Looking back, last two years have been personally very taxing. Specifically, 2007 was traumatic personally. Though some of the traumatic experience continued into 2008, it was more of recovery personally and a time for change and consolidation Professionally. And, it was a mixed bag from the world around me.
World around me:
Chandrayan and India's achievements in Beijing Olympics after a long while are on top of my mind on a positive note. Yet another unforgettable development is a Sister Alphonsa reaching sainthood. Happiness of these, however, marred to some extent by Mumbai bomb attack and global economic recession.
Personal:
My cousin Jayan Varma became world's fastest percussive bassist. On the negative, my father's health suffered serious jolt. By god's grace, timely intervention and good medical care, he has recovered to a great extent. May be unrealistic to expect at his old age but, as a son, I expected him to be ever active. Now, he along with my mother require constant attention. I am yet to figure out what best I can do for them.
2008 was also a year when I could connect back many of my old friends. Sunil, Ashok, Suresh, Romy, and Narayanan from my college days, and my friends Arun, Unnikrishnan, Madhavan, Zacharia, Varughese and Vaideeswaran from days of my first job. I could also connect to Amit and Shanmugham from CMC Ltd, Hyderabad.
This was also a year when Mr. Naresh Kumar Reddy passed away. I was shocked to hear that sad news. I was reporting to him during later part of my tenure at CMC Ltd. Time has to say how effective I was in their application. Pray to God that his soul may rest in peace.
Professional:
On professional front, in 2008, I have worked closely with Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Trivandrum (Ministry of Defence, Government of India), and Weapons and Electronics Systems Engineering Establishment (Ministry of Defence, Government of India), Delhi helping them adopt software engineering best practices, methodologies and tools. As a departure from the past, I had started traveling outside India on business, with a visit to Qatar in October 2007. This was followed by visit to Saudi Arabia in March-April 2008 and a visit to Nigeria in June-July 2008. In the meantime, I was working for a customer in Germany remotely from India for test automation of SAP implementation. I visited Germany, by November 2008, to commence yet another project on test automation of SAP implementation.
Overall, I am happy looking back as indicated in old farewell note to Rational that I had written in 2002, having achieved what I had set out to.
My professional high in 2008 were:
1. Publishing case studies of success from India, a result of hard work in the past
2. Paper presentation at Rational Software Development Conference in Munich, Germany
3. Publishing case studies of success in test automation of SAP implementation in Germany
4. Release of Ready for IBM Rational Software plug-in Astra Model Creator and Astra Test Automat, with best practice compliance
I shall write on what I look forward to in 2009 and further in my note tomorrow
My favorite song for the year 2008 reflection (movie: Aap Ki Kasam):
[youtube=http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=5sIr0TD0GR8&rel=0]
