Wrapping up 2016 and few 2017 goals

Last year I set myself some goals and was able to achieve most of them. Also, in terms of  amazing things I learned this year, some wasn’t actually part of my last year goals. But this post is a part reflection and part announcement of my year 2017 goals.

• I completed one year in the Bengaluru. I learnt cooking and about many other responsibilities which comes with that ‘exciting living alone life’. This might seem ridiculously low – but we all start somewhere I guess. I never lived alone before this.
•  One of the amazing thing that happened to me in 2016 was I was able to overcome on my fear of public speaking. So far I gave 6 talks. Attended many tech related events and meetups. We started Bangalore kernel meetup and so far we had 3 meetups and 1 full day hackathon. I am really happy to see so many people interested in the Linux Kernel. Hopefully, we will have more meetups in the next year.
  • 2 of them were at Bangalore kernel meetup
  • 2 of them were at Indian universities
  • 1 was at LinuxCon Japan
  • 1 was at LinuxCon Europe

• Details about my talks can be found on my website [under talks section]. Unfortunetly, I couldn’t attend few other conferences like SeaGl, CodeMotion, DevConf Cz etc despite being invited as a speaker because of one or other reasons. Hoping to attend them in the future.
•  Travelled in 3 countries and 4 different states of India in last year.
•  Mentored in GSoC 2016.
•  Did try to go for some adventurous activities. Ended up having some amazing  experiences except the one which gave me a fourth fracture of my life. [But never  mind that, I’ll continue doing the same in 2017 :P]
•  Started learning Kannada but lost the track somewhere.
• Met many amazing people in person. But someone who deserves a special mention is Julia Lawall. It was exciting to meet her in person after knowing her since last 2 years. I even spent 2 days at her place in Paris. [This trip may deserves a separate blog but let’s keep it to myself for some more time. :)]
•  Started reading books again. I was always interested in literature but somehow lost the track after my 12th grade because of many other university and undergrad life related things. 🙂

Goals 2017:

• Planning to go for giving more technical talks. Someone advised me that I should try to give inspirational talk at some point, but I am not sure about that at the moment. So, for the next year I want to focus on giving technical talks [mostly Linux Kernel and open source related]. I may want to try some other topics [e.g Diversity, women in tech etc] after mid 2017 but not before that.
• Last year I gave 2 talks at Indian universities. I usually receive so many mails from students regarding their doubts with contributing to the Linux Kernel. And most of them have same questions and issues. I have tried to answer some of them on Quora and I always try give replies to those mails. But I still feel that practical workshop gives good and quick results. So, I am planning to take more ‘Linux kernel hacking workshops’ at universities Indian universities. This workshops will be on weekends but I am limiting them to only one in a month. You may want to check this form if you are a student and want to invite me for conducting a workshop at your university.
•  I am planning to read 2 books each month this year. I have my amazon wishlist over here. Feel free to give me more suggestions about the same.
• I want to go for a 7-10 days trekking trip. I have few places in my mind but suggestions for the same are always welcome. [I am planning to take it sometime during mid 2017]
• Planning to start a regional chapter[Bangalore] of LinuxChix India. Will share the more details about the same in future.
• I have few other goals for myself but would like to keep them to myself at the moment. May be I’ll share those stories in the future. 🙂

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone will have an amazing year ahead!