Continuing my travel from Mumbai to Hyderabad and then to Nanded, which was my final destination for the week-long Big Data Analytics seminar.
I cannot thank my Alma Mater enough for giving this opportunity to me to help the fellow students with some of the things that I have learnt during my stint in the corporate world for the last 2-3 years and it was an amazing feeling to finally give back to my Alma Mater.
As it was a week long seminar, I made sure I do not repeat any clothing for the most part of the seminar and managed to click these selfies before heading to the daily seminar sessions. But, before dwelling into those, let me start from the beginning of the seminar.
So, on the Day 01 of the seminar, I arrived at the Nanded Railway Station during the early hours and being here just brought back countless memories.
All the late nights spent here waiting for trains taking us home, many friends and students with whom I traveled back home numerous times, the time I arrived here for the first time and didn’t have a positive experience and how I thought of returning back home but didn’t to pursue my dream of a BTech degree in Computer Science from a cheap but a good Engineering college. I must tell you, looking back at that evening when I arrived at Nanded, I made a better decision going through the process and earning some life lasting friendships during my 4-year stay here. I will always be grateful to my Alma Mater.
After cherishing a few moments of solitude at the railway station, my next destination was Hotel Pooja Garden. I was amazed to see how quickly they transformed an entire restaurant to a hotel and had a world class room. By that time, I have had a chance of staying at different hotel rooms across India and this hotel stood out for me due to the cleanliness, and the aroma of the room and a great room service. Here’s what I was welcomed to and couldn’t be happier to look at this clean a room.
I took care of my morning business and got ready for a long day at “work”. The moment I arrived at my college gate, I was astonished to see the grandeur of it. I remember my last time here and seemed I couldn’t get enough of it.
And here is the administrative building of my Alma Mater. We were fortunate enough to be the first batch when this building was constructed and got to experience all the brand new things that the institute had to offer.
Walking through the college gate, different department buildings and the administrative block and reminiscing all the good old memories brought me to this moment. Every student thrives to be at the opposite end of the table once in their lives and I was extremely fortunate to have experienced that only 3 years after graduating from the institute.
Blessed. Grateful. Humbled.
These moments will be etched in my memory forever. When I said YES for conducting this seminar, I didn’t have this part of the seminar in my mind. I didn’t realize that, being an Educational Institute, they would start the seminar by paying respect to the Goddess Saraswati, who is the Hindu God of knowledge and wisdom. When I entered the classroom and scanned the room from the left to the right, I was in awe of the thought that went behind the scene.
It took me a good couple minutes to realize and come to the reality that I was no longer a student here but an instructor and was going to be treated like one. Frankly speaking, I was kind of nervous to be treated like that, as it was my first time in this role before my own professors, but, went ahead and faced my fears. I loved how they introduced me and welcomed me, and even requested me to light the essence sticks before the idol. I declined at first, but, caved in after our Hon. Director sir requested. Truly, an awesome feeling.
After the inaugural ceremony, I was free to roam through the campus as I was scheduled to conduct a session later in the day. The first thing that I wanted to check out was the SPORTS section of the bulletin board and felt proud to see my name up there along with some of my closest buddies. It was a special feeling to be recognized by your institute for all the efforts that you put in to bring laurels home.
The first session went as I expected. Having lectured hundreds of students and working professional over the course of 2-3 years, I have developed a natural habit of public speaking and am most comfortable talking about life lessons and Big Data. I had an awesome time and hope the students did too; Hope, I didn’t bore them as I tend to go tangent when I start speaking!
The night was well spent with a couple of old buddies or should I say juniors. We had fun, talked so much and about so many things. Basically, had a really good time!
The next couple days went like a breeze. During this time, I was conducting some online classes, so I had to take those and head to the institute for the whole day of seminar and teaching. It was an awesome feeling to be doing what I love to do the best. During these couple days, I remember, surviving only on breakfast, water, and dinner. I had to skip lunches to help the fellow students with their questions, doubts, suggestions, and helping them understand how the real time projects work.
And that’s when I met the man that I admired the most during my undergrad. The man standing next to me has been more than our sports teacher and a guiding force for all the achievements that I could amass during those four years – none other than Mr. Megde sir. I was so fortunate to have met him during this trip and will always cherish his advise and guidance throughout my life. Along with me, you can see my colleague Mr. Prince who volunteered to teach a session or two on Machine Learning which was still a new concept 4 years ago.
And this is where I have created so many memories, during my first year of Engineering. This was the classroom where I made many friends, and like a girl so much, I couldn’t think of someone else. I had fun, I ate food here with friends, and had the time of my life and this is where the process of me becoming a leader in the real world actually started.
How can a visit to Nanded be complete without visiting a Gurudwara. I had a good time to go to this Gurudwara with my former colleague Prince and his mom, who had a strong desire to go to this place and visit here. I was glad that they could do it and through them, even I could visit this place. It was such a bliss to have visited this place after so many years, and how constant things were and virtually nothing had changed, which is a positive in this constant changing world!
And last but not the least, my lovely students and colleagues who helped me support to conduct this seminar. The most memorable moment for me came actually at the end of my last session during this seminar. The reason I distinctly remember that moment because as soon as I stopped giving answer to their questions and explaining how they can be successful in the corporate world, the whole classroom started clapping unanimously. I think that was the best gift I could have received for all the hard work that I had done for the past week or so and I was so fortunate to have helped so many students before I continue with my aspirations in the new country with new people. It was a moment to remember. Thank you, everyone!
And before I knew it, the week was over and I was on my way to Bangalore again. I thought a lot of this past week and realized how far I have come both professionally and personally and soon realized the small things have become kind-of a SNOWBALL and I loved the way it rolled.
stochasticity 
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