the teaching job!

I come from a family of teachers; I don’t mean it in the abstract sense. Like for instance my father, my sister, my grandfather (mom's father), many of my uncles and aunts are teachers or were teachers at some point of time. I guess love for teaching came naturally to me. My first experiments in teaching happened when I was a teenager. I ran an informal drawing and painting academy during summer and winter vacations to school going students when I was in high school. That experience of starting the painting classes at home helped me gain great confidence in becoming an entrepreneur and a teacher later in my life.

I did take up teaching when I was an engineering college student as well. I started a laboratory with my dad's help to train engineering students to conduct experiments in electronics(1). Succeeding in that effort prompted me to start an engineering start-up by name "Imagineering" just after completing my engineering education along with some of my friends. Fortunately or unfortunately it didn't take off well, but that did help me gain greater perspective on taking up entrepreneurship over the years. Coming back to the subject, I did take up short term teaching jobs during my masters as and when possible. Once I taught a computer programming language that helped me to pay off the money that I borrowed from my friends to do a three-week long trekking expedition at Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh (in July'08).

My long cherished dream was to teach at the University level, precisely to teach electronics to the engineering students. Nearly three years back (January '11) I was almost there to live it but it never worked out the way I thought it could have. Let me tell you why. After staying away from Bangalore for a few years, I came back to my place to pursue on another unfulfilled ambition of starting a business. I thought of taking up a part time teaching job in some engineering college as I thought I was good at it and in a way it could help me pay my bills until I established myself as a serious entrepreneur. For that purpose I prepared a neat resume and went around colleges in Bangalore looking out for a teaching position. Unfortunately none of the colleges were ready to offer me a part-time teaching position, but instead a few colleges offered me a full time position with a lucrative pay package. Since my primary interest was in setting-up my business I didn't take up any offer, however one of the reputed engineering college did offer me a part-time teaching position and almost confirmed it. I was very excited to start off but they kept me waiting for nearly two months in giving me the offer letter and later the principal of the college told me that I was too late for the semester. I was disappointed by the approach of that man for having such low professionalism while he was serving at such a high position. I should also say that I was little desperate, which made me feel even worse. Since things didn't work out in engineering colleges, I ended up taking an assignment of teaching computer science to apprentice fellows in a public sector company. In fact I had to explain nuance in programming languages and computer systems to the students in the local language, Kannada, as most folks there didn't understand English well. The irony is that I had always fared badly in computer science related subjects in my undergrad - anyway such is life! I was able to do that part time job, which I did enjoy as it progressed (and learnt a lot of things in computer science), for nearly six months before I decided to focus completely on my renewable energy start-up (August '11). (2)

The business I started took off well, I got great people to work with and we also got the technology funding from a reputed multi-national company that gave us the access to advanced engineering tools for building our products and systems. I must say things worked better than what I had aspired. We had our ups and downs but fortunately nothing too adverse came our way, as we weren't doing some random stuff nor doing things at an unreasonable pace. During this course of time, we happen to get an opportunity to provide engineering solutions to an agricultural research in connection to renewable energy and water management. The project was supposed to be executed in an old and reputed engineering college which was established even before India got Independence. During the near end of that project I once again got all romantic about teaching as I was in an academic environment. I also wanted to make little more money to accommodate some extra spending and also pay off some personal loans. The other possible benefit was that I could get interns to my company straight from my class. Once I expressed my interest towards teaching to my customer (the professor from the college), he connected me to the evening college principal of the same engineering college. The evening college principal, a kind man with genuine interest towards academics, has also been the head of the department (HOD) of Electrical and Electronics Engineering(EEE) department of the Day College. He requested me to teach to the Day College students as a couple of his female colleagues from Day College had taken maternity leave. He was fine with me taking classes at the time that was convenient to me. Well, that's how I got my real break to teach at the university level.

Since I come from an electronics engineering background I was given Digital Electronics, core electronics subject, to the second year EEE students rather than an electrical subject. I was super glad to take the subject as it was one of my favorite subjects during my engineering days. That excitement for teaching engineering re-affirmed that my love for engineering had not reduced ever since I took up engineering education; as a matter of fact I was taking the subject eleven years after I studied the same subject at the college. I wanted to do a good job and wanted to do it exactly the way I wanted my teachers to do it when I was a student. Some of my teachers had done incredible job as teachers, whos work I still derive inspiration(3). I didn’t want to exactly teach but to setup up a mechanism for learning. I wanted to make myself progressively redundant in the process. I wanted the students to learn engineering to make world a better place. All my idealistic thoughts, which otherwise won’t find much vent flowed in my mind and heart when I got this job. I was happier than getting any job in the past.

My class comprised of about forty students. Since the college is amongst the top colleges in the city the students who joined it were also fairly meritorious candidates. They responded pretty well to some of my experiments in teaching. Like for instance, I avoided solving a problem on the board myself once I had taught a concept with an example, instead I used to ask the students to solve the problem on their note books and later randomly invited students to solve it on the board. Once the problem was solved by a student I used to ask if someone wished to contest for an alternate solution. Greater participation of the students led to further investigation and better understanding of the problem to the students who were not able to solve on their own. While trying all the experiments I started understanding how student’s minds work. I figured out that they weren’t accustomed to many of the ways I was trying in the class but still they welcomed, especially when I told them that talking to their neighbors in the class could be a faster way to learn for some if they cared to keep it low and not disturb the students who wished to learn by listening to my explanation alone. I experimented my ideas in giving the test question paper level as well. In the first test I gave a paper with one very application intensive question with many assumption the student had to make to solve the problem and another set of questions which were straight forward. The catch was that I gave them the choice to solve either the tough question that would account for forty marks or easy set of questions that would account for thirty marks and told them that in real life we seldom get equal choices and corresponding benefits associated to it. Though that question paper(4) became a matter of discussion and also debate in the whole department and perhaps the college but never the less I did attract many likeminded people towards me. The most fascinating thing as a teacher and as someone who once had an aspiration for a career in fine art is using colored chalks in the class. I greatly enjoyed using the full board space to draw various circuits, waveforms and tables using multi colored chalks that really gave higher sense of understanding of the subject(5). In all my teaching jobs I've kept my approach similar as in, when I was a student I always hoped for love and kindness from my teachers, which I thought would extinguish all kinds of fear and in way leads to greater learning; Well, in my class I ensured that no student was in any kind of fear and many a times I did build a great deal of harmony by encouraging situational humor to wipe off the barrier between the student and the teacher.

                         

The semester got over last week and I’m fairly satisfied by the way I did my job. I’m thrilled by  looking at generous feedback my students have given in the faculty feedback survey(6). I have to figure out ways to improve in some departments of teaching like the presentation skills and keeping the class discipline better, which is something I’ll focus during my next teaching assignment. I’m also very happy that many of my students want to do internship in my company as they loved the application based problems that were solved in the class and also got excited about the agricultural research project that we have done as part of my company in the college. At this point of time I’m in complete awe about the way things have fallen in place, favoring me to really live this dream of being an educator and an entrepreneur that I always wanted to be.

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(1) The lab tuition poster - Year 2004:

https://picasaweb.google.com/106423175487235708924/Lab2004#5962036537491399218

(2) My company website:

www.fluxgentech.com

(3)The Toastmaster's speech that I gave when I was with GE Aviation on three influential teachers.

http://isiganesh.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/toastmaster-speech-3-influential-teachers/

(4) The first test question paper:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50376777/Test1_BMSEE13.pdf

(5)Pictures of the board taken by my students after the class:

https://picasaweb.google.com/106423175487235708924/20131130

(6) Faculty feedback survey form:
https://goo.gl/photos/HU6c8PyjBCcSfUhn6

ಮೊದಲ ಪುಟ...

ಸುಮಾರು ಎರಡು ವರ್ಷದಿಂದ ನನಗೆ ಮದುವೆ ಮಾಡುವುದು ನನ್ನ ತಾಯಿಯ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ಆಸಕ್ತಿ ಯಾಗಿದೆ. ನನ್ನ ಸಹಪಾಟಿಗಳು ಮದುವೆಯಗುವುದನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಅಮ್ಮನಿಗೂ ತನ್ನ ಮಗನ ವಿವಾಹವು ಶೀಘ್ರಧಲ್ಲಿ ನೆರವೇರಲಿ  ಅಂತ ಬಯಸುತಿದ್ದರು. ನನಗೆ ತತಕ್ಷಣ ಮದುವೆಯಾಗಲು ಅಂತಹ ಇಚೆಯೇನು ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಮದುವೆಯಾಗಲು ತುಂಬಾ ಸಮಯವಿದೆ ಯೆಂಬುದು ನನ್ನ ಅನಿಸಿಕೆ ಯಾಗಿತು. ಈ ನನ್ನ ಅನಿಸಿಕೆ ಇಂದ ನನ್ನ ಅಮ್ಮನ ಆಸಕ್ತಿ ಕಾಲಕ್ರಮೇಣ ಚಿಂತೆಯರುಪಗೊಂಡಿತು(೧).         

ಮೂವತ್ತು ವರ್ಷ ಹತ್ತಿರ ಬರಿತಿರುವಾಗ ಮದುವೆಯಾಗುವುದರ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಶುರುಮಾಡಿದೆ(೨). ಸುಮಾರು ಹತ್ತು ತಿಂಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ ಮದುವೆಯಾಗಲು ಹುಡಗಿಯನ್ನು ಹುಡುಕಲು ನನ್ನ ತಂದೆ ಮತ್ತು ತಾಯಿಗೆ ಒಪಪ್ಪಿಗೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟೆ. ಅದನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿ ನನ್ನ ಅಮ್ಮನಿಗೆ ತುಂಬಾನೇ ಸಂತೋಷವಾಯಿತು.ಆದರೆ ಆಂದಿಕೊಂಡಸ್ಟು ಸುಲುಭವಲ್ಲ ಮದುವೆ ಯಾಗುವುದು ಯೆಂಬುವು ಯೆಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ತಿಳಿದ ವಿಷಯವೆ. ಕೆಲವು ಹುಡಗೀಯರನ್ನು ಬೇಟಿ ಆದನಂತರ ಮದುವೆ ಅಗುವದನ್ನು  ಮುಂದೆಹಾಕಲು ಯೋಚನೆ ಮಾಡುವದರಲ್ಲಿ ನನ್ನ ಮನಸ್ಸು ತೊಡಗಿತು. ಆದರೆ ನಮ್ಮ ಅಪ್ಪ ಅಮ್ಮ ಮತ್ತು ನನ್ನ ಚಿಕ್ಕಪ್ಪಾ ಗೋಪಾಲಕೃಷ್ಣ ಮೂರ್ತಿ ಮತ್ತೆ ಚಿಕ್ಕಮ್ಮ ಶಾಂತ ಅವರು ನನಗೆ ಲಗ್ನ ಮಾಡುವ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ವನ್ನು ಮಾಡುತ್ತಲೆ ಇದ್ದರು. ಈ ಸಮಯದಲಿ ಒಬ್ಬಳು ಮೆಕ್ಯಾನಿಕಲ್ ಇಂಜಿನಿಯರ್ ಹುಡಗಿಯ ಜಾತಕ ಮತ್ತು ಛಾಯಾ ಚಿತ್ರ ವನ್ನು ಚಿಕ್ಕಪ್ಪ ನನಗೆ ಕಳಿಸಿದರು. ಅದನ್ನು ನೋಡಿದ ಮೇಲೆ ನಾನು ಏನು ಹೇಳಲಿಲ್ಲ ಅವರಿಗೆ. ತನ್ನ ಅಣ್ಣ, ಅರ್ಥಾತ್ ನಮ್ಮ ಅಪ್ಪನಿಗೆ ಈ ವಿಷಯ ತೆಳಿಸಲು ಚಿಕ್ಕಪ್ಪ ಮತ್ತೆ ಚಿಕ್ಕಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಗೆ ಬಂದರು. ನಮ್ಮ  ಅಪ್ಪ ಅಮ್ಮನ ಮುಂದೆ ನನ್ನ ಚಿಕ್ಕಮ್ಮ ನನ್ನನು ಕೇಳಿದರು "ಏನಪ್ಪ ಗಣೇಶ ಹುಡಗಿ ನೋಡಕ್ಕೆ ಹೇಗಿದಾಳೆ?" ನಾನು ಅದಕ್ಕೆ "ಪರವಾಗಿಲ್ಲ ನೋಡಕ್ಕೆನೋ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿದ್ದಾಳೆ " ಅದಾದ ನಂತರ ಹುಡಗಿನ ನೊಡಬಹುದೆ ಅಂತ ಕೆಳಿದ್ದಕೆ ನನ್ನು ಈಗಲೇ ಬೇಡ ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿದೆ. ಅದನೂ ಕೇಳಿದ ನನ್ನ ಚಿಕ್ಕಪ್ಪ ನನ್ನ ಬಳಿ ಕುಳಿತು ಚೆರ್ಚೆ ಶುರು ಮಾಡಿದರು. ತುಂಬಾ ಪ್ರೆಶ್ನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕೇಳಿದರು. ಕೆಲವು ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ ಗಳು ಹೀಗಿದ್ದವು - "ಯಾಕೆ ಈಗ ಬೇಡ?" "ಹುಡಗಿನ ನೊಡದ್ರಲ್ಲಿ ನಿನಗೆ ಏನು ತೊಂದರೆ" "ಈವಾಗ ಅಲ್ದೆಲೆ ಇನ್ನ್ಯವಾಗ ಮದುವೆಗೆ ಸಿಧ್ಹವಾಗತ್ಯ?" ಚೆರ್ಚೆಯ ನಂತರ ಹುಡಗಿ ಅಣ್ಣನಿಗೆ ನನ್ನ ಜಾತಕವನ್ನು ಕಳಿಸಿ ಕೊಡಲು ನಾನು ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಂಡೆ. ಚಿಕ್ಕಪ್ಪ ಹೋಗುವುದಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಮುಂಚೆ  "ನೀನು ಹುಡಗಿಯ ಜತೆ ಮಾತನಾಡು ಅಂತ ಅಷ್ಟೆ ನಾವು ಹೆಳ್ತಿರೊದು, ಮದುವೆಗೆ ಒಪ್ಪಿಗೆ ಅಥವ ಬೇಡ ಅನ್ನುವುದು ಪೂರ್ತಿ ನಿನಗೆ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿರೋದು"  ಅಂತ ಹೇಳಿದರು.            

ಜಾತಕ ಕೂಡಿಬಂತು ಅಂತ ಚಿಕ್ಕಪ್ಪ ನಮ್ಮ ಅಪ್ಪನಿಗೆ ಹೇಳಿದರು. ಶೇಗ್ರವೇ ಹುಡಗಿಯ ಮನೆ ಮಂದಿಯನ್ನು ಬೇಟಿ ಆಗುವ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮವನ್ನು ಚಿಕ್ಕಪ್ಪ ಎರ್ಪಾಡು ಮಾಡಿದರು. ನಾನು ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗು ಎಕೆ ಬೇಜಾರುಮಾಡುವುದು ಅಂತ ಅವರು ಹೇಳಿದಹಾಗೆ ಸಿದ್ದಗೊಂಡೆ. ಹೋಗಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಮುಂಚೆ ನಿರ್ದಾರ ಮಾಡಿದ್ದೆ ಕಂಡಿತವಾಗಿ ಮದುವೆಗೆ ಮಾತ್ರ ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಳ್ಳೊದು ಬೇಡ ಅಂತ. ಹುಡಗೀಯ ಚಿತ್ರದಲ್ಲೂ ಕೂಡ ಪೂರ್ತಿ ಕುಷಿ ಕಾಣಿಸಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ನಗುದ್ರಲ್ಲು ಏನೋ ಜಿಪಣತನ ಮಾಡಿದಹಾಗೆ ಕಾಣುತಿತ್ತು. ಇಷ್ಟೆಲ್ಲ ಯೋಚನೆಯ ಮದ್ಯೆ ಹುಡಗಿಯನ್ನು ನೋಡಲು ಹುಡಗೀಯ ಹತ್ತಿರದ ಸಂಬಂದ್ದಿಯ ಮನೆಗೆ ತಲಪಿದೆವು. ಹೋದ ಮೇಲೆ ಹುಡಗೀಯ ಅಣ್ಣ ಮತ್ತೆ ಅವರ ತಂದೆ ತಾಯಿ ಮಾತು ಅಲ್ಲೇ ಉಪಸ್ತಿತರೆಲ್ಲರೂ ಆದರದ ಸ್ವಾಗತ ಮಡಿದರು. ಹುಡಗಿ ಕೂಡ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹೊತ್ತಿನ ನಂತರ ಬಂದಳು. ಮಾತುಕತೆ ಶುರುವಾಯಿತು, ಜತೆಗೆ ಉಪ್ಪಿಟು ಮತ್ತೆ ಗುಲಾಬ್ ಜಾಮೂನು ಕೊಟ್ಟರು ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗು. ಉಪ್ಪಿಟ್ಟು ಮಾತ್ರ ತುಂಬಾನೇ ಚೆನ್ನಗಿತ್ತು. ಇನ್ನೊಂಸತಿ ಹಾಕಿಸ್ಕೊಳ್ಳನ ಅನ್ನುಸ್ತು ಆದರೆ ಯಾಕೆ ಸುಮ್ನೆ ಅಂತ ಹಾಕಿಸ್ಕೊಳ್ಲಿಲ. ದೊಡ್ಡವರೆಲ್ಲ ಮಾತನಾಡಿದ ನಂತರ ಹುಡಗಿಯ ಜತೆ ಮಹಡಿ ಮೇಲೆ ಏಕಾಂತದಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾತನಾಡಲು ಕಳಿಸಿಕೊಟ್ಟರು. 

ಸುಮಾರು ಏಳು ಗಂಟೆ ಆಗಿತ್ತು ನಾನು ಅವಳನ್ನು ಬೇಟಿ ಆಗುವ ಹೊತ್ತಿನಲ್ಲಿ . ನನಗೆ ಇದು ಹೊಸದೇನು ಆಗಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ ಅದರಿಂದ ನಾನು ಅರಾಮಾಗಿದ್ದೆ ಆದರೆ ಅವಳಿಗೆ ಈ ತರಹದ ಅನುಭವ ಆಗಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಅವಳು ಕೇವಲ ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತೆರಡು ವರ್ಷದ ಹುಡುಗಿ. ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ತಿಂಗಳ ಮುಂಚೆ ತಾನೆ ಇಂಜಿನಿಯರಿಂಗ್ ಮುಗಿಸಿದ್ದಳು. ಅವಳ ಕಾಲೇಜಿಗೆ ಮೊದಲ ರಾಂಕ್ ತೆಗದಿದ್ದಳಂತೆ(ಮೆಕ್ಯಾನಿಕಲ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ). ಅವಳ ಏಕೈಕ ಬಯಕೆ ಮುಂದೆಓದುವದು ಎಂದುತಿಳಿದುಬಂತು. ಅವಳ ತಂದೆ ಆರೋಗ್ಯಸ್ತಿತಿ ಹದಗೆಟ್ಟಕಾರಣ ಮದುವೆ ಆಗಲು ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಂಡಿದಳು. ನನ್ನ ಮುಂದೆ ಇದ್ದಾಗ ಅವಳು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಭಯದಿಂದ ಮಾತಾಡಲು ಶುರುಮಾಡಿದಳು. ಅವಳ ಮಾತು ಮತ್ತೆ ವರ್ತನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಗ್ದತೆ ಎದುಕಾಣುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಆವಳ ಆತಂಕವನ್ನು ಕಡಿಮೆ ಮಾಡಲು ನಾನು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಹಾಸ್ಯ ಮಾಡಲು ಶುರುಹಚ್ಚಿಕೊಂಡೆ. ಅವಳಿಗೆ ನಾನು ಮಾಡಿದ ಎಲ್ಲ ಹಾಸ್ಯವು ಕೂಡಲೇ ಆರ್ಥವಾಗಿ ನಕ್ಕಿದಳು. ಅದಾದ ನಂತರ ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮ ವಿಚಾರಗಳನ್ನು ಕೂಡ ಮಾತಾನಾಡಿದೆವು. ಸುಮಾರು ಒಂದುಗಂಟೆ ಕಾಲ ಮಾತಾಡಿದನಂತರ ಕೆಳಗೆ ಇಳಿದು ಬಂದೆವು. 

ನಾನು ಅನ್ದಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಕಿಂತ ಚೆನ್ನಗೇನೂ ಆಯಿತು, ಆದರೆ ಹುಡಗಿಯ ಮನೆಯವರು ನನ್ನ ಮತ್ತು ಅವಳ ನಿರ್ದಾರವನ್ನು ತಿಳಿಯಲು ಸ್ವಲ್ಪ ಆತುರುದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದ್ದರು. ಹುಡಗಿಯ ಅಣ್ಣ ದುಬೈಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಡುತಿದ್ದರು. ಅವರಿಗೆ ತಂಗಿ ಮಾದುವೆ ನಿಶ್ಚಿತ ಮಾಡಿ ಹೋಗ ಬೇಕೆಂಬ ಬಯಕೆ ಇತ್ತು. ನನಗೆ ಅಷ್ಟು ಕಡಿಮೆ ಸಮಯದಲ್ಲಿ ನಿರ್ದಾರ ಮಾಡುವುದು ಸೂಕ್ತ ಅನಿಸಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಆದರೆ ಬೆರೆ ದಾರಿಕೂಡ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಇಲ್ಲ ಅನ್ನುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಯಾವಕಾರಣವು ಮನಸ್ಸಿಗೆ ಬರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಅವತ್ತು ಏನು ನಿರ್ದರಮಾಡದೆ ಮಲಗಿಕೊಂಡೆ. ಮಾರನೇ ದಿನ ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ಎದಮೇಲೆ "ಇದೂ ಆಗಿಹೋಗಲಿ" ಅಂದಿಕೊಂಡು ನಮ್ಮ ಮನೆಯೆಲ್ಲಿ ಯೆಲ್ಲರಿಗು ನನ್ನ ಒಪ್ಪಿಗೆಯನ್ನು ಹೇಳಿದೆ. ಅದಾದನಂತರ ನಮ್ಮ ಅಪ್ಪ ಮತ್ತು ಅಮ್ಮನ ಸಂತಸಕ್ಕೆ ಹುಡಗಿ ಮನೆಯವರಿಂದಲೂ ಒಪ್ಪಿಗೆಯೆಂದು ತಿಳಿದು ಬಂತು. ಈ ರೀತಿಯಾಗಿ ನಾನು ಕೂಡ ಸಂಸಾರ ಬಂದನಕ್ಕೆ ಬೇಳಲಿದ್ದೇನೆ. ಮುಂದೆ ಯೇನು ಆಗತ್ತೆ ಅಂತ ಮುಂದಿನ ಲೇಖನದಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿವ್ರಂತೆ, ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು.

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(೧) http://isiganesh.blogspot.in/2012/10/about-getting-married.html

(೨) http://isiganesh.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/marriage/

     

the trip!

A post that I was unable to finish for more than a year. Finally completed it today, here it is: 

It all started with a Facebook update (July '12):

"Hey, this update is regarding a trip to Himachal or Nepal or Uttarakhand or some such fancy place - which I'm super keen in undertaking this August. I'd say a hitchhiking to make it sound a little adventures - though the idea is to make the trip super economical. One more thing I'd say is to plan very little or not at all plan for anything - full on ad-hoc basis. As of now I'm going alone - if you like the idea, and also feel like joining the expedition, then feel free to let me know." (1)

Hari (my close pal and also colleague) and I wanted to blow off steam from our work, which took great deal of our attention for nearly ten months. I wanted to do this trip no matter what. Thankfully, Hari also agreed to do the trip and the crazy facebook post did attract my two friends, Christell and Amit. They both were ready  to join however they were very particular in doing the hitchhiking in Nepal alone. So Nepal it was.

It was 3rd August 2012. We (Hari and I) were about to leave our respective places in an hours time to the railway station and we got a call from a lady who represented a technology multi-national company that had helped us by providing the hardware and software for our business. She wanted to know if  Hari or I could speak in an international conference in Austin, Texas given an opportunity. We both told her that we were leaving to Nepal to take a break from work. Though she wanted one of us to change our plan, that is to stay back in Bangalore, but at the same time she wasn't sure if the plan to invite us will be confirmed. She told us to consider it as an urgent request and make it to Austin if confirmed. Besides, Hari didn't have a US VISA where as I had one (thanks to GE - my previous employer) and the conference was in less than four days time. So it was me who was suppose to make the decision of staying back in Bangalore or not. I told her that I'll not stay back in Bangalore since it was too short notice and can't take a chance in missing the Nepal trip. I also told her that we will be traveling to Kolkota by train and in case the invitation gets confirmed then I'll try to take a flight to Austin from there itself.

My best friends, Vinod, Vinayendra and Rakesh, had come over to my place to convey their best wishes for the trip when I was leaving my place. With all the apprehensions till that last minute we, that is, Amit, Christell, Hari and I started our journey from Bangalore railway station. We were pretty lucky to get the tickets to Kolkota that too in sleeper berth considering the fact that we all decided to do the trip to Nepal in less than a weeks time. The journey to Kolkota was fun. We had lots of fun discussion while pulling each others leg. I also got many calls from the US regarding the conference but unfortunately I wasn't able to speak to them continuously even for a short duration as the mobile network coverage was very intermittent and also the mobile phone battery was getting drained. Finally the invitation to speak at that conference got confirmed  after a chat with the organizers of the event and I accepted to speak at the event. I knew that it was an opportunity that will not come often and at the same time I didn't want to miss the Nepal trip. I told Hari, Amit and Christell that I would some how try to join them at Nepal even if I miss the significant part of the trip.

Since I didn't have access to internet nor continues mobile coverage in the train, my close pal, Vinod did all the talking and mailed my details, such as passport number and other personal details, with the people from that company once the plan to US got confirmed . When I reached Kolkota all that I had to inform was my flight plan to that company's travel coordinator. The invitation to stay in the US was for one week which included food and accommodation. Initially I was tempted to stay in the US for the whole week but in that case I'd have missed the complete hitchhiking trip that I desperately wanted to do for so long. As giving that talk in that forum was the most important activity of my visit to the US, I got the return tickets booked just after the day of my talk, which meant that my stay in the US was confined to less than 3 days. I didn't think much about it once I got the tickets booked as I knew that I'd be making a lot of overseas travel as part of my work in the future.

Though I made the decision to fly to the US in no time, my preparation for the trip was absolutely zero. Thanks to my friend (lab mate from IISc) in Kolkota, Madhurima and her husband Nirupam for their kind help, without them I wouldn't have done any shopping before leaving the country. It was my first trip outside Asia and second trip outside India. I must say that there was little apprehension before I left Kolkota as I didn't have the print out of the air tickets and the invitation letter, and to my bad luck all the browsing centers were closed near the airport since it was a Sunday. Anyway, I later learnt from a friend that all I needed was the PNR number of the flight and getting a ticket printed at the airport is no brainier. As there weren't appropriate flights from Kolkota, I had to take a flight to Bombay and from there to Frankfurt and from there to Washington airport at Dulles. After arriving at Dulles I had to kill nearly six hours to board a flight to Austin.

A lady from the security department at Washington airport informed me about a famous museum which was near to the airport. I got deeply thrilled about visiting the museum when she told that I should be able to see it and still safely board the flight to Austin. With the help of other airport officials I could figure out the logistics to the museum and I did visit. It eventually turned out that my visit to Smithsonian's National Air and Space museum was the only significant place I could see during my trip to the US. The time spent at the museum was great, as an engineer who had worked in aviation industry for some time I could appreciate the technological advancement in the field. There were space shuttles, aircrafts, missiles, gliders and many more. I also saw the first generation computers used in the flight management and control system that was displayed over there - remember UNIVAC (any computer science geeks reading this post)?

I did reach Austin without much difficulty. It was little funny during the check in and check out of luggage at various airports as I had this tent, sleeping bag and other trekking gears with me through out the trip. Thankfully the immigration department didn't ask me the reason behind it. The company which had sponsored my complete trip to the US had arranged a cab at the airport to the hotel as well. I was pretty excited when I reached the hotel. It was a five star hotel. It was the first time in my life I was staying in such a posh hotel. I tried my best to take great advantage of the facilities provided in the hotel, I started off with the telephone. I made a three hour long phone call to a good friend in Michigan and only when I left the hotel I figured out that making phone calls weren't part of the deal.

Next day morning I went to the conference location, that is Austin convention center. I had a nice breakfast and met people from that company with whom I had earlier interacted as part of work. There were thousands of people from all over the world attending the mega annual event organized by the company. There were people from Industries, academia, government setups, media and what not. After attending the key note by the CEO of that company I got in touch with two ladies who offered to assist me for my talk which was scheduled the next day morning. I prepared the presentation in one of their laptops, which didn't take much time as all the stuff I wanted for the presentation were stored in the web  - all thanks to google mail and dropbox. I discussed the content with one more lady who was in charge of the event in which I was a speaker. She didn't alter the content much but told me clearly to wrap up the talk in seven minutes. She also directed me to a video interview the very same day. The interview was good fun. The two american ladies asked me many questions which were related to my work and the business that I managed and co-founded. I candidly answered all the questions, the best part was that they didn't influence me or prompt me, they just recorded what ever I said. It was for about twenty minutes. Some months back I saw a minute video that was made from that interview to promote a social initiative by the company in the developing countries, perhaps you can consider watching the video (2). The day ended with me having dinner at a posh restaurant with the India team of that company.

I got up at around 8'O clock on the day of my talk. I was suppose to speak at 11 PM hence I wasn't in any rush. I glanced through the print out of my presentation while having my breakfast in the hotel where I was put up. I did think about the journey that I had taken to reach the point where I was sitting. I did remember the time when I was slipping while pursuing my entrepreneurial dream. I also remembered the time I left my job at GE, a big MNC where I was having a safe and neat career. I felt damn good. I didn't have to give a dazzling presentation to impress the crowd as I had a story to tell which itself was fairly interesting. However confident I thought I was, the truth was that I did become little nerves when I actually went to speak. I started of my talk with the statement " Hello, I'm doing this for the first time. Please have a smile on your face so that I feel comfortable while I go through this". The whole crowd laughed at it - that acknowledgement was a very positive feeling and I nearly cracked the talk then alone. In fact they did like my story, my sense of humor and most importantly my passion for work. I ended the speech (3) by saying " 400 million Indians are deprived of electricity. It's a concern as a countryman and opportunity as an engineer". There were nearly two hundred and odd people in the hall and many came over to congratulate me after the event. I knew that I had done quite a lot of grammatical mistakes in my speech and didn't distribute my time efficiently but what I cared and what mattered was that I did present it as a story of a dreamer who had a real desire to do things for a worthy cause. After the talk I got pictures (4) with dignitaries present there which included Sir Robert Swan - the first man to go to both the north and the south pole. It was awesome to meet such people. After the event I didn't want to talk to anyone or meet any one, I just wanted to enjoy the moment with myself. I can't really articulate how I felt at that time.

I spent the rest of my time at the conference by checking out the exhibition area where there was a grand display of amazing engineering systems. I got a chance to talk to some of the level headed engineers from across the globe who had built robots, medical equipments, earth movers, aerospace machinery and other fascinating stuff. Since I was leaving to India next day I thought of checking out some places near the hotel. Though my initial plan was to cycle around Austin downtown, thankfully, I found some guys, from the conference with whom I had dinner previous night. They were going to a place called Congress avenue bridge which was on the Colorado river that flows on the middle of the Austin city. The interesting thing about that bridge is that about one million Mexican Free-Tailed Bats live there. These bats migrate to Mexico in the winter and spend the rest of the year below the bridge. We could see these birds flying in huge number once it became dark.

Meanwhile I had got updates from my friends, Hari, Amit and Christell, with whom I was going to Nepal. Hari had mailed me about the place they were staying. They apparently had a crazy hitching hiking experience from Kolkota to Kathmandu while I was traveling to the west. They decided to camp at a place called Pokhra as suggested by the Nepali localities. I mailed him back about my return to India and subsequently to Nepal. I was looking forward to join them at the earliest.        

My last day in the US wasn't of any importance as I had nothing in specific to do or visit. It had all worked out fine. It so happened that the maximum money spent in the US was on phone calls and I came to know of it only when I was checking out from my hotel room in the morning. I was left with just two dollars when I left the hotel. Thankfully there was a cab arranged by the company to the airport. When I entered the airport I had only one dollar as I gave the other dollar as a tip to the driver who did a neat job. My return journey to India wasn't much different from my journey to the US. I reached New Delhi airport in the middle of the night (at about 1AM). I called my home and also my friends - luckily they were awake or got up to pick the call. 

The second episode of this trip wasn't less exciting, must say reaching Pokhra in Nepal itself was sort of an adventure. Here goes the short description of the Nepal escapade.   

Fortunately I got a flight to Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, at an affordable price from New Delhi by around six in the morning and reached safely in a few hours. The immigration check hardly asked for the passport and didn't bother to even check the luggage - anyway I didn't face trouble until I got out of the airport. Kathmandu people were observing road transportation strike that day. It was almost impossible for me to reach Pokhra that day and I was planning to stay at Kathmandu, but then I came to know about the flight service between Kathmandu and Pokhra. After lots of running around and bargaining I some how managed to get a seat in a 10-seater small airplane. I really enjoyed sitting next to a window in that small airplane which maneuvered in the sky like a bird and that too at a fairly low altitude - I could see hills, people, houses and valleys so clearly. It was spectacular! 

Meeting Hari, Amit and Christell at Pokhra was very delightful and felt very nice to keep up with the promise of joining back in spite of all the temptations of staying back for some more days in the land of opportunities (read: America). For next three days we did the Ghorepani trek in the Annapurna region to reach the peak of Phoon hill. We saw the beautiful Mt. Annapurna (8091m) and Mt. Dhaulagiri (8167m) from Phoon hill top. The view was extraordinary. Hope some day I climb these mountains which are considered as tough as climbing Mt. Everest. I'll not be able articulate the beauty of the place, you can check the pictures which is pasted in the bottom of this post (5). We even managed to go to Lumbini, the birth place of Gautama Buddha after the three day trek. We got cycles to roam around the place and see Buddhist monasteries setup by various nations. The Mayadevi temple, the exact birth place of Buddha, was a peaceful place to spend some quality time. We took the Sunauli (near Ghorakpur) route by bus to reach India and later managed to get a train to Delhi from Ghorakpur (in Uttar Pradesh). The train journey from Delhi to Bangalore shall always be remembered for innumerable card games we played and all the funny names we kept as a penalty for losing the games. It was helluva fun I must say!       

Well, I still can't believe the universe choose all these events to happen in a span of fifteen days but yeah I'm certainly glad that I did have a role to play in making it happen.  

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(1) The FB post led to a lot of interaction, people started asking me lot of questions on travel and logistics for which one of my response was something like this: 

""Here is the rough idea: Lets say we get a train to Culcutta or Delhi. If we choose Delhi, then we shall check out for buses and trains available to places where there are mountains and valleys. Let say there are tickets available to Shimla and Uttarkashi. Assume, I prefer Uttarkashi and you prefer Shimla then we have two options, either to toss a coin or I go to Uttarkashi and you to Shimla. Lets say we go for tossing the coin and you win. According to your choice, we'll reach Shimla. Then lets talk to people there and find out places there and then perhaps leave to a place where we can do some trekking or mounting climbing or river crossing or any fancy adventure, if both of us find it interesting. When we are there if we hear about another place very close and tempting then lets go there as well. As per cash, I prefer keeping money aside for train tickets and rest not much at all, I don't mind begging for shelter/food/transport there - if in case thr is some way to make money there I don't mind spending a day on it. As per time, when we really miss doing the work we do for our living then lets return back. With this info, I leave you to do the math on the budget and the duration. so what say boy?" 

(after seeing this comment not many wished to join though many liked the comment )

(2) Planet NI Video interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn0QOSTsGJQ

(3) My talk at Austin, Texas 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m99BDbaWko8

(4) The US trip Pictures: 

https://picasaweb.google.com/106423175487235708924/TheUSTrip12NIWeekConference?authkey=Gv1sRgCLiKttTy3-GblwE

(5) Nepal trip Pictures:

https://picasaweb.google.com/106423175487235708924/Nepal12?authkey=Gv1sRgCP-T39mU6IeBOQ#

That bag...

My colleagues and I've been working on a pretty ambitious project at our lab for last few months. We were all set to do the field testing at our customer location after completing most of the development effort at the lab. We decided to take an auto rickshaw to carry our equipments and our laptops. The previous evening we had transported and installed other bulky stuff associated to the project. When we went to the auto stand none of the auto drivers were interested to come to the destination we wanted to go. I must tell you that in Bangalore getting an auto which takes you to the place you want to go is not an easy thing. These auto drivers are not just choosy but sometimes they charge extra money depending on the location. Compared to previous instances when we went by auto, this time we were luckily to find an auto in little less time and he was ready to take us to our destination at the actual cost. 

The driver maneuvered his auto in such a way that the meter reading indicated little lesser count compared to my previous visits to the location and I also felt that he took little less time. When I paid him I didn't quite demand the five rupee change which he was suppose to give me back as I could sense that he would have struggled to find the change and also because I thought he was worthy of tip, in appreciation for the neat service. Anyway before splitting I thanked him by gesturing a hand salute, which is my standard practice when ever I get a good or not so bad service from somebody. 

A few minutes after getting into the premises of our customer location I realized that I forgot to take the bag that we had kept behind the seat in that auto rickshaw, which had some equipments related to the project that we were undertaking. I quickly ran towards the gate to check for the auto and searched around. He wasn't around. I checked with other auto drivers there, they said that he left a minute ago. I went around looking for him with some hope of finding him, especially did an extensive search near a near-by temple. After looking around for more than half an hour I requested the security at the customer location to inform me if they ever come across any auto driver in look out to return a "black colour Adidas bag" filled with engineering equipments and electric gadgets. At first I was little apprehensive about the immediate consequence of losing that bag but after having a detailed discussion with my two colleagues I decided to procure the necessary components required for the project execution immediately. I did think that there was a possibility of getting back the bag but then I knew it was a sparse chance. I inferred the loss was at least worth five thousand (thankfully). I was also relived of the fact that the bag didn't contain components that we had imported from the US. And I did shop that evening.

After careful investigation I figured that we had lost lot more than we thought yet I could somehow move on from that incedent. We were back in project execution mode the next day. In midst of my work I got a call from an unknown number who spoke in local language (Kannada). Here is the rough translation of the conversation:

Me: Hello?

Unknown: Who is the person that I'm speaking to? 

Me: I presume you should know as you are the one who has called. 

Unknown: Actually I wish to know your identity before going ahead with the conversation.

(I was pissed-off after listening to his words.  Many times I cut the call if I think it is a wrong number but this time I did't,  instead tried to ridicule him for testing my patience when I was in the middle of some important work)

Me: Who ever you are, I hope you didn't type some arbitrary number on your phone to check if your mobile works fine for the numbers that you haven't stored - or you just like having fun in killing other people's valuable time! 

Unknown: I have a bag with me and I found it in my auto rickshaw.

(Oh that was utterly shocking and I was embarrassed at the same time for the reproachful remark I had made)

Me: I'm really sorry Sir. Thank you, thank you for calling me. I can't say how happy I'm talking to you. Please tell me how I can collect that bag from you. 

We discussed about the logistics of him returning that bag and as you could infer, that I was very happy for the fact he considered returning it back. He informed me that he found my company's rubber stamp in the bag which had my mobile number at the bottom of the seal. I knew that we had lost the company's rubber stamp as well in the bag and also thought that there was a chance but to be honest I didn't quite believe that it could work out this way. He also told me that he went around an apartment thinking that a person from there could have left it. He told me that he saw it much later in the day hence didn't think it was ours. I appreciated his efforts. I was all set to collect my bag near my place the next day, which was yesterday.

I got up little late yesterday and the first thing I did was calling that auto driver. He told me that he will come near my place in twenty minutes. I decided to pay him at least the money he spent for coming to my place from where he was and also for doing some search in returning the bag. I with drew four hundred rupees from the ATM and then met him near the auto stand. I again thanked him and also invited him to have a cup of coffee with me at my place or in some restaurant. He wasn't keen in having coffee or tea. He started explaining me the places he went to return my bag. He described his failed attempts in going around the place with details and what all he tried to do in ensuring the owner gets the bag. They seemed genuine. I finally asked him the money that I should pay in order to compensate for all the loses he had incurred. He looked at my face and told me to pay eight hundred rupees. I was surprised as it was certainly on the higher side of my expectation, though I must say that I would paid him even more if he had demanded. I requested him to take me to the nearest ATM so that I could with draw some more money to pay him. He went on to tell his family problems and about the money that he had to spend for his children's education and few other things till we reached the ATM. I gave him the money and also collected that bag. He insisted on checking the bag before he left but I didn't wish to do so.       

When I entered the lab with the bag in my hand I had a big smile on my face as though I achieved something in life. I gave the bag to one of my colleagues who had loaded the equipments the other day. I told all my three  colleagues about the auto driver and the things that happened in detail. I didn't initially tell them that he demanded eight hundred rupees as I wanted every one to appreciate his actions full-heartedly though I wasn't myself somehow fully convinced that he returned the bag with genuine interest. After checking the bag my colleague told me that some tools and some water pipe accessories were missing. In fact those were the only stuff that was in someway useful to normal people as rest of the stuff in the bag was no way useful (very project related stuff). The missing stuff weren't expensive. My two other colleagues started discussing the matter. At that time I seriously started doubting that auto drives intentions behind returning that bag to me, however for some unknown reason (that I have to figure out with myself) I didn't want them to think in those lines, hence I commented "Guys, there is no end to judging people..."