Blog It Forward – Abesh Bhattacharjee

And I was Tagged ! It seems that there is no escaping the Blog It Forward phenomena and I was honored to be tagged by Frank Koehntopp who’e been one of my inspirations when it comes to DSLR photography.

(Image Courtesy : Wikipedia) [The Squirrel reference]

That’s me and and if the image above gives you the impression that I am generally always very busy you should see my mom 🙂 . I was born, brought up and schooled in the small, sleepy Steel Township of Durgapur. My dad worked in a bank and my mom was a teacher and they always encouraged me to take independent decisions right from a very small age. As an effect I’ve been very comfortable taking decisions on my own and in the end live with the consequences. I think this is one of the greatest gifts that they gave me.

(My parents with Jim, at our house in Durgapur)

Though I have a Mechanical Engineering degree, I’ve always been fascinated with computers (First brush was when I was in my 9th standard and I owned my first ever PC, my first laptop in 2006) and hence I quit my first job with a manufacturing company and jumped into software. Before I knew it, I was working for SAP and then IBM and now, after 9 years I think it’s been a hell of a ride. I’ve joined SCN (which literally changed my life), co-authored a SAP Press book on SAP MII and became a SAP Mentor, things that I’d never expected I will do/achieve and have gained knowledge, love and very good friends all over the world.

Stuff that you might not know about me (Frank’s questions).

I have a lot of hobbies that I actively pursue. I am a gadget freak and an Android fanboy, my latest acquisitions being the Nexus 7 tablet. I am also a gamer and own a Gaming laptop, a PS3, a PS2, a PSP and have already pre-ordered a OUYA.

I am into literary events for e.g. Quizzing, What’s the Good Word, Dumb Charades etc. and have participated and won events since school (I, obviously, had very good teammates)

I am a movie buff, not as hardcore as my good friend Martin Gillet.

I also love listening to music, mostly rock and metal from the 80’s and 90’s but listen to anything that appeals to my ears even if I do not know the language. Love Pink Floyd, have watched Roger Waters live in concert and my still unfulfilled dream is to watch David Gilmour live which I am not sure is going to ever happen 🙁 .

(With Jason Wade of Lifehouse at the Berlin Airport)

I have a lovely wife and a one and a half year old son, whom I wanted to name “Roger Keith Syd Barrett Bhattacharjee” but was vetoed out by almost everybody… sigh 🙁 . We finally named him Ahir. (The longest time that I gave up gaming was after my son was born, for almost a year and a half. It’s been a month that I have dusted off my Laptop and started gaming a little bit again, though all of my consoles are still packed.)

Now if these were not embarrassing enough here are a few more :

I love the gadgets I own and am very possessive about them, sometimes maybe more than human beings. I lost my cool and blasted my wife Haimanti (then fiance) when she dropped one edge of my laptop from about an inch off the ground. I was meeting her for the first time.

I have trained to play the Tabla for 6 years when I was a kid and the drums. I can sing (I think) and have been a part of the SAP band called SAPTAK. I was supposedly a western vocalist and the only song number that I sang was RHCP‘s Californication for the band sound check.

I have acted in multiple plays since school and have also participated in the amateur theater scene in Bangalore where we staged Woody Allen‘s God. I played Trichinosis if you wanted to know. I apologize to everyone who had to endure my acting skills over these years but if they knew I was acting and still attended the plays, they deserved it 😉 .

(The cast and crew of the Woody Allen play – God. Me – extreme left)

Two Very Random Facts about myself

• My favorite games of all time are : Half-Life (was incidentally the first game I ever played in college on Dipankar Saha‘s computer. Yes he was my senior in college) , Half-Life 2 and the God of War series.
• The most played song on my iPod which trumps every other song in terms of play count is Creep by Radiohead.

Tag it Forward

I would tag it to Dipankar Saha, Somnath Manna, Craig Cmehil, Martin Gillet and Graham Robinson. They are some of the few who have inspired and mentored me over the years and I couldn’t thank them enough for everything they did for me.

Questions

• If there was something in your life that you could change what would it be ?
• How has the SCN or the SAP community influenced you or played a part in defining who you are today.
• One embarrassing incident that you would remember your entire life.

Bonus Photo

Me, with the coolest CEO that I have ever met.

(Photo Courtesy of the awesome Martin Gillet)