Category: Uncategorized

Easter Favorite – I am born again – BoneyM

BoneyM was notably the first western music band I heard as a child, in a family where it was almost forbidden. The fear of kids turning into ‘Hippies’ –  if you can understand the orthodox fears in that era?

The soothing and melodious sounds of BoneyM continue to remain my favorite. Their songs tell story about cities (Belfast), Underbelly (Ma Baker), World history (Rasputin). As a child I got my first world history and culture lessons from awesome songs like theirs!

Here is a song which i recall every Easter, and at every celebration of revival and rejuvenation. This year has been very special for me as well, a refreshing development in career and life overall 🙂 .. So here’s to all of you!

Pearls of Wisdm – Gem of a friend

I had the pleasure of visiting my friend Rohan Thakare at the new sprawling office of WisdmLabs .  After a illustrious stint with Convonix, and IBM, Rohan pursued the career path of his passion with WisdmLabs towards beginning 2012. This was around the same time I moved on from my corporate career to pursue a freelance path codenamed CoreGray. ( the site remains terrible and i am not linking it here :-D)

Here is a quick collage of the awesome time we had at the new office of WisdmLabs

The first thing that catches attention is oodles of white space and its fresh look, without any walls nor boundaries except that of the outer walls and the building itself.

Looks like a perfect setup that combines the camaraderie of a bazaar with no walls, and the white discipline and simplicity of a cathedral.

Rohan and WisdmLabs supported me a lot for larger project requests i received as a freelancer.  We did some awesome projects together, notably among them – YouTooCanRun.com – the go-to website for preparing as well as booking for Marathons around India, and soon worldwide.

Rohan was distinctly the person who got me more interested about Matt Mullenweg  , many years after i started working on the WordPress.org platform. This got me further interested in Automattic Inc., till i got myself hired by them.

Everytime i visited Rohan, his office size expanded in the exponential. I wish great success and happy growth to WisdmLabs and Rohan!

 

 

An ode to every divine Her on Women’s Day

या देवी सर्व भूतेषु विद्या , शक्ति , भाग्य , प्रेम रूपेण संस्तितः नमस्तस्यै नमोनमः ||

Ya Devi Sarva Bhooteshu, Vidya, Shakti, Bhagya, Prema Roopena Sansthithaha… Namastasyai Namonamaha #HappyWomensDay

Without the “i” of Devi.. Shiva is Shava.. divine saying

In fond respect of every Woman that inspires, loves, sometimes grunts, suspects my sight, breathes music and poetry, and attracts this weak man 🙂 .. I surrender to your divine power, while i can never grasp fully who you are!

WordCamp Kochi – My first experience as a WordCamp Speaker

I am out of words to express the joy of my first experience as an approved WordCamp speaker. The talk itself, the hospitality and camaraderie within the community, all of it and more was truly heart warming!

My first WordCamp as an attendee was WordCamp Pune 2017 which was incidentally in the same month when i joined Automattic full time as a Happiness Engineer – January 2017.  Friendly organizers of the event and colleagues alike, encouraged me to give a quick talk at an open conference slot. Though i had an audience of just 5, I received some generous appreciation that pushed me to apply for the subsequent WordCamp Kochi and WordCamp Mumbai.

I found through my friends that speaking about our own experience in the WordPress circuits is a great idea. With that hook I thought about RadioIdli.net – my community “radio” (multimedia magazine site / blog) as a good reference point. It was this project that gave me everything in WordPress as well as my career in digital marketing.

Kochi and Kerala, are heart-beds of literacy and literature in our country. It’s citizens are very vocal and expressive in written communication as well as media. Hence i thought of using my learnings to present a talk on

“How to create your own medium using WordPress.com”

Slides of the talk are right below:

Some Awesome Moments of the event i have pinned on twitter:

I hope to share the video here pretty soon, as much as i am curious to see what i actually spoke 😀

My next talk scheduled in WordCamp Mumbai – “How I built my community ‘radio’ using WordPress… and my career in Digital Media” is going to be inspired by RadioIdli.net too. However the talk will be more about how the project transformed my career for good. The story is also about how an ordinary user with no programming knowledge and zero investment can go about learning by oneself and making an awesome career. I hope the talk will help aspirants with their journey, developers to onboard and encourage users to turn power users, and the community to have more vibrant users too!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my update.

Stay tuned… stay beautiful 🙂