Hmm.. so, finally the week 31 of this year ends! Quite a busy week it was for me.. and energetic as well!

1. Had been to SP College on Tuesday to deliver a guest lecture on projects. Did not talk about how to choose the subject, as some other fellow talked about the same in last lecture. So, i just talked about few points including what is expected from post-grad project, how they should organize their project work, and few good practices to adopt.
2. On Wednesday we took swine flu preventive vaccine – one which is sprayed in your nostrils. This vaccine is 93-97% effective, and its effect lasts for around 1 year.
3. I was also supposed to review a legal document over these 2-3 days. Document was good enough, suggested a change and a couple of additions to make it full-proof (as per my belief).
4. Thursday was the most loaded day. Had some important outdoor work. A prospective client asked for chat at 11th hour. After an hour long chat session, was asked to do a small PoC this day itself and show it on Friday morning. So, as soon as I returned from outdoor work, quickly jumped onto this PoC and finished it by night.
5. Friday is comparatively less loaded. Have to demonstrate the PoC work to prospect, and few visits in the evening. Rest of the time is free to do other unplanned work.
6. Finally, video for this weekend! “Gata rahe mera dil” from movie “Guide”. Sung by the legends Kishor Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar.

Yesterday, I had been to Kolhapur and Nrusinhwadi (Narsobachi wadi). As it was raining in this region since last 15 days or so, almost every river here is flooded. The two major rivers – Panchaganga and Krishna are extremely flooded. Perhaps, by luck, it did not rain much yesterday. So the major roads are still untouched by the flood water.

I made a small, amateur video of this flood of Krishna river at Nrusinhwadi – embedded below.

In this video, you can see a circle of concrete with a tree inside, which is actually the temple of lord Datta. Usually we need to climb down 10-12 steps to reach this temple. I was standing on the top most step while shooting this video clip.

Today, me along with Gajanan and Swarup had been to Karla gad to seek Ekveera Devi darshan. Since last two days, its raining considerably in and around Pune. So, we were sure of a rainy trip. As expected, we were welcomed by a heavy rain which accompanied us almost all the way to the top. The weather, and natural scenery was awesome! We enjoyed a lot drenching in the rain and jumping in the water ponds.

Karla trip

I have uploaded some of the images clicked during this trip and have hosted them on Picasa. You can use this link or use the widget above to see the album.

LinkedIn is a very popular professional networking site. Almost every professional person is on LinkedIn, and so are the recruiters! For those, who have certain working experience, LinkedIn is pretty useful. Few students also using this service, but are very rarely active. While going through such a dead profile, I just thought how the students – especially the CS students can make use of this service to build their own resume, and to turn it into your complete timeline later. Lets see, as a CS student, how you can use LinkedIn to make most out of it.

Summary

If you think you have thorough understanding of some subject(s), for example, java programming, DBMS, software engineering practices, design patterns etc., mention it under this section. You can also mention your favorite subject or work area, like system programming, database administration etc. This way, any visitor to your profile will come to know your potential, favorite subject, and can think about where you can be a good match.

Education

Mention all the courses you took – Include your graduation, post-graduation, any other certificate courses you took. Describe your project work, but keep the description short and sweet. The text should be short, but enough to give clear idea of what role you played in the project and what exactly you did to accomplish it.

If you participated in any project or presentation competition, list those activities.

Experience

If you have done any summer job in corresponding field, list it! That can certainly be a plus point for you.

Recommendations

During your academics if you have ever done project(s) under guidance of any industrial person, request them to recommend you! If they were really happy with your work, they would write a really good recommendation for you!!

Additional Information

If you run any blog, particularly related to your field of education, do not forget to list it here. Though not all visitors will tend to visit your link, but few of them may read it. If your blog is speaking loudly about your interest and your learnings and findings, the reader may get fascinated. Who knows what can help you out at which instance of time?!

Also list out your interests. One important point I would like to tell you here is, be diplomatic while listing your interests. I have seen many resumes and LinkedIn profiles which say “interested in drawing”, “likes reading” etc. but failing to turn them into a plus point. If you are really interested in drawings, then instead of merely listing it, why not to make it say like “interest in drawing leads me to explain the concepts via diagrams” OR if you are a reading freak, why not to make it read like “reads a lot, including technical white papers and related documents” ?

Include your contact details! Include your mobile number (if you have any); if you have regular Internet access include your mail ID and some IM (Google Talk/Yahoo messenger/Skype etc.), so that if your profile sounds interesting to some recruiter, (s)he can contact you directly.

There is one more useful thing available with LinkedIn – export profile as a PDF. You can quickly convert the LinkedIn profile into a PDF document, which you can send quickly via email as your resume. Perhaps, you might like to edit it slightly, especially the LinkedIn logo

Any other suggestions? Write them in comments! That will be really great!!

We know Kiwis cannot fly. This animation is a story of a Kiwi, who takes all efforts to make his dream come true and fly once in a lifetime, before he dies.

The animation video makes us sad for a while, in the end. But alas, he could fly!!

Mrityunjay - Front cover

Mrityunjay is a classic novel by Shivaji Sawant. The novel is all about the life of the Karna – the great warrior. The novel is in 9 separate sections, each of these is a narration about the Karna by various characters around him. The book starts off with the Karna “wanting to tell his story” and then flows with narrations by other characters including Kunti – Karna’s mother, Shon – son of Karna’s foster parents, Vrushali – Karna’s wife, Duryodhan and Krishna. Each one of these have a different kind of relationship with Karna, and their thoughts, opinions about this legend are obviously biased with their surrounding environment. Each one have his own set of beliefs about him. All these characters describe their analysis of the same Karna.

Being related to computer programming, I often find this novel a must read for us. I believe this novel can give you a good enough motivation to look at some problem from various angles. Sometimes it happens that we keep on thinking on some problem from an angle or two, and we spend a lot of time finding the solution. And, in the end, when we find it, we find that its just another angle on the same problem which lead to a straight-forward solution. If we can think of few more points of view, we might get the solution in the first place itself.

This novel, once read, will surely give you a clear idea about how your thinking should revolve around a problem. I would say, this is one of the best examples for such a case!

It’s been a very long time since my last travel to explore amazing places. So thought of resuming this activity, this time with few friends. (Yeah, this time with friends, unlike family members for previous occasions.) Bike/Activa/Car travelling preferred, but may opt for public transport services for some venues.

Here is a list of places I wish to visit in the upcoming days, hopefully before the year 2010 ends. Resuming this season with places nearby Pune. Once I finish this list, then will think of and plan other places. It’s not mandatory for me to complete these visits before the year ends, though.  I have categorized the places to visit, grouped by the road directions for my own ease.

Pune-Nashik Road

• Kotul – Natural, inverted conical columns of  Calcium Carbonate.
• Pemgiri – Banyan tree have spread across about 4 acres of land. Tree age: few centuries.
• Nane ghat – Historical octroi point. (after Diwali)

Pune-Nagar Road

• Nighoj – Pot-holes in the river. (need to visit sometime in winter/summer).

Pune-Bhor Road

• Varandha ghat – Landscape and natural scenery (during monsoon)
• Shivthar ghal – Holy place where “Dasbodh” was written.
• Srivardhan – Original place of Peshawas.
• Harihareshwar – Beautiful nature.

Hope I get enough gaps in work time to time, so that I can strike these places out of this list by the end of this year itself (and need not carry them forward to next year’s/season’s list).