Do You Enjoy your Work??

I want to do something that satisfies me, so that I can sleep well at night.

I was talking to one of my friend who has been working for around a decade now and these were his words. I looked at him in amazement, thinking that a guy like him who, a lot people look up to, is saying such a thing. Before I could say something, he asked me Tarun do you really enjoy what you do? Are you able to sleep well at night?

Take 2 I was watching Spiderman 2 recently and in the movie Peter Parker (Spiderman) was living a poor life, struggling for money, struggling with relations, but he was doing something that he really enjoyed though that hardly gave him any money. The situation got worse and Spiderman had to quit doing what he really loved. He started living an ordinary life, but he was not meant for it. He felt happy for few days but real happiness eluded him. He finally realized that he belonged to being a Spiderman and he did that.

Coming back to the talk I was having with my friend. I asked my friend when was the last time that he had this feeling of doing something great.? He answered that it was during his first job where he got to work on some complex project where, he got to learn a lot and at the same time he performed really well. On further discussion he revealed that he still misses that team and together they were the best team he worked for. After that he has been doing same mundane work, there is hardly anything exciting.

I remember what Peter Parker said:
Whatever comes our way,
Whatever battle we have raging inside us,
We always have a choice.
My friend Harry taught me that,
He chose to be the best of himself.
It's the choices that make us who we are
and we can always chose to do what's right.

You are doing things so that you can follow your dreams, but then you get so involved in it that you tend to forget your dreams. What is that stopping you my friend from following your dreams? If you don't like what you are doing then start doing what you love. There was a long silence after I said this. I did not speak as I thought there was a much serious conversation going on inside him...

Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology

Moving on...

I am sitting in the bus and returning after slogging for whole day to get some excel files right. The whole day was about getting something right. In reality it was just about staring at the computer screen for whole day, taking those tea breaks and having long conversations with people who I have never seen, who talk in a very different accent than mine. The day was tiring, the day was was exhausting. I am staring out of the window of the bus and the whole day is running in front of my eyes. I left office as I thought it was enough for the day but I am still caught up in the thoughts of the task. I closed my eyes, to think about some of the nice times that I had in past. Think about the beautiful places I have been. Hmm... mind is settling a bit.

I opened my eyes and looked up, the sky is looking so beautiful, blue, green orange, bloody red wow. How come I was looking at it but did not notice it. The sun is setting and it is looking so beautiful. I reminded myself about the resolution that I made last year, to see more sunsets. The trees on the roadside are hiding the setting sun behind their leaves and the golden rays are piercing through the small gaps. It is so beautiful, I love this sight. I think the day is far from over.



My bus is passing over the sea and there is water on either side, to the extent I can see there is just water. I want to swim across this sea, faster faster than fishes. I see a bird flying over the sea trying to get back home before dark, I want to fly higher and higher and glide through air faster than the bird. I see a train passing by overtaking our bus, I want to run faster than the train and overtake it. I look at the sun it is about to say goodbye to the day, the moon is almost ready for its turn to shine through the night. Bird has reached its nest and settled for the night after a long day at work. The train has reached its station. The sea is still lying there. I am still moving on... I am still moving on....

Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology

Barcamp Pune 4: The better barcamp

Barcamp Pune 4 is over!!! The event went very well, thanks to all the geeks who turned up, the volunteers from the Symbiosis family and the warm hearted people of Thoughtworks. We are proud to have conducted the fourth edition of Barcamp in Pune. We have had very interesting and quality barcamps in past and were hoping that this one will be keeping the trend alive. When I look at the Barcamp wiki I see more than one camp taking place every month in India but Barcamp Pune has successfully been able to make a distinction among all these camps. We have had the most techie focussed camps in past and this one followed the same trail. And we all are proud of the same aren't we? Pune has a big community of techies and people working on the bleeding edge of technology the good thing is that Barcamp Pune has been able to pull these guys together and provide them a platform where they share their knowledge with others.


Let me go back around 20 years and take a look at the life of a developer. It was simpler than your life isn't it? He just had to learn one or two languages and the career was rolling (you don't believe me ask any of your bosses). Let me come back to you. I am sure you all know at-least 3 languages in which you can produce code for living. But how many of you are confident that you will be able to make a career like the guys did 20 years back?? The reality is that the innovation is happening at an unbelievable rate today, oh sorry I cant fool you guys you are insiders and as insiders we know that the splurge of various technologies, languages, platforms is because of the work that people have been doing for a long time. For an outsider there are too many things happening suddenly but for an insider this is not a surprise but a time when all the things are peeking and coming together perfectly. To be successful at this time we have to make sure that we are riding on the top of the tide. It is easier said than done. It takes a lot of time and effort to be just aware of all that is happening in the technology space. A developer needs to be aware of so many things at once and not only that he should be ready to work with newer things as early as they happen. It is not easy to keep pace with the speed of innovation and ever changing world of technology, how much time do you guys get out of your project work? The pressure is enormous to deliver, where is the time for other things?

Barcamp Pune or similar events are the place that gives you a present snapshot of the world around you (or let me put it this way gives you a heavy dose of all the technology related things that you missed or are still missing). There is a learning curve in all the places so is there a leaning curve in Barcamp Pune as well. You come here and get excited about new things technologies, you go back and whenever you get time, say the code repository server is down or your manger has fallen ill you can read in details about what you learned here. You come back for the next time and you attend a workshop on the same got to learn how to code or use the technology. You go back home and run some code get your hands dirty learn few new things. You again come here and this time you share with other campers what you have learned and they will share what they learned and you will improve yourself. Isn't that great!!! I read somewhere that you retain 95% of what you share with others.

We have a very experienced Barcamp crowd in Pune but just for those who were there for the first time, let me repeat what I said at the starting session of the event that, the onus of getting best out of camp lies with you. There is a famous rule of Barcamp "Law of 2 feet" that is, you will have to use your 2 feet to walk to a place where you can learn, if you are not learning walk out of that place (no one will mind) and go to a place where you can learn or share. Meet as many people as you can and network and use this gathering of intelligent people wisely.

Barcamp Pune is greatly thankful to the people who made this camp possible first of all I would like to thank TW for their support, it is the second time that they have sponsored barcamp Pune and our experience has been really wonderful with these guys, they understand the concept and they support it whole heartedly. I hope they feel the same about us. Seriously guys it has been a very good association and we hope to continue the same in future. Our other sponsor SUN, this is the first time that they are at the Barcamp Pune, I whole heartily welcome you. I hope you had a good day and you must have noticed that Barcamp Pune is little different than other camps in India, we are more technology oriented bunch. I hope that we will continue to see you around in future camps as well. We have another sponsor Clubhack and the guys behind this have been with us from start. We can take pride that though we don't focus on Startups or Entrepreneurship we still are able to produce startups like Clubhack. I would also like to express my deep hearted thanks to my teammates who made the Barcamp a reality all those who are here and even those who were there with us in past camps. In the end I would like to thank the most important person without whom this would not have been possible and that is "you". I thank you warm heartily to make Barcamp Pune what it is and I hope you will continue to be with us.

Tags: barcamp, barcamppune, barcamppune4

Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology

Cross posted on Barcamps @ Pune blog

I am at Barcamp Pune 4

I am currently sitting in the Thoughtworks office currently. Since I am not able to access the internet I will be posting this little later (now I am able to access internet from TW). I am here for the BarcampPune4. The event is tomorrow and I am expecting it to be an interesting day. I started around 8 in the morning from Mumbai and reached Pune around quarter to 12. One suggestion to campers coming from Mumbai, start early I would suggest before 6 in the morning. Thoughtworks office is around 20 mins away from the Pune railway station. I took an auto and paid him flat 50 bucks but when I reached Thoughtworks the meter reading was only 4.6kms and it is not Mumbai so the actual cost should be 30 - 35 bucks. The ride from Pune station to Thoughtworks is bumpy but nice, don't curse the roads as these are the better roads of Pune (believe me I have stayed here). Thoughtworks office is in Pancsheel park (you can ask auto guy to take you to IBM office) it is a colorless campus as there is only glass and steel but looks good. Thoughtworks office is not that big but perfect for an unconference like Barcamp Pune. Looking forward to meet all you campers tomorrow.

Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology

Cross posted on Barcamps @ Pune blog

I still stick to my views

I got a call from my friend this morning asking me what I feel about Marathi people or people of Maharashtra after what they did yesterday? I asked what have "they" done yesterday? He was surprised and said in an angry tone that, they have beaten people from North India. How can you not know this? I am sure that now you want to change your views (I had written this post around a year back and I had discussed this with him as well). I replied no I still stick to my views, I still think that Maharashtrians are very nice people just like everyone else. I am surprised though that a well educated guy like my friend has started doubting all his friends from Maharashtra just because some politically instigated people made some ruckus. Don't tell me that your integrity is that fragile.

Though I have a message for the people of Maharashtra as well they should not start thinking that having people from outside is bad. Mumbai is the financial capital of India not only it runs Maharashtra it runs India as well (it has a port that's why the business flourished here the most). The basic economics says that to have a successful business you will have to deal with outsiders. Mumbai cannot sustain on its own. If people from outsiders move out the business will die here, I have not seen any successful closed economy.

We all should grow together as a country and no one should be arrogant just because what they hold at present as you never know what the future holds for us. Who knows the advantage of Mumbai (being at sea level) may turn into its disadvantage, if the water level rises (like we saw 2 years ago on 26th July the whole Mumbai was drowned). High altitudes of North will make a good choice for all the people here. The idea is very simple don't let people affect you so easily, always keep the bigger picture in mind.

Interesting discussion in the comments.

Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology

Cold Night

Sitting in a cold night and staring at the vast and bright sky. The moon is shining through the night smiling gently as if acknowledging the attention that it is getting for being the brightest thing in the dark sky. Night is so quiet all the birds are sleeping, there are few dogs but they are also quiet may be it is because of the cold. The place looks so still, though there are some people roaming around but they are hardly a distraction. The noise of train passing by is audible in the background, if you really concentrate. The cup of hot tea in hand feels heavenly and warmth comes back to my body, as I take the next sip. The wind is starting to blow and makes my teeth titter. The fire is starting to burn bright as I put some more dry wood into it. I can hear that someone is singing an old melody at some distance.

Such a beautiful night.

Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology

T20, Change is Good!!!

Read and heard a lot about how 20-20 is the disruptive way of playing cricket and how it is going to kill 50-50. Also heard a lot about how it will take away the focus from good batting skills; bowlers anyhow have nothing for them in this game. I personally think that this has been a good change for the game of cricket. I always believe that to make sense of the present it's a good practice to look at the past. If we go back to 1975 when the concept of one day cricket was made public and how some people really loved the world cup and others just wrote it off as just another lame game. Well one day cricket grew in stature and became at one time more famous than the test. Then somewhere around 1990s ODIs became a colorful game, with colored clothes and different color balls. Around 1996 I remember the ODIs changed to be far more scoring and quick scoring matches, thanks to dynamic openers of Srilanka, Sanath Jayasuriya. From then on ODIs has been far better paced than before. This had it's effect on the test cricket as well, teams started scoring a lot many runs in less overs and thus giving them better chances of getting a results. There was a time when there used to be very few test matches with results but now we have almost all the tests with results. The ODIs which were written off as something that will kill the Test cricket has in-fact done a world of good to Test Cricket.

Test cricket is a more involved game there is different kick in watching the openers blunting the bowling attack of any team. Test Cricket tests the temperament and skills of a batsmen and any cricket fan worth his salt will swear that there is nothing more exciting than watching a slip cordon having 9 fielders waiting for one edge from the batsmen. Test matches have their own fans and they love the battle of skills, where bowlers keep testing the batsmen patience and keep playing on their nerves.

Test cricket no doubt is a long game takes 5 days to complete and not everyone likes to watch and appreciate the battle of nerves and temperament. ODIs on the other hand came as a refreshing change and people loved it, especially those who like the quickness of game. So what used to be a one or two sessions in the whole five days were extracted to make an ODI and it became popular.

20 -20 or T20 is doing something very similar to what ODIs did. It's getting a lot of flak from people/Pundits/Gurus, but just like ODIs T20 will stay and will surely affect ODIs and Tests at some point of time in Future. So as ODIs took around 20 years to affect Tests T20 will take around 5 years (new format gets adapted in half the time of it's original and new generation generally achieves results in half the time of their predecessors so that leads to 1/4th of 20) to affect ODIs and Tests. I am not trying to make any predictions, I am just trying to look at the past and make sense of the present. I think T20 will stay here and will make cricket only better. So in coming time we will see a lot of closely fought ODIs and may in the future see some super exciting sessions in the Test Cricket, where a batsman may come and smack the bowler all over the ground T20 style and change the whole match. Looking forward to such exciting times :)

Tarun Chandel
Life, Learning and Technology