Looking back at 2018

Here is my customary blog where I look back at 2018 and share my journey of 2018 with readers.

Pongal
Python
Courses in Udemy.com
Dharamshala
Nepal
20th Anniversary
Lambasingi
Other small trips
Other Important Events
Videos
Blogs
Books

Pongal

No other festival compares to Pongal. It is generally a whole week of vacation. My plans to visit some other place didn't work. So I spent time in Vizag with my family and enjoyed Bhogi fire, flying kites and festive atmosphere all over.

This time we all went to beach to fly kites and enjoyed being there as many others were flying kites there.

Flying kite at Beach

Family at Beach

Attamma enjoying flying kite on terrace

After Bhogi fire at road-side tiffin stall

Python and Django course launched

In the month of Jan, I offered a new course titled Python and Django. Python language has become an obvious choice for Data Science projects. Also, the usage of Python has gone up in other areas of programming as well. All popularity charts are showing a steep increase in the usage of Python.

I also wanted to include something using which students can build a complete application at the end of the course, so I decided to include a web framework called Django.

In 2018, we started as many Python batches as Java batches. That itself speaks about the importance we are giving to Python. I always love programming and Python makes programming even more interesting.

Course Details and Syllabus

Data Science Course

I am excited and eagerly looking forward to Data Science course scheduled to start on 21st Jan, 2019.

With so much happening in Data Science field, I am very sure any student pursuing Data Science will have plenty of opportunities.

Course Details and Syllabus

Courses in Udemy.com

Worked on a video course titled - C Language For Beginners, and made it available in Udemy.com, a platform that provides video courses.

My C course is designed for students who want to have a strong foundation of programming fundamentals. It has 13 lessons spanning 6 hours with two exams at the end of course, which one needs to pass to get certificate from Udemy.

Here is the link to enroll in C Language For Beginners course.

C Interview Questions

In an attempt to help students who are preparing for C Interviews, I developed another course titled - C Interview Questions.

As it is my attempt to help students, I made this course free. Anyone who has account in Udemy can enroll for this course. It is the best way to assess one's knowledge of C Programming.

Here is the link to enroll in C Interview Questions course.

I am glad that I could help a few thousand people in 109 countries through these courses. Poland being the third highest country in terms of students enrolled in courses after India and USA is quite surprising.

Dharamshala

In the month of April, my family along with my friend's family went to Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh.

We went to Delhi and then went to Dharamshala by road, which took around 10 hours.

We visited a few places in and around Dharamshala. Didn't find it worth staying there for more than 3 days and went to Amritsar from there to visit Golden Temple and Wagah border.

In Golden Temple, Amritsar

At our sterling resort

At Wagah Border

In Dharamshala

Nepal

I visited Kathmandu and Pokhara in Nepal during September along with my friend.

Kathmandu, though capital, looks very dusty. The high point in Kathmandu is a trip to Mount Everest by flight. Visited a few temples in Kathmandu and enjoyed simplicity of the city. No skyscrapers, no Metros etc., but enjoyed being there and experiencing country that is a few years behind India in terms of development. I was told they didn't fully recover from earthquake that hit Nepal in the past.

We also visited Pokhara. A very beautiful place. A visit to Nepal without a visit to Pokhara is not worth. We enjoyed some really wonderful places here. I loved caves and Peace Pagoda. View of Phewa Lake from Peace Pagoda was awesome. Everything about Pokhara was awesome.

Went to visit Sun coming from behind Himalayas near Sarangkot at 5 AM. It was a unique experience. Everything about Himalayas is always thrilling.

View of Everest from Cockpit

Sunrise behind Himalayas at Sarangkot

At Peace Pagoda

Himalayas view from Flight

At Boudhanath stupa

At Chandragiri Temple

At Peace Pagoda, Pokhara

At Phewa Lake, Pokhara

Srikanth Technologies 20th Anniversary

This October 24th Srikanth Technologies completed 20 years. I started on my own with Srikanth Technologies on 24th Oct, 1998.

It has been a wonderful journey. Deeply indebted to students who put their trust in me. I have been following the same principles from year 1 to year 20.

Sharing my knowledge and experience with students who have world of opportunities ahead of them is a privilege and responsibility.

I look back with so much pride and gratification for the way I have run it so far. We had great times and tough times in the last 20 years. We saw through recessions with same fundamentals like no discounts and no marketing gimmicks to attract students. Glad there have been always students who trusted me and the quality we provide.

I am hugely thankful to my family and my staff who are always there to help me.

Lambasingi

We had been to Lambasingi, which is just 110 km away from Vizag. Me along with 3 friends started for Lambasingi at 12:00 pm on 30th Dec and reached there by 4:00 PM. As expected it was pretty cold and my car temperature showed 7 degrees celsius. I guess at night it must have dropped to below 5 degrees celsius.

Stayed there in a room, which was almost a makeshift arrangement, but good one with required facilities. Electricity is provided through a battery and inverter, which will last for one night only. Food is available in different places and I don't think it is an issue.

Near our room at Lambasingi at 7:00 AM

View point in Lambasingi

On the way to View Point

Other small trips to Dwarka Tirumula and Annavaram

Had been to Dwarka Tirumala near Eluru in the month of April. We were visiting this temple (also called as chinna tirupathi) for the first time. We followed Google Navigation and understood Google suggestions are not to be followed blindly. It showed the shortest route, but not the best. We went by Google's suggestions and got into single road (no divider) route that had too much of traffic. Added to that was the windy and rainy weather.

We stayed there for a night and went for Suprabhatha seva in the next morning and returned. This time we took a different route that made the whole journey a lot easier.

In the month of November, we had been to Annavaram for Pranav's head shave.

In both trips my in-laws accompanied us.

Other Important Events

The following are other important events of my life in 2018.

Redesigned Java EE course to include Hibernate and Spring. Spring boot is used extensively
Upgraded my knowledge of Java to Java 10 and Java 11
Pranav got 10/10 in 10th standard
Praneeth got 320/340 in GRE. He applied for MS in a few universities in USA
Had a great time in close relatives' marriages
Added a lot more programs to GitHub repositories
Added examination on Python Language to online examination system in srikanthtechnologies.com

Blogs

Here are blogs posted by me in this year in all categories.

Videos

The following are the videos I uploaded to YouTube in this year. The video about how to use Code Blocks has touched 84,000 Views. Quite happy to know my little knowledge is of help to so many people all over the world.

Books Read

In this department I failed to achieve my target of 15 books. I read more technical books related to Python and Data Science. But when it comes to non-technical books, I could manage only 10 books.

Couldn't listen to any audio book as I never had to travel a lot. But the best of my reading happened in Air India flight to Delhi as I could read all through the flight from Vizag to Delhi. The whole journey was awesome with no turbulence and I was at the end of a Mystery & Thriller category book "The Outsider" by Stephen King.

Loved "Factfulness" by Hans Rosling. Non-fiction books always give me a sense of satisfaction. Also watched a lot of videos by Hans Rosling about the way world is shaping up.