In the newspaper today I read the headline of an article on Amitabh Bachchan saying that 2006 was by far is best year. I am sure a lot of people would disagree and would think of other years where he was more successful in terms of his careers but the bottom line is that the gentleman himself believes that this is his best year.

Then I started thinking about what was the best year for me, the year I got married and the year Manu was born would always be remembered by me but I am not considering those as we are talking in terms of the work. I kept running through the past few years without reaching anywhere special and then I reached back the time I spent in Australia.

The only time I actually enjoyed studies and did well was when I was in Victoria University for my Advance Diploma. That was the time when I was studying something I actually liked.

The last semester was research assignment and for that I developed a database driven website for a weekly ad magazine all by myself. To make that site I learned Cold Fusion even when my guide suggested that I only design it and leave the actual production of it “You are from India and you outsource it there” he suggested as a theory not really meaning I get it done by someone back home and present just the design of it as my research assignment.

I managed to make the site and when I was making the presentation at the end of the semester my guide said “Well, before Navin shows it to us, I would like to mention that he managed to do this without any support from us.”

I came out after that presentation, thrilled and punching air, generally proud of my achievement. After the college was over and I started working and in all the years since then I have not felt that same kind of high and I have not taken the same pride in my work. I have not learned anything (significant) new, I have not managed to do something that seemed very difficult if not impossible, have not challenged myself to do the seemingly impossible and have not set out to achieve something without knowing how to. It is bad enough as is and what makes it even worse is the fact at that time, as a student, I was more or less on top of the technology as far as the internet was concerned but now when I am working in this industry, I am finding it hard to keep up with what is happening around me.

I guess it is time for me to seek fresh challenges and recreate the feeling of thrill I had in 1999.

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