Completed three years in this industry..

YES. This month i will be completing three years in this industry.

I can still remember my first day in mindtree. I was completely clueless about the work that i am supposed to do in mindtree. I always used to wonder about the work that we need to do, to get such a nice pay ( Yes three years back I was in a illusion that Mindtree is giving me a nice package). Then in first week I figured it out that we have to do coding and I did not knew any computer languages. I just knew C in bits and pieces which i studied in my first Sem. Most of other people who joined mindtree with me were like experts in multiple languages. That's when I realized that I am neither fit for this industry, nor well prepared enough to work in a company. May be my mentor figured it out that i will never be able to learn anything other than C(Even after three years i know only one language - C ). So after two months of C training and some good C results I landed in Mindtree Bluetooth Research team.

First couple of months was horrible and I used to get some nice scolding. All my variable names will be like a,b,c...z and I used to have all magic numbers in my code. Then my PM asked me to stop coding. He wanted me to go through the code of some already implemented application for a week. Then i came to know that coding in a certain style is as important as making sure that there are no bugs. At that time i wanted to be a expert in bluetooth. But soon i realized that its a dying technology( And we were not able to market our BT IP as well..).

After getting a release from BT, I got a chance to work in USB driver. Project was to port whole USB from Linux to Nucleus RTOS ( I know thats illegal to port code from a open source, but we were doing that to build expertise in both USB and Nucleus RTOS). As soon as that project got over I knew it was time for a jump. By that time I was pretty comfortable with embedded systems and had worked with 3 processors and had knowledge of both bluetooth and USB. I had also designed and implemented bootloader for couple of boards in ARM.

Things I have gained in Mindtree :
1. Most ideal company to start off my career.
2. Mindtree is the company which gave a direction to my career and made me a embedded engineer. Thanks to my mentor who thought that i cannot do programming in any language, other than C.
3. Company culture is one of the best in industry and got a chance to learn more about industry.
4. Mindtree went public and gave me a chance to make some money as well.
5. Got a chance to learn two important technologies there, Blue tooth and USB.
6. Met some wonderful people in form of my mentors, colleagues and project managers.
7. Got to see some nice, good looking and cute girls everyday :)

Things i have lost in Mindtree:
1. Mindtree is like government company. People don't have that spark and commitment to excel.
2. I am a very complacent and lazy guy. Mindtree ideology made me more complacent and lazy.
3. Pay Sucks.

With time, I was becoming more and more complacent and desperate in mindtree. Then came to know that symphony is looking for a embedded guy who has some experience in USB and Bootloader. They selected me in just one round of interview. Two days after that some bank in USA went bankrupt, marking the beginning of recession and all companies including symphony stopped hiring.

In last eight months, i have learned more things in Symphony than what i have learned in two years in mindtree. Even though the project was small ( It was a bar code scanner that we see in all shopping malls), it was like working from scratch. Developing something from end to end. Starting from requirements, design and implementation. Best part of the project is that there were only three people to do this and it was mandatory for all three people to know and understand each and every module.

I feel kind of weird to call myself a software engineer, because i never implemented application that runs on a actual system (apart from some modifications in USB driver code in Windows). May be I can be called as a firmware engineer or semi hardware engineer. Most of the code that I have developed are running on small embedded devices.

Things I have gained from this industry in three years..

1. Satisfaction in work. I never thought much about my career. Its just that things came up and I accepted all of them. Today i am very glad with whatever i am doing. Life is like a running stream. Sometimes its better not to struggle much and just flow with the stream.

2. Financial stability. Not need to think much while spending. You always feel good when you know that there is some money in your pocket.

3. Five days a week. So lot of time to do things which i love the most. Like traveling, reading, eating and sleeping ( playing cricket some times..). Best part of my career is that i had never been to office on weekends.

The only bad thing about being a embedded engineer is that there is no on site opportunities. The best on site I might get in my career is either a week in korea for requirement gathering or a week in Singapore for customer demo. But anyhow on site is not in my priority list. So i can do without that.

Sad part is that In last three years i have lost lot of hair and gained lot of weight because of this industry.

Nitin

ಬಾ ಮಳೆಯೇ ಬಾ...ಬಿಡದೆ ಬಿರುಸಾಗಿ ಸುರಿ

It was raining that evening. It has not rained in Bangalore for few months now and we don't expect it to rain in month of April as well. But on that evening it was raining. I don't know, whenever i have a plan to meet you, it starts raining. Eventually spoiling all plans and preparations and making me to re plan whole stuff again dynamically. I think the rain god don't want to leave us alone. He just comes in whenever you are with me. Usually in movies when girl meets a boy, it happens that sun or moon will come out, flowers will bloom, wind will blow, nice music in background etc ( Only in recent kannada movies it rains as well.. like mungaru male..). But in my case definitely it rains. Not only it rains, it rains very heavily.

Its not that often I get a chance to meet you and spend some time with you. Most of the time i will come to know about your availability in Bangalore only a few hours before. Still i try my best to plan the whole evening on such a short notice. I make sure that i plan it such a way that, I show you all the beautiful things in and around and buy you a plate of Gobi Manchurian and Masala Puri. I am sure you will not get Gobi and chats in your place.

Whenever i see something beautiful or Whenever I eat something delicious, first thought that crosses my mind is, you should have been with me to see this beautiful thing or to eat this delicious stuff. So i just make a note in my mind to get you here, next time when you are in Bangalore. These small notes are getting piled up in my mind. So when are you coming here?

It was raining that evening. I just went through all the places in my mind to select the best and then plan the evening. Everything was on track till this rain started. Now i have to re plan few things. Don't Worry. It does not matter how bad it rains, I will take you to Malleshwaram and will buy you a plate of Gobi and Masala puri. After finishing our dinner plan, Rain got very worse. Looks like this rain god is very angry with me for disrespecting him by going ahead with my malleshwaram eating plan. By the time that evening got over, with me wishing Good night to you, we were both completely wet. I think now the Rain god is happy. That's the last time i saw you, with rain drops falling from your hair and face. That's the last time i wished you Good-Night.

After that it has not rained in Bangalore. Now the Monsoon is also getting over, But No signs of Rain. Every day I sit outside my balcony and hope that it will rain again, like that evening and we will meet. It seems Rain god is still laughing at me. Oh Rain God, You Cant kill my hope. I am sure it will rain one fine evening.

ಬಾ ಮಳೆಯೇ ಬಾ
ಅಷ್ಟು ಬಿರುಸಾಗಿ ಬಾರದಿರು , ನನ್ನ ನಲ್ಲೆ ಬರಲಾಗದಂತೆ
ಅವಳಿಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದೊಡನೆ , ಬಿಡದೆ ಬಿರುಸಾಗಿ ಸುರಿ
ಹಿಂತಿರುಗಿ ಹೋಗದಂತೆ .. ಬಿಡದೆ ಬಿರಿಸಾಗಿ ಸುರಿ
ಬಾ ಮಳೆಯೇ ಬಾ

Few people started inquiring me about this blog. So let me make it clear, Its just a fiction inspired from those four lines of kannada song.

Nitin

Moments of life..

There is a scene in movie "Bluffmaster", where junior bachan comes to know that he is going to die. Baman tells him that he has very limited time. We have lived so many moments in our life time but when we look back there will be very few which we will never be able to forget. Baman asks AB to live those moments again. That scene really made me think about myself. How many moments are there in my life that i will never forget. Well so many things passed my mind in a second. Well Lets make a list then.

First time when i saw my nephew, Aditya. He was just couple of days old and was looking like a lump of flesh, completely red and used to sleep for 90% of day. Still he looked so cute. I was waiting next to his bed till he opens his eyes and sees his uncle. While waiting their i observed this thing. Sometimes suddenly he used to smile in his sleep and some other time he used to cry. My amma told me that as these kids have no other thing to do, so god gave them lot of sleep. In their sleep God tells them something good, so they will smile. I just gave a weird look at my mom and told that, " I really appreciate that imagination of god telling something good and making small kids smile in their sleep".






At last he woke up and i got a chance to hold him in my hands. I was wondering what can a child which is just two days old, can think in it's small tiny brain ( He has to think something as our brain never stops..). With no previous memory ( I am sure in 2 days not many memory cells would have been filled..) entering into a completely new world, just to find few weird creatures holding them and smiling at them and trying to communicate in some weird language. By the time that kid gets a chance to think, he has to sleep again ( God has given him a boon to sleep for 90% of day..). Life would have been so good, if i can also sleep for 90% of day and SMILE IN MY SLEEP ( I can easily sleep for 60% of a day..).

Got to GO. May be i will come here some other time and finish this blog.

Daatu and Indian secularism

First of all i want to let you know that "DAATU" is a popular Kannada book written by my favourite author Dr. S.L. Byrappa.

S.L.Byrappa is a very popular name in Kannada literature. He has written number of popular Kannada novels on a variety of subjects. He has got some great popularity and some nasty criticism for the subjects he has chosen recently. He is one author who writes for his own satisfaction and not for some government award or saahitya academy fellowship. No doubt, he has the biggest fan following in karnataka and even today thousands of kannadigas are eagerly waiting for his next novel.

First thing that strikes in Byrappa's Novel is his subject. Each novel will have a very special story which really makes the reader to think a lot. And then the amount of information he gives in his novel is just extraordinary. No wonder he takes at least 3-4 years to finish a novel. Before writing on any subject he gathers all information about that subject and makes a deep analysis. Byrappa is writing in Kannada for almost 50 years now and all his novels are very precious for Kannada literature.

My fav novel is definitely Parva. Parva is the story of Mahabharata told in a layman's language. There are no heroes and no villains. There are only a bunch of crooked kings fighting hard to get the kingdom. Krishna is not a god but just a intelligent and cunning king. So there will be no miracles. He gives a scientific explanation for all the so called miracles that comes in Mahabharata story. I have watched Mahabharata in TV and have read that many times. But this version gives a completely new perception about this mega epic of Indian history.

Now lets come to Daatu. First thing that we should know is Daatu is written in 1970's. It explains the social, political and economic conditions of that time. Subject of the story is inter caste marriage. A brahmin girl and a Gowda Boy decides to break the barriers of religion and plan to get married. They want to do this just because, they want to be a role model for society. They want to set an example to others to denounce so called caste system. So the story revolves around the impact of their decision on their families and their village. In end, they both realise that this Indian society is not ready to accept such a thing. They just hope that at least in future Indians will destroy caste system and inter caste marriages will happen.

I wonder how can Byrappa think of writing a novel on a sensitive subject like this in 1970's. Even today our society is against inter caste marriage. Though there are few inter caste marriages, most of them turned out to be as failures due to various reasons. Even today caste plays a very major role in marriages. My mom will never see my face again if i decide to marry a girl outside my community.

Now in my view, i am against intercaste marriages. You might be thinking that i am a hypocrite and communal. But its not like that. I have equal respect for all castes and religions. But its just that our society and our family is not ready yet.

Lets analyse the reasons behind failure of intercaste marriages..

Because of all the reservations and steps taken by government we can claim that we have removed caste factor from our public life. But each and every Indian is very well attached to his respective caste in his personal life. Each guy is a Indian when he walks out of the house, but as soon as he enters his house he will be either a Hindu, Muslim, brahmin, gowda, konkani or a reddy. All the rituals and habits that we have in our personal life is deeply routed with our caste. I will not have a problem to do business, have a meeting or go out for lunch with someone from other caste. But i will definitely have some problem in bringing him to my home or may be to stay with him.

So a girl will not have a problem in interacting with a boy from other caste. She will not feel awkward in interacting with him for hours or in going out with him. Even she might be comfortable in falling in love with him. But all problems will start when they get married and start to stay together. Because there is not much of a difference in their public life, but there is a huge difference in their rituals, habits, belief, perception about things, trust in god and vision about life. There will be no support from family either. So slowly with time it turns out to be a failure.

Its true that we have to live in a secular country. Here secular does not mean that we have to give up our rituals and castes. "SECULAR" just means that we should not consider caste factor when taking any decisions. I might be a Hindu in my personal life, but i will be a secular if i treat all religions equally. I am a secular if i respect all religions. I guess if every individual can understand this simple definition of secularism, then there will be no communal violence. There will be no need for operation bluestar, kandhamal, Bombay serial blasts in 93 and all this jihad.

Byrappa dreamt of a secular nation with this novel Daatu in 1970's. This dream is yet to be realised. I just hope that one day India will become a true secular nation, not by eradicating caste system but by learning to give respect to all religions. Live and Let Live is the only way we can survive..

Nitin