Srikanth Technologies

Looking back at 2024

Year 2024 has been a year of many events. Here is the summary of important events.

Entering into 2024

We had a small get-together at my house to share our experiences of 2023. Some were in my house and some joined online. All in all, it is always a great way to enter into new year surrounded by near and dear.

It was an important year for Pranav, as he would complete BTech and aspire to join MS in US.

Pongal

This time Pongal was celebrated at Sunray Resorts with 50 family members and friends on the occasion of Padmaja's 50th birthday.

Praneeth came from USA for this occasion.

We love to play games. We played Volleyball and Cricket. Then we all (those who know how to swim and those who don't) jumped into Pool and enjoyed evening in the pool. That was followed by cake cutting by Padmaja.

On 14th morning, we enjoyed Bhogi fire arranged by Sunray Resorts.

As usual, kite flying is always in the agenda. We did enjoy that on 14th evening.

At Sunray Resorts

At Sunray Resorts

Bhogi Fire at Sunray Resorts

Me flying kite

Wayanad

We had been to Wayanad from 15th Jan to 19th Jan.

We went to Bangalore by flight and from there we went to Wayanad by Car. As we reached Bangalore after 6:00 pm, we couldn't go to Wayanad through main route (as it will be closed after 9:00 PM) and had to take another route, which was very adventurous. We reached Wayanad on 15th Night at 2:00 am after navigating through roads with low visibility due to fog.

We had a great time at Sterling Resorts of Wayanad and enjoyed a lot of free time. Visited a few places in and around Wayanad. It was more of family time.

At Sterling Resort, Wayanad

At Phantom Rock, Wayanad

At Sterling Resort, Wayanad

At Sterling Resort, Wayanad

Trip to USA

We (I, Padmaja and Pranav) went to USA on 4th Aug.

Pranav got admission in Purdue North West university and he was about to join college from August. We felt it would be nice to see him through and also stay a few weeks with Praneeth, who is in Springfield, Illinois. We also planned to visit some places. It was my first trip to US.

I was there for 5 weeks. Visited Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Niagara Falls, Washington DC apart from places in Springfield and St. Louis.

It was my first long break after 33 years of work life. Of course, I enjoyed break as I was with my family all through. As Pranav joined college, I, Padmaja and Praneeth did the touring part together. Love every place and had great time.

My brother's son Anurag was with us all through and he was of huge help in every way. We both enjoyed watching Olympics and evening walks.

Grand Canyon

Chicago

Universal Studios, Los Angeles

Niagara

Trip to Brisbane, Cairns and Hobart in Australia

Two years ago, we had been to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

This year in August, I and my friend went to Australia to visit Brisbane and Cairns in Queensland and Hobart in Tasmania.

Australia always amazes me with its natural beauty. We had been to some wonderful places - Moreton Island, North Stradbroke Island, Daintree Rainforest, Kuranda and Bruny Island.

We saw Dolphins and Whales from Cruise, enjoyed scenic beauty of Kuranda from train as well as cable car.

Moreton Island

Brown Lake, North Stradbroke Island

Bruny Island

Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in Hobart

Gym and Swimming

Workout has been part of my day for most of my life. At the beginning of this year, I was learning swimming till Feb. Then in summer, as the pool got too busy, I paused swimming and went to Gym till August. After returning from trips to US and Australia, I resumed swimming in the month of October.

I started learning swimming last October. I never had any exposure to swimming before that. After considerable efforts, now I am glad that I know how to swim Freestyle, Breaststroke and Backstroke. It proves my belief that efforts pay dividends.

Occasional Sunday walks in the beach is very much on. That is the best way to connect to nature.

Anurag's Wedding

My brother's son Anurag's marriage took place on 25th Dec. We had a great time all through the events.

I was part of three songs in Sangeet:
  • Poonakalu Loading (Fathers and Sons, 12 in all)
  • Thaar Maar Thakkar Maar (Fathers and Sons, 12 in all)
  • Family Party (My brother's family and my family, 8 in all)
We all practiced enough to perform reasonably well.

Praneeth and Pranav, who live in USA, came to India to be part of this event. We enjoyed every bit of it.

Haldi

Dance in Sangeet

Wedding Reception

Other important events

Here are some other events of importance.
  • We bought a new car - MG Comet - in February. A cute small electric car, which draws a lot of attention due to its looks. Many ask me at the signal lights how much it cost me etc. Many think it is just 4 lakhs or so, but it is much more than that.
  • I, along with my brother and friends, did Giri Pradakshina on 20th July. It was always a privilege to participate in this holy event. This event is getting more popular by each year.
  • Pranav got admission in Purdue (North West) for MS in CS and he left for US in August. We went to USA along with him to see him off.
  • I like to be self-dependent. I and Padmaja painted my room on 10th November. I bought paint, brush and roller and it took us half a day to complete the task. It was a small accomplishment.

Delivery of Comet

At the end of Giri Pradakshina

Before Pranav leaving for US

New Courses Launched

The following is the new course introduced this year.

Power BI

Power BI from Microsoft is pretty interesting product. It enables you to generate fancy reports. It is used to transform and model your data and then generate required reports.

If you are into BI (Business Intelligence), you must have a look at this wonderful product.

For more details and syllabus of this course, please visit Power BI in my website.

New Udemy Courses Launched

The following are the new courses added to my courses on Udemy.com.

Blogs

Here is the blog posted by me in this year. I wish I posted a lot more, but it didn't happen in this year. Maybe more people are prefering videos to blogs, so even I preferred to create more videos than blogs.

Videos

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

Books Read

I read 22 books (my target was 20 books) this year.

Well, this is the list of books I loved the most:
  • 11 Rules For Life - Chetan Bhagat
  • Nenu - Brahmanandam
  • Never Finished - David Goggins
  • The Wealth Money Can't Buy - Robin Sharma
  • Be Useful - Arnold Schwarzenegger