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Author's profile photo Bala Prabahar

Blog it Forward – Bala Prabahar

If you are not familiar with the Blog It Forward Challenge (BIF) please read Moshe Naveh’s Blog . I was blogged it forward by Oxana Noa Zubarev‘s  Blog.

I’m Bala Prabahar with 20+ years of experience in non-SAP and SAP space. I graduated in Mechanical Engineering and started working as Software Developer. Initially I worked in Informix/Unix environment. Since the software industry was new at that time, everyone in my team was responsible for all aspects of software development. No segregation of duties. We enjoyed it thoroughly. As a result, we developed skills not just in coding but database administration, system administration and all phases of Software Development Life Cycle(SDLC).

I read two books in late ’80s. Those two books in my opinion played a very important role in shaping my career.

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My family, Los Angeles, Ca – Summer 2012                                                                                         

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Smiles worth millions of dollars!!

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  • What do you most enjoy on SCN?
    • First and foremost, whole nine yards of Blogging – Reading, Commenting, having a virtual conversation and of course writing.
    • Second, finding a solution for an issue
    • Third staying current on current events organized by SAP and/or partners
  • Share a crazy fact/story about yourself that people don’t know.
    • I didn’t start speaking until I was almost 6. Everyone in my family believed that I would never speak so my parents had started making arrangements to send me to a school meant for handicapped. My parents told me I started talking when they were ready to leave home with me to the school for handicapped located about 200kms from my village.
  • What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?
    • In July 2011, I attended Mobility InnoJam in Palo Alto, Ca. For more than one reason, that was the most fun project:
      • I attended that event with my son. That was one of his best experiences and helped switch his major from Bio-Medical Engineering to Computer Science. You can read his experiences here and here
      • My son Prithvi and I left Atlanta, Ga the day before and reached San Francisco airport around 1am. We checked into a hotel nearby and slept a few hours; in the morning around 10am we headed to Palo Alto, Ca. We were very nervous. We didn’t know how SAP would respond to a college student attending InnoJam. We checked in for InnoJam. Anne Hardy, VP Developer Experience, was at the registration desk. She – most of you might know – was the organizer of that event. As the event was open to only Silicon Valley professionals, I emailed her – a week or two before – asking if I – non-Silicon Valley professional – could attend the event. She approved my registration. She recognized me as I was registering at the registration desk. After a brief introduction, I introduced Prithvi to her. We felt home immediately. After that meeting, Prithvi and I felt very comfortable working there. Prithvi enjoyed the whole experience. He experienced IT industry experience in about 36 hours. He liked food, technology, people and experience. As we were heading back to Atlanta, he wanted to come back to Silicon Valley for summer internship the following year. That wish – wanting to come back to Silicon Valley – summarized his InnoJam experience. As he wished, he went back this summer to do his internship at Klout.com.
      • Several years later, I worked as a developer(well, tried to!). Our goal was to use SUP to alert us when SAP R/3 became unavailable. We didn’t win; however we were very happy with what we delivered in less than 36 hours.

Atlanta Team working hard in Mobility InnoJam (A few of you might have already seen the pictures below. Sorry for the repetition!)        

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Raffle winner receiving an iPad!

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Son and Father

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My son’s wristband, this summer!

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The Winners of InnoJam!

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Blogging it Forward

Thank you for reading and kudos to Moshe Naveh for this fun and wonderful initiative.

I blog it forward to

   Ivan Femia

I briefly met Ivan Femia at SIT event, Chicago, Il in 2011. It was just incredible he flew in from Europe to attend the event! I would like to ask him the following question:

  • Share a fun fact/story about yourself that people don’t know
  • Describe in one short sentence: “what need does your SAP solution meet”
  • Which 5 things do you absolutely want to achieve in life?

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      12 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Tammy Powlas
      Tammy Powlas

      Nice job, Bala

      It was so great to meet you at Inside Track Chicago last year (along with Ivan)

      Great pictures and great story too.  So nice you got to experience InnoJam with your son - such a great story

      Tammy

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Bala,

      not being a public speaker by any stretch of imagination, i now really appreciate your courage and ability to speak at a recent SAP event after having read your story.

      Hope to see you again,

      greg

      Author's profile photo Bala Prabahar
      Bala Prabahar
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Tammy/Greg,

      Thanks for your nice comments. I'm so glad to be a part of SCN family.  I know I'm taking a lot more from SCN and HPI than what I give back. I hope to change that soon.

      I'll be attending InnoJam/TechEd this year in Las Vegas. Initially I was not planning to attend InnoJam because I'm not an 21st century developer. However after seeing "Design Thinking" component, I've decided to attend InnoJam. The Design Thinking is just fun and educational.

      Hope to see you both.

      Best regards,

      Bala

      Author's profile photo Susan Keohan
      Susan Keohan

      Hi Bala,

      How cool is that, that you attended the mobility Innojam with your son.  I am so jealous!

      Thanks for the excellent #blogitforward!
      Sue

      Author's profile photo Bala Prabahar
      Bala Prabahar
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Sue,

      Thank you for nice comments. I'm sure I would remember that experience - short and sweet - for a long time due to how it influenced my son! Not just my son; it indirectly influenced my daughter and her friends as well. I wanted to take her to InnoJam in Las Vegas, NV next month. She agreed to attend. And it seems she was discussing about attending SAP event with her friends. And two of her friends - one of them doesn't have good memory skills - immediately asked if she was going to attend InnoJam. Needless to say both my daughter and I were pleasantly surprised! InnoJam has already made a very big impact on teenagers.  (Unfortunately later on I came to know my daughter being a minor can't attend InnoJam:().

      Best regards,

      Bala

      Author's profile photo xMoshe Naveh (Old Acct)
      xMoshe Naveh (Old Acct)

      Hi Bala,

      Loved your BIF:). The pictures of your family and your touching story of how your life course changed just because you started speaking. In Hebrew we have a phrase " Life and death at hand of the tongue" it wasn't as drastic in your story but still:).

      Thanks again for BIFing,

      Moshe

      Author's profile photo Bala Prabahar
      Bala Prabahar
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Moshe,

      Thanks for the opportunity. I love BIF initiative and I'm learning a great deal about interesting places from others.

      Best regards,

      Bala

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Dear Bala, Very interesting blogitforward post! Thanks for sharing with us all, via this #BIF series, which I think is one great escapade into sharing personalized experiences making #scn more fun. Wish I could only blog something like this great #myfatfingers?! Wonderful to see your community outreach via #InnoJAM, TechEd events & constant encouragement towards dev community on scn & #twitter. Kudos to Prithvi Prabahar as well (+!). Thanks, AB

      Author's profile photo Bala Prabahar
      Bala Prabahar
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Arun,

      Thanks for your comments. Not only I'm enjoying but as you can see, my kids(&my daughter's friends) are benefiting a lot from SCN/SAP events. They may or may not work in SAP space when they grow up; however SAP's events have already started making significant impact on them and their friends.

      It seems SAP has plans to organize InnoJam(or something similar) events for school kids. I wish them good luck.

      Best regards,

      Bala

      Author's profile photo Tom Cenens
      Tom Cenens

      Hi Bala

      Thanks for an interesting #BIF blog.

      Love how you value your family!

      I always find books interesting (well at least that type of books) so I'll look up the books and perhaps order them.

      Best regards

      Tom

      Author's profile photo Bala Prabahar
      Bala Prabahar
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Tom,

      Thanks for your comments. I'm Ok, You're Ok is a great book to learn about different kinds of personalities. It helped me understand and accept other human beings. "What do you care what other people think" helped me liberate several years ago. "Surely, you're joking Mr Feynman" is another great book by Richard Feynman: Fun,entertaining and educational. I still read this book when I get bored.

      Best regards,

      Bala

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Bala,

      Interesting Photos! I liked it very much! 🙂

      Thank you so much for sharing about you and your experience. It was very interesting and different to read you BIF. Keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing exceptional blog. Keep rocking and sharing new innovation and ideas. I love to read your blogs and happy to comment it.

      Have a nice day! 😘

      Regards,

      Hari Suseelan