At last, it happened! My daughter completed her Grade-12 and yesterday was her last examination. She was in Grade-12 for almost two years, I think. Not just her, but all her peers as well, because of the extended exams due to Covid. This has created lot of confusion for those students attempting higher studies abroad, like my daughter. Now, we need to wait for her results, before we decide what to do next. The results might take till July end to be declared, I read in the papers. So, waiting time. Not really. In the next 6 weeks, she has to take one vaccination for Meningitis, appear for two exams (JEEE for Indian Engineering colleges, and KEEM for Kerala Engineering colleges).
The exams for five subjects, took six weeks. Poor kids, from March onwards they have been waiting for the exams, since the school closed. Now it’s June. Normally exams are over in April and results come out by May. This is a two year delay. After the results, they need to confirm their university selection, and then start the VISA formalities. While the kid does this, I need to figure out how to get the money for the higher studies. UK is so expensive! But then, we cannot put value for good education, because I am confident it will repay itself in a very short span of time. As a father, I believe the best gift I can give her, is a good education. When I was a student, getting a degree abroad was something I couldn’t even dream about. So, in a way, she is getting opportunities I never got, and I hope and pray she makes good use of these opportunities. Having said that, college life is something to be enjoyed, and probably the best times of our lives. So, I would like her to enjoy the college life as well.
After her exam, she went to her school (her exams were at a different center), and proudly took some photos in front of the school, in various poses. She has recently been hinting to me, that her friend got offers from UK universities, and the family is relocating to UK. Like we can do that!. But one thing I did tell her, working for an airline, travel is much more easier compared to other parents, and I am sure I can be there to support her, quickly, if there’s a need. My cousins are also there, so it’s a relief.
Lot of changes happened in the office with my boss retiring, and my colleague who was in charge of Infrastructure also leaving. I was asked to take additional responsibility of Infrastructure and for the last two months I have been carrying that out. It’s a different area compared to software, but not completely new. I was involved in discussions and activities related to infrastructure architecture before as well, since the primary purpose of infrastructure is to host applications. In the modern age, the relevance of capex purchase of infrastructure is reducing daily, and moving workloads to cloud where Infrastructure is available as a service (iaas) is catching up steadily. This means that the effort and activities we normally used to do in on-prem data centers reduces a lot. Instead, infra architects are now focused on designing VPCs and logical segregation of systems, applying security controls and policies on servers, baselining server builds through Machine Images etc. There are several cloud providers, however all of them provide the same level of controls to create new infrastructure in the blink of an eye, apply the desired security protocols and access controls, and basically move systems to production faster.
Coming back to my new role, a lot of it is now strategizing how to move our systems to cloud, keeping costs low and ensuring high scalability. A lot of old systems are not cloud friendly, and so simply moving them to cloud doesnt’ achieve much. It can in fact, increase the cost. The cloud providers recommend a shift and then transform policy, in two stages. However, I am completely against that, simply because of the fact that they stand to gain, and we stand to lose, if the second step doesn’t happen. It’s my responsibility to ensure that we use cloud optimally, and so the application should be re-architected before we migrate to the cloud.
We have some of our critical systems running out of a datacenter in Dubai. It utilizes a very novel architecture, which unfortunately, very few know about. As a result, it is difficult to refine it, and our inhouse team is doing a great job keeping it going. However, I am pushing for moving all workloads to cloud, because, quite simply, that’s the future of application deployment. A lot of our efforts now go into simple health checks which take a long time, like patching. If we go to cloud, all these are automatically taken care of, or at least simplified to a great extent. We can save in many ways, if we put our hearts to it. We also need to know the cloud components in depth, to be able to get best use of it. It’s like going to a product site, and selecting the best products. If we know about the products, we can use them efficiently. If we don’t know, then we will end up paying more.
When we look at things in the right perspective, it’s always common sense that drives us forward. It’s the same in infrastructure as well. I had identified some connectivity models, which didn’t make any sense and asked the team to modify them to help in troubleshooting and better control. It was completed, and started giving benefits almost from day-1. It made me re-affirm my understanding that when we take off the layers and get to the bottom of things, everything is logical. And even if it doesn’t do anything else, an engineering course helps us think logically.
My new boss will take over IT in August. It will be a new experience working for him, and I am really looking forward to it. Every leader comes with their own vision, and I believe it’s my responsibility to help them carry out their strategy. I will also know, if the interim role I am playing in infrastructure space will be made permanent. I am proud of working for flydubai, and whatever the organization needs, I will gladly do my bit.
One curious thing we technocrats deal with on a regular basis, is generation and management of technical debt. We have a stable application, and all of a sudden, business will come with an urgent requirement. If we architect it the normal way, it will take time, and we will miss the opportunity. So, what will we do? We will take some shortcuts which allow the features to come out and bring in revenue, however, we will end up putting more effort in future when something needs to be changed. Maintainability could also become a problem. In no time, the ecosystem can be band aids around the core system. So, it’s important that we keep a close eye on this architectural debt, and have a regular program to remove it. At flydubai, we have an opex program which helps keep this at bay, and ensure that the product comes back to the original alignment. But, it needs discipline.
Recently, a team member of another department completed 10 yrs at flydubai. The organization gives a memento for this achievement and her manager was handing it over to her. Surprisingly, she requested me to do the honors, since I was the one who interviewed and recruited her. I was thinking, time flies. And, I am getting older – I must have interviewed and recruited at least fifty team members! One good thing I noticed in the team is that attrition rate is very less, touch wood!. It might be because it’s Dubai and it’s a good company to work for. It might also be that they like the department, and the working culture. I hope it’s a combination of all.
My intermittent fasting has helped me reduce almost 6 to 7 kgs now. But, I am still far away from my goal of 83kgs. Need to reduce another 3kgs. But I am approaching this steadily. There are good days, there are bad days. Some days are very tiring, because after working out, not having food till 2PM is difficult. But i do manage it. One weakness I have is for sweet things, and I daily have a piece of fruit cake. I know it’s bad, but I just can’t resist it. One day, will find the fortitude to stop that as well.
I am now 93% in wordle, and it’s a really nice game. I introduced it to many friends as well, and they regularly thank me for it. Last weekend, my friend and I went to a quiet café, and played rummy online using mobiles, for at least two hours. We had tall teas, and it was nice to sit and just exercise those brain cells. We played for fun, and not for money. Even when the malls are crowded, it’s a very quiet place, and I think of it as my hidey hole when I need to sit for a while and relax.
Now that my daughter’s exams are over, I am sure she’s going to cover all the series and movies Netflix and Amazon Prime has to offer. She’s already watching ‘The Neon Lawyer’ and I am sure Riverdale will follow. I am watching Riverdale now, and I am a bit fascinated by it. Of course, some episodes are silly, however, the way our favorite characters have been transformed into modern personas, is really cool. Everyone is human, meaning they have faults, and some good people in the cartoon are now not so good. I think it’s kind of reading between the pages, and coming up with a hypothesis for the end state. For example. Mr. Lodge is very rich in the cartoon. In the series, he’s rich and also not so good, which is kind of hinting that the only way to be rich, is by knowing to dance along the grey lines. There are some nice songs in the series, some of them I had never heard before. Try out ‘Mad World’ by Gary Jules.
I think a lot if I should buy Remarkable 2 for taking notes. However, I cringe at the price, and I keep rebuking myself that I already have an iPad mini which does the same. With the screen protector which is rough, it gives a pen like feeling when we write too. However, Remarkable 2 is really great in it’s experience. It does only writing, and nothing else that a normal iOS or Android tablet does. So, it might not be worth having different devices for different digital functions, especially when we are trying to make things less complicated. But, I would really recommend a note taking tablet and app, for everyone who attends management meetings and other regular meetings. I have so many pages and sections, and it just allows me to track all action points in a very structured manner. It really boosts productivity. I used to have notebooks, and even made my own notebooks out of throwaway paper with one side blank, but obviously I can’t carry them to serious meetings. This is really top notch. Any tablet which is small and easy to carry around, is good.
We have lot of recruitment happening now, and while most of it is Pilots and Cabin crew, there are office staff as well. I always look forward to meeting new people and getting myself exposed to new thoughts and cultures. In my team also, some roles are vacant and HR is actively recruiting.
A friend of mine wants to bring his Shih Tzu dog from India to Dubai. I am trying to get it done, it’s a laborious process. So many documents are required. There is even a microchip embedded inside the dog, which transmits information! Where technology is taking us. Since it’s a very excitable pet, it is not typically allowed in aircraft, and the airlines won’t take the risk of stressing out the animal and causing severe health issues. However, there are ways around this, and I am checking with our cargo team on how this can be done.
I sometimes wish there was an easier way of blogging from anyplace we want, whenever we want. Today, it’s a chore consisting of several steps. First into my Mac. Then, into parallels and from there into RDP. Of course, I can do it from Mac as well, but I anyway need Windows open so follow this path. RDP into aws server, and then open the browser to edit the site. I wish during weekends, when I am sitting in a quite corner at some mall, sipping my tea or having my brunch, I could easily access the site and note down my musings. I will try it from my mobile this weekend, and see how user friendly it is. I am used to a large screen, and typing on a small screen actually throws me off.
Some close friends from USA are coming down for vacation in July, and I really hope I can meet them in July, in Kerala. I am trying to go down there for two weeks, and spend some time with parents. I hope the covid situation both in India and UAE remain under control, and we wont have any flight restrictions like earlier. It’s really difficult to go back to that state, and I truly hope the boundaries are open, but people will be judicious and careful. In office also, the counts are increasing. In my team alone, recently at least ten staff were infected.
Another friend of mine was telling me today that one of his car tyres almost burst, and luckily he saw it on time and changed it. It’s going to be peak summer and everyone needs to make sure the tyres are checked and maintained. The heat is such that rubber also gets affected ! Next two months are going to be the most difficult. With increase in fuel prices, in my car, when I put on air conditioning, the mileage is pitiful. I do like rolling down the window and feeling the wind against my hair (what’s left of it), even if it’s a bit warm. However during peak summer, esp if I have walked or jogged in the morning, there’s just no way to keep the ac off. Which means, every second day I will need to fill up fuel. Luckily, we are having an increase in our transport allowance, thanks to our company’s staff friendly policies, and this should cover to an extent the impact.
I am watching the stock markets, and how the main indices have all gone bearish. I am sure it will come back. Today I was reading that even bitcoin has come down to 28K USD, I had predicted it will come down to 15K. And then we can invest 🙂 We always think we can buy during a slump, but a variety of factors keep driving the market down, down, down. So if we are not careful, we will lose substantially. So, I follow the advice that when the market is volatile, do NOT trade. Instead, watch cricket or football 🙂
By next week, I hope to have more news on things. Till then, let’s relax, not fret too much, not worry about things outside our control and do our best.