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.

My family, Los Angeles, Ca – Summer 2012                                                                                         

Smiles worth millions of dollars!!

• 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!)        

Raffle winner receiving an iPad!

Son and Father

My son’s wristband, this summer!

The Winners of InnoJam!

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?