Miscellaneous
NetSquared Mumbai Local Group - A beginning…
by Royston Olivera on Apr.09, 2011, under Miscellaneous
The launch meetup for NetSquared’s Mumbai local group was held on April 3, 2011 at Nasscom Foundations Mumbai office.
The meetup group comprised of techies, social media enthusiasts and a few entrepreneurs.
We started of by introducing each other which was followed by a presentation by Amit Deshmukh about NetSquared and its local groups.
Sourabh presented the idea of a food bank over a crowd sourcing platform. This involved restaurants and caterers logging the amount of surplus food into the application via. Mail, SMS, tweets and the application automatically identifying NGO’s around it that need the food packets. Prashant Pandit from Nasscom Foundation gave a small brief about their software donation program that assists NGOs to procure software at subsidised rates.
Moving ahead the session was thrown open to the group to chalk out the action items for NetSquared Mumbai. The group discussed the need for non-profits and NGO’s to come ahead with their real world problems that the local group members would solve by leveraging technology. The discussion also involved the mention of various initiatives like FundACause, Ads4good and Akshaya Trust. At the end of 90 minutes of rich discussion I am sure each one of us had some food for thought to take home and agree with the fact that a lot of work can be/needs to be done in this intersection.
NetSquared Mumbai local group is open to all who are interested and excited about working in the intersection of Social Impact and Technology. Follow the links below to join us, share your ideas and get updates on upcoming meetups.
Meetup.com: http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Mumbai
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=group_187476864627669
Twitter Handle: @net2_mumbai
Hoping to meet more like minded people for the next meetup 
Lessons I learnt…
by Royston Olivera on Feb.17, 2010, under Miscellaneous
Now with two years into professional life, things have been really awesome, thanks to my 1st company that I was working with till late last month. I have now moved on to see how a change would make a difference to my career and life. Change is difficult(and this change was indeed difficult), but it is said that if you look back at life, the most rewarding experiences were when you were open to change. So as I look forward to my future rewards, I thought of doing some retrospection and putting down the lessons I learnt till date in my professional life. These are the lessons I learnt from my colleagues, by making mistakes and by watching others make mistakes.
Small Company vs Big Company…
The above comparison shouldn’t bother you, what should bother you is the WORK you get at the company. It could happen that you get the best and most challenging job at an small-mid size company while a mere documentation or QC job at an big company.
Stay Hungry…
Set targets not limits to the work that your doing. Be restless to learn what your colleague knows and you do not. Having and doing loads of work is good as it helps keep the fire burning within us.
Be on the right side of the rotten apple…
You may have that arrogant creative guy or lethargic technical lead in your team, but remember that they hold that position because they have some talent. Isolating yourself from them is a loss to your growth. Be on the right side of the rotten apple, learn what makes that other guy a good tech. lead or creative person and try to become a non-lethargic non-arrogant creative tech. lead.
Get into complexity before your pushed into it…
I have seen a lot of this happening, when a team is asked to pick up their own tasks there a major set of people that pick the simpler one’s first and leave the complex tasks to that small set of people who always do it and love to do it. If you belong to that major set, its high time that you move to the smaller set. Coz the day when you do not have that small set of people around you and your manager assigns the task to you, that complex task may seem to be an impossible task.
Don’t Expect Training…
I have seen a lot of freshers ask this question as they join their first company ’Do we get training here?’ referring to 3-6 months of training that most of the Indian IT companies provide to freshers. My question to them has always been, What have you done in the past 3-4 years? Isn’t 4 years enough of time to train yourself? If you couldn’t train yourself in 4years, are you expecting some kind of miracle in the 3 months of training. I am not against training but there is a different kind of a joy in molding yourself than being molded by others, coz in the former you get to choose what you like, which mostly is not possible in the later. I have always looked at my career as one big training class and that has helped me big time.
Give back…
Remember it is your seniors who helped you when you were a junior and now its your responsibility to help your juniors. And this would help you too to revise your basics. I realized that I had forgot the basics and history of PHP when I was preparing slides for a PHP talk to be given at a college Techfest.
Measure of Success…
Before you party on your weekend, look back at the week gone by and see have learned enough? Was your week fruitful? Are you tired? If you have a positive answer to all these questions then go ahead party/relax else, get back to work. The best way to measure your success at the end of the year is not by checking the CTC you draw, but by counting the number of weekends you partied/relaxed and your achievements for the year. Your CTC will always be proportional to your professional achievements, so strive to achieve more.
Network…
One of the biggest mistake in the first 2 years of my career was to be an introvert and confining my network to just friends and office colleagues. If you go beyond this, you will find that there are a hell lot of amazing and like minded people out there to connect with and learn from. Facebook, LinkedIn and other forums were mainly built to facilitate this connect( not play silly games) and these channels have truly helped me meet and connect with some really good people in the past 6 months. Infact, some of the job offers that I got were via LinkedIn
These are some of the lessons that I have learnt from my professional life so far. Some people may differ from my thoughts and without doubt they have every right to do so.
What lessons have you learnt? Share it with me in the comments :)
Discovering Mahabaleshwar : A Tour Guide
by Royston Olivera on Oct.24, 2009, under Miscellaneous
The past few months had been really boring, frustrating and anti-creative on the professional front and this break or mini vacation as I call it, was very much awaited by me. I have been to Mahabaleshwar quiet a few times before but this was the first time that I was going with my family. Thought of writing this post to share my experiences about Mahabaleshwar, which could even act as a tour guide to others.
Getting There ….
Getting to Mahabaleshwar from Mumbai is pretty easy and quick. It would take you around 6-7 hrs on a luxury bus for the complete journey . I would recommend taking a sleeper coach that departs late in the night from Mumbai and arrives early in the morning at Mahabaleshwar. The same is recommended while getting back to Mumbai. You even have other options like a Volvo bus or a tourist car which are equally comfortable. Bookings can be done at any travel agent in Mumbai.
Where to stay…
Mahabaleshwar has a plethora of small and large hotels that you can stay in. If your not having your own vehicle to travel around Mahabaleshwar then i would recommend selecting a hotel in and around the market place. Nell’s House, Hotel Dreamland, Hotel Lakeview, Silverine being some of the good ones. If your very low on budget there are many small hotels on the market road. Staying in a hotel away from the market place comes with the added facilities of a peaceful environment and a beautiful scenic view from your room itself.
Hotel tariffs vary based on the season and type of hotel you check into. Mahabaleshwar experiences daily 2 hrs of load shedding, so if your very particular about your staying conditions make sure that your hotel has a good generator(most of them will have an inverter which is connected to only 1 lamp per room) and provide round the clock hot water through the tap.
Where n What to eat…
If your a vegetarian then Mahabaleshwar is a pleasure ground for you and you need not worry, coz 75% of the food outlets out there are pure vegetarian. Meat eaters have quiet a few options around the market place which include Hotel Aman, Nukkad, Shere-e-Punjab that provide very good non-vegetarian food.
You would be sinning if you haven’t paid a daily visit to a ice cream parlour at Mahabaleshwar, which is famous for Strawberry n Cream, Mulberry n Cream(my personal favorite) and many other fresh fruit ice creams. I would recommend going to Bageecha Ice Cream Parlour on the market road and trying out their entire menu as that is one of the best outlets I have been to out there. Another place that is a must visit is the Mapro Factory, the waffle cone ice creams and grilled sandwich out there are the best i have ever had and at the same time you can even shop for your favorite crushes, squashes and jelly sweets. Mahabaleshwar is even famous for chikki and fudge which you will get anywhere in the market place, Wilsons being one of the best shops to pich this stuff.
What to see aka. Sightseeing….
Located in the Western Ghats[pic] and having one of the few evergreen forestsin the world it is one of the scenic beauties to be watched in India. The entire sightseeing at Mahabaleshwar can be divided into 4-5 tours, each having a duration of 3-4 hours and costing around 350 - 550 INR.
- Tour 1 - Pratapgad Darshan[pic] [ Duration 150mins ]
Pratapgad Fort, Bhawani Temple, Shivaji Statue[pic], Pratap Garden, Tomb of Afzal Khan
The Pratapgad fort was one place where i could atleast see some kind of maintainence happening and efforts being made to keep the place clean which is very unlike other spots I visited - Tour 2 - Mahabaleshwar Darshan 1 [ Duration 150mins ]
Panchgani Mandir, Window Point, Tiger Spring, Echo Point, Savitri Point, Monkey Point, Marjori Point, Arthur’s Seat…
The Arthur’s Seat is known as the pride of Mahabaleshwar as you get one of the best views of the valley from that platform. The rest of the points are either on the way or around this point. - Tour 3 - Mahabaleshwar Darshan 2 [Duration 150mins]
Kate’s Point[pic], Needle Hole Point, Elephant Head Point, Strawberry Garden, Sunset Point[pic], Lodwick Point[pic], Venna Lake
Needle Hole and Elephant Head point are nothing but Kate’s Point looked at from different directions. Venna Lake is a drop spot after the tour where you can go for boating and it even has a mini Chowpati. The lake is really big and very good for boating. - Tour 4 - Panchgani Darshan [Duration 150mins ]
Table Land, Parsi Point, Jam Factory
Table land is one of the biggest plateaus in the world and you can try your hand on hose riding and para-sailing. Insist on your tour guide to take you to the Mapro Factory and not any other factory, coz some tour guides would take you to some small factory to make the tour quick and get their commission from the factory owner for the products you buy.
Other than these tours you can even go for the Wai Darshan if you like visiting temples and the Sunrise point for which you would have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning.
One spot which you would not find in any of the tours but is a must watch is the Roman Catholic Church[pic] at Mahabaleshwar which is near the market place. Its more than a century that the church has been built and has one of the smallest parishes(10 families) in the world.
Do not depend on your credit card when you travel to Mahabaleshwar coz 8/10 shops or outlets do not accept credit cards, you would have to withdraw cash from one of the few ATMs hidden in the bylanes of the market.
I have had some the best and most memorable times of my life when i have been to Mahabaleshwar and i hope this post helps you to have a pleasant vacation too
