A3- Ameturish Attempt at an Autobigraphy !
The Past : I was born a good 4 decades ago and grew up in a cozy little town called Coimbatore. 
The whole town was one big family. The postman knew us by name (later on, the policemen knew us even better !). My folks first sent me to PSGR Children's school (later became ALG matriculation) where my childhood frineds Sharatram, Leelakrishnan, K.G.Ramesh, N.Balu, Asha, Aghalya, Vidhya were first aquaintances (i am blessed to be in touch with most of them even today) . The school had only until 6th class (first forum) those days and hence moved to Carmel's, a big and very reputed school in town (some of my best pals here were Ashok Chandy, Pradeep Gidwani, Lloyd 
Rodrigues, Unnikrishnan, Karthikeyan etc), for my second phase of education, which soon got relegated to the last place on my list of priorities, much to the shock and disgust of my family. My folks were just recovering from their first shock, when they had to comprehend with the second, an even bigger one. Dreams of their elder (and much loved at one time) son, pursuing a great noble profession (?) like medicine or engineering, was dashed to the ground, the minute my marks came in. Graduating in Commerce from PSG, a local college (where i was fortunate to have my child hood friends like Leela, Sharatram, K.G.Ramesh, N.Balu as classmates / collegemates!!! along with newer ones for life like Ponvel, Sandesh, Kannan, Shaji, Shyam, Padha, V.Anand, Unni, Suren, Shobana, Valsa and a whole huge list of good friends) , i decided to do my masters in Advertsing and Public Relations over the mail (post!) and while being employed.
Employed where and as what, was a million dollar question! Frankly, i had no clue. Days and weeks passed with new hangouts being explored, old ones patronized with my neighbours and second set of friends -Joe, Dilip, Srini, Sendhil (we were all in it together and this was the time the cops got to know us well !!! ). But for time, nothing ever seemed to be moving. Personally, those were the best days of my life. My Tennis and Shuttle careers peaked, 
with a stint at representing my district (Coimbatore) in shutlle badminton (actually made it to the Tamil Nadu state team once, but stayed on the bench!). This was the phase when my third set of friends for life - Surendran, Anand, Arun, Chengu etc were made. 
It was by this time, my Granny managed to get me into ELGI, a leading industrial house in the city as a trainee, through one of her childhood friend's who owned the outfit. So began my experiements with truth and computers. The passion for this desk based job, lasted as much time as it took for my Dobberman pup to grow up into a Devil of a dog. It was time to leave my desk, to venture into the big bad world of Sales and Marketing. 
Got a break with a local IT firm called Aurelec (which later became know as Nexus) but the charm those days was to work for an MNC. The search was on. . . DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) of USA, finally admitted me, after much scrutiny and skeptical looks (so you wanna be a MNC saleman, huh ?). Much 
later (almost 5 years) another very reputed and leading name in the Software Industry - Satyam, got me over. After 12 Long years with Satyam, i have finally mustered enough courage to venture out on my own, as a partner in a Retail chain of Sports stores called 'JusSportz' while moonlighting as a board member in a few mid size organizations.
The Present : Just before getting into Digital, and to soften the shock for my folks (in fact to
refrain from giving them a third one), I agreed to get married. My wife Lalitha and daughter Vaishnavi, complete my little family. Priorities were now different and it was fun shouldering responsibilities (??) and trying to run a home (i'm yet to figure out a perfect way of defining a process though). The beat goes on . .
Globe Trotting, Jet Setting, Conferences, Seminars, Meetings, Presentations, laptops, PDA's, mobile phones, stock options, - suddenly got catapulted into the corporate world, as suddenly as I had to move to Chennai from good old CBE. The pace of life in the corporate world and cultural changes, took me a while to 
regain balance. It was like being tossed into a stormy ocean without your life jackets. I should say i have come out fighting, thanks to the support from my family - especially my wife. Today, I am able to provide them with a decent standard of living - owning most amenities and a few luxuries (like a few Sedans, a 3 bedroom 
swank flat, a few pieces of land etc) along the way. I'm keeping myself extremely busy and really pushed for time ( I hope to keep it that way, atleast untill the very few countries that I have not visited are stamped on my passport and untill my bank balance swells to at least a fraction of the size of my tummy !)
The whole town was one big family. The postman knew us by name (later on, the policemen knew us even better !). My folks first sent me to PSGR Children's school (later became ALG matriculation) where my childhood frineds Sharatram, Leelakrishnan, K.G.Ramesh, N.Balu, Asha, Aghalya, Vidhya were first aquaintances (i am blessed to be in touch with most of them even today) . The school had only until 6th class (first forum) those days and hence moved to Carmel's, a big and very reputed school in town (some of my best pals here were Ashok Chandy, Pradeep Gidwani, Lloyd 
Rodrigues, Unnikrishnan, Karthikeyan etc), for my second phase of education, which soon got relegated to the last place on my list of priorities, much to the shock and disgust of my family. My folks were just recovering from their first shock, when they had to comprehend with the second, an even bigger one. Dreams of their elder (and much loved at one time) son, pursuing a great noble profession (?) like medicine or engineering, was dashed to the ground, the minute my marks came in. Graduating in Commerce from PSG, a local college (where i was fortunate to have my child hood friends like Leela, Sharatram, K.G.Ramesh, N.Balu as classmates / collegemates!!! along with newer ones for life like Ponvel, Sandesh, Kannan, Shaji, Shyam, Padha, V.Anand, Unni, Suren, Shobana, Valsa and a whole huge list of good friends) , i decided to do my masters in Advertsing and Public Relations over the mail (post!) and while being employed.
Employed where and as what, was a million dollar question! Frankly, i had no clue. Days and weeks passed with new hangouts being explored, old ones patronized with my neighbours and second set of friends -Joe, Dilip, Srini, Sendhil (we were all in it together and this was the time the cops got to know us well !!! ). But for time, nothing ever seemed to be moving. Personally, those were the best days of my life. My Tennis and Shuttle careers peaked, 
with a stint at representing my district (Coimbatore) in shutlle badminton (actually made it to the Tamil Nadu state team once, but stayed on the bench!). This was the phase when my third set of friends for life - Surendran, Anand, Arun, Chengu etc were made. Then one day, an uncle (Mukundan), a family friend of us, who used to work for the Airlines, decided that i had it in me to be a Software Wiz kid ! (how he got that weird opinion of me, i am yet to come to terms with) and so persuaded my best friend Surendran and me to attend computer classes. There, somewhere between a few name display programs (with hours and hours of Pacman, Digger, etc) and a hastily compiled (copied ?) assembly language routine for a competition - a software programmer was born.
It was by this time, my Granny managed to get me into ELGI, a leading industrial house in the city as a trainee, through one of her childhood friend's who owned the outfit. So began my experiements with truth and computers. The passion for this desk based job, lasted as much time as it took for my Dobberman pup to grow up into a Devil of a dog. It was time to leave my desk, to venture into the big bad world of Sales and Marketing. 
Got a break with a local IT firm called Aurelec (which later became know as Nexus) but the charm those days was to work for an MNC. The search was on. . . DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) of USA, finally admitted me, after much scrutiny and skeptical looks (so you wanna be a MNC saleman, huh ?). Much 
later (almost 5 years) another very reputed and leading name in the Software Industry - Satyam, got me over. After 12 Long years with Satyam, i have finally mustered enough courage to venture out on my own, as a partner in a Retail chain of Sports stores called 'JusSportz' while moonlighting as a board member in a few mid size organizations.The Present : Just before getting into Digital, and to soften the shock for my folks (in fact to
refrain from giving them a third one), I agreed to get married. My wife Lalitha and daughter Vaishnavi, complete my little family. Priorities were now different and it was fun shouldering responsibilities (??) and trying to run a home (i'm yet to figure out a perfect way of defining a process though). The beat goes on . .
Globe Trotting, Jet Setting, Conferences, Seminars, Meetings, Presentations, laptops, PDA's, mobile phones, stock options, - suddenly got catapulted into the corporate world, as suddenly as I had to move to Chennai from good old CBE. The pace of life in the corporate world and cultural changes, took me a while to 
regain balance. It was like being tossed into a stormy ocean without your life jackets. I should say i have come out fighting, thanks to the support from my family - especially my wife. Today, I am able to provide them with a decent standard of living - owning most amenities and a few luxuries (like a few Sedans, a 3 bedroom 
swank flat, a few pieces of land etc) along the way. I'm keeping myself extremely busy and really pushed for time ( I hope to keep it that way, atleast untill the very few countries that I have not visited are stamped on my passport and untill my bank balance swells to at least a fraction of the size of my tummy !)The Future : Holidays on exotic islands, a sumptous bank balance, a couple of villas, a few more 
sedans (possibly a Merc or a BMW), a complete full frame DSLR with a 1000 mm Prime, several images (none very flattering or cheap) flash before my eyes. But then again, my friends say, I have potential. Whether they say it out of sympathy or admiration, I am yet to figure out, but I soon will. In between all this, I try to find time for my hobbies (Wildlife Photography, RC Flying) and sports (Tennis, Golf), which leaves me with just enough time to spend with my family. They still are trying to get to terms with my 'Budding Tycoon' tag, but I console them saying that I am well on my way to being the next Bill Gates !
sedans (possibly a Merc or a BMW), a complete full frame DSLR with a 1000 mm Prime, several images (none very flattering or cheap) flash before my eyes. But then again, my friends say, I have potential. Whether they say it out of sympathy or admiration, I am yet to figure out, but I soon will. In between all this, I try to find time for my hobbies (Wildlife Photography, RC Flying) and sports (Tennis, Golf), which leaves me with just enough time to spend with my family. They still are trying to get to terms with my 'Budding Tycoon' tag, but I console them saying that I am well on my way to being the next Bill Gates !My Folks now believe, that i had planned my career to perfection - I intend keeping the illussion that way - as long as it lasts !
