A little about me..

I have mentioned a little about me in the 'about me' section, but then I think I need to introduce myself more to my 'net' diary.

I am a Senior Architect at S7 software Solutions. I just joined at this startup (or does it really still qualify to be called that, give that it has been around for 3 years now ?) a month back. I was earlier working for India Software Labs of IBM India. Actually I was working for Rational Software and suddenly one day found myself working for IBM (just a small matter of 2.1 billion changed the board outside the office).

Started my career actually at Wipro GE Medical Systems (now merged fully into GE Healthcare) at Bangalore (in 1996) and then realized I know as much about the Medical domain as I know about the Greek language, and decided to switch after completing slightly more than 2 years there. When I first joined WGE, I had no idea about the internet nor much about Unix. It was just the little knowledge here and there that I had picked up during my time in the college labs (if the Unix servers were up, that is). And when I landed in WGE, I was given an HP9000 workstation (or was it something older, dont remember now) which blew me away! A 21" monitor and a X based graphical interface! Coming from the world of Windows 3.1 and dumb terminal based Unix systems, this was a revelation! The beauty and the stability (dont remember the system every crashing!) was so damn amazing! And sitting in one machine and running commands in other systems, as if it was local and even getting UI displays from remote commands... all this was too much for a young guy to take and I fell in love with Unix and the X windowing environment . And my first project was also to work on the UI component of a nuclear imaging software called 'Genie' (GE Nuclear Imaging Environment), which was a X based software and that helped me get a better (and now mostly forgotten :-( ) knowledge about how the X client/server architecture worked. And boy was I fascinated by it. But that could only carry me for 2 years or so, and the 'Greek quality' of Medical systems made me switch to a more software specify company - HP India!

Like I said, HP was my first love after I started my career. So when I realized that HP had a development center right here at Bangalore, and my ex-manager at WGE had joined there, I knew it was only a matter of time before I move there too. And as expected, the call came sometime in 1998 and I readily agreed. I was asked to join the newly formed HPUX Compiler and Tools team. My charter was to handle the HPUX linker and loader team. It was exciting working with really smart folks and try and hold my own among them (I was the only one with only a bachelor's degree! Everyone else was atleast a masters from a reputed college, if not a PhD). We even had an alias called 'catfight' (cat - compilers and tools), wherein we would have our little fights over establishing the compiler vs linker superiority. In late 2000, I had to leave HP due to personal reasons, and joined my next love - PurifyPlus team at Rational Software.

When I was in WGE, alongwith HP, the other technology that fascinated me was, Purify! This little tool could detect all kinds of memory related errors in my application, which without its help, I would have had a horrid time debugging, or even realizing it was there. I used to call it the 'magic' software. And ofcourse Clearcase. When I was in WGE, we used to use CVS. But when I joined HP, we were using Clearcase, and it was a HUUUGEEE jump in my opinion. Dynamic views just blew me away (remember this was still 1998, but it still blows me away even today). The concept of rules in configuration specs and how easy it was to control what one can see and one cannot and the ease branching, labelling,.. everything about it fascinated me.

And so when I was offered to lead the Purify/Solaris team (Purify is managed on a per platform basis) I readily agreed (I had also worked with Rational and the Purify team for a project, when I was in HP). And this led me to move to the US (Cupertino, California) for a couple of years, until I got married and came back in 2003. I came back to Rational, Bangalore, but by then it was IBM India.

2003-2007 was spent at IBM India/Rational Bangalore. I initially worked with a team of 4 smart engineers in developing an AIX version of Purifyplus. Then after that got done, and my manager moved out of Rational, I took over management of this team. Management, or rather the art of it, is an entire chapter by itself. Mastering technology is easy, because it has a certain well defined science behind it. But mastering (or rather understanding) management, which involves human psyche, is certainly an art, and while many try to make a science about it, its an experience that one has to live thro to understand and appreciate. I came out a much wiser man, after my management experience.

I tried fighting that feeling for a while, but working for large corporations and its myriad of processes (which sometimes even their implementors/creators dont have a good reason for). Started feeling a little suffocated, and felt the need to break free (sometimes felt like that guy in the Tata Safari ad, wherein he stands with a coffee at hand, and a voiceover says, 'do u want to quit every monday morning'). IBM is a great place. Dont mistake me here. But it just dint feel right for me.

And now here I am, at S7, a small company, trying to find its footings in the industry and working in the niche area of software porting and migrations. My journey there has only begun. More about that later.

:-)

Who is Bals ?

For the curious, bals (as in 'welcomebackbals') is my brother, Balaji. He and I were quite close, but due to personal reasons (which we are yet not sure about), he passed away in 2003. He was a bright young chap, doing his PhD in Structures at Purdue University. Always helps, always smiling, he was a pillar of strength in our family. He is (and will be missed) always.

But then whats this 'welcome back' u say ? What do u know. My wife is carrying and I believe its my brother who is sitting in her tummy right now. For those who say 'sounds silly.. huh!', please switch and continue reading my friend, the atheist's blog. But someone, this thought comforts me. I like to think of my little one as my brother's reincarnation. Damn whats others think.

And that maybe is a story leading into another topic. The concept of reincarnation. Is that good or bad, as a concept. Whether it is real or untrue, no one might be conclusively be able to prove, but as a thought, is it good or bad ? Kindof like Santa Claus. Who cares if he exists really or not, as long as the belief makes one feel and do good (it might have negative effects on kids who are traumatized because they dont have anyone to act like Santa and give them gifts), but in the vast majority, it does more good than bad! And for me, thats acceptable.

And yes... Welcome back bals! Cant wait to see if u r a boy or a girl this time around :-)

:-)

First post

Hi,

Its been a long time since I wanted to start blogging, but then as the zillions of lazy bones out there, I have a friend called 'Mr Procrastinate' and he refused to leave me. Now that he has gone on vacation, I am using this window of opportunity to start my web journey.. not really 'start my web journey' (that started when I first meet and feel in love with the WWW at 1996, at the start of my career), but more a 'become part of the web' kindof a journey..

Not sure who will see my postings, but if someone is reading his, a big hii.. hope u will stay and atleast say a quick hi..

Enough for now.. gotta grab that lunch before my wife starts throwing the plates at me..

Take care..

:-)