Running001: A beginner's full-marathon experience - F1 track - Gr. Noida

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE

with my partner-in-time

"If you want to win something, go run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, go run a marathon."

                                                - Amby Burfoot

        'Nothing is Impossible' is the feeling you get when you finish a marathon(42.195km) run. To me, reaching to the finish line is not important, but the humbling life experience of struggle, anxiety, pain, 'never give up' attitude makes it memorable even if you are in tons of pain.

         This time I participated in the fastest running marathon organized by running and living at the f1 race track in gr. Noida (link) on 12th Feb 2017. Running and living is not a big corporate event like ADHM/SCMM, where you can find pro athletes participating in it as well as much more facilities in terms of hospitality, participation, crowd. It was for those who share the passion of running in the void of above factors. It was my 2nd marathon overall after one full and two half marathons. I wanted to finish the marathon under 5:0hrs to improve my previous marathon's record of 7h. I couldn't complete the whole marathon training of about 4 months due to the busy schedule as well as strong winters in Gurgaon. So I took engineer's approach. I had experience of running half-marathon in ADHM in 2H and based on that participated in a Full marathon, hence it was very tough. 

        I learned that when you do something for your interest even if it's not great, It gives inner satisfaction and joy that boosts your confidence and which makes you improve upon it and motivate to do it further. Being in the early 20s and in IT domain, it feels quite boring to do the mundane desk job, but following your passion makes you unique and motivated. The hard work you put up to achieve something and the joy you get after getting it is priceless. You feel like you’ve achieved so much, you could probably die without any regrets in life. The feeling of getting gold medal reminds me the dialogue of Aamir khan `medalist ped pe nahi ugte, unhe banana padta hain`. Again it's quite personal, some people wants to live life as it's going with adapting themselves, some people wants to change their life, but they think whatever they do, won't be that great and thus they don't do it, for me It was getting the experience, no matter if it's failure or success but the feeling of doing what I wanted!

        Through this event I met many like minded people, one guy was running his 100th marathon, there was a guy who was planning to run the marathon twice in every month. Out of 19 people who participated for full-marathon, only 7 could complete it. My plan was to complete it in 5h, but the lack of training made me complete it in 5.3 hours with many rest points after 30k. During one point, I just sat down on the road and was thinking to give up, but watching your fellow runners cheering for you and motivating you, make you run. I was lucky that I completed first 20k with a group of 3 whose pace was matching mine. but after 20k, I could not keep up with them and was running solo. During this time you need to keep moving and stay motivated because there won't be any force to keep you moving other than yourself. Being a fan of hard rock band AC/DC and watching Angus Young doing duck walk even at the age of 61, kept me motivating during the run. There were many runners who might be running for only 6K and just walking on steep roads of the track. It feels proud when you can pass them with full sprint.

         The marathon was on the F1 race track, Gr. Noida and to reach there in the morning at 5 AM is like running another marathon. I planned to leave from Gurgaon at around 3 on Royal Enfield. It was an amazing experience to run your new bike on an 8-lane highway during the night time. It just gives you goosebumps when you reach the destination don't know if it was due to cold or excitement :P

Hope to continue on this running series with next runs on solan valley.

running before dawn on F1 track

happiness during the run

on my Megan fox RETB350cc

never ending road to conquer

Buddha Internation Circuit

beautiful Yamuna river below DND flyway

Sunrise

Chicken-pox : an adult's experience

          So it was my 23rd Birthday and unfortunately, I got Chicken-pox as my birthday gift off course unknowingly. So as per Wikipedia,

Chickenpox, also known as varicella, is a highly contagious disease caused by the initial infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV).

          I would like to share my experience and treatment I went through so that it can be useful to others. So the first symptom of chicken pox is flu like symptoms which are high fever and headache for 1-2 days. You would feel like world is going to collapse. Second symptom is eruption of blisters with fluid in the chest and back. On the first day, when I saw pox I popped up everyone using my Dettol soap thinking that some bug might have bitten me which have caused infection in skin. But I personally advice to not to pop up blisters as it will cause skin holes and later itching. The most painful is to have blisters in genitals which will literary tear your skin on 2nd or 3rd day.

          Chicken-pox is disease in which you have to take bed-rest for  at least 2 weeks. You can not do any physical work. It will make your face ugly so you will demure to go out in public places. This is best time to go home and have holidays as you can not work intensively being in pain. My doctor suggested paracetamol and anti-biotic tablets for daily basis. If you miss this medicine you might have high fever next morning. As it's viral, there is no perfect cure for this disease except from prevention. There are various cream to relieve from dry itchy skin. I had been suggested to use dermocalm  and nadoxin on daily basis. One of the home remedy is to bath with hot neem water.

          There are many prevailing superstitions regarding this disease by attaching it with hindu deity (Shitla Devi).  This blog literally delineate the hindu conception of this disease and it's scientific purpose.

Hope above little essay is helpful. Enjoy chicken pox! :D

Life's first solo bike trip - Chandigarh

Hey,

       Browsing Facebook one day, I found an article telling 10 things to do before marriage, one of them was solo bike trip. In that article, scene of mountain top with hunk riding the Bullet. So every time I read something like this and thought would it be ever possible to do this without having bullet and with 125cc Splendor? 

      

       Unlike every Road trip,  doing unplanned solo trip is way more different. Things go haywire, you are on your own, no one else to ride the vehicle and the worst no one else to joke around :P. But the best part of solo trip is you are the BOSS. You can ride in whatever manner you want to ride, stay where you want to stay, eat what you like. There is no one else to change your mind!

      

       After persuasion from friends and some background study, instantaneously planned to go to Murthal(infamous Amrik Sukhdev "Dhaba") from Gurgaon on Saturday night which is just 80KM one-way trip. So trip started lots of enthusiasm and minor irresponsibility(phone was charged just 40% and no power backup was charged :P). The drive from Gurgaon to Delhi via NH8 is very pleasant without any traffic, sometimes scary due to caravan of big trucks travelling from Jaipur to Gurgaon. Just after leaving Delhi via NH1, I realised that my front tyre's has very low air pressure. Due to this, I was not able to drive/turn properly. At that moment you get the proper feeling of solo bike trip. If you get nervous then it's over. I reached to patrol pump by driving slowly and filled the air. Don't know why but tyre didn't inflated till I reach Murthal. Another major problem was using Google Maps is very cumbersome in bike if you don't have proper cover that can hinge your phone in the bike. I need to make sure screen is not deemed and google maps is not closed. 

       Talking about Amrik Sukhdev, it is not a Dhaba from any angle. It was like 3 times Bikanerwala on the highway. After enjoying awesome Parathas at Murthal, I was pretty sure that my bike would be inflated and guess what it was inflated but the luck was with me. Tyre shop was just beside my bike with guy sleeping on torn lousy couch. And sitting over there watching awesome Sunrise thought that my trip is over, I am just going back didn't visit any new places.. Then idea strike to visit Chandigarh, as most of people at Murthal are going to end destination, unlike me. I got to know that it's around 160 Km from Murthal and then thought that would be just 4-5hrs from here on awesome straight road of NH1 with cool breeze of morning.  The journey to Chandigarh was very scenic, passing through various kind of factories to green lush farms. It was very experience to drive without knowing how far is the destination, driving using only sign boards on highway, don't know if you are riding on the right path or not. In this type of ride you can get the most of the journey, because otherwise in car/bus trip, we don't enjoy the scenic ride, we just go to sleep or read book. 

     After arduous trip of more than 300 KM distance, I reached Chandigarh(green city of india). Reaching there you get the feeling that you have come to foreign. It's not part of india. Because it was so much beautiful with 4 lane roads with Greenery everywhere. It was so silent that no one blew horn even in Signals. Everybody obey the signals even bicycle riders. The reason for this was strict rules imposted by local Traffic police. Every nook and corner you can find traffic police with Innova car. I thought to broke some rules and see what happens but ignored it. Chandigarh has two very beautiful attraction Sukhna Lake and Rock Garden. Sukhna Lake has well maintained Garden and long sidewalk along the river where you can walk with your loved ones or sleep on one of the benches(:P).

Rock Garden is one of the most beautiful creation(coming under Indian Archeology). Man Made small hills, waterfalls, aquarium, long swings, various kind of sculptor made from rocks are the attraction of that place. 

      By afternoon, I left chandigarh as I know it will be 6 hours trip to Gurgaon. When coming back to Delhi from Chandigarh, I asked one guy about the road to Delhi, he first look at my bike and then laughed that are you planning to go on this bike? Then I thought that is was common people's mentality, you just think living in your hole without having experience of(Hypocrisy). After having several dose of lemon juice, with empty stomach(to not to feel asleep) reached Gurgaon. It was like watching TV sitting in the same pose just getting around to fill the petrol or ur stomach :P

       

Life lessons learned my way

       Sometimes we regret after doing things which had bad or wrong repercussion. We want to do it in right-way(which WE thought is right! :P), But it takes to some another direction And after learning from our deeds, we try to not to do in future. And the cycle continues(doing learning again doing/not doing).

        But what if you just want to break this cycle and make sure that whatever you do is right indeed!? 

        I think for that you need someone's guidance who have done things which you are going to do. But mostly in real world you can't find people who have done the same things which you are going to do! :P. So I have written down some of my life lessons which I think is right-way(agin which I think!).

• Don't Judge people. Even if you do, don't show it in public! otherwise you will be judged.
• If you have fear of something(height/cold water), don't think much, the more you think the more fearful you will be! JUST DO IT!
• Don't waste your words by shouting upon people who doesn't understand your gestures/mood.
• Give advice to ones who are willing/want to hear it otherwise people just get pissed  and will tell who the fu** are you to advice me!
• Don't expect appreciation often when it's ur duty to complete the job, by doing this you are over-shadowing you good work with ur desires.
• There should be limit to everything, nothing comes free in life. Each and every action has equal and opposite reaction! :P
• Don't hesitate to pin point someone's mistake/ wrong doing to him calmly, otherwise you don't know how/when and where these things come out in form of anger or disgust.

Hope you guys learned something and don't hesitate to write down your own life-lessons in comments!

Btech computer science placement learnings 2014-15 india

      You have completed your engineering or you are going to complete the your engineering in a year or two(hopefully!) and wandering to join a good company as a developer then STOP! because this post is just for you! and even if you do not fall into above category you can still read on to discover computer engineering job market in India.

Some of clarification I would like to do before going ahead that in this post I would like to share my experience as Software engineer as per B.Tech passout DA-IICT 2014. Things changes in job market every year. But the trend remains the same. So reader's discretion is advised.
My Experience - Learnings:

• Placements or Package are solely depends on your profile which includes major factors like college you are passed out, percentage, and the minor ones are internship,projects,interests! So generally big companies or startup who are well verse and have good funding goes to Tier A colleges with awesome packages. Tier B/C college pass-outs have to struggle in the industry to find a decent-dream job. Forget Dream job if you are from Tier B/C colleges as only few can achieve this.
  
  So even if you have 1-3 years of experience but you are from Tier B college then it's obvious that you would have grudge feeling that what in the hell these freshers would do that experience people can't!  And because of this reason there is more attrition rate in developer roles having experience 1-4 years and if you fall in this category then you should carry on reading to improvise as I am going to share my experience to overcome this problem.
  
  During first 4 years of career you can switch between roles easily in the industry easily as there are no such rocket science required to do daily job. That's why I changed from backend to UI because I knew from my friends that it is one of the hot - latest area with high requirement as well as high package. Most of the developers goes to backend as they learn backend systems in college based upon their course. for e.g. databases, linux servers were core courses in my college. But UI development, UI Design were not core courses neither elective ones. So if you put  efforts to learn/master this areas then it would be like doing something different from others!
  
  But very few colleges teaches latest frameworks industry standards. College teaches you how to code and it's fundamentals based theory/practical. But Colleges does not focus more upon creating software professional and it's expected as expected as graduation touches breadth of computer science doesn't go into depth.
  
  Some of the fields which are hot - required nowadays are REST frameworks, API based softwares, knowledge of Design Patterns. Nowadays because of startup cultures web- developer profiles are divided into streams based upon job responsibility.
  
  UI Developer
         This role requires in depth knowledge of  javascript and how to create website which requires very low server hits. Some of the popular frameworks which are used are:
    Angularjs, Backbone, ReactJs, jQuery, etc..
  
  Backend Developer
       This role is very vast and depends upon based upon company to company. But majorly most of people work creating API, Database. Skills required are databases, REST framework. Prevalent technologies are python-django, ROR, pHp, and many more.
  
  Android/iOS Developer
  Full Stack Developer
     You are the all rounder who can clean shit of any domain or you don't have problem to create a new module without any dependency with industry standards. This role is mostly prevalent in startups.
  
  don't forget
  Software Engineer
    This is old school by default title which doesn't have specific responsibility and depends upon time requirement what you are going to do!

• Developers working in Startups generally are more professional and their work hours are generally more than developers working in big-mnc companies. The reason is obvious that startup mentality would be to create software/product which is maintainable and can be easily adopted by fresher or new developers. So they would prefer developers which maintains industry standards. hasjob is one of the job posting website dedicated to startups and one of posting which I came across was literally asking to have OCD characteristics for the code!(https://goo.gl/39x5be)
  
  I am not saying this is not true in big mature companies but as their products are written very long ago then it's common that technology might be outdated nowadays! This is one of the reason that I left my first job. If you want grow professionally it's very important that you should use cutting edge technologies to attract customers as well as maintain/attract developers.
  
• I would like to describe my experience here. So I completed my 7th semester without any internship in hand and job offer from one of the IT service giants. One of the Main reason that nowadays good developers (or wannabe) don't join service based company is low package as well as mundane routine work. So I tried to apply offcampus by myself.
  
  
  One of the big problem during my interview process at that time was that some startup expects that you should know current industry standards like Design Patterns and hell lot of things that only experience developer would have came across. And you are just college passout and you don't know how to get a good job? How to survive/afloat in the sea?
  
  
  
  
  
  Pointers, Internships, Contacts are like plank on the sea based upon which you can get atleast a developer job no matter how good/bad it is!  Interviewer just sees that you have at least put in some efforts to develop something on your own in your college duration. If you want to be placed in non-developer roles then it becomes more competitive as it doesn't require prior knowledge based upon your graduation.
  
  But don't worry! If you have done anything in the area of development then you can easily get a decent job. You just need to create good resume and apply to job portals like naukri, hasjob, shine, etc.. Nowadays there are also developer auction platforms like instahyre which have decent high paid jobs.
  
  So I got a decent job in Gurgaon as a developer. I learned , did many mistakes and also created many useful projects for company. So you need to struggle for at least 1 year to get good or your dream company and to get acquainted with the current industry standards. During this period you should try to learn and acquire as many skills as you can! Lynda.com was one of the main source to learn new technologies.
  
  After one year it's like open sky you can go anywhere, upto any height as you are now experienced and survived in developer industry. Switching jobs from here on will not depend upon your college graduation it will majorly depend on your knowledge and experience. you can apply to jobs which didn't visited your college.  

So moral of the story is be smart, be hungry to learn new things and achieve new heights for your career!

enjoy.

angularjs tricks

Hey all,

in this blog I would mention some of the tricks and tips that would be beneficial to any angularjs developer.


problem : you want to apply inline style(color:black) to element(say div) based on some condition(say if a==0).

solution : <div ng-style="a==0 && {color:black}">

source : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13813254/how-do-i-conditionally-apply-css-styles-in-angularjs 

Tutorial on creating custom directive in angular js

In this tutorial, I will be explaining, how one can create custom directive in angular js. So this tutorial is for my future reference and intermediate readers out there. Other people can press ctrl + W. Thanks.


My use-case here was to add a css class if form controller is failing required validator.


<select class="reg_text2" ng-model="user.candidateeducation.education_level" required name="education_level" ng-class="{redborder: education_edit_form.education_level.$error.required}">


so every time if I want to replicate this behaviour to other input form fields. I have to copy paste with their different names. So I thought why don't use 2kg of brain ??


Just Write you custom directive!

so I create requiredclass directive which can be used as
<input type="text" ng-model="user.about_me" name = "about_me" requiredclass="redborder" /><br />

so if the field is empty it will set validators as well as add css class redborder to input element.

here I have used http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12371159/how-to-get-evaluated-attributes-inside-a-custom-directive to bind directive's value to scope . Please note the @ sign in scope which is telling to bind in one directional to parent's scope.

 .directive('requiredclass', function () {
    return {
    restrict: 'A',
    scope : {
       class_name : "@requiredclass"
    },
    require: 'ngModel',
    link: function (scope, element, attrs, ngModelCtrl) {
ngModelCtrl.$validators.requiredclass = function(modelValue, viewValue) {
if (ngModelCtrl.$isEmpty(viewValue)) {
// consider empty models to be valid
console.log("false " +scope.class_name);
attrs.$addClass(scope.class_name);
return false;
}
else
{
attrs.$removeClass(scope.class_name);
return true;
}
};
}
};
});

Please write comments for feedback. :)