Guru! Master! Mentor! Coach! Trainer!
Despite the steady rise in literacy rates over the past 50 years, there are still 773 million illiterate adults around the world. Thank you all of my teachers for making my life a perfect heaven on earth and giving me skills to mould the way I want to live.
I am jotting a very small list of personalities who coached me in my past 25 years and are still with me. By naming some, I do not mean to disrespect others.
Rupinder Sir: I cannot remember if I have been connected to any of my other teachers for so long. Time duration is going to touch a decade but still the respect for them has only increased in my heart. There are many anecdotes revolving in my head, about various meetings, out-of-the-class lectures, early morning tuitions, in-home meet-ups and especially a very important gesture he had shown towards me when he came to attend my sister’s marriage kirtan on invitation. Our frequency of assembling under same roof had only decreased with time; initially for 1h30m tuition lectures for 2 years, then meet up after exam or to take academic advice, then meeting twice a year randomly and lately on Diwali Eves to exchange a remembrance of past time. But everything gets refreshed even when a single message is exchanged.
Dr. Neeraj Kumar: I met sir during the second semester of my bachelor’s degree. He is one of the knowledgable master whom I have met during my university life. Discipline, punctuality and Time management are the traits which he induced in me, unconsciously. We worked together on similar projects and had put my reference to his PHD scholars for working in IoT and Data Science. His generosity and strong belief in “Maa Vaishno Devi” are inspiring to me.
Dr. Prashant Singh Rana: I guess I am not the only person influenced by him in University. I am just going with the flow. He is kind of personality who enters the room and room gets light-up, atmosphere changes and energy flow in hearts. Most of my projects, trainings and research work are with him and he had given opportunities endless times to work with others, teach and share knowledge with juniors. Thank you sir for submitting Reference Letter for me at many occasions and you have made me stand at the position where I am today.
Mahesh Goyal: Same city, same school, same bachelor’s degree, same university, nearly same GPA and same company at some time. Yes it all happened by chance and nothing happened purposely, since I know, I was not chasing him. My first technical internship was with Mahesh and I was delighted to work with Gold medalist from my own university. My very first experiences with Python for production, interfacing of languages, vim, version controlling and large enough codebases managed in industrial settings were all with him. You know when you go first to a new city and you are aware someone is there from similar background as you, it adds a layer of protection in your mind. Even after having enough experience, daring to try out something new is a valuable quality for which I endorse him.
Krishna Prasad: Academia and Corporate are two different worlds. From childhood we are associated to academic world more and switching to corporate is an important change in life. We meet people of our age who have been through these changes recently and could guide us to adjust and fit better. It’s a matter of luck, that your manager destroys your relation, social life and friends or he himself enters to your pathway as a friend and guide you through up-heals in life. My technical knowledge and leadership skills were enhanced to another level working with Krishna. I would miss working with him and will try my best to treat my colleagues and teams under me, just in the same way as I got treated working with him. He understood my interest area and always motivated to pursue it, instead of imposing more heavy and time bound Jira stories. He had given me wings to fly and try the things which I wished to explore. Top Gun award, Industry Hackathon and Brown bag sessions are all in my bag of thoughts.
Niharika Sachdeva: Not my manager but beyond a manager and a perfect mentor. We worked together on an important project which uplifted my technical skills and confidence to see things through to completion. Access to servers, model serialisation, joining engineering to science of understanding data and creating MLaaS are some important benchmarks I have created, under her guidance. I just do’nt want to lose this connection and put a word of Thanks.
This list is endless and I would be always thankful to every person in my connection list who taught me some or the other lesson. I am just an average of all of you.
Life update: I recently moved to Toronto, Canada to pursue my master’s degree in field of Data Science. Looking for job opportunities in new country and trying to adjust here. New Ph number is +1–289–923–2753 and dont hesitate to drop me a call or an email (lih.verma@gmail.com), if I could be of any help to you.