Blog Spot

I was browsing through my blogs yesterday. Reminded me of the beginning; 3 and a half years rewind. Feels like just a few days have passed between now and then. I’d never thought I would complete 10 posts and now here comes number 75.

Blogging means a lot to me now. It is a big part of my life. No matter how busy you get in life, you would always find the time for the things you really like. Blogging is one such thing for me. I know I am not one of those artistic writers who would come up with masterpieces from time to time; neither do I have good story-telling skills. I have come across much better writers and I really like reading their blogs. Their blogs are a pleasure to read.

I like this place! Facebook will take over Orkut, tomorrow Google plus might throw away Facebook, people may lose their interest in twitter, but for me Blogspot will always be there. At times I had thought about shifting to Wordpress. It is much better than blogspot, much simpler to handle, more powerful tools. But given a second thought, do these things really matter? The content is the only things that really matter and counts for me and that wouldn’t change with the change in platform. I could do a hundred things on my blog, visitor counter, maps, an application for chat, but I prefer it to be simple, just plain writing.

I am not here to monetize or make new friends out there, write popular stuff and publish through the internet, connect through Facebook and all. I am glad that few people out there read my blog. I am happy when I see a friend or a stranger commenting or hearing from people that they read my blog and liked it or otherwise. Yet, that’s not the only thing that keeps me going.

I have nothing against Facebook and Twitter, but most of the things that I like to say cannot be really said in one or two lines. It simply does not work that way for me. For a person like me who likes to analyze things and go into the depth of it, blogging is the perfect outlet. It’s not a place where you would get 15 likes and 25 comments for cracking a joke.

The real question is do you really want it to be popular? I believe I can write more freely knowing that not many people are reading. I’m glad this does not reach out to the people whose only contribution in my life is a Happy Birthday on my wall once a year. I write for myself more than anyone else and I know I’m going to last long. Never had a writer’s block till now and I believe I would never have it ever.

To all the people who have read my blog : ‘A big thank you! Any feedback is welcome.’ I’ll continue reading other blogs too and commenting on the ones that I like. 

Summer @ Maryland

This summer has been brilliant so far for me. I like what I am doing. I am hopping between being a Web Developer during daytime and a ‘Risk Analysis’ tutoring assistant in the evening; both at the Business School. The school has been my home for the summer!

I’ve enjoyed the challenges I’ve faced at both my jobs. In particular, tutoring has been a great experience so far. Being at the other end of the class, facing the audience, it’s so different! 

I am taking a class on ‘Risk Analysis’ which is a Subject for Executive MBA at the Business School at University of Maryland. I teach an extremely talented group of MBA people who are at least 10 years elder to me, in some cases about 20. They are well established in their respective industries.

I like their approach. They know exactly what they are here for. They are here to learn more things rather than get good grades. Everyone is secure in their own field, well settled! The atmosphere is pretty much non-competitive, pretty much helpful. Just like the good old school days…and then life started becoming a ‘Race’.

It’s great to see a class full of ideas. Intriguing conversation about the simplest of the problems; it’s just the way you look at things make the difference! I remember when I took this class; little did I know there is so much to this subject. ‘Risk Analysis’ can never be taught in a classroom. The real life stories paint a beautiful canvas themselves. 

Listening to success stories of people from different fields feels fantastic. These people, when they look back, were not necessarily the brightest from their colleges or did not get the ‘Best Deal’ for the first time they tried. But all of them had great patience to climb the ladder. They knew how to grab the right opportunity at the right time.

I've learnt some new things here. A few of my students live as far as New Jersey which is more than 3 hours by car. So, it's inconvenient for them to travel all this distance and attend the class. So, I started a series of Web Seminars on WebEx. This WebEx software simply rocks, CISCO has done a great work! I was shit scared to use the software for the first time. 10 people on the conference and I'm the only one speaking. Web Seminars give you a feeling of TV reporter, you keep talking and hope that the audience grasp it! But at the end of first seminar when I un-muted each of the participant for any questions, then I'd realized that I had done a pretty god job. You will always cherish the first time, and if you are the host and the speaker both, you certainly will!

Apart from this, I sometimes get a chance to have free dinner in expensive restaurants, get dropped back home in a different car every-time. May get a chance to visit some companies and get a tour of them. Who knows, one of my students may end up giving me a full time job too and save me the trouble of hunting for one. 

Knowing all this, I know this is the easier way and also that there is a tougher way! Both will lead me to the same place. If not now, some fine day. Life is never like those GPS machines where you key in the address and follow the directions. It’s a joyride where you should stop whenever you feel like, admire, enjoy and keep going.

I’ll quote one of the sentence from my friend Gaurav’s blog!

“Life is not a race…So let the winning part be for those who think it is”