Praveen's World

 "Praveen Kumar

I am an Indian citizen, born and brought up in God’s Own Country, Kerala, which is in the southernmost part of India. My place of birth is Kottayam, a town in South Central Kerala and I was born on 22^nd February 1976. Kottayam is my mother’s place. I used to stay in Alleppey till I was 20. Alleppey is my father's place. I have a younger brother, Krishna Kumar who is an MBA in Marketing & Finance, working with a leading Insurance Company as Sales Manager. Recently I married Divya, who is an Electrical & Electronics Engineer from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT).

Alleppey is a port town South of Cochin(Queen of Arabian Sea). Alleppey is commonly known as “The Venice of the East”. It is named so because of the abundance of canals and bridges like that in the city of Venice. This town was designed and established by Raja Keshavadas (1745 - 1799) in the 1780s.  He was the Diwan of Travancore. Two parallel canals, Commercial Canal and Vadaicanal with the ramifying system of waterways were built for the easy transportation of goods to the port as well as to the western countries. Eventhough the transportation of goods has reduced now, the canals still add beauty to the town. This is one of the rarest towns, which has the Water ways, Road ways and the Railways as public transport systems.

Alleppey is famous for its coir and spice products.  With the development of Cochin as a major port, Alleppey lost its importance gradually. However the scenic beauty of its backwaters (the Vembanad Lake and the Golden  green paddy fields)  is a gourmet for the nature loving tourist. Alleppey's Snake Boat Race (Nehru Trophy Boat Race) conducted on the second Saturday of August every year is world famous. Large number of tourist and locals flock here for this great celebration.

I have visited many places in the country. I am proud to say that Alleppey is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. The thought itself gives a lazy rich feeling. The cleanest beach I have ever seen, is in Alleppey and its really a great feeling to spend the evenings here. During my recent visit I found that the municipality has initiated the beautification of the city and I hope with in a years time, this town will become much beautiful.

I did my kindergarten at Matha School. Before joining Matha school I used to go to a traditional play school run by Ratana teacher, where I learned to write the first alphabets in dry sand as per the local tradition. I finished my kindergarten with honors in crawling competition and 50 meters dash, my only sportily achievement so far. Rakeesh (at present in the US) was my first friend who used to stay very near to my house in Alappuzha. At the age of six, I joined the Carmel Academy English Medium School attached to the Carmel Church. It was a mixed school, and I had a wonderful time there. Till 6^th Standard I studied in this school.

As Carmel school was having only till sixth standard I joined the S.D.V.Boys High School, run by Hindu Mission Trust. It was a very big school with more than 2500 students. The change was quite painful but somehow I survived and by the time I reached the tenth standard I was very confident. I cleared my SSLC exam with 74%. My schooling at S.D.V. definitely gave me a secular outlook. I still remember most of my teachers there.

Later on I joined S.D. College (photo given on left), Alleppey for my Pre degree and Graduation. This five year period was one of the changing phases in my life. This college education gave me a better outlook. We celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the college during our time. Even though I did my graduation in Physics, I had lot of friends in the faculties of Mathematics, Commerce, Botany, Zoology etc.. We all had a good time in the college. Most of my college friends are well settled now. Rajeev(Merchant Navy), Smitha (Rajeev’s wife and has a kid now) Syam (TCS USA), Manju R Nair & Deepthi(Bangalore), Manju CK (USA),  Denis (Middle East), Binu (Businessman) etc are my very good friends. There are lot of other friends Smoky (Pradeep), Potti (Sanal), Vince, John the Ability man, Sethuraj, JK etc about whom I have a lot to say. Now also we meet some times. (For my friends whose name is not listed here: There are lot many friends and other people who are dear and near to me about whom I have not written here. I really convey my sorry to them as I don't mean that you are not my friend. It will be difficult to list down all my friends here. Even if your name is not listed here, you are my friend and I really appreciate you being there always for me when I need you, as a good friend.)

I had very good Professors at my college as well as for tuitions. Prof. S. Krishnamoorthy, Prof. P.E. Muraleedharan, Prof. O. K. Govindan are some of them. They have really influenced my life a lot. I don't really know how to thank them. I make it a point to meet all of them every time I go to Kerala.

After my graduation I joined for M.Sc. Physics with Electronic Communication at the Department of Physics, University of Mumbai, with Scholarship. I had some good friends there also. Chitra was/is one of my best friends. She is now working with the Indian Army as Major. Mrudul was/is another good friend. Prof. Sankar Narayan has been a mentor for us during our Masters.

Immediately after my education I joined V.K.Krishna Menon College as a Lecturer in Physics, and worked there for about 3 years. This was a very good experience for me even though it is not counted so in the corporate world. While teaching, I was really influenced by my favourite Prof. S. Krishnamoorthy, in fact I was just copying his style of teaching, his style of writing and I was sure that my students were liking it. I believe that I could generate a passion among the students. Also one of the best achievements in the college was to bring the third year B.Sc. results to 90% before I left the college. I had some very good friends here also, with whom I am still in touch. Sujit (recently joined Deloitte), Poornima(married and left to US), Bibals Sir, Balu Sir, Praveen Sir, Gomathi Ma'm, Anu Ma'm etc. May be I was trying to learn something from every body.

Later on I left the college to join Sightsavers International (www.sightsavers.org), an International Non Governmental Organisation working in the field of eye care, as a Programme Assistant, for two years and got promoted to Programme Administrator to the Area office in Jodhpur. Later I got promoted as Programme Officer, for which I had been looking forward since long. I am really enjoying my time with Sightsavers now. Ranjish is a good friend of mine and he works with the India Regional Office at Mumbai. Recently I shifted to Sightsavers office in Kolkata as Programme Officer.

Currently along with my job I am also pursuing my Masters in Business Administration from IGNOU, New Delhi. My study centre is at Mulund, Mumbai. Here also I have lot of friends -- Abhijeet, Bala, Kiran, Santosh etc. We all used to meet every week for discussions on different topics so that it helps us in our exams. I miss those discussions and the hangouts during the discussions at the nearby tea shops a lot. I plan to continue my studies even after this course. 

Life in Jodhpur was totally different compared to the Mumbai one. In fact I cannot compare both the cities. I have got lot of new friends here also. Manish, Prantik, Pankaj, Asha(married and now in Delhi now) are some of them. Other than Manish and Pankaj my colleagues include Prasanna and Narendra. I learned a lot from these new friends. I surely miss my old friends. But I am also happy that I could make new friends. I am really enjoying my life in Jodhpur very much. We have a wonderful team at office and hence the environement is very friendly and cool. Last year Pankaj shifted his base to Mumbai as RPO. Now Manish also shifted to Delhi to join another organisation.

I have just started the life in Kolkata and hence no comments about Kolkata.

Click here for my Resume

In addition to all these I have lot of Personal friends. Some of them are my Mentors. Some are friends who are girls. Some online friends. Etc….For listing down the names of all my friends and acquaitances I might require the whole of this website......just kidding.............

Professor Ajit Kumar is one of my best friends from whom I've learned a lot of things. He has been there as my mentor since 1996. I consider him as my elder brother. He is a genius. Eventhough he is specialized in Physical Chemistry, sometimes I have felt that seldom there is any topic about which he doesn't know. He is a good Graphologist, Magician etc.

Biju is one of my good friends in Kerala. He is currently in Bangalore. Eventhough our specializations during graduation were different, we shared a good chemistry. He has a good collection of photographs on his webpage.

I would love to work always. I mean I would prefer doing something creative all the time rather than spending time sitting and watching sops on TV, the Idiot box. That doesn't mean that I don't watch TV at all. If I have nothing else to do I would prefer sleeping.

I believe in the principle “Change is the Only Constant”. And the recent change in my life is that I've got married to Divya, an Electrical & Electronics Engineer from Kanhangad, Kasargod district of Kerala.

These details were last updated on 5^th May 2007, and I still agree that I am missing certain things (You know, updation is an on going process)