Twelve and Counting ...

Time to go down memory lane as I step into the 13th year of my professional career, It has been a journey full of fun, excitement, joy, humiliation, frustration, irritation, anger, passion, friends and more. I still remember the night when I told my dad that I am going to go to work, and he was like, "Work ?? Where and as what ??" and I told him that I am going to join a company called "Internet Commerce and Solutions" as a Web Developer and with a salary of 2000 rupees per month, and immediately my dad said "No you don’t need to go to job now, you have just finished your college and it is not the time for you to go to work and I am in no hurry for you to add income to our family and there ends the discussion and the next day, both of us got ready to go to work and my dad asked, "So you have decided to go to job in spite of me not liking that ?" and I said "It's not the question of money that I am trying to earn, it’s just the fact that I have got so many certifications on my back and I wanted to test my skill" and there started my journey in this IT field ...

Jan 21st 1998, the first time, I too walked out of the house for work rather for a usual cricket match and my granny asked me "Where are you going without your kit?" and then I told her that I am going for a job, got blessings from her and from all the departed souls of my family and then waited in the bus stop to go to "Mahalingapuram" and yes, all for Rs 2000 per month. Me getting that job is in itself is an accident. I and my friend who were attending our MCA contact class, went out for lunch during our break, while walking on the pavement of Madras University, my friend's friend met him and it was a chat that changed my life forever. He told me that he was looking out for someone who has got good knowledge about HTML and ASP and my friend was quick to say "This guy knows HTML and he has designed lots of web pages", so that friend asked me if I know ASP (Active Server Pages) and I have to cut a sorry figure for that, but still, he said "So when will you learn, just come and join my company tomorrow and learn there, I will pay you Rs 2000 per month". I just could not believe what I just heard and there started the making of this Architect ;-))) (ok ok, an ordinary Architect)

Even before getting my first salary, I was having plans for how to spend that, and this is how my budget goes. Rs 1500 for dad, Rs 60 for bus pass and token, Rs 100 for cassettes (all SPB hits) and the rest is savings. I now wonder that I was still able to live a happy and a contended life even with that salary. I was working hard in that place for nearly 8 months and then happened the miracle of my life, me getting an offer from one of the leading IT company, I was picked up for my skills on C++ and within a week, I was deported to the dream land of all IT geeks the USA. My family was shitting bricks and no one was ready to digest that I am going to go away from them for a longer period. My dad was in dilemma whether to allow me and make my career grow or to keep his only son next to him, later he decided to allow me to go abroad as the typical middle class Brahmin mentality kicked in and he too wanted tell everyone that his son is in the US. California too welcomed me with too hands and the whole of 5 and odd years abroad (on and off) was really a great experience.

I was blessed to travel a variety of countries like US, all most all of APAC except KOREA, Canada, Amsterdam, and Netherlands but no country gave me the pleasure of being in INDIA, when I took a conscious decision of coming back to our country, I was very happy and never regretted that decision. Leaving Oracle was one of the toughest decisions of my career, it is not that easy to leave a company where you have grown and that too after spending more than a decade of your stint in that place, but I wanted to move on and venture into new challenges and hence joined this current company. I am one of the few fortunate people who have their CTC quite close to their age in lakhs ;)) and that too in INDIA, so I am enjoying every bit of my professional career now and I am not going to get out of this any time soon. I am stepping into the 13th year of my career and I hope the years to come is going to give me more experience and challenges which I can use to its fullest and move on to clinch my dream role, the CTO. I am thankful to the almighty, my family and friends for being with me during the ups and downs of my career and supporting me all the time.