I've been living through the curved pathways of this lifeline since 2.15 AM, March 27, 1972 when I was born in Trivandrum (now known as Thiruvananthapuram), capital of Kerala, the tiny southern state of India. For the complete résumé, please click here!

Along the way, I've picked up decent education. I graduated from College of Engineering, Trivandrum doing Applied Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering (??? don't ask me why!). The decision not to take up a so-called "engineering" job was taken fairly early by the time I was half way through my sixth semester.

Then Wipro Infotech happened in the campus and I found myself managing computer dealers twice my age and their marketing chaps 3-4 years elder than me for the 21 months I spent in Cochin, Kerala. Being in one of the most respected IT companies in India stood in good stead for my interview for the management programme.

So off I went to New Delhi for another 21 months to International Management Institute and came back with my Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (whew! that's really a long sounding way for saying management diploma). Once again, the campus recruitment gods were really kind to me with jobs, but IT was always my first love (may be, the only love, career-wise!), so I opted for CMC Limited.

So, here I am, as of now, titled Executive - International Business Development for the Ports & Cargo Group, CMC Ltd. at Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. My group does software projects for Ports industry and I help them in all activities till the project comes to our hands.

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What are a few of my favorite things?
 
I love music, music and more music. Personally, I prefer music with strong guitar sounds (U2 of the mid-80s, Dire Straits), lyrics with depth (Sting), great vocal range (Morten Harket of A-ha) or just lots of style (Duran Duran). I love the new crop of ladies with an attitude (Alannis Morisette, Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Imbruglia among others). Check out my complete lyrics page at my alternate nest!

I loathe rap, bubble gum pop and electronic drivel. Lets not leave the creativity to the computers. Anyway, the electronic trash that gets blared is basically repeating the same note a million times. And just for the record, I was a disc jockey at All India Radio, Trivandrum for around 3 years (1990-93). Ah! those nostalgic pre-MTV days in India fiddling around with LPs and spool tapes....

I like reading about technology, mostly in the computer field and these days I like things like workflows, business processes, resource planning and such catch words. You can say I'm trying to demystify them!

I love non-pulp novels and non-fiction writing. The most influential books in my life have been Future Shock (Alvin Toffler), 1984 & Animal Farm (George Orwell) and the Holy Bhagavad Gita (whatever portions I've read of it!!!). My most loved book has been the Blandings Castle series of P G Wodehouse. I also am one of the million worshippers of our cubicle idol Dilbert.

I love animals (being a vet's son, can you expect anything else?) and my only regret is that I can't keep a dog considering the nature of my work. Back home in Trivandrum, we've always had dogs. Now we have two dogs and a cat.

My other interests are writing letters (though I must admit, it has fallen drastically), gardening (again, limited only to the times I go back home), table tennis (once in 3 months?) and an obsession to reduce my little tummy! Once upon a time, I used to dabble with astrology as well. I love the space and stars and their endless possibilities.

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I got married (oh! yes!) on January 23, 1998 after a 2.5 year engagement (June 12, 1995). Anitha was my classmate in College of Engineering, Trivandrum. She got much more marks that me there and now she is into software development. Otherwise, she does pencil sketches with cats being her favorite theme. For our honeymoon (???) we went to Coonoor and Ooty, hillstations in South India's Western Ghats.

My brother, one of my role models, is eight years elder to me, a post grad in Aeronautics and now, he plans to become an ERP functional consultant after ten years in production & manufacturing. (Married with a kid)

My father retired from service as the Director of Animal Husbandry department where as my mother retired as a professor in Educational Psychology. Both of them have a Dr. before their name though neither treats human beings!

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Where do we go from here? I am not exactly ambitious in terms of money. Ideally, I would prefer to have an expansive (not expensive, its not a typo!!!) lifestyle in a profession strictly of my choice. I hope to continue in any information technology area which is a leading edge one. The current buzzwords are enterprise management, workflow processes and such like and hence they've caught my fancy. Watch this space for updates!

I also hope to write more articles in the future since whatever little skills I have should not be allowed to wither away due to disuse. We all have a role, a purpose and a personal mission tagged to our lives. And I might not know what mine is until I act through the script. The initial conditions by which I give an opinion now would have changed ten times over by the time you ask me this question next. But whatever it is, I'm born human (and not say, a weasel, for arguments sake!!) for a definite higher reason. And I hope to fulfil that as I continue the dual trips thru my personal and career paths.

Till such time I find the roadsign, I shall keep walking... (Quote: my pal Rahul Bhagat)
 
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In my home state Gopalakrishnan was the more popular alternative, though I survived without much difficulties. Wipro head office was in Bangalore, Karnataka, India and I was rechristened Gopi Krishna, since they found the "n" at the end wholly unnecessary.

I was generally called Gopi Kishen in Delhi though there were a few subtle variants like Gopi Krishan, Gopi Kishan, Gopi Krishn. Hyderabad brought my old Bangalore name back and I was Gopi Krishna once again though there is a small crowd who prefers Gopal.

Here and there, I've had other weird ones like this chap from England who addressed me as Gropi Krishnan (sounds like I'm perenially groping for things).

And finally, I must tell you about this colleague of mine from another group who has already sent me six faxes with the following names:

G A Gopala Krishan
G A Gopal Krishan
G R Gopal Krishan
G R Gopal Krishnan
G R Gopalakrishnan
G R Gopikrishna

Just that final "n" and he will get there. I'm hoping. I'm hoping...

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