Biography

You know, writing about one's self is real tough. The first quandary to resolve is whether you should use a "third-party approach" ("Gopal was born in ...") or structure it as a monologue ("I was born...").The next thing is where you start. Do you start where your life started (birth), or do you start by stating your current occupation? Both have their advantages and disadvantages...

I will do neither. Let me start with my parents. My parents are from a village called Nambihalli (Nam-bee-halli) in Srinivasapur (Shree-ni-vaa-sa-pur) taluk of Kolar district in Karnataka. They moved to Bangalore in the 60s (I don't think they really remember when ;-) ). My brother was born in the same village, on the 14^th of October, 1963. Then, nearly 14 years later, on the 18th of June, 1977, I came into this world in a little hospital in Basavanagudi, Bangalore. A year hence, we shifted to our present home, at Sanjayanagar, and have been there ever since.

My education began in year 1979, when, unable to withstand my tantrums,  my parents took me to Daffodils English School. I must be one of the few kids who actually cried, wanting to go to school. No, it is not that I loved education or the company there, it was just that my brother went to school by bus, and I thought that all school-goers went by bus. Man! was I crazy about buses then!? (I am crazy about them even now!). Primary school was just fantastic. DES then was a small school, and my class just had 39 students! It however, had people from really different economic backgrounds, and was an economic microcosm of Bangalore. What fun days we had! The teachers too were just great! They were possibly the best teachers that have taught me. Ms. Geetha, Ms. Vimala, Ms. Malathi, Ms. Kushala, Ms. Usha, Ms. Sandhya, Ms. Saraswathi, Ms. Sequeira, Ms. Vasundhara and not to forget Mr. Robert Fernandes, our PT instructor, were all very kind, dedicated and helpful. I still remember the days when the entire class used to hush up when Ms. Sandhya left her house to come to school!

After nine years at DES, I had to move on to, lets say, blue-er pastures, and that took me to SJIHS, St. Josephs Indian High School. One of Bangalore's most prestigious institutions, SJIHS took a wholesome approach towards learning. Two teachers here influenced me the most...Mr. Sathyanarayanan and Mr. Krishna Vashishta. Mr. Sathyanarayanan ("Sathya mama" as he was fondly called), was our class teacher for three years - a record in itself, and taught us English. No one in the class can forget his wonderful smile, cheery persona and the concern he had for the growth of the students. Tears came into his eyes when we bid him good-bye, and needless to say, our eyes were moist too.

SJASC was my first introduction to college life. SJASC is one of the oldest colleges in Bangalore, being established way back in the 19th century. It was here that I first saw a microscope, dissected cockroaches (ugh!) and steadily mistook Copper Sulphate for Magnesium Sulphate. The highlight of my stay here was that I was suspended from class for the first (and only) time in my life!

Next stop, was UVCE. The oldest engineering college in Karnataka, this is UVCE's greatest (only?) claim to fame! UVCE is a wonderful example of Indian systems and institutions. Chaos and anarchy prevail everywhere, infrastructure is defecient/ non-existent, but somehow, through the initiative of some wonderful people, things survive, and prosper. Really, the role UVCE played in my life, cannot be quantified. A lot of what I am today, I owe to UVCE; to my fellow students. One of the things that worked well here was the placement process. Manned by Dr. Chenna Reddy, it was a sterling example of the success of one man's drive to help the students. I was placed, through this office, in Siemens Communication Software, the 4^th  largest development centre of SPCNL - the public communications division of Siemens Ltd.

Life in Siemens was like a dream. A wonderful team, an excellent and humane manager and good work...all made life at SCS very interesting. I was in a project called SICAT - SDL Integrated Computer Aided Toolset and had a whale of a time. Many of the technologies I know today, I learnt here. While at SCS, I also taught Software Engineering and Programming languages part-time at UVCE. (Click here to read about my first day as a teacher). Life was smooth, but I always wanted to study further, and after two unsuccessful attempts at GATE, I wrote the GRE and came to NC State.

(About NCState - later....)

Brief Summary of my education and professional life

1979-1989 : Daffodils English School, Sanjayanagar ( I - VII )
1989-1992 : St. Josephs' Indian High School          (VIII - X)
1992-1994 : St. Josephs' Arts and Science College (PUC)
1994-1998 : University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering ( BE. Computer Science)
1998-2001 : Siemens Communication Software
2001-         : North Carolina State University (MS Computer Science)