My journey at GDG Jalandhar
1st September 2017 my day started, as usual, means waking up at 8 am for 9 am class, then rushing towards class having bread in my hand and listening to Alan Walker but the day didn’t end as usual.
It was approx 9:00 pm and me and my friends including a senior guy was going for dinner and at the stall everyone was busy with ordering and I saw GDG Jalandhar organizer and approach them to greet (not for introducing myself as I had lack of confidence so I was thinking I would never make for any developer community). So we shake hands met both organizer and usual introduction of myself and then after a 10 minutes talk he told to ping him on LinkedIn after 12:00 am and I said okay but forget to ping same day due to project and pinged him next day, said Hi sir, I am Rohan, guy with whom you met at parantha shop. Within a minute he replied: No sir and gave his contact number and said to call him at 9 sharp.
So I did, and he came and asked about me, what I am doing currently, my project, experiences but due to lack of confidence I was unable to reply very well or you can say in a good manner. After that, he asked to work on some latest technology and then started some latest technology like Big Data, Cloud, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, UX/UI and all with layman explanation and then told me about GDG and it’s benefits and motivate me. I still remembered upon asking: so bhaiya so should I do. Which tech should I choose? He said, no I won’t tell you, I will only show you the destination but you have to find the path to go there. And he said keep learning and working and he went to his hostel. I thought I didn’t make for GDG but happy because learn lots.
So, I choose Cloud Computing and on that day my journey for Cloud and GDG Jalandhar started. 4 days later means on 5th September 2017 (Teacher’s Day) I was in class and suddenly my Facebook Messenger notify about a message and the message from my head which stated: Hi, we have a meeting at 5 pm on admission blocks stairs. I said okay.
I reached there at sharp 5 and then the introduction started. After the introduction, I got fully demotivated because there were lots of guys who are much talented than me, whose project bigger than me, a guy whose project is appreciated by Facebook, another who is expert of Machine Learning, another who is expert in Android, another who is expert in Reverse Engineering and other, and there was me who know only the basic of cloud. I can’t survive here long, this thought was keep running in my mind and then we moved to the new location because all these stuff took an hour and after 6 it's not allowed to sit there. After we moved to new place, the 2nd organizer asked me Rohan, tum kya kar rhe ho iss time, kis technology pe kaam kar rahe ho (Rohan what are you doing currently, on which technology you are working on?). I said Cloud. He asked from where I said Google kar ke padh rha hu and told him some websites. He said: Google pe search karna Visualstudio and waha pe jake apni LPU ki id se login karna and then LinuxAcademy choose karna, you will get promo code and then activate it and then tumko Linuxacdemy 3 months ke lie free mil jaega (Google VisualStudio and then login via your college id and then select LinuxAcademy, it will give you a promo code, activate it and then you will get LinuxAcademy free for 3 months). I said okay, will do. And after that Organizer said some other thing to us and then announced that “This is my team who is going and we will work together”. I was happy, because became a volunteer at GDG Jalandhar and will become a member and coordinator if I do well, so I promised myself to do and learn well.
I started studying cloud that very day from LinuxAcademy and making notes of every topic and on every meeting, they ask me something to explain like on first meeting after I started learning, he asked me what is VPC, SaaS and other and I explained very well and impressed them every time.
I started exploring new things, my social following from meme pages changes to technical pages, I used to follow some politics, Bollywood, technical etc blogs earlier but after joining the blogs that I follow is only different technical blogs. I also don’t know why sudden changes but it was giving me a good deed, I was feeling well to dig some tech, sharing my thoughts about tech. It always gives a kind of good feeling and it still does, I love to read technical blog (although I never write any blog, it’s my first blog and I promised to write a blog about tech on which I worked); in my spare time either I play game or read blog or technology news. As I told you that I became a member in September 2017 so that was my 3rd semester(2nd year) and we had soft skill class and my soft skill trainer/teacher made a rule that after attendance 2 or 3 students will say some news so that we updated with society and become habitual to read newspaper and earlier I also used to speak other field news, but after becoming member even my news converted in technology-based and my teacher announced me a Tech Guy, after all, news she always call me to say some technical news. Guys started sharing technology with me, they ask me anything on which they have some issue, asking about all the blogs I follow, where do I get all these news. It was like overnight I became a hero. I was growing and studying leaving everything behind, increasing my confidence and knowledge.
My first event with GDG Jalandhar in which I was coordinator was “Make with Google II”, apart from this I also visited Chandigarh University, Chandigarh for GDG Jalandhar Roadshow on 14th October 2017. There is an interesting thing, let me tell you: I missed my bus for Chandigarh because I was in my tight sleep, an alarm rang but I was like giant sleepy monster and team left. I woke up at 5:30 and called them, the organizer was angry and said no need to come now, I said I will come, we have a debate for 5 mins and then he said there is a bus at 6 catch it and don’t be late. Apart from it, I also Coordinate at annual and biggest fest for any GDG that is GDG DevFest 2017 which was held on 5 November 2017.
Life is a very awesome thing and time is super awesome. In 2016 DevFest I was the participant and I never thought that in DevFest 2017 I will be a Coordinator of this great fest and team. I learned lots from GDG Jalandhar journey.
This is all my good story but as you know none journey in this world is incomplete without ups and downs and it’s good to have ups and downs in the life otherwise it will be boring. Similarly, I also saw some bad phases in this journey. When I became the member I was in the 7th sky but as our elders advised not fly in more pride otherwise vanquished one day; the same thing happened, in pride, I got diverted with my studies but how long, I also vanquished when bhaiya asked about my implementation that I learnt. He asked to show my projects on what I am learning and ask me some basic question and I didn’t know the answers and I again got into volunteer phase, all my hard work swept off and received a mail regarding profile under consideration. I was feeling to leave all this and get back to normal.
One day I got from my organizer and he asked me: kya kya ata hai tumko (What you know?). I said Cloud and database. He told me to make a ppt and poster on Cloud Event and submit before 11 pm and time was 7:30 pm. I submitted anyway and after that received to make a project 2 projects on “MIT Scratch” in 3 days. I did it and after that host a website on AWS Cloud didn’t do it on time but did it, just a little bit help of my senior was taken.
At that moment I understood ki Rohan aise nahi chalega, udana band karna hoga and padhana fir se suru karna hoga(Rohan this won’t work, have to study instead of fly in the sky with pride). I started again concentrating on studies without pride because this was my last chance if I performed badly this time I will be removed permanently, no volunteer phase. And this time I do it good.
Life comes on track again, I am continuously learning and implementing via projects and freelancing. I got more light when I got a chance to be a speaker on Google Cloud Study Jams held on 17 Feb 2018 and I am the speaker; I got this news at 8:00 pm the day before an event. I know concepts but had a tension; same reason-confidence because I was told that there was no other speaker and I had to take the whole session. I started watching my videos of some higher concepts and their practicals. I was totally prepared then both organizers come and stand behind me watching what I am preparing and I turned back and hug them and took a breath of relief and confidence increased again.
I took the session on Fundamentals and Infrastructure of Google Cloud Platform. Here is the photo, where I was listening to the answer to my question.
7 April 2018, Tensorflow Dev Summit Extended, the most important day of my journey. That was the day for which I was waiting from the very first day. I became the Core Member of GDG Jalandhar. I was so happy at that time and like flying because being from Finance background as I am the first one in my family who is doing engineering. I was in the sky when I got the portal details which are only for Core Members. I decided to fly high but not in pride because if I fall this time I will die.
Today is 6 September 2018 I completed my one year at GDG Jalandhar and I learnt lots of things, got a great team and it’s my family actually (family away family), got exposure, made a good connection. We work together, we eat together, we celebrate together. I learnt not to run under pressure, try to decrease the pressure because running away is not a solution because if I run away that day I wouldn’t write this blog now, never fly with high pride, keep learning continuously, keep making connection and family comes first no matter what the situation, the best thing is family. I promised myself to keep doing like this, and will continue and follow the legacy and culture of GDG Jalandhar.
