Sunday 16 August 2020

The Journey!

 


Dreams! 

Although they seem impossible at times, dreams have a strong

role in defining what a person becomes.If we look back into

our past, whatever we are today, started from a dream. 

It might be something small, but it has evolved over time.

New dreams keep popping up every now and then, and 

I believe, that at least some of them play a crucial role in

defining who we.


Back in 2012, was when I completed my 12th Grade,

I was confused as I had a lot of options in front of me.

I was worried, because I knew I was making an important

decision on how my future would look like.Being inspired 

by movies, I was very much tempted to choose the stream

of Electronics and Communication. All I wanted to do was to

build the stuff as I saw in movies. I was extremely excited, 

like most of us, when I joined an Engineering college

    

 Later, I realized whatever was taught in college, was just an

advanced version of high schools. Of Course, I learned a lot

of basics, but the extensive theory was kind of pulling me back. 

I slowly realized that what I was expecting is not what I will be

getting from the academics. It was a pull back for a few days, 

and then I thought of finding options of utilizing whatever was

available to get closer to the dream I saw.

 

I was so motivated by the idea of robots, because i felt that in

some way, humans were trying to recreate humans, but in an

synthetic way. I still remember the first few months of college,

 where I was eager to read books from the Library about 

Robotics.This was happening in parallel, and soon I realized 

that I have a lot to learn if I need to get where I want.


 It is equally important to have an atmosphere around us 

which is constructive, positive and productive. And I didn't 

want to miss any of the fun from college life. It was extremely

 important to find a striking balance, so that i can manage both. 

 

 The first good thing that happened to me, were the group of

 friends I found. The group started getting bigger and fun. We

 were always in the last few benches. I started enjoying the fun

 part of college life. The best part of the entire group was that 

they knew all of my crazy dreams, but whenever it comes to 

getting something done, they have always been with me.

I started attending doing a Post-Graduate Diploma in 

Embedded system design during the weekends, because I

 felt that would be the first step in getting started. I started 

learning online, bought stuff and started building tiny robotic

 devices. I was so excited to see how i could get stuff done 

with some electronics and a few lines of code.These used to

 keep me awake at night, most of the time, where i will be

 building stuff and learning new things. And the motivation

 I got was how my friends used to support me after I 

built something new. 

 

I still remember that we used to spend late nights watching

 movies and by the time the movie would be over, we would

 all be lazy to get up to switch off the lights. And that was 

when i built something, where we would switch off the lights 

and fan in our room with a remote. We installed it together in

our room in the hostel and had so much fun playing with it.

 The excitement on their face, when i build something new 

was the fuel for my dreams. With all these happening, i 

started learning more, and i was getting excited as i felt that 

i was slowly getting towards my dream.

 

 

 It was during that time that I started hearing a lot about 

Startups. The idea of having my own company sounded

 so cool. I really wanted to club it with what I was doing as 

a hobby, but I never knew where to start from. As a first

 step towards that dream, I realized something one night.

 It took me a couple of months to learn about electronics, 

Arduino, the hardware and stuff like that. And it took me 

a lot of troubleshooting and effort to get these stuff up and

 running. 

I thought, "Why not teach this to students?"

 The idea was very well supported by my Seniors who were 

handling an Organization called 'CEST' in our college, 

SCT College of Engineering. They gave me a platform to 

organize a training in college for my juniors, through the

 platform of CEST.

 

It was the first time that I was training students. A large 

number of students signed up for the session. I still 

remember the day of the training. I entered the hall and 

I got the shock of my life, when I saw over 80 students, 

who were waiting there to learn. I was procrastinating

 too much and the program was delayed by almost half 

an hour, because i was worried about how to start. I soon

 realized that it was something big which i have put myself 

into and there was no turning back. With my friends all around

 me, trying to calm me down, i took a deep breath

 and started speaking. My voice was shivering as i started,

 but within a few minutes, i got myself in the track. I started 

enjoying it. All my friends were volunteering for the session,

 which made it much more easy and comfortable.The

 positive feedback from the students gave me much more

 confidence for the upcoming day, as it was a two day session. 

 

Next day, when i reached the college in the morning, I was

 surprised to see the students playing with their robots, much

 before the scheduled time. Since then, I had conducted 

multiple training sessions, in different states .None of them 

would have been possible if i never made the first step on 

that day, and if the College and Seniors had not supported the 

dream. This was the point when I realized that making the first

 step and getting out of the comfort zone is the first thing you

 have to do in getting closer to your dream.

    

This was the time when many people knew about what I did.

 But I was still not sure how to move to the next step. I found 

myself stuck with my ideas. It was when the 2005 Alumni 

batch came to our College, with a wonderful initiative of 

giving exposure to students in the field of startups. 

I remember the HOD coming to our class along with 

Sandeep Zachariah, and they explained about their initiative. 

It was when i lifted my heads up from my book

 ( Where i was playing Bingo :P ). 

It sounded so exciting and i really wanted to get in somehow.

 I was excited when the HOD of our Department, 

Sheeja MK, pointed me out from the last bench and said that

 i have been doing similar stuff in College. This was a turning

 point where I got closer to my dreams. I was connected to the

 2005 Alumni batch and with a community called "Rethink"

 which was an initiative by Sijo Kuruvila, who is the founding 

CEO of Startup Village, which was my dream place to be in. 

The 2005 Alumni Batch, sponsored me for the first ever 

exposure which I had, to the community of Startups and 

Makers. It was an event in Ahmadabad, called the

 Maker Fest. After we got connected, we had a

 conference call later that day and the next day, I was

 made ready to fly to Ahmadabad for the Maker Fest. It

 was an event where makers, startups 

from all over the country would gather.This was the best

 exposure so far. I got connected with a lot of makers like 

Arvind Sanjeev, Jibin Jose, Rohil Dev, Nidhya, Juhaim who

 were all experts and experienced in the domain already. 

The fun part was how easily every one synced up in a 

very short time. 

 

Getting connected with the team and spending time with 

them, was something which helped me a lot moving forward.

 This was a point, where I realized how important network and

 getting connected with Like Minded people was. The lesson

 has helped me with multiple aspects of my life, both personal

 and professional. And the biggest turning point happened,

 and i got an idea how to take my Startup forward, with the 

support from the Rethink community and the Alumni of SCT.


  Within a few months, the next event came up which was the

 Arduino day in Banglore. This was again identified and supported

 by the 2005 Alumni team. This time, we were much more prepared.

 Four of us from SCT traveled for the event. Angelin Mary John, 

Shameer A, Sujith S. This time we were much prepared. We were 

not there just to see and network, but we had something to present.

 It was a Brain Controlled Robot. I had this idea of building a brain 

controlled Robot since long, but the Mindwave sensor kit was 

expensive for me to afford at that point. This was again when 

Sandeep Zachariah, connected me with people in Rethink 

community and from the ALumni who gave me a Mindware Brain

 Sensor Kit, to prepare for the presentation. This was also when

 i got connected with the Team of Fin Robotics, which was the

 brain child of Rohil Dev ( Currently Tech CEO of Nimo Planet).

 Interaction with their team was yet another turning point which 

gave me much more exposure to a startup environment. Back at 

the Arduino day, we had a stall for our idea, where we presented 

our Brain controlled Robot. We also had a networking session 

organized by Sandeep Zachariah in banglore where we met

 more people from Rethink team, giving us a better exposure. 

This was also a part of the initiatives of the Alumni and Rethink 

community which gave us students an amazing exposure, about

 what is really happening outside.


 Later, with the support of the Alumni, Rethink community, 

CEST, friends, i decided to go ahead with my dream of my 

startup where we started small by designing, developing and

 manufacturing Home Automation Products. We named it 

Synapse, and we started manufacturing products. We slowly

 spread our wings and moved into other domains like Chemical 

Industry, where we started manufacturing Gas Leak detectors.

 Most of our Gas Leak Detectors had customers from other 

countries, and later we also expanded into the area of Research

 and Development. Our team started developing custom products

 for clients, based on use cases.

 At a point, we decided to take a break to understand the market 

from a different perspective. This was a big change. Shifting from

 a startup environment to a Corporate world, was something very 

new to me.Finding a new job seemed challenging to me.It was again

 through the connects of Alumni, that sorted these out as well.

 I was given opportunities for finding job opportunities through the

 connects in the Alumni Community, and later when i found a job, 

it was again Suraj from the Alumni Community who helped me

 with the transition. It was at this point that i realized the strength

 of communities and how they can help you in each and every 

stage of your dreams. Since then i moved into a Industrial domain.

 Currently I work on Industry 4.0 and Digitalization for manufacturing 

Industries, with Focus on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

.I recently completed my Post Graduation on Machine Learning and 

Artificial Intelligence and i still work on activities which are a part 

of the dreams which pop

 

Still learning, still dreaming, Still evolving !

 

I have been mentioning "Friends" a couple of times. I believe this 

Blog Post would never be completewithout mentioning them. 

All these would have never been possible if i was associated with

 a different friend circle. All Thanks to Sarath Mohan, Vishnu SR, 

Vishnu Sreeprakash, Viju Sudhi, Nidheesh K, Thoyyib Tk, Sreejin S,

 Basil Mohammed, Navas , Vivek and the Hostel which was our 

playground. :P

 

Something i learned from the whole experience mentioned above is,

 

  • It is really important to have dreams. May it be big or Small. 
  • It is really important to be with the right community who can help you in moving forward. 
  •  Anyone can get stuck. And we area always afraid of asking for help. 
  • Support from the right people can help in achieving dreams in ways which you can never imagine.
  •  Sometimes, these connects happen with time. If it doesn't we should try to find them ourselves. 
  •  It is equally important to have a work life balance. 
  • You should never have a situation where you think, too much work has made me miss 
  • all the good parts of life. OR, too much fun has made negligent about achieving the dreams.

At the end of the day, It is all about Dreams, Networking and finding the Right Balance.






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