Aman's Blog….ANYTHING goes here!

Starting A New Session With Fever…. April 24, 2013

It’s been three days since I have come back from my last session in which  I had encountered an earthquake as well. Except for that, the session went absolutely fine. I met some of the most amazing delegates and it was a very big coincidence that there were 4 delegates whom I had met already in some other places. It was a very VERY fun filled 5 day long week in which there were lots of laughs but also there were many many technical discussions as well. But I am so glad that the session went really fine. Though I haven’t seen the formal feedback yet but I had been told by couple of the delegates that how much they liked the session and this short email that I got after about 2 days says a lot IMO.

Hi Aman,

Now I don’t have fear from RAC.

Thanks a lot for clearing concept of RAC.

I don’t think anything else is needed to mention that the class went okay! I am so thankful to all who came and also said so many kind words! It was a pleasure and honour to meet you all and I really hope and wish that I meet with all of you once again in the near future soon!

After such a rocking week, I came back with a very happy mood and then , all of a sudden, the stupid fever caught hold of me!

It’s been 3 days since I have got the fever and I am just so sick and tired of having medicines. And the worse part is, today or I should say, tonight I am going to start a web session at 10pm IST which would go till 6am as I am going to start a new session today. There were already so many issues in the logistics for this session in addition to me not being well and I am just so worried how this session would go? I shall come to know in less than 3 hours from now but it’s not an easy thing to talk when you are not well, trust me!

Encountering The Earthquake…. April 16, 2013

Yep, and it came all of a sudden today when I was with the delegates in the session. I am delivering a very tough and advanced session BTW at the moment and the delegates are really good both professionally and personally! Today, two of them took me out for lunch and there we met one delegate who was in my session 3 years ago. Also, there are two delegates out of which one was in my session 2 years and she immediately spotted me and very kindly mentioned in the room that she was very happy when she came to know that I am the instructor for this tough course and also added that I am really good, which was very kind of her to say! There is another delegate who attended my presentation a year ago and told me today about it! So overall, it’s a great session going on, tiring but really good!

Hmm I think I have missed the point of the post. Okay, so we were in the room and one of the delegates was actually standing and explaining a concept. We were all sitting in front of him and were listening to him and my seat was in a corner , just opposite to him. All of a sudden, I felt that my chair is moving and quite heavily. Before I could say anything to anyone, alarms started buzzing and the security started shouting that all must run downstairs right away! And we all did run away to the ground floor and over there it wasn’t just our tower whose people were there but the rest of the 3 towers were also got vacant and the people of those towers were also downstairs. Though nothing bad did happen but it was a little chaotic for some time and it seemed all were a little confused and shocked with that sudden blow of the earthquake. Finally, all seemed to be settled down and we got back to our room, in one piece and finally got back to the work like nothing ever happened :=) . Thankfully, nothing did happen, in real too!

Time to go to bed as there is a tough day awaiting tomorrow!

Its’ Been A While…. April 11, 2013

Yes, it’s been quite some time since I have updated my blog. Last time, I had taken this much of leave from updating it when my dad passed away. This time, fortunately things are not so bad but still, some how I am not able to have a mental status to sit back, write and update it. Even now, when I am writing this post, a weird kind of uneasiness is there inside me. May be I am just being mad or may be, it’s just some bad time frame. Am not sure what it is actually but just know this that I am not in a good state of mind. I am not really able to spend time (quality) on my work, on doing any research or as a matter of fact, any thing productive. I know I must pull together myself and start doing my work and I am going to get back to business very soon.

Travelogue…. February 21, 2013

I am sitting on the airport at the moment waiting for my fight to be announced , which is not going to happen till the next one hour. It’s been about 10 days that I was at home and now, it’s the time to get back to the real world and work , which is required to sustain in real world.

The current moment of time is not really a very smooth one for me and my family. There has been MANY issues that have been coming and the biggest one, which is making me the most scared and tensed is the health of my mom. If you are a regular here, you might have read an earlier post where I had mentioned the same and also this that I was burning with anger because this was called or considered as “whatever” which it is really NOT! Anyways, it’s there and it’s just making me so worried right now. Just hoping and wishing so hard that all goes and remains fine. There is no more strength left in me now to even think about something even remotely close to what that I have faced in 2011!

It’s going to be a LONG travel with two connecting flights and I am just really so tired right now. There is a two-day nation wide strike going on and due to that, there was a lot of rush on the road of cars and other vehicles as the public transport vehicles were not moving much. The driver some how was trying to impress me with his driving skills and also was trying to meet up to the time that I had asked him for me to reach at the airport and I can just say, there were moments when I was just so horrified! At one instant, we had almost hit a vehicle next to us but the driver saved it some how. Not sure should I consider this as his good driving skills or reflexes or poor driving skills since he was over speeding on a national highway? Be it whatever, I am on the airport and hope there wont be any more surprises as there is a very tough session that’s ahead of me.

OTNYathra Delhi Event Is Done…. February 17, 2013

Well, I just got back in my hotel room after some really REALLY good things! One, I got a chance to attend the sessions of the some of the biggest and the best names of the database world , Hans Forbrich, Lucas Jellema, Raj Mattamal, Murali Vallath and Edward Roske. Two, we all just had dinner just a while ago and three, well , it’s about me but anyways , my presentation went well! Sort of enough reasons right! And it all happened at the kick off of OTN Yathra at New Delhi!

I reached here at Delhi yesterday. Though Hans and I think Lucas were already there but I had to go for an official meeting and I started for that as  soon as I reached at the hotel-in about 15 minutes after reaching the hotel may be. That was not at Delhi but was at Noida so it took a lot of time in the cab to go there. The “meeting” turned out to be a tech interview of mine which the customer sort of wanted to do and though I was okay with it, I some how felt a little insulted when there were some questions which were really really simple and shouldn’t had been asked. And just to be fare, I think I did fumbled on question myself too. After about an hour, I was free and then it was the time to head back to the hotel and this time, it took much longer to do that because there was a lots of traffic on the road which wasn’t unusual but was very tiring. Anyways, when I checked in my room, I called up Hans to check about dinner and he mentioned that Lucas is also there and we are good to go. So three of us went to have dinner. We are right now in the hotel Country Inn which is at a very nice shopping mall Select City Walk(probably the best mall of New Delhi) so the idea was to see if there is some place interesting at the mall or near by where we could go and eat. After doing a little hunt and of course, asking people, we finally got at Punjabi Grill. It was expensive but the food was excellent. Since Hans and Lucas were absolutely fine with the North Indian cuisine, we ordered couple of items and believe me when I am saying this, the food was excellent! It was a great dinner in which besides the food, we all talked a lot. It was my first time to meet with Lucas( I had already met Hans and I shall write about it in another post) and he is just awesome! So witty, absolutely honest and rather simple person and just for the record, he is probably one of the best experts for the ADF technology in the world. After about 2.5 hours, we were finally back in the hotel and there we met Murali. Since I believe we all were tired and a quick cup of tea would had been great, we all went for it and we got a place on the roof top. It was my great honour to be there with all these great experts and now, since it was already late, we all headed to our rooms as we had to kick off the OTN Yathra’s first event which was happening at Gurgaon. It was going to be a long, tiring but exciting day and we needed some rest before it for sure!

The day started quite early for us as we left for the venue 7am, Hans, Lucas, Murali , Raj and me. It was a little difficult to find the place but we were there without being completely lost. We were expecting about 100 people who registered and about 74 showed up eventually. After the welcome note, it was Hans’s presentation which was the first one for me to attend and it was just superb! Not only Hans has immense technical knowledge, he has a very fine art of presenting the topic and making sure that his message goes to the delegates in an easy way. After Hans’s session, I picked up Raj’s APEX session. Though I knew about Raj that he is one of the foremost experts in the world about this technology, I never got a chance to see him presenting and boy, he is just amazing! Really really really passionate about this technology and loves to share his knowledge. The audience has no idea about APEX and he had another presentation made for the conference which he stopped and started out with a really basic yet interesting one which was about the introduction of the APEX along with demonstrations. If you haven’t seen him presenting, you won’t be able to guess it but he is just superb and swift that if you would miss out for a moment, it would take a while to catch up back with him. The session was so interesting and the delegates were so into it , it actually went about 30 minutes ahead of the schedule and because of that Murali did cancel his session. Murali and me did an open Q/A session and then we were off for the lunch break.

After the lunch break, it was Edward’s presentation followed by Hans’s double presentation of two hours which was really sad for me because my schedule got collided with his session. Yes. I did present too and to my surprise, there were few folks who did come to my session. In addition to the others, Lucas, Raj and later on even Murali also did join (which was really nerve cracking as he is The Man when it comes to RAC). But thank god that all went well and I got a great feedback about the presentation, both from the audience and also from Lucas and Murali which was VERY encouraging and relieving for me to hear!

Finally, it was the evening time and it was time to close the day which went really great! To my surprise and happiness, there was one, yes one person which did come from Chandigarh too which was excellent! I would love to give a session and/or to arrange the same kind of event in the North but I am not sure how well the people are going to appreciate it and it’s important because without the audience, there wouldn’t be a point  of arranging an event isn’t it? Anyways, that’s for the future and it looks promising because if it’s one guy today, there may be 10 tomorrow. After a lots of picture sessions, we were now back to the hotel.

Since we were all very hungry, we again decided to go to the same Punjabi Grill and it was again good and it was just so excellent that I could get share the space with all these guys which are not just great experts in Oracle database and related technologies but are also absolutely awesome human beings too and I am so glad and honoured to have them as my friends and mentor! Now, it’s time to have some sleep and tomorrow, I shall be heading to home. It’s too bad that I won’t be able to catch up with the rest of the tour because I got work to do but I believe, it’s going to be a great event and if you are in any of the cities where the event is going to be, try to be there and attend it! You won’t get  a chance soon if not at all, to meet such experts and hear from them face to face! 

Just So Damn Upset…. February 12, 2013

I know that I had mentioned in my last post that I shall be writing about my Singapore and Hyderabad trip. That didn’t happen because since last couple of days, my mom is not well at all! And it should be able to express it well that doc has asked me to get few things done ASAP and also have asked to come down to the hospital again for checkup of her in about 2 weeks. I won’t mention here that what’s really happening at the moment but what I shall do mention that I am so damn upset about a comment which ended up with the bloody “whatever”. Not everything is so damn small or non-important that it can be just summed up by whatever! How much it hurts , pains to lose your one parent and being scared, worried  with every passing breath about your mom, it’s not something that can be considered to be called “whatever” damn it!

It’s not easy to make me upset but the issue is, when  I am, I really am!

Happy Birthday Dad…. January 20, 2013

I reached Hyderabad yesterday morning after finishing a 6 day, long and hectic session at Singapore. I am supposed to start the new session from tomorrow here. I shall talk about the Singapore session in the next post because today something far more important is there. It’s my dad’s birthday!

Yes, it’s my dad’s birthday. It’s his today, my uncle’s tomorrow and mine on 22nd. I went to temple today morning and did prayed to God to bless his blessings on my dad and wished dad happy birthday! I saw a movie today where a guy was telling his dad that how it would matter to him only what his dad likes or dislikes and anyone else doesn’t matter to him at all! Also, how his dad hugged him and how stronger he must have felt in being his dad’s hug! Yes it was just a movie, I know it but it just shattered me and the same happens now at so many times, on so many different occasions. It’s not possible for me to explain that how it feels to see my dad not here, to express that I can’t/won’t ever be able to get my dad’s hug, celebrate his birthday and some times, combine mine and his together to celebrate like we used to do many times. None of that can happen ever now since God has taken him from my mom, my sister and me and it just hurts so damn much, so very much! It really does!

Happy birthday papa, I am missing you so much! I am missing you so much today, I miss you every single passing day! Whenever I call home. I have to stop myself to say to mom that where is dad, want to talk to him! I miss you at so many times, so many moments, we all do, so much! I love you so very much!

All in the family used to be very happy about this coincidence that 3 birthdays are in a row, especially about my dad’s and mine. Don’t know that now, whether I shall be able to feel any happiness that my birthday is coming! I don’t now and I won’t too! I just can’t!

I Am Speaking At OTNYathra, Are You Joining Me…. January 14, 2013

So it’s the year 2013 and this is the first post of mine in this year. And it feels good to mention that the first session of this year has gone really well for which I was really very tensed as it was a customized session for a very esteemed customer. Fortunately, it went well and was very well accepted by the delegates too.

This was the first major news , at least for me!

The second major news is that I am very much honoured and privileged to be accepted as one of the speakers in the upcoming OTN Yathra(Yatra) that’s including some of the best and biggest names of the industry like Hans Forbrich, Murali Vallath, Harshad Oak, Lucas Jellama, Vivek Sharma and many more! This tour is sponsored by Oracle Technology Network and would be carried over in 6 cities of India, starting from Delhi, where I am scheduled to speak. This is a really big thing for me to share the stage with such distinguished and respected names! So do register, come and say hello! Hope to see you there! I can’t wait for it to get started as I am so eagerly waiting to meet my friend Hans!

For more information, check the following links,

http://otnyathra.com

https://twitter.com/OTNYathra

https://facebook.com/otn.yathra

And finally, the official badge for the event for the speakers! :=)

Finally, Done With The Session…. December 18, 2012

And not just this one , which started on this weekend but from the last one too that did happen at Colombo.

This session was a little unusual one for two reasons. One, it was going to get started on a weekend. I can’t recall that I have done it ever for a new session. I have taken sessions on the weekends but it would be mostly an extension or just a one day session. But this one was a new session and that was a little strange to start it of on Saturday. The second thing was the module itself. Though the module that I was going to handle was the one which I have taught many many times already but from the past few weeks, I hadn’t touched it at all as I was doing completely different modules. So though I did remember what it had, it was a little difficult to get into the flow. It’s finished now and also got finished with a very good rating but still, I am not very much satisfied with my work.

I may add another point for the unusual session and that would be that it did happen at Mumabi, a place where I haven’t travelled much (about 4 times only excluding this trip) and TBH, don’t like it much too here. Not sure why but I just can’t connect myself to this place. This time, my hotel was a little better and also it’s food. Probably that was the only thing good that I experienced. As usual, I didn’t go anywhere and question of sight seeing is just not there when I am in a session.

But all said and done, the delegates were very nice and friendly. It was great to discuss with them about RAC(the topic that I was delivering this week) especially as they were not from Oracle database background. There was a smile on everyone’s face when they left today and also gave a very good rating to me as well. So a big thanks to the delegates and hopefully, it may happen that I shall meet them soon some time in the near future as well.

Since I haven’t written about the Colombo tour so I shall just mention about it here as well and it would be in just one word, AWESOME! The company that I was visiting was not a new one for me since I had visited them already before in this year for two weeks. There were some familiar faces and also some new faces in the session but the warmth of the welcome, hospitality was just beyond words. The guys took extreme care of me and also they were very happy from the module, which is a bigger satisfaction for me given that this was the reason that I was there, to make them understand the module. At the end of the week, the delegates brought a very nice gift for me which was completely not needed but still I accepted it as a token of their appreciation for my work! Thanks so much everyone. It was really really great to be back there and spend some time talking about Oracle and other topics and also for all the hospitality, truly appreciate it and can’t wait to be back again soon!

So finally, the session is finished and now it’s going to be traveling time. I have asked the cab to come at 4pm and I am just hoping that he won’t be late. I just want to get to the airport and buy two things, one a big cup of coffee and two, a tablet for headache as it is killing me. After that, I just want to get some sleep. Hope it happens in the order I have mentioned it else it would be a real tough job to travel. Hope travel gods would be a little kind over me!

So Damn Tired…. December 6, 2012

I am sitting in the session of mine while the delegates are doing the lab session. It’s the 4th day of the session which means, there is just one more day to go next. So far, about the class, it’s going on and it’s worth to mention that this module is one of the most toughest ones and whenever I deliver it, it takes a lot out of me , both mentally and physically. And it’s not a very good stay also that I have got this time neither the travel was(and shall be) any better at all. I had to take the first flight from Delhi to Chennai and after a 3 hour long wait there, the next flight was to Colombo and guess at what time, 1am in the morning! Yes 1am, I am not kidding. I reached at Colombo at 2:30am and at my hotel at about 4:30am and had to start the session at 9am. I can’t say it enough that how tough it was and since then, the fatigue somehow , hasn’t completely gone yet and every day, after the session, I am just so burnt out. The same itinerary is for the return flight as well , actually on the departure, it’s 3am when I shall have my flight back to Chennai and then would wait there for 3 hours before to get back to Delhi. And that’s not the only issue. The hotel stay also had issues. For the first two days, I got the room(and booking) at Renuka Hotel. It was a much recommended hotel, at various sites and also from the people. But it’s just not worth the price they are charging. The hotel is not having anything special compared to any other hotels around. The wi-fi is paid, food is okay and there is a huge sound pollution as it’s on the road itself. After two days, since Renuka didn’t have free rooms, I had to shift and now I went to Global Towers. I still can’t access any wifi as it’s paid and the room is also very tiny but I had stayed here before and the food is okay, so it’s still better than Renuka. I had stayed here at Taj Samudra as well few years back but thanks to the cost cuttings, it’s not there anymore in the list to choose. I am just so mad at the moment from all these things . May be the fatigue and tiredness of the work was just not enough to make me go crazy.

Anyways, there is still 1.5 days of work is there in front of me and I really am not able to make myself get up and start speaking.   But you got to do what you got to do. So doesn’t matter what, I shall have to finish the day’s work. A cup of coffee/tea would had been really helpful at this time but that’s also out of the question at the moment. Why? Didn’t I tell you that there is no vending machine in this customer site and also, that the “hot” tea/coffee , by the time it reaches to me, is not better than a “cold” tea/coffee! Funny, no it isn’t!