Srikanth Technologies

Looking back at 2015

It is time to look back and review things that took place in 2015. This has been a busy year in many respects. A year in which I can say time was well spent and I was productive most of the time.

Entering into 2015

It was a gathering of 4 families at our friend’s place. A lot of food (especially desserts) and a few fireworks at 12:00 am. That’s how I stepped into 2015.

Pongal Celebrations

Pongal celebrations start with celebrating Padmaja's birthday on 13th. This time we celebrated at home with friends and family members.

Family members and friends on Padmaja's Birthday

Every year on her birthday (and also on other family members birthdays and our wedding day) lunch or dinner is served by our donation to kids in Prema Samajam. During lunch we went there to distribute a few more fruits and sweets to those kids in addition to regular lunch. We did go there many times in the past, but this time we have seen a sea change in terms of cleanliness and infrastructure. We were surprised (pleasantly) to see the improved infrastructure and felt very happy for orphans there.

Lunch hall at Prema Samajam

On 14th morning we started Pongal festival with Bhogi fire. I always love that. But many times I missed as I generally tour other places during Pongal. But this time I was here in Vizag so could enjoy all that Pongal brings. My friend’s family was with us to celebrate the festival and that made it even more joyful.

Bhogi at home

In the afternoon as usual we enjoyed flying kites from terrace. This time we enjoyed flying a China kite, which was brought from Switzerland as a gift by my friend. Kids also joined in flying their kites along with me and that made it even more entertaining.

Flying kite on terrace

On 15th morning at 5 AM  we (men and kids) went to Rushikonda beach to play Football and Volleyball. Nothing compares to an early morning visit to beach with sun rising slowly over the sea. We played Football first and then Volleyball. We enjoyed chilled morning weather and wonderful sight of sunrise over beach. It is always a treat to watch.

Enjoying games at Rushikonda beach

Father’s 80th birthday

On 15th January it was my father's 80th birthday. We thought of having a decent gathering,  but his wish was to have only close family members. We felt on his birthday things should go according to his wish. So we had a get together at Sai Priya Resorts on 15th evening. It was an occasion to celebrate for all of us. Cake cutting was followed by dinner. It was a gathering of 20 members, all his near and dear.

My family with father

Trip to Aruku

It was time to go out of Vizag on a short trip to Aruku. We started on 16th morning. We reached Aruku by afternoon and visited some nearby places. We enjoyed walking on railway track. These were the things I did a lot during high school days. Anytime I get a chance, I don’t miss them. In the evening all involved in some activity like Badminton or Flying disk. The next day morning we left for Vizag. A day out of Vizag with family and friends is an occasion we all wait for.

At Aruku

Vizag Steel Plant Training

My corporate training programme for Vizag Steel IT Department was on HTML5, jQuery and AngularJS. We had programmes on Java EE and ASP.NET in the past, so focusing on client side scripting was what we did this time. Anyone who works with jQuery and AngularJS to certain extent would fall in love with them. There were no exceptions even in this training program. It has been immense pleasure to interact with VSP programmers and share my knowledge. The icing on the cake was, Rajeswara Rao garu, HOD, IT Dept was part of the whole training program. It was an honor to have him around and answer his questions. The best part was, he was there to learn and not to monitor.

Me and Trainees at Vizag Steel Plant

Redesigned website using Bootstrap

I redesigned srikanthtechnologies.com using Bootstrap. I used jQuery UI also in some areas. Though I never spent much time on glittering in my website, I would always want it to look decent and support different devices like Mobile, Tab and Desktops. The reason to move to Bootstrap was that. It ensures pages look good on Mobile devices as well.

I can never say I am satisfied with overall design of the website. There is always scope for improvement. But I can’t spend much time on web pages design. I would rather spend time on content of the website.

It was a very time consuming process as I had to modify a lot of pages. The process is still on. Every now and then I discover some parts are not in the way they should be and I spend some time to fix them.

Started posting videos to YouTube

In the month of June, I started creating some videos on C Pointers. I always love to share my knowledge with as many as possible. I used Camtasia Studio to record videos, Wacom pen tablet and SmoothDraw software for drawing diagrams.

I must admit, I didn’t create as many as I wanted to. But I got started. I am looking forward to post more videos in the coming months. Giving is real joy. Giving knowledge is source of happiness to me. Otherwise I would not have been a trainer. I love to be a trainer as it gives me immense joy to share my knowledge.

YouTube Channel

Kindle version of C book at Amazon

A couple of students from faraway places asked me to send my C book titled – C Language for beginners. I have only a printed edition. But sending printed edition to distant places is not practical from my point of view. So I felt it is better I convert my printed edition to Kindle edition and make it available in Amazon.

By July I completed creating a Kindle edition of my C book and made it available in Amazon. Anyone interested can buy this for just INR 99 at amazon.in. Amazon provides Kindle application for Android,IOS,Windows and Blackberry. It enables anyone with these devices, read any book in kindle edition.

Of course we continue to sell printed version of my C book at institute. Amazon version is primarily for those who can’t buy printed edition or would like to have convenience of digital edition.

C Language for beginners at Amazon

A pleasure trip to Coorg

I had been to Coorg in the first week of October. As it was a long weekend, it seemed as if the whole Bangalore was in Coorg. We drove to Coorg from Nellore by Scorpio. It was a long drive and especially passing Bangalore city took lot more time than we expected. I was marveled at the way Google Maps can show and guide our route. Had it not been Google Maps, we could not have bypassed Bangalore city. All that you need is a Smart phone and Internet connectivity.

Even cab services like Uber made a world of difference in this year. Many times I used Uber and was substantially benefited by their services. The whole system is very transparent and informative. It brought down cab charges, in some cases, by half.

At Coorg

Wedding Anniversary

I stayed in Hotels with beach view in other cities, but never in Vizag. So I decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary by staying in Novotel hotel for a day. Me and Padmaja stayed there for a day and enjoyed spectacular view from Hotel room. We enjoyed wonderful view of sea in the afternoon and night and during sunrise and sunset. Kids also joined us in the evening and we all had a great time.

Beach view from our room

My family in our room

Loyalty Discount

I have been thinking for quite some time about how to reward students who put their unshaken faith in me and join course after course. I was reluctant to offer any discount as in the history of Srikanth Technologies (since 1998) we never offered discounts on any grounds. But I had to change all that for the first time since the inception of Srikanth Technologies and offer a special discount called Loyalty Discount of 10% to students from second course onwards. Though it is a difficult decision, I am happy that we are recognizing students who are coming back for more courses.

Books Read

This year has been very disappointing when it comes to books read. I read very few books. Somehow it just didn't go in the way I wished. I don't know why, but the fact remains that this year books read section is very small.

Other Important Events

The following other events of importance that took place in 2015