually when I was told by my friend that Harsha was playing a prank, I was on angry him. And then I and my partner put up a partnership of 64 runs. I was so angry at that point of time and I had hit each and every ball hard to vent my anger. That took me to my best score 42 * on that ground [:P].

Later we stopped the match abruptly as we were reprimanded by our parents for playing in the sun till 2 PM without coming home for lunch. [Matched abandoned due to parents intervention: P]

All of a sudden I witnessed myself standing on the porch with an unusual grin on my face. To my surprise I am no longer suffering from any headache. May be the sweet memories that filled up my mind for the past few minutes took the headache away with them. And the next minute, I was down with the kids and had fun with them on road. I even clicked few pics while they were playing cricket. The kids were ecstatic when they saw their photos and I felt even more excited when I saw the happiness and excitement in their faces.

If someone reminded me about those incidents back then, I used to feel embarrassed and equally pissed off. But now, it feels really good when someone digs those incidents from the past. Thanks to those sweet memories, I felt far better than what I had felt about an hour earlier.

Strange summer

Not even a single morning is passing by without me waking up and checking my email. I am desperately waiting for my current employer [TCS] to send me my call letter with a joining date. Sources say that it is going to be very late compared to other companies. And so my wait continues.

This summer has been strange for several reasons. I enjoyed this summer by spending most of my time with my school friends. I will say, without any hesitancy what so ever, that this is the best summer I had till date. Each meet we guys have leaves me with many parting queries. No doubt I enjoyed every single meet to the core, but then I am left with this strange feeling when I return home.

“You cannot fare well in gully cricket and call yourself Sachin.”

It is only when we compete at a higher level, we come to know our true potential and get a chance to improve ourselves. The importance of widening one’s gaze, graduating from a top notch university and socializing is something that these meets taught me. And while all these thoughts were playing in my mind, I still laughed my ass off with my friends and had a great time with them. I don’t know if my contemplation regarding these issues is sounding insane. I don’t think that I am standing out to be the perfect example for the proverb “An idle brain is devils workshop” Or I m I?

I would like to end this right here. I know it’s abrupt. But even my mind has nothing to share beyond this. I don’t know if this is peer pressure. But this is my current state of mind !!! 

December 5th - Yet another red letter day in my life

On 1st November i was informed by our T&P cell that TCS is heading to our college for a pool campus drive on 3rd december.Later we had our semester exams.They were supposed to end on 13th but they ended on 20th November.One of the exams was postponed to 20th November by JNTUK.[Thats because rain god was feeling way too sad to leave visakhapatnam and move on to another place].

After my dismal performance in semester exams i felt sad as i failed to keep up the promise i made to my dad that i would do well in my exams.He didnt feel bad about it,but i did.I just wanted to make him feel happy by doing well in my semester exams,but i couldnt do it.So the only opportunity left in front of me is TCS.I felt that getting placed in a good company like TCS would make my parents feel proud and will give me more positive energy. Working in industry and learning while working has been my career plan right from my 2nd year. Thats when i made up my mind to work in a good company, gain some experience and then do MBA in Human resources from a premier B School.We had hardly 12 days to prepare with India VS New Zealand test series going on in full swing. It was just enough to keep cricket maniacs like me away from books.Meanwhile CIFEL people were giving placement oriented training in our college. I didnt feel like attending them.I thought it would be easy to cover the entire technical syllabus in 2 days. Instead it took me a weeks time to brush up my certification syllabus.So i am left with only 2 more days to complete semester subjects and prepare for written exam.

3rd December 2010 - Written exam

We had some practice papers covering all the possible patterns for written test.Once we are done practicing them written exam would be a cakewalk.From 4/4 IT we had 38 members who are eligible to take the written exam.And when the results were announced later that day,we came to know that all 38 of us cleared the written exam. I must say that this was the most happiest moment in 4-1 for almost every one in class. I had spent rest of the day revising programming language related concepts.I had a sound sleep later that night and took good amount of rest.

4th December 2010.

This is it. It all depends on how we perform on this day.We had three rounds. They are TR,MR and HR rounds.Each student needs to clear all three of them to make it to the big dance. Student volunteers would call our names periodically and all of us were asked to sit in mechanical workshop. Before we went to workshops, our beloved HOD sir addressed all of us. It was a rejuvenating talk. Student volunteers started calling our names at about 11:30 am in the morning and i had to wait until 4:30 pm to attend my technical round.I didnt have my lunch and was busy with books.After a while i throwed my books away and started listening to music.I was called in at around 5 PM in the evening for my technical interview.

The person who interviewed me was in his mid 30's if i am not wrong. He was having cashew pakodas and hot coffee offered to him. He received me well, and initially my concentration was on the plate of mouth watering snacks in front of me[yeah, I am starving]. He didnt notice my starving looks. He was looking at my resume and after a minutes time he broke the ice and asked me to introduce myself. Later he asked me to write programs for some data structures and a c program for avoiding deadlocks using semaphores. I wrote them within 10 mins and explained them well to him.[Thanks to raju sir,without whom my foundations in programming were never concrete]. He was impressed.I could make that out from his eyes.He was listening to me,eating his pakodas and sipping hot coffee[Multitasking].Later he asked me about some latest technologies of Oracle and Microsoft and in the end about my project.I explicated them in detail and i felt really good when i finished.He offered his hand for a shake and told me that i am selected and will not have my MR round. He said that HR people would call me soon and wished me luck.I was happy that i did well in technical round.Later i had my HR round at around 8 30 pm.It went quite well.After i came out i breathed a sigh of relief and left for canteen to have some food. We had to wait until 12 30 for the final results.

We had no rest that day.I was feeling drowsy.A young guy from TCS, with a bright smile on his face started reading out names department wise.They were reading out names in alphabetical order.So i had to wait for a while to hear my name in the list of selected candidates.Finally he called my name out and i felt happy.22 members from my department made it to TCS.When we came out, every one was busy giving high fives and hugs to each other.I called my parents up and told them that i was selected.

One thing that i would like to mention here is about the ambience back at home. Parents happiness is priceless.I really enjoyed my first interview experience.I am still in search of better opportunities which would offer joining dates soon after i finish my btech.For now my soul is relaxed and this is all i need at the beginning of a challenging main project. I am hoping to do a good project in an area that i had never explored before and learn more things.That should serve as a perfect ending to my engineering life.
And yeah ALL IZZ WELL :)