Reality 'n' Life: 2014

Monday, September 22

Coming home

My mom used to change the house a lot. When we were kids, my mom would regularly move the furniture around the rooms, trying to see if the house yielded more space than before. It was great fun for us kids. We got to push the chairs and tables around once in a couple of months, and felt very strong. At that time, dad was mostly out of town, posted in towns far from us. Given the travel involved, and the safety issues associated with it, dad would usually visit us once in a fortnight, sometimes a month.
Now that I think of it, I wonder sometimes how it made dad feel. Coming home to a new home time and time again, at the same address and with the same people in it, but just different in little ways.

When I left home to go to college, we lived in a flat in Baroda, a city we had moved to 2 years ago. I still didn't have a hang of the city, but I was slowly getting a feel of the house. It had a basement that I studied in, a balcony out back with potted plants. And then I moved.
While I was in college, we bought a house in Baroda. The first time I saw it, it was a half constructed house, but the walls already felt of home, and it came associated with a permanent address, something I had never experienced in life.
In a few years the house was finished, we moved in, we made it home. All this while, I was in a bigger city, far far away. Every trip home I would find new additions. A new show piece in the drawing room, a microwave in the kitchen, new sheets that I hadn't seen being bought, and other things small and large that were part of the house.
Last trip, it was a new room. A room with cement walls, large windows, a fancy design. Wall color and furniture choices were the questions most discussed. This will be my room, and hence my choices are important. What should the shelf look like, will there be a low bed, or a study table, where's the best light.

What I couldn't voice , and probably will never be able to, is that I never want all this. I just want to come home and be the little me again, happy with what I painted in drawing class, feeling strong and invincible. That's what coming home should be about.

Wednesday, July 30

Let’s learn to Invest

It’s 30^th of July. And I'm repenting why I was so lazy throughout 2013-14 and didn't care to make good investments. And as you can imagine, it takes a fair bit of brain-muscle to find the right investment, and a stronger willpower to save money and ‘invest’ in that right investment.

Why I am writing all this here, you ask!

Ah huh!

You haven't noticed the dots yet.

So I’m also repenting that I now need to rewrite a code that works perfectly alright, makes all the right noises, and generates the numbers that it’s supposed to.

But here’s the ‘Kick’. {No it's not worth a 100 crores either}

If I pass it on to you today, I’m sure you will spend 5 days understanding it, and then spend the weekend cursing me over a bottle of water. And you will come back on Monday and the code will not make any sense whatsoever anyway.

Here! Look! That’s the second dot for you.

2 dots are good enough to draw a straight line, and hence, draw conclusions. But let me give you a third dot to make life a little bit easier.

Next month, there’s going to be an inspection, the type we call ‘Quality & Compliance’. They are going to be reviewing everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything.

They will look at your desk [Is there confidential stuff lying around?]

They will look below your keyboard [You are writing all your passwords on a sticky and sticking it under the keyboard aren't you?]

They will look into your system’s history [No skeletons in that closet I hope!]

They will look at your documentation [dot the i’s and cross the t’s my lad]

And they will look at your code, its input, its output, its log, and anything else they can find.

Based on the above scenarios, I think you should clean up the code a bit. Add a few comments to describe the various sections in the code. Oh wait! Sections! Hmm! I didn't exactly write the code in sections. There was a lot of trial and error and copy and paste. Maybe you should start there. Organize the code into sections first. What? You can't pull them apart? Why? Oh, they are written that way you say? Fine by me, the audit is all yours then. Oh don't be scared boy. Maybe!!!!! Yes, right, that’s a good Idea. Spend the weekend here in office, and write the whole thing from scratch. Make sure you build it in sections, demarcate them by writing comments, add defensive codes, handle exceptions, and while you are at it, teach it to make a good filter coffee as well.

There, I said it. There’s your third dot.

Do I make any sense now?

Not yet?

Go wash your face, get some coffee, and come back to class by 11.15.

We will then go over how you should think, plan and then write programs. Got it?

“Invest time upfront, rather than jumping off the cliff and hoping you grow wings”

–Justmade Itup

Investments are subject to risks. Please store the pig in a safe place after investing.

Monday, July 7

Pageviews - 2

27/9/2011 is when I did a Pageview check last time, about 3 years ago. This is what it looked like.

And this is what it looks like now.

Pichhle aath saal

Thursday, July 3

What the Analyst!!

Recently, I got my first opportunity to contribute to another blog. I was expected to write on a non-technical topic for a blog which is run by one of the most technical person I know of. So here's what I wrote. Original Post from The CyberPlus Blog is here. Visit the blog for some fantastic stuff.

5 Down

5 years is not a short time.

Half a decade!!

If I go back in time by that amount of time, I would find myself sitting at an office desk, just like I’m doing now. Only difference would be that it was a working day.

If I go back half a decade more, I would find myself probably trying to figure out what’s my next class. That was another life, filled with books and cycles [the biochemistry types] and chemistry and hostel life. Let’s leave it there and come forward by 5 years.

I had finished my internship, 6 months spent learning office etiquette, SAS programming, document review and formal communication, all the while also realizing that it’s not as difficult as I imagined it to be. I was absolutely scared about this internship before I started. How would I cope in a place that required you to do things on time, in the right way and all this while maintaining a formal dress-code? I had conveniently ignored the fact that I had formals in college, that IBAB taught us to meet deadlines and pull all-nighters, and most of all, 16 years of education in our education system had taught me how to conform. So, unexpectedly for me, it turned out well. And in turn, they offered me a job.

And it has been 5 years since the day I signed on the dotted lines and took up a job as a Statistical Analyst at Novartis Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. at Hyderabad.

What did I manage in these 157,766,400 seconds?

Well, many of these 1,826 days were spent lazing around at home, sleeping, eating and just being lazy. But of course, there were days which were more productive.

Workwise, I managed to stay ahead in the rat race for most of these 43,824 hours. Lately, I have been falling a bit behind, but I guess that’s just the Normal distribution catching up with my life. I saw my department change names, 7 times. Then I decided to change department. 7 is a good number, you see. I managed to work with people based out of 6 countries, and more than a dozen nationalities and ethnicities. I learnt how some stereotypes are true, and some are just made up. I managed to leave the office as early as 2PM, and also as early as 3AM. At one point, I even got accustomed to people randomly walking up to me and asking me how to solve this issue and that. Never thought that day would come. Over 60 months, I realised I was a decent speaker, and also grew a penchant for teaching and training.

Personally, I managed to get through 2 relationships. Fell in love a considerable number of times, though it was mostly one-way traffic. I gained at least 10-15 kilos, lost a few strands of hair, a few feet of vision, and managed to outgrow all my old clothes. I Learnt that I could travel, and that I loved watching performing arts in any form whatsoever. For a few months, dramas held my imagination like nothing else ever had. And then for a few more, I was engulfed in photography, learning its various nuances. I also understood that I can write half-decently, but don’t have a good vocabulary or understand anything about web traffic. I have learnt how to follow recipes and how to appreciate a good drink. I have also learnt that sometimes you can let your hair down, and get on the dance floor. But what the hell! Travel, photograph, enjoy a little drama or dance here or there. And I have managed to make and hold on to a decent number of people who call me their friend, and a few who wish me well. What more can you ask from life.

Well, you do! You want more money, a nice car, a great bike. You want a fine home. And most of all, you want a companion to share this all with. But I think the once that for me precedes all this is the thirst to see the world. Luckily, I did manage to get a taste of this for 14 days in Switzerland. And as is true with all appetizers, I’m dying for more.

In true corporate style, I should now lay down a roadmap, for the next 5 years. And this will coincide with Modi’s grand vision for India. Hope we both manage to pull off a few unexpected rabbits out of our hats, and go well beyond all expectations. Here’s to the next 5.

To look back at the last 5, here are some pictures from the last half-decade of my career.
[advance apologies to everyone featured in the pictures below. if you want me take down any of these images, let me know]