Aman's Blog....

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...

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 list...

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.

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 ...

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 ques...

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!

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. 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...

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...

I wanted to sit and write this post from last few days but somehow, I just couldn’t mint my words. I was(and still am) just so lost that what should I write, what I can say! How can I express that how so ashamed, so frustrated I am feeling to see what is going on to the women, to the gals in my country, to express my anger to what has happened to a 23 old girl on 16th December 2012 , in the national capital Delhi? I believe , no words are ever going to be enough when you have to express sadness and that’s exactly what’s my state of mind is right now. I have chosen always not to mention anything bad but I believe, today it’s high time to speak about some facts, some bitter and horrifying facts about the sorry state of India! No matter what anyone would say but this world is still is a male dominated society, where women is not really considered or looked upon as an equal partner or citizen when the comparison of her is with her male counterpart, doesn’t matter what! And in the same wa...

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 Mum...

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 , actua...

I just finished my last session here at Singapore. It was a really hectic and tensed tour for me as I had to deliver 3 sessions and that too without any breaks in-between, including the weekend. And not just this, out of the 3, two of the sessions were going to be my first-teach sessions which means, I was going to deliver them for the very first time. And just to make things more difficult, I hadn’t gotten the time to prepare for those two modules before so I had to sit and prepare for them while I was delivering them. Not something so easy to do, let me tell you that! Though my weekend class went off well and I got a very good score( actually got 100% rating), the session of Monday started with tons of issues, right in the beginning of it. First the environment that was required didn’t get done completely due to which, I couldn’t set up the microphone and the webcam which I needed for the session. Second, this was not just going to be the first time teach of the module but this tim...

<<Rant started>> I just finished a session yesterday but this weekend, I am again in a session which would last for 2 days. This makes it 7 days of continuous talking but that’s not all. I have another session starting from this Monday as well. Life can be very hard at times, trust me, very very hard! <<Rant ended>>

I haven’t written anything from last couple of days. There were too many things going on, festivals, being sick, traveling to an overseas location(Singapore where I am right now) and not to mention the pressure of preparing two completely new modules , one of which is starting tomorrow-yes on a weekend. There is at least one thing that I want to definitely share, something on which I am quite proud about and also happy but that’s for the next post. This one is about Milo that I am having right now and in fact, I do drink a lot whenever I am at either Singapore or Malaysia. Now you must be wondering what’s so special about Milo eh? Well, nothing! There isn’t anything special about it per se. It is what it is, just a drink and I do have it a lot when I am here in this part of the world as here, its available as one of the options in the coffee machines that are available in the pantry area. For me, its a nice change to have it because normally , I shall either have a cup of tea or cof...

Those who are regular here and do comment on the posts, must be aware that I had enabled the options of both comment-moderation and anonymous commenting. Now, I have no issues in getting anonymous comments but I have a serious issue with getting spam anonymous comments and this had increased in the last couple of weeks a lot! So despite that I didn’t wish to, I have disabled the ability of people to post comments being anonymous. If you do want to post a comment, you MUST mention your name from now on. After some time, I shall again re-enable the anonymous commenting option to see how much spam comments come and if they would be reduced in number, I shall let the option stay. For now, no more being anonymous here! Update Well, I wont mention why but I am going to re-enable the anonymous comments. It’s my blog and I have all the rights to do whatever I wish to with it!

I haven’t written anything since last couple of days and it wasn’t because there wasn’t anything to tell but because, I just couldn’t find myself strong enough to share things. Today, I finally have gathered myself and decided to write this post. Its Sunday and there is nothing much for me to do, at least not for today. I am not sure that how many of you did remember that this is that unfortunate month, October in which last year, I lost my dad. That date, 9th October is now marked on my heart and I can’t even begin to explain how much tough this time is for me and for my family. This was the first death anniversary of my dad. How crazy are the names of the days? A day when I lost my best friend, a pillar of my strength, got broken into hundred of pieces inside which would never be able to put together,that damn day is considered as anniversary! And my mother, she is just been sad and broken, far more than me and my sister too I believe. She didn’t cry much-actually me and my sister ...

You are having fever , you are faarr away from your home and have to work. That’s pretty much the state of mine at the moment. I reached India the other day after finishing the two sessions on a good note. I was hopeful that I shall be able to pull through this current tour of mine as well but it seems that it won’t be a very smooth sailing to pass it through. The traveling itself was very tough and in some ways, scary and just when I thought, all is over, I fell sick. If you know me personally or from this blog, you must be aware that I travel a lot for my work. And if you are reading this, it certainly means that I am still alive :=) . But this time, the flight experience was not so good. The first shock came from the Bangkok Airways . It was not a very long flight and it started of well too. But just when the flight was about to land and started the descend , there came a spine chilling feeling. The pilot, for god-knows-only reason was not making the flight descend by lifting up...

Traveling is one big part of the work that I do and I do a LOT of travel, both domestic and international. People ask me that isn’t it not exhausting and the answer to that is, it surely is but its a lot of fun too-at least most of the times. Some times, the fun part changes to pain and tension and this time, I experienced the tension side of the travel. I am at the moment at Phnom Penh and this is my second visit to the place. Last trip proved to started of on a bumpy note with my luggage hung at the Bangkok airport itself. If you are a regular, you might have read about it already. If not, you can read about it all from here . The good thing was, the tour, overall proved to be a good one and also the place and people are very nice. Yes, food can be(is) a problem if you are a vegetarian but that’s also not a big issue as there are plenty of Indian food joints which you can visit. Anyways, all things said and done, I got back from the tour and finally, had a big sigh of relief when ...

I thought that I shall write about my travel related issue first. But just now I read a quote over Twitter and I decided to share it right away. A girl's laugh is much more cheerful than a boy . A boy's tear is much more meaningful than girl's tear . If you are a girl reading this, you won’t ever be in agreement with the statement but its true, believe it or not! Its not very easy for us, guys to cry but when we do, its only because the pain has gone beyond the limits of tolerance. I just remember this old song which says all that can be said about the tears of a guy. Its a song from Eden Kane which is of the same title, Boys Cry! Below is the link to the song and its lyrics, And here are its lyrics, Boys cry when no one can see them When no one can see them cry No one can see them cry Boys cry when their hearts are broken When their hearts are broken by Someone who says "Goodbye" When a boy gets hurt by a girl Hi...

At times, its just so tough to finish a job, even when you have done the same job many many times before. There could be many reasons for the job to be tough but the end result still comes out to be that you end up feeling like dead after getting done with the day. The same happened with me in this week when I entered in the session of mine. The delegates didn’t want to listen to just the course contents but also wanted something “extra”-a demand which is very hard to meet! I always wonder when delegates enter into the session and mention that the course for which they have come, is not a good course and they want to know more than what the book is talking about. From an end-user point of view, I can imagine and to a certain extent, I can even be agreed to the sentiment but from a practical point of view and from my side, its not possible always to meet such demand-especially when you didn’t know about it before(which also didn’t have helped much). There can be a lot that can be aske...