Google Summer of Code 2018 is coming to end with Sugar Labs, and there is something I wanted to put out in front of me. For the years to come, this would be the thing that I cherish, that inspires me and makes me feel that I did something really worthwhile one summer of my life. To make me remember the awesome 14 weeks I had working for an organization that I truly loved working for- and I am getting all emotional about it, give me a hug by reading more …
23rd May, my heart was beating at a thousand miles an hour. I typed the URL for Google Summer of Code. Nervous, yes. Sweating, definitely. Dead, probably. There was an exam the next day, I hadn’t studied. The semester wasn’t gonna come back. I didn’t want it to. I gave everything I had in the proposal. I counted to 5 and prayed 6 times to anyone who was listening above or below.
No was listening, not until the screaming started.
The screaming of wild animal running around the house. The sign was green. The profile had finally logged in on the GSoC dashboard and the project he submitted the proposal for, was shown to be active. The project status was green. The sign was green. No one could be as happier than him at the second, that moment in time. The world collapsed around him, it was the moment he thought he had everything. Except for the answers to the questions that were going to be there in the exam tomorrow.
Not getting too emotional, let’s talk sense.
This is a droplet of time that I want to spend or contribute to the ocean of what we call as life. Thanking, the people in my life who contributed to my development and will probably go on to contribute in their own special way to that ongoing process. Who gave their time and energy to help me get through tough time. I would like to mention that names are in no particular order, to give them a pat on the back and hug in the front that they so rightly deserve. I might miss some names here and there. But I want you to know that no one really reads my blog. So it’s okay.
(No, it’s very rude. For the love of God, I am dumb and you need to contact me ASAP) … Go for acknowledgementations.
What is Acknowledgementations?
Acknowledgementations (24-letter) is the art of opening your heart out to the people who you admire the most, the people who have helped you throughout the course of your journey that is life through their words and actions. Acknowledgementations is not a made up word. Just to be clear. It’s going to be added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2019.
No acknowledgment ever written by a man or a woman on God’s Green Earth has missed thanking his/her parents. Thanks, mom, and dad, for keeping up with me for about 20 odd years. That would be all. Also, I love you both even though I give you both a hard time seeing it. I am a dick at home. Guilty as charged.
The next person, I want to thank is my mentor. Who somehow made me a better human being, and I would surely be lost without him in my college life. He is Anuvrat Parashar – who made me, who am I today. There’s no understatement here, he helped me get better and better. It’s just that if I hadn’t met Anuvrat at that night of Confluence when he was talking about using your time better and ALiAS, I wouldn’t be here writing this post. Pretty dark. But all true. Thanks for always being there.
Inspirations from whom I like to suck qualities out of are Shyam Saini (Humbleness), Prof. Priya Ranjan (Resourcefulness, and a good heart), Satyakaam (Visionary and leadership), Aniket Maithani (Relentless and inspirational), Acrolife and Saurabh Kumar (loving their work and work ethic) who I always watch and aspire to be, or some of their qualities. This list is big, there are a lot of people I stalk. UNASHAMEDLY.
My most trusted team inside and outside of Amity University, the one, and only members of ALiAS 2016 who helped me in my open-source journey and made it all possible. They built me from the ground up on the tech world and put my softskills to good use – Shivam Rajput, Ayush Agarwal, Tanya Jain, Parth Sharma, Anuja Agarwal, Omkar, Ajay.
Next up we have a good friend, fellow treasure hunter, and bakchod – Akshat Uttam who basically had my back the four years of college life. As I had his. Many people influenced me to become a better person collectively. Some of them are Simi, Stuti, each and every member of No Subject, Disha, Harit, Jasleen, Shradha, and Arjeeta. My classroom buddies, who helped when I was out coding scripts, fighting anxiousness, getting over bad blood or bad marks in general. They are behind the personality I have. I appreciate each of them for all they have done for me.
Coming to people outside in the real world who helped in my development and nurtured the skills I had – Shashank Kumar (realslimshanky), Rajat Saini, Sanyam Khurana, Shivani Bhardwaj, RajuDev, and a lot many people in many communities that I am involved in. Few to mention are PyDelhi, ILuGD, Linuxchix India, PyLadies Delhi, Facebook Developers Circle, and about 50 more. What can I say? I am a community guy. I am never home on Saturdays.
People are of 2 kinds, one who would really like to see you do good. They contribute to your growth. They are few. Treasure them. Protect them, sacrifice for them. Others- they don’t care. Coming to the next set of my acknowledgments for people who never cared.
I for one, am very cold and calculative, both personally and professionally. People find that trait hardly positive. Let me try and change your mind about it. Here, is something I follow very dearly. My own version of a very popular quote:-
Focus on your enemies and always count your friends.
People who hate on you, who despise you, who talk behind your back, who want to push you down, who laugh while you inch towards that thin line of success, are not to be dealt with. Minutes of the 24 hour day is not be lost on them. These miserable souls are to be considered as your energy. They were mine. An unlimited source of inspiration for me to tap on, whenever I needed. The undying desire to do better than any of them, somehow somewhere made me better. I am still not good enough. Why? Because the competition has changed. I have a new competitor. I have grown to compete with myself at all times. Run a little faster, study a little more, work a little more. Made me judge, jury, and executioner of myself. This has a sense of freedom.
(This space is for you dear friend, I haven’t forgotten about you. You think I have. I am like GoldFish, I forget. You should know that about me by now. Ping me this message for making me remember “COMFORT HAMMER”, I will be waiting for 84 years.)
Lastly, a very dear friend who never left my side – Sakshi Goyal (God’s own Bear)
She would need her own page actually if I should be so honest. Oh! she is special. Special to me. The reason for the change in me is her. Change is good. But she is an influence on me that is nothing but fruitful in my life. The gift that keeps on giving? That’s her. Thanks for always being there, thanks for calling every day and nagging about your life. I love to sort you, and would like to keep doing it. Thanks for making me your shoulder to rest on. Sakshi, you have made me a better man. I have never been so grateful to anyone in life than you. Okay, that’s an overstatement but is it, mom. LOL Thanks for being my mirror and my mountain. I love you, okay. You are fat. Stay the same. Okay.
Thanks, everyone. Bye. Over to the next big thing.
Live in the mix.