@Rustic-RIT-Rochester Series : Coincidence

After spending 10 days with my brother and family, finally I headed to my destination Rochester Institute of Technology, NY. When I left India, there were mix feelings, on one side there was pain of leaving my parents, sisters & Priya and at the same time excitement of exploring new horizons, pitches in a completely new world. But after landing to San Francisco and staying with my brother, Rajas, jayrath and bhabhi, I really couldn’t get a time think about all these things.

But on 17th night, when I said bbye to the kids and bhau, it again resurfaced. During that whole journey, I was in a confused state about my decision of getting out of Comfort Zone. First I quit my job @ Symantec then instead of applying & or selecting admits from Universities closer San Francisco, I went with RIT admit which at other side of USA and from my brother.

And then when I take out my Apple iPod (courtesy to Nilesh Mune from Pune), this was the song first song which played on it. Long time back a dear friend of mine, posted this song on blog while leaving from India. At that time, I couldn’t completely understand what that feeling is all about. It took me a year to know the real meaning of it. While listening to it, I slowly came out of that depression and when I opened the Window @ above 8000ft, it started to dawn…. Peace :-)

All about 3 R's : @Rustic-RIT-Rochester

From last 6 months and for next 1 year, my life was/is/will be in and around of these 3 R’s : Rustic RIT Rochester. So all the upcoming posts will be about my past-present-future related to these the R’s.

In US of A

On last Wednesday, August 6th 2008, I landed up in United States of America. It was a process which lasted for over a year. Handling lots of issues, situations, concerns...

Life got completely changed during this course. When it all started I was a happy individual soul working uni-directionally towards my professional goals and now at this point m More Happy & Lucky to be a committed - engaged Grad Student... Commitment towards my professional goals as well as towards my love :-)

I will be honest with everyone over here. I really didn't find USA as a fascinating nation. I mean, yeah infrastructure wise its Simply Awesome like wide roads, clean air, parks and mall... But from where I came from, these things are now becoming part of life over there too. Only thing I liked in last 5 days is, The Much Talked California Weather :). On very first day, the watch was showing 8.30PM and it was sunny outside. This will never happen in India. A long day gives you a chance to spend some time for you and your family...

More to continue...

Taking Liberties

While watching a documentary called "Taking Liberties", at the end of it following words of Thomas Jefferson were displayed on screen. How true they are even in 21st century...

When the people fear the government
There is tyranny
When the government fears the people
There is liberty

If you get a chance, do watch this documentary.

Symantec Makes into Fortune 500

Symantec has surely and steadily entered the big league of Fortune 500 companies. From 672 in 2006, the ranking climbed to 515 last year. And this year, taking a quantum jump, Symantec has acquired the coveted 461 position. This is the first time, Symantec has made to this list. AP and CNBC have both covered the Fortune 500 list and mentioned Symantec as the new addition to the list this year.

The Fortune magazine ranks companies by 12 indices, including revenues; profits; assets; stockholders' equity; market value; profits as a percentage of revenues, assets, and stockholders' equity; earnings per share growth over a 10-year span; total return to investors in the year; and the 10-year annual rate of total return to investors. The list is valued by a number of financial groups, investors and academic and business researchers who look to these companies to learn about best practices across industries and discover the secrets to their business and financial success.

Snapshot of Symantec’s ranking in other areas:
Profits: Symantec ranks 305
Stockholder Equity: Symantec ranks 109
Total Return to Investors: Symantec ranks 352

There was also a ranking by industry and Symantec stood third (out of three companies included) on the computer software industry list. Click on http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2008/snapshots/11073.html to know more.

Cheers..........

Last week the Quarterly awards were announced in Symantec Corporation. And Yes, you guessed it right :-) I have been rewarded for my dedication, efforts and pro-activeness with A++ award. This is one of the top most category of the award in Symantec. Posting some of the comments made by the management :

From My Manager:
Manodeep very quickly picked up required domain knowledge and contributed on commitments for CCS/ER. He handled part of SF stack testing for CCS and bunch of critical deliverables on Enterprise Reporter front. He thrives hard to test product in a customer like environment and hence took up an initiative to deploy and test CC in Storage Foundations Lab.

From the Management:
Manodeep very quickly picked up on CCS/ER domain knowledge after joining and delivered on commitments super-fast. He handled part of SF stack testing for CCS and bunch of critical deliverables on Enterprise Reporter front. Manodeep has shown interest and accordingly taken up additional responsibility in Agentless testing of CCS.

'A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure'

Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam : 'A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure'

IndiaKnowledge@Wharton: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.

BLACK FRIDAY

Today, i received my first reject. :- Before applying there, I knew that, I am getting too ambitious for that position. My qualifications are just below to their standards, but if Luck would played it's role, I would have make 100% of it.

A dear friend called me immediately after hearing the news and played the role of mentor. A year back, I was in that role, asking her to keep her hopes high :-) .

I was just settling down with this shock and then another friend called up to inform that His new born son is no more :-(. I am still trying to overcome from this second shock. I have seen that couple, struggling their way to get married, to get settle down. And when everything fall in place, their wait for 1st child came to tragic end. I really don't know, in what words I should be ask him to get over and move on. This rose is for that past soul. May he rest in peace.....

Old Saying

What Goes Around,

Comes Around !!!

One should always remember these lines... Nothing more to say :)

Friends

Lead India - Video 1

New Year & Sagittarus

As the 2008 has started, its time for seeing those Horoscope mails in the inbox. Some with Sun-signs, some with Cards, some based on Numerology. Today I received one similar mail and the below was the description for Sagittarus - suits to me :-) . There was one similar post in past http://manodeeps.blogspot.com/2006/04/december-baby.html , its fun to read about yourself, people's predictions and all. If i received more such mails and contents will copy it here.


SAGITTARIUS - The Promiscuous One Spontaneous. High appeal. Rare to find. Great when found. Loves being in long relationships. So much love to give. Not one to mess with. Very pretty. Very romantic. Nice to everyone they meet. Their Love is one of a kind. Silly, fun and sweet. Have own unique appeal. Most caring person you will ever meet! Amazing in the you know where..!!! Not the kind of person you want to mess with- you might end up crying.

RangPanchamee

खुप दिवसानी मी परत मराठी पुस्तक वाचनाकडे वळलो. परवा "क्रासवर्ड" मध्ये गेलो होतो. तेव्हा अचानक वपुंच्या पुस्तकावर नजर पडली, "रंगपंचमी", माझ्या वाचनात हे पुस्तक कधी आलेच नव्हते. नवीन वर्षाची सुरुवात वपुंनी करायची असे ठरवुन ते विकत घेतले सुद्धा. घरी आल्यावर मात्र बूक रीडिंग करायचा उत्साह गेला, मागील २-३ दिवस झाले काम आणि वैयक्तिक आयुष्यातील घडामोडींमध्ये खुप जास्त गुरपटलो होतो. पण मग काल रात्री ठरवुन पुस्तक वाचायला घेतले. पहिली ५० पाने कधी संपली ते कळलेच नाही. या पुस्तका बद्दल आणी त्यात लिहिल्या लहान-मोठ्या गोष्टीं बद्दल लिहीनच, पण थोड्क्यात त्या पुस्तकाबद्द्ल वपु काय म्ह्नणतात ते त्यांच्याच शब्दात सांगतो

"रंगपंचमी साजरी होते ती त्यातील माणसांच्या उत्साही सहभागामुळे, विविध रंगांच्या उधळणीमुळे.
आयुष्यात वेगवेगळ्या टप्प्यांवर वेगवेगळी माणसे आपल्याला सामील होतात.
आपल्या आयुष्याला बहरायला, फुलायला, रंगबेरंगी करायलाही माणसेच हातभार लावतात; प्रत्येकाचे रंग निराळे,मग हे रंग कधी शहाणपणाचे असतात, कधी वेडेपणाचे,कधी उत्साहाचे; तर कधी नैराश्याचे. त्यांच्या आयुष्यातल्या छोट्या-छोट्या प्रसंगानी सजलेली ही 'रंगपंचमी'

कुठेतरी 'आपल्याही आयुष्यात असं घडलं होतं बरं का' असं म्हणायला लावते.

हसवते, खिन्नता आणते, विचारही करायला लावते."

अजुन बरेच काही लिहिन या पुस्तका बदद्ल, आज इथेच थांबतो.......

365 Days @ Symantec Corporation, Pune

How fast days and months passed, one year back when I joined Symantec, I was really not expecting so much from life. In last one year @ Symantec, I learned so many new things, techniques. This particular time span helped me a lot to shape up my career.

Overall I played a role in 2 major releases of SFM product lines with 181 bugs reporting before hand. This brought the reputation in a QA team and a nightmare for one of my developer buddy. Now days whenever I called him, his first line is “What I did wrong this time? J” poor soul…..

Attended many technical events organized by EMC, HP, Dell at various location. Those events helped me to get the insight into servers and storage hardware business. Earlier I used to overlook those things as mere platforms for software to work and to cater the needs. But the technology people are developing to improve the hardware performance, storage capacity and power efficiency is mind blowing. Our educational curriculum in India is not giving much importance to this particular part and India is lagging behind when it comes to hardware manufacturing. Let’s hope that this will change by 2020.

Being a part of startup (Ensim Corporation) and after that at Symantec, those 2 experiences taught me a lot about this overall software industry, business modules and processes. At Ensim my technical growth was horizontal; it was like working and understanding many things at a time and executing them. At Symantec, it’s the time to gain domain specific knowledge and become master.

Adios - 2007

2007 – A year will end in two days. I witnessed as well as became a part of many changes in my and my closer ones lives. I think this is one particular year which will remain there in back of my mind.

This 25th year of my life gave me more success than ever before in professional life. On very first day of 2007, I became a part of world’s 5 largest software company Symantec Corporation. It was a big leap in career after starting with a 5yr old startup. The experience and knowledge which I gain in Ensim, helped me to make this jump successful in all context. The professional life is going great, got a chance to work on a different product domain, Unix platform and mainly a whole new bunch of intelligent but equally friendly bunch of people. The past trend of rewarding my contribution continued in Symantec as well, with getting 2 whopping raises in a yr and my first ever promotion in career :-) . The professional path for 2008 is pretty much clearer in my mind, there are some road-blocks in it which I need to pass thro’ safely.

Its personal life which went under lots of turmoil, one of the most difficult times in everyone’s life is when their professional and personal life starts crossing the lines. This creates clashes in life, clashes with your parents, siblings and friends. If I can overcome on all this, I will be the real winner. I am aware of the fact that, sometimes you need to make Adjustments as per your love one’s wishes, you can’t completely ignore and negate their thoughts and expectations. If by doing so, I will be successful in my professional and personal path, I will be fooling none other than myself.

I always set some short term goals to reach to the ultimate target. Now at this point of time in life, one the ladder to this target is at stake. I am worried not about this missing ladder, its about the fact that, I need to re-write the entire plan and it will take some time. Success is there for sure, it can’t ditch me.

Wish You All A Happy, Prosperous & Wonderful New Year!!!