As those of you who have been reading this site know, I was in Delhi last week, to present my concept on the framework for a Smart System for a Contextual Location Based Service Provision Technology. The main feature of the Concept was the introduction of a new Locating Technology that could work as an alternative to the Global Positioning System (GPS). We call it the Cellular Positioning System (CPS). The MapIndia conference was at the Taj Palace in Delhi, and when I had looked at the website for the conference, I realized that what I was going to, was a real serious Industry-oriented conference! It isn’t students who just come together to compete and win prizes here! No way!! It was a Conference where Industry, Government and Academic Institutions came together to exchange ideas and views.

It took a lot of hard work preparing for the Poster presentation. I had to prepare a 4′x3′ Poster which I had to present at the conference. It was like being at an exhibition stall. I stood there for 5 hours straight, explaining the working of the entire concept to every inquiry. And the results were good! A lot of people were interested in knowing about such an alternative that would be economical and feasible! The Ministry of Home Affairs was interested, although I don’t know what the current status is on their side. An executive from Rolta was also interested in the same.

But the most wonderful aspect was the fact that I was given a job offer by a company (whose name I won’t disclose right now). And looking at the company profile, I am truly impressed by myself! Just after presenting the concept to him, he made an offer for a job. So, although I have applied for Graduate Studies and I would like to continue my education further, I am keeping my options open on this front!

The Delhi weather was VERY varied! The first day, it was cool (not as cold has home though), and largely pleasant. Ditto the second day! Then, out of nowhere, while traveling on the bus towards Taj Palace, it suddenly darkened all round! Imagine it being as dark as 8pm (Nashik, Maharashtra, India standards) at 8:30am!! All the vehicles on the road had their lights on, it was that dark!! And then it started pouring! To say that it was “raining cats and dogs” would be an understatement!! It was my first such experience with dramatic weather changes! Have to say though, it was kind of… cool! (I love the rain, you see)! The next few days started getting warmer and warmer, until the last day when I could not bear having a sleeveless sweater on!

I was staying at the School of Planning and Architecture’s hostel near New Friends Colony in Delhi as a guest at the time. My uncle’s doing his Government sponsored Master’s degree there (he’s in the Town Planning Department). I have to say, the guys and girls at the college do rock… and I mean ROCK! I’ve never come across a Co-ed hostel where the residents play music (one system for each room) till 5am, and loud enough to wake up the dead (forget about the poor souls trying to catch a wink)! But I enjoyed my stay there, it was a very… different experience!

The food? Well, what can I say? I have lived in Delhi for a period of time, and I am pretty used the food. In any case, I never have any problem with any type of food as long as it’s edible!! But because I was in Delhi with one of my uncles, it was always outside, and always something different! In the last few days, another one of my Uncles came into Delhi. He’s working in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India (ONGC) as part of Project ICE, which is the SAP implementation project at his company. I must admit, ONGC has very very capable infrastructure, and why not? They are the largest company in India (at least financially) if I recall my statistics right!

After this conference, I went for the Linux For You (LFY) magazine’s LinuxAsia Conference. It was a very interesting conference. Had the pleasure of attending talks by Brian Behlendorf (co-founder, Apache) and David Axmark (co-founder, MySQL), as also Mr. Satya Satyamoorthy (the man behind JBOSS).

Brian’s concept on using Open Source Software Development methodologies for Companies’ internal software development projects is a very refreshing change from the current industry practices! To quote him, “Software Engineers are treated as resources today, like grain, water and whatever else! This system allows him to be treated as a human being with independent though processes!” Touche!

I actually enjoyed the panel discussion between the three and Rajeev Kamath (IBM, USA) and Mukesh Jha (Onward Novell). Personally, and with all due respect to Mr. Jha, I never understood whether he was inducted into the panel to discuss, or to promote Novell (and SuSe)! It was only disappointing as far as the Novell angle was concerned! The rest of the conference and panel discussion was really enjoyable!

The return journey was nice as well. Had a newly married Doctor couple seated near me. Nice little conversations whenever I was awake… which was not too often! I always sleep a lot while traveling! So that was about it… a pretty successful, interesting and educational tour! I had fun, and worked hard too! I just hope that I have more of these tours!