It was 20 years ago; but, I still remember vividly. It was the first day of my Class 10th Board exams. My father came to drop me at the examination center on his scooter. But then, I was surprised when he started walking with me into the examination room; and then, more than being surprised, I felt shy and embarrassed when he walked all the way to my desk, sat on the chair, and checked if the desk and chair were comfortable enough for me to write the exam!! Imagine the situation of a 16-year old boy, being stared at him and his father by all his teen aged friends and peers for the unusual action of a concerned father just before an important exam.
Until recently, whenever I remembered that incident I told myself that I will never get over-excited or do "funny things" when it comes to my kids and put them in awkward situations!! But, now what do I do when in this week we took Vedant to write the Kumon evaluation test (perhaps, the first of a very long series of exams in his life!)?
As I went home from work to pick up the family and go to the Kumon center, Vedant was yet to get ready. We had to push him a bit to get ready quickly, but then I was trying not to "annoy" or "disturb" his mood before going for his "big exam"!! As I was driving, he fell asleep in the car and I was trying frantically to keep him awake so that he will be "fresh" for the test!! As we were a bit delayed, and as we missed the right exit that Austin being a new place for all of us, I was getting more anxious to reach the test center in time.
When he and other kids were taken to another room for the test, I could not stop myself from going and sitting next to him (I just had to make up some excuse that he is too young and may feel scared!!). During the test, when Vedant was finding it difficult to understand a question because of the way it was asked, I was thinking to myself (we were not allowed to speak) "why is the teacher repeating the question the same way; if the kid did not understand it the first few times, why can't she rephrase it in a different way? c'mon lady, he knows the answer, just that he is not understanding the way you asked it!!!"
At the end, I was not happy with the score he got; No, I was not unhappy with Vedant, I was unhappy with the teacher!! Because, I felt he knows the stuff, just that the test was not administered properly!!! All through the process, Neelima and her cousin Sushmith (my best-match-on-humor-levels buddy, visiting us this week from Dallas) were amused at my fatherly anxiety and had a field day teasing me.
Whenever I narrated that incident with my father, Neelima always supported his perspective saying that he was sweet and "innocently concerned", and that not many fathers can do that. I was not agreeing much with her on that. But now, after observing myself recently with the way I do things around Vedant, may be I am not that different. And in fact, may be I want to be like my father in being "innocently concerned" and unmindful of the people and surroundings when it comes to the success of my son. May be Vedant will feel a bit awkward in front of his friends with my actions sometimes; but may be 20 years later he will be glad that I was like that, the same way I feel about my father now.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
The (2) Million Dollar Legacy
When I was leaving my job as a professor at UT-Dallas, I was pretty happy that I gave my best in research and teaching. The usual question asked in interviews is about the legacy you left behind in your last job. Well, I was not asked about that in my recent conversations, but two recent instances greatly excited me to share with the readers. Particularly, as the events unfolded with my contributions playing a significant role even almost an year after I left the job, made me feel even more proud.
In Spring 2005, the initial years I was trying to build my contacts in the industry, I gave a talk at Texas Instruments on my research in special purpose architectures for multimedia computing. At the end of the talk, a gentleman from the audience walked up to me and asked, "so, what do you want to do with your research now?" As I was thoughtful for a moment in search of an answer, he continued, "would you like to work with us on developing technologies for our application in video surveillance?" He was the co-founder and CTO of AgileMesh, a startup company in the Dallas area, and wanted me to take a look at what they were doing.
In subsequent years, as the collaboration built up, I worked hard, involved my research students in some discussions, and eventually put together a proposal in Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 for raising funds for the company and the university from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF). In late Spring 2009 (I had a glimpse then of possibility of my leaving, but was not sure) we submitted the final proposal and I brought two other professors on board as the project expanded and required the expertise in other related areas. But then, I left the job in July as the proposal was still in review.
Recently in May 2010, I was greatly elated when I heard from my ex-colleague that the proposal was funded to the tune of $2 Million (pheww!!!!!) to be shared by the company and the university to conduct research in relevant areas. I am glad that my hard work and immense efforts paid-off, and that the significantly large grant will fund the other researchers in their work to add to the scientific knowledge.
In response to my students' who felt bad that I am not there at the university to celebrate the success, here is what I wrote to them, "I have no regrets. Given a choice to stay back at UT-Dallas and celebrate that AgileMesh-TETF success or be at Kellogg to enjoy the current successes as well as look forward for bigger successes in future, I will choose the current status any given day."
The other incident that made me feel proud about my contributions in teaching is when a past student wrote to me recently, "Dear Professor, I got an internship at Intel. I wanted to thank you having been a wonderful teacher. The interview with Intel was over 1.5 to 2 hrs and was mostly on Computer Architecture and system programming. I had gone through a lot of cache stuff but forgot to study cache coherence... I was questioned quite a bit on cache coherence and I was just recollecting what you had done in class (Fall 2008) and I was able to answer most of it... Thank you sir. If I am able to remember a concept for 1.5 years that means I might never forget it and kudos to you for imbibing it into us."
Well, I am glad I did my part to the best of my abilities and helped others in whatever small way I can in achieving success. I moved on from the past in search of brighter horizons, and hope to eventually leave behind a greater legacy of clock-building, not just time-telling (from "Built to Last").
In Spring 2005, the initial years I was trying to build my contacts in the industry, I gave a talk at Texas Instruments on my research in special purpose architectures for multimedia computing. At the end of the talk, a gentleman from the audience walked up to me and asked, "so, what do you want to do with your research now?" As I was thoughtful for a moment in search of an answer, he continued, "would you like to work with us on developing technologies for our application in video surveillance?" He was the co-founder and CTO of AgileMesh, a startup company in the Dallas area, and wanted me to take a look at what they were doing.
In subsequent years, as the collaboration built up, I worked hard, involved my research students in some discussions, and eventually put together a proposal in Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 for raising funds for the company and the university from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF). In late Spring 2009 (I had a glimpse then of possibility of my leaving, but was not sure) we submitted the final proposal and I brought two other professors on board as the project expanded and required the expertise in other related areas. But then, I left the job in July as the proposal was still in review.
Recently in May 2010, I was greatly elated when I heard from my ex-colleague that the proposal was funded to the tune of $2 Million (pheww!!!!!) to be shared by the company and the university to conduct research in relevant areas. I am glad that my hard work and immense efforts paid-off, and that the significantly large grant will fund the other researchers in their work to add to the scientific knowledge.
In response to my students' who felt bad that I am not there at the university to celebrate the success, here is what I wrote to them, "I have no regrets. Given a choice to stay back at UT-Dallas and celebrate that AgileMesh-TETF success or be at Kellogg to enjoy the current successes as well as look forward for bigger successes in future, I will choose the current status any given day."
The other incident that made me feel proud about my contributions in teaching is when a past student wrote to me recently, "Dear Professor, I got an internship at Intel. I wanted to thank you having been a wonderful teacher. The interview with Intel was over 1.5 to 2 hrs and was mostly on Computer Architecture and system programming. I had gone through a lot of cache stuff but forgot to study cache coherence... I was questioned quite a bit on cache coherence and I was just recollecting what you had done in class (Fall 2008) and I was able to answer most of it... Thank you sir. If I am able to remember a concept for 1.5 years that means I might never forget it and kudos to you for imbibing it into us."
Well, I am glad I did my part to the best of my abilities and helped others in whatever small way I can in achieving success. I moved on from the past in search of brighter horizons, and hope to eventually leave behind a greater legacy of clock-building, not just time-telling (from "Built to Last").
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
