I did all my schooling at "Don Bosco Mat. Hr. Sec. School" (dear school of our hearts) in Thanjavur. Recorded to be the first ever educational institution started by the Salesian brothers in India, this has been one of the best places of my lifetime. I'd give up anything to be back in school. The first Salesian institution in the town is now named "St.Antony's" and is now run by the Brothers of St.Gabriel. Don Bosco, from where I did all my schooling from my 1st standard until my 12th (Higher Secondary Certificate), was built in the early 1980s. The first Principal I remember is Fr. Packiaraj Royan, who granted me admission to the first standard. Ever since that, school has always been very close to my life. Fr. Berkmann, Fr.Paulraj Maniam, Bro. Selvam, Fr. Patrick Alphonse, Fr. Deva Joe, Fr. Michael Vyakulam, Fr. V V Abraham, Fr. A T Thomas and Fr. Phillip Royan filled the school with fond memories I treasure now.

I learnt computers and computing thanks to my then Computer Science Instructor at school "Gerald Joseph". He offered me all the freedom I needed to learn and hack at machinery in school. I was soon helping him out with administering the computer lab and also got my parents to buy me a PC at home (in my 8th standard). After my first brush with computers, I've always been hacking and meddling with computers. That learning process has been a continuing and enchanting dream.

My proud hacks are a "Logo interpreter" for kids, a Quickbasic UI (a la ncurses), networking and educational applications based on Quickbasic, 3D accelerated toy games, mathematical computing libraries and a host of other toys.

During my first year in college, I took to troubleshooting PCs of friends and acquaintances all around town. Finally together with a friend of mine, "Badhrinath Nageswaran", we decided to start a troubleshooting firm.

"Badhrinath" has always been the best partner I meld with bringing out the best in both of us, and coordinating each other with a swish of magic that I always envied. We started out with an initial survey of companies owning PCs in Thanjavur, went ahead with planning our quarterly overlays and finally got down to starting it!

It was a strong learning experience, understanding registration, tax norms and a lot of legal procedure involved in incorporating companies in India.

We started getting compensated with an inverse-time model (much like some law firms in the US). This learning experience was a huge jumpstart to my career and my understanding of computers and people in tandem. We called our firm "Reboot" (not after the exceedingly successful animated show of the same name), but just after the process you would follow to restart your machine in case of trouble. We had some world-class support for printing pamphlets from Rueben who ran a local printing firm that delivered more, and delivered ahead-of-time.

I also learnt basic Computer Graphics stuff, image, photo editing and the likes from a born genius nicknamed "Chitti Babu". He still runs a firm that designs ad hoardings, wedding invitations and the like. His speciality has turned to 3-Dimensional hoardings which he provides under the brand AntZ. He never fails to impress people with the speed at which he improvises, imagines and delivers. I've learnt a lot about basic design techniques from him, some that I have put to use to add to the simplicity of this website.

Moving on, from April 2009 I started offering my services in platform creation and integration for product development in the telecom space. I specialise in integrating Free and Open Source components with commercial grade products. In all my role I have been creating and integrating "free" (freedom) software. My Work makes free software. I have experienced two full end-to-end product development lifecycles from concept to delivery. My work doubles as a hobby letting me pursue it with undiminished enthusiasm.

I took on the role of the Director of Technology, Incubation and Academic Mentor at Parisutham Institute of Technology and Science (www.parisuthamtech.com) abbrev. PITS, from January 2010 until December 2011. This role was to contribute to a new and upcoming institution headed by Mr. S P Anthonisamy, who had earlier been a patron of my startup "Reboot," during my under-graduate program in 1999. On the count of technology, academic pursuit and its unique finishing school, I was able to contribute sufficiently to assist in the rapid growth of the relatively young educational institution.

I also learnt about the Indian Higher education system. There is no better learning than being within a system to understand its strengths and its weaknesses. This knowledge has also taught me the diversity in styles of administration employed in semi-urban and rural populace.

During this period, I had the pleasure of working alongside Dinesh Parisutham, who was a pleasure in terms of company and with his unique 'Never say Die' attitude, reminded me of the famed Tennis Player Michael Chang. There was much I learnt from him including the need to transition to a better web design for this website.

I have moved on and begun to offer my services as an open source system software consultant from 01-Jan-2012, an exciting way to start 2012. My heart still lies with developing and integrating system software components, predominantly for (or from) the open source community.

I am looking forward to create a team or an organization focusing on products and services derived from the open source community. For now the venture is codenamed Sourcery.in, after the Discworld book by Terry Pratchet. I am hoping to find a new and challenging avenue where I can apply my palette of skills to create something absolutely new. If you have a passion for Open Source and to create things that have never been conceived or thought of before, do get in touch with me.