Moving to US

Though late, its my turn now. I am moving to US for work on H1. My flight is on 13th June 2008. I will be at Irving, Dallas (Texas) initially for a few days and later move to a location that my client would reside. Working for Adobe (earlier Macromedia) has been a really great experience for me.. 2 years and 9 months have passed like 2 mins and 9 seconds... Time flies, yes it does. I loved how i grew in Adobe, i completely loved it. Thanks to the managers who recognize and reward the talent here... its also one of the places to work for... I am not sure when i would return back to India again.. may be 6 years later? 10 years later? not sure... I hope my move towards this, would give me all the enthu and happiness to cherish for the days to come... I would miss everything here... A lot more, but definately this is not my farewell message... I just utter now - I am moving to US for a really long term (for many reasons that cannot start and end at this point)...

I will be leaving Bangalore and Adobe, this friday - 30th May 2008 and stay with parents at hyd for the next 10 days or so. I will be busy arranging a lot of stuff, helping my brother finish up the construction of our lovely five 2 bed-room appartment sorta individual house (Ground + 2 floors) at Uppal, hyderabad... I will write more about the completion of the same once done, with some photos that i captured from day 1 till the D'day of the inagural...

I would write next only after i reach US. I will be busy for next couple of days (weeks) trying to figure out my-way to get going for a whole-new journey of life in some different part of the world where u know hardly some people who care you the most. Good luck to me and hope my days to come turn sweet for the pain i have taken now.

A flight to remember...

On my flight from hyderabad to bangalore, i was on Kingfisher airlines. I noticed Praveen Kumar waiting in the front row for the boarding announcements to be made while i was waiting in the third row of the waiting lounge. Cricket, the game i watch the most of all on tv.. I was surprised to see the entire - "Bangalore Royal Challengers Team" - walking into the same flight as i am... Leave alone the same flight, i was sitting right between the entire cricket team...

Sitting next to me was - Wasim Jaffer and Venkatesh prasad, the bowling coach. On to the next side of the same row was - Jaques Kallis and his wife. Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Praveen kumar, Goswami, Akhil, Dale styn, Virat kohli, everyone of the Royal challengers team. I also saw, Sunil Gavaskar (the commentator) walking into the flight. It really was a moment, a flight journey of 45 mins that delighted me with the cricket legends. I was happy, but then i did not try to over-do anything by trying to talk to them or do something wierd etc. I just treated them as another human beings and nothing really great about. Many were quiet in the flight, some sleeping, some with their ipods on etc.

I completely enjoyed my trip... it was really thrilling experience, though i didnt show it that minute.. i just loved it..

I represented "Adobe" at "Yahoo" Bangalore...

It was a moment of pride for me. Probably for the first time in my professional career. I am not a Business Analyst or an IIM Grad (or who has completed an MBA from a premium institute) involved into business decisions and deals. This was one of very niche and early opportunity for me here in the Adobe Flex/AIR team.

This happened two weeks ago. Ramesh (is a Sr. Computer Scientist in my team) heading the Evangelist activities related to the Platform Products of Adobe (Flex / AIR, primarily). Past few weeks i have been involved in developing a next generation product web 2.0 with Srini. Ramesh Called me and said 'hey arun, are u ready for the demo for Yahoo.. we are going after lunch'.. Umm.. yeah not yet but sure wouldnt take much time too.

Ramesh had his contacts spread and got the right audience. I and Ramesh Visited the Yahoo, Bangalore office in EGL. We were meeting with Aparna (New Businesses and partnerships manager) and Prashant (Yahoo-Cricket product manager).

It was a pride moment for me to "Sell a business by demoing a cool application that can impress most in this domain"... I had an opportunity to speak to sell and get the business partnership done. Of course, ramesh was there to handle the business related discussion in-depth but i was representing the Technical head role for their requirements and it went all well and i am very excited about it for the whole of the day. I would definitely remember it for sure.

WFH with Kids around could be fun :)

Monday i was working from hyderabad and i was at my sisters house. My nephew has been around, hez varun(nani), 4.5 years age.. I had to stay back for some urgent work that wouldnt require more than an hour so i had an option to do a WFH. Past few weeks i have been working on one of the top priority project and i really had a stretched schedule.

I had no other option but to give my camera phone to my newphew so he can play with it and shoot lots of photos everywhere in the house while i can work peacefully atleast for sometime. I got a call from office (jyoti and srini were in the conference and my newphew picks it without his knowledge ofcourse).. He goes on playing with the camera (after lifting the call where managers are having fun listening to his sweet baby voice and deeds)... My mobile has a tiger wallpaper and "Ideas come from every cornor of my newphews mind"!!.. he wants a tiger now. Yes he is still on call with my managers (in conference).. I am still not aware of all this as yet. Nani, comes to me working in the other room and starts pulling me - 'mama, i want a tiger, mama, i want a tiger now .... '

Luckily i was on IM working... i get a ping from the mgr on gtalk, 'where is ur mobile, we are trying to call you'!!... hmm... i then rush to and look at the mobile and thats when i realize that Nani was on call for the last 2 minutes or so :) When i took the mobile from nani, i see everyone on the conference laughing :) and as usual i join them too :)

As the call goes on, my manager starts discussing with me on the deliverables, planning, requirements... what to do next.. bla bla bla... the phrase 'mama, i want a tiger...', is going on the background on and on :) not in a loud voice though... I cannot keep the phone and i have to escape nani for his statements, i kept my phone on mute and start walking to-and-fro from bed room to hall to drawing room to balcony just to escape his voice on the conference (so i can speak when my turn comes)... well, i wish managers know WFH could be hard too :-p

For me, it was a great 30 minutes of WFH on call with my nephew...