Srikanth Technologies

Looking back at 2023

At the end of each year, I would like to look back and share important events of my life through this blog.

Entering into 2023

A few friends and family members gathered in my house on 31st night and each one shared how year 2022 has gone for them. There were a few questions (prepared by me) that everyone answered.

This is our way to know how year 2022 has been for people we care for.

A few others like my son Praneeth joined us virtually from other places.

Pongal

Pongal is incomplete without Bhogi Fire and Kites.

We had a wonderful time with Bhogi Fire and Kites. For both, we had our friends and family members coming together to enjoy the festival in the way we feel it should be enjoyed.

Some enjoyed flying kites and some seeing them fly high.

Bhogi Fire

Enjoying Tiffin

Out kites in the Sky

Me flying kites

Araku

Araku has always been a place I love to visit. If there is a place to rest for a few days away from home then it must be Araku.

Padmaja, Pranav and I went to Araku on 15th Jan and enjoyed cold weather.

We visited a few new places like Coffee Museum and Madagada Viewpoint, which is emerging as a must visit place near Araku.

Misty Morning in Araku

Madagada Viewpoint

Madagada Viewpoint

At Coffee Museum

US Visitor VISA

Padmaja and I went to Mumbai for US Visitor Visa. We had biometrics on 19th Feb and Visa Interview on 21st Feb.

Though biometrics is never difficult, Visa interview is always an ordeal. We went way too early and had to wait outside the Consulate for hours. The whole process is too tedious.

Fortunately, we got visas granted for 10 years after a few questions.

Padmaja already made the most of it by visiting US in September.

I am waiting for my time to visit the land of opportunities. By the way I am not seeking any opportunities there. My visit is going to be purely tourism.

Snow Trekking at Naya Tapru, Kulu

One of my items in the bucket-list is to go for trekking in snow.

My friend Hafiz and his colleagues were going for a Naya Tapru Snow Trek conducted by Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI) and I joined the program from 22nd Feb to 25th Feb.

On 21st evening, I had to leave for Chandigarh from Mumbai (as I had US visa interview on that day) by flight and then travelled overnight by Cab from Chandigarh to reach Kulu. I joined my group at 4:00 am on 22nd at Naggar, Kulu, which is base camp.

I was surprised to see the number of houses on hills of Kulu. I last visited Kulu in 2000 and the number of houses constructed on hills since then is unbelievable.

I had a great time. Sleeping in Tents that were put on snow, sleeping at 6:00 PM (as on the mountain there was no electricity), I experienced many things for the first time and I enjoyed all those new experiences. I loved every minute of it.

YHAI organized it very well. They took a lot of pain to serve us hot food and beverages all through.

Trekking was demanding (it got to be) but we all enjoyed and successfully completed it.

After the trek, we stayed in Kulu for a day, then in Delhi for a day and finally reached Vizag on 26th night.

Our group at Ghankuladi

At Rumsu

At Ghankuladi

At Naya Tapru

With my friend Hafiz

Tents at Ghankuladi

AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification

This year I became AWS Certified Cloud practitioner.

Taking these exams is always to prove to myself that my skills are upto industry standards.

I enjoyed preparation and took exam in Chennai on 17th June, 2023.

Here is my blog I am now AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Trekking at Madhavadhara

I heard about climbing Simhachalam hill from Madhavadhara and couldn't get to do it until 16th July this year.

I along with friends started at 6:00 in the morning and reached the top in around 1 hour. Enjoyed the whole trek. Luckily it didn't rain as rain would have made it more difficult.

The steps are large and as usual descent is always a challenge.

While Climbing

On the top of Simhachalam Hill

25th Anniversary of Srikanth Technologies

This year Srikanth Technologies reached a milestone - 25th Anniversary.

I am very proud to have run it with same principles and discipline from day 1 till today.

My heartfelt thanks to all my students, staff, friends and family members who supported me all through the journey.

Here is blog on 25th Anniversary of Srikanth Technologies.

Learning to Swim

Unexpectedly I got interested in swimming in the month of October.

So I took a break from Gym and joined swimming classes at RR Aqua on 26th October.

The progress is not as fast as I thought, however it is consistent. There is improvement from time to time. I know it takes time (considering the fact that I never attempted swimming before) and I have to work consistently until I can swim comfortably.

I am giving my best efforts 6 days a week. The goal of learning to swim in this year has been reached. Make no mistake swimming is not swimming with ease. I am yet to swim with ease.

The pool is big and it is a lap pool (50M X 25M) and well maintained.

Srisailam

Padmaja, I and friends went to Nellore for Diwali. We missed travelling by train so I decided to go by train for a full-day journey. We had great time talking all through 10 hours of journey from Vizag to Nellore. I love train journey. Especially when it is with your friends and family, nothing compares to it.

From Nellore we went to Srisailam temple. We were a group of 12 members and went by a mini bus. On the way we visited Srisailam Dam.

This is my first visit to Srisailam.

At Srisailam Dam

Our group at Srisailam

In my friend's house at Nellore

Other important events

Here are some other events of importance.
  • Padmaja, Praneeth and I had been to Sunray Village Resort in April for a nice break for 2 days and enjoyed our time together.
  • Every now and then I go to beach for a walk in the morning. In one occasion my friends and I walked in the water (not on the road or in the sand) and it was fun. Tide hitting your legs again and again is a joy.
  • Had the opportunity to train people in a few public and private corporates.

    Especially enjoyed working with team and trainees at ImagInnovate. A bunch of students listening with the intent of learning is always a treat to any teacher. This is what I experience whenever I go to ImagInnovate.

    I had the privilege to teach Python to Naval Dockyard IT Dept. Due to their strict security, getting in and out was a bit of a hassle and I couldn't even carry my laptop, pen tablet etc. and instead used their system.

    I also had the privilege to teach Java, Java EE, JPA and Spring to APEPDCL IT Dept. It started in October and will be done in the first week of Jan, 2024.

  • My uncle (mother's brother) passed away at Hyderabad. He, in my opinion, was a perfect gentleman. Because of him, we (my family) would visit Hyderabad for every summer vacation during my childhood and have a wonderful time.
  • My father-in-law passed away this year and left a huge void in the family.
  • In the month of July, Padmaja, Pranav and I went to Shirdi. Apart from main temple, we also visited Sai Teerth Devotional Theme Park. It was nice. We spent 2 days in Shirdi.

At Sunray Village Resorts

At Sunray Village Resorts

Walking in Beach

At Sai Teerth Devotional Theme Park

New Course Launched

The following is the new course introduced this year.

Full-Stack Web Development

In the recent past, Web Applications are being split into two parts - Back-End and Front-End.

This year I have decided to offer a course, which covers both back-end and front-end development. I wanted to make it simple with one language - JavaScript. So, I designed the course covering Node.js, Express.js, MySQL and React.

For more details and syllabus, please visit Full-stack Web Development.

Blogs

Here are blogs posted by me in this year in all categories.

Videos

The following are the videos I uploaded to YouTube in this year.

Books Read

I read 30 books (my target was 20 books) this year.

Well, this is the list of books I loved the most:
  • Looking for Alaska - John Green
  • The almanack of Naval Ravikant - Eric Jorgenson
  • Caste - The Origins of Our Discontents - Isabel Wilkerson
  • The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
  • The only plane in the sky - Garrett M. Graff
  • Born to run - Christopher McDougall
  • After Steve - Tripp Mickle
  • Man in the music - Joseph Vogel
  • Enlightenment now - Steven Pinker