The Four Things I Love

I just feel like sharing a few things about myself with readers.

As many of my students know, I don’t talk about technical aspects only in the classroom; I try to tell them a little more about life. For example, I tell them what I understand by the word “Success”, what some of the most successful persons in life have done etc. Here in this blog, I want to share the four things that make me happy. I am not putting them in any order.

Profession

It matters to me to be a successful professional. I spend some time on my profession every day. It is just not taking classes, it is about preparing course material, reading books and articles in Internet to learn new things. I enjoy my profession. I don’t get into classroom disinterested. I enjoy each class of mine. I love sharing my knowledge with others. I have no intention of hiding or saving my knowledge. I give as much knowledge as my time permits me.

When it comes to profession, commitment is the most important thing for me. When I accept a corporate training or a batch in my institute, I first ask myself whether my time, interest and knowledge etc. permit me to give my best. Only when the answer is YES, I take up the assignment.

Some people ask me is it not boring to teach the same thing again and again. There are two factors to consider. First of all, repetition is part of every professional - whether you talk about Doctor, Lawyer, Musician, Cricketer etc. It is believed you need to spend 10,000 hours on your profession to master it. How would you ever achieve that without doing it repeatedly?

Moreover, I am Trainer of programming languages and they change every two years. So I have something new to talk about every two years. Other important point is, in a new batch of Java, Java is not new to me, but it is quite new to all participants. That makes me very enthusiastic.

Reading non-fictions is part of making myself better. I love reading non-fictions as It makes me feel I am learning new things. Somebody said – Learning makes one happy. Yes I agree. Because when I don’t do anything worthwhile, it makes me frustrated.

I feel privileged and honored to have the opportunity to share my knowledge with many. So my profession is one of the things that I love.

Family & Friends

I always feel – “Somebody waiting for you at home is a sweet feeling”. Some take family as a burden; I take it as a source of happiness. Spouse and kids make you more responsible. Family gives a meaning to my life. I share my joy and sorrow with them. Kids incline me to be the best person I can be because I know they imitate me. How can I stray them?

The first person I want to share my success is my wife – Padmaja. My kids are too young to understand my success and failures. A vacation with family is one of the things I relish the most.

I know everyone in the world has his or her own expectations. I am trying my best to fulfill expectations of my family. I am NOT perfect. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail. What makes me happy is that I am giving the best possible from my side. I believe “If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing none”.

Friend is the most respected word in my dictionary. To be a friend to someone, first I must respect the person. For me respect is the foundation on which everything else is built. I have a few friends whom I respect for what they are. Being very choosy about the word Friend, I have only a few.

Music

Music has been the source of joy right from my college days. It is the one that makes me lose myself. Right from a Phillips Walkman in my early days to my IPOD now, I always enjoyed music. I bought dozens of cassettes by saving the little pocket money I had in my college days.

I enjoy all kinds of music. I listen to Telugu, English and Hindi songs. Oh my god, what a difference Internet has made. You name the song or album; you can download it from Internet. What a facility!.

On my desktop at home songs generally run in the background as I do programming in the foreground. Pursuing two of my loves (music and profession) at the same time is the best I can ask for.

I even tried to learn how to play Guitar. But unfortunately I never went far. I am optimistic that one day I will get time and chance to learn it and play it.

I don’t see movies very often. It doesn’t mean I don’t get time or I dislike watching movies. There is nothing wrong with movies. As long as you take what you want and leave the rest from the movie, no movie can harm you. Movies are only a means of entertainment.

I was deeply moved and impressed by some of the movies like – “Tare Jameen Par” and “Veer Zara”.

Sports

I grew up playing all kinds of sports. Though cricket has been the main game, I played Kho-kho, Volleyball, Soccer, Ball Badminton, Carrom, and Chess etc. I love to watch Soccer matches. I am a fan of Real Madrid, a soccer club from Spain. I watched many soccer matches past mid night (sometimes till 3 am).

I am a big fan of Micheal Schumacher. I loved watching Formula one when he was in the race.

In the recent past started playing Shuttle Badminton regularly. I tried a little of Tennis for some time. Of course my association with Cricket still lives on as I currently play club cricket. I don’t enjoy going to GYM and lifting weights. I want to be associated with some game. I enjoy playing team games like Cricket and Soccer. May be I need someone to share my success or failure. I guess so.

I was cheated by some at times, but I never cheated anyone knowingly. I made the most of modest opportunities that were thrown to me by God. I am trying to balance a lot of important things in life. If I can be of help to anyone in the world then I feel I justify my birth and existence.

Srikanth Pragada