2016..

Jai Guru Deva,

It is almost two months since 2016 ended but I could not write my yearly review. This doesnt mean I'm neglecting my blog. This blog still remains my favourite place to write. However, in the last two months I'm writing a lot in FB page called "ఫేకుడు". This page is maintained by me and my friends.

Back to 2016, another eventful year of my life. The year started with complete failure of my relocating to abroad plans. I failed royally! During the same time, I had decided to move out of the forecasting role and transitioned to my colleague. This is a big change as I was managing forecasting for the last three years. Actually, this decision meant a lot because of the quantum of work I let go from my plate and more importantly due to the quantum of escalation meetings that I had to attend. The job of the forecaster is always thankless. Nobody in the organization remembers a forecaster until and unless there is a problem. Once there is a problem to handle, whole earth will search for the forecaster and blame him for the problem that arose. This is typical forecaster's life.

In the month of April-May, there was a big re-org in HP and I was affected with that. There was no WFR in my team but I didnt had any work for almost a six weeks. This was the time I had enjoyed well with Sathvik as my work load is considerably down. After this "bench" process ended, I had the opportunity to work on the web analytics space and learn some new things. This was very exciting and it continues to excite me even today. Another big change during this time is the strong team bonding and work ethic that was created in our office. I'm fortunate to be part of the team I lead and the team I'm part of. All the people around me are far efficient than my self and thats a rare learning opportunity for any individual. 

On the financial side, I was in a very bad shape (still is :)) and it took quite a while for me to regain my financial health. Even now, I'm not convinced I'm at a place where I should have been. 2013, 2014 and 2015, I had easily crossed all the financial goals I had set for myself. But this year, I found it very tough to meet my goals. This doesnt mean I had increased my goals but my expenses had increased. Particularly, the unplanned expenses had increased significantly. For sometime my mother was not feeling well. My father got eye surgery then due to very bad summer, we had to purchase an air cooler. When I first came to Bangalore in 2007, I strongly believed there will never be a day when Bangalore needs an air cooler. Actually Karnataka assembly dont have a facility to arrange ceiling fans. Nobody dreamt they need fans. With all these things I got a real financial beating.

In the month of July, we had travelled to Kanyakumari for a long weekend. This is Sathvik's first holiday trip. He was very cooperative in the train but not sure what happened, he was very cranky once we reached the hotel. Both me and Sowmya didnt sleep that whole night attending him or placating him. Afterwards, I had fallen sick. My head was breaking and eyes were paining as if they are going to come out. OMG! that was one hell of a night. With all this drama, we are forced to cut short our trip and come back to Bangalore within a couple of days. However, I had thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Vivekananda rock memorial. Felt really happy and blessed to be in the same place as Swami had meditated some 130 years ago.

In the latter part of the year, I had started working completely on Amazon data, scoping new projects and trying to finish the existing ones. This is a very new learning for me as I never had an opportunity to learn these things before. Because of all these developments I feel that I'm probably at the best position in my career with total command on what I'm working. However, HP is not a pay master and year end appraisal was not good. So a trade off between work and money. Right now, I'm valuing work but may decide to change my decision :)

As I enter 2017, I'm praying God to help me meet my financial goals :)

Sarvejana Sukhinibhavantu,

-Karthik