What better words to describe how wonderful 2008 was for me? The Almighty Allah has bestowed upon me so many good things in life and laid so much success on my path that I can never thank Him enough for that. This was a pivotal year in my life and in reminiscence I'd like to look back at a few memorable events.
Jan-Feb Despite whining earlier, I feel I'd given a decent effort in my MS studies, which resulted in an A+ in Computational Geometry. This was a big thing for me since I was the only non-buet-teacher masters student to have earned an A+ in this subject. I didn't fair in the other two courses but I don't want to consider that as failures since my efforts in them were commensurate to my grades. I completed the huge GraphApi rewrite job at the office single-handedly. Though this did not garner any significant contribution to our product but through this I became the sole programmer to maintain GraphApi and GraphPaint libraries for our product.
March Had a wonderful trip to Birisiri with Zaman. During BCM training at the office, once I got genuinely indignant at the idiosyncrasies and strongly dissented with Tajul Bhai over lunch. This was one of the rare times when I stepped out of my character and stood up for something, for this reason, I'll always remember this among my numerous office memories.
May 6th This date needs a special mention. It was CodeCrafters 1st year Anniversary. All of us, donned in new t-shirts bearing CodeCrafters logo were getting ready to go the Sheraton for a grand celebration. Just before leaving office, suddenly I received a phone call from Dad. He was very agigatated, demanding me to come home at once. Upon querying upon the cause of this emergency I learnt that a letter from American Consular Center is awaiting me. By some utter dumb luck (again all praises to the Almighty Allah), I won the DV-2009 lottery. Upon hearing the news I immediately shared the joy through hushed embraces among my colleagues and friends (obviously not informing my boss Ellis). Though it was my first visit to a 5-star hotel, I was not in a mental state to marvel the decoration or ingest the salt less (in some ways also tasteless) food. Finally I could no longer avoid Dad's berated phone-calls and had to ask leave from Ellis in the middle of lunch to come home and collect the winning letter. Imagine what this means to me! Not only does it open a gateway to go to US (for which I was wistful at that time), but it was also my first win in any lottery and how! Earlier I used to consider myself so distant from any date with the lady luck since I even used to lose the coin toss before a cricket match all the time. Now I consider myself one of the luckiest person of 2008.
June After school I became somewhat distant from a bunch of my schoolmates. By this time, I started frequenting to Imran's place and met a lot of old friends while cheering for our team in the soccer tournament. I also took part for one half in the last match which was one of the high points for me.
July Just half a month before Minu Khala's wedding, I got diagnosed with Hepatitis-A. I had to take intra-venous saline solution and had to remain glued to bed for almost a month. Again thanks to Allah I recovered rapidly due everyone's love and care. On the whole, it was a new feeling to take complete rest after quite a while.
Sept-Oct I scored another A+ in Bioinformatics in Masters and was busy most of the time in office to facilitate multiple Index feeds in our product - CIM. This was one of the very few occasions in my work life so far when I felt challenged by the problem before me and felt I was actually contributing something.
Nov I sat for TOEFL on the 1st. The experience was something I have not encountered before. Suffering from a mild fever I had to complete my exam and by some miracle (again thanks to Allah) I scored an astounding 114 (Reading=29, Listening=29, Speaking=26, Writing=30), which is so far presumed to be the highest among csebuet alumni. I had an austere but hearty birthday celebration on 6th, first sharing a small cake with my school friends and then enjoying a nice family dinner. I had a notable contribution in painting and refurbishing our home and after a long time, started studying like crazy for the upcoming GRE exam.
Dec Just 2 days after Eid-ul-Azha, I sat for GRE on the 11th. Again by divine intervention, my exam became an utter show of miracle. I encountered only a handful of words outside what I've studied from WordSmart and billions of thanks to Almighty Allah, scored 1420 (Analytical=640, Quantitative=780). I invited Joyee and Apurbo Bhaiya on the 16th to our home and had a heartfelt chat with my best friend on the 17th like the old times. I ended the year with a bang - a rocking 3 day trip to Cox's Bazar with Nashad, Piou, Shaila, Saikat, Saad, Redwan and Ashik. We danced, partied, boozed, jumped in and out of sea, bon-fired and above all enjoyed every bit of time amidst natural beauties and old friends. This will always remain as one of the most memorable journeys of my life. Other than all this, I enfranchised for the first time in my life on 29th.
Jan-Feb Despite whining earlier, I feel I'd given a decent effort in my MS studies, which resulted in an A+ in Computational Geometry. This was a big thing for me since I was the only non-buet-teacher masters student to have earned an A+ in this subject. I didn't fair in the other two courses but I don't want to consider that as failures since my efforts in them were commensurate to my grades. I completed the huge GraphApi rewrite job at the office single-handedly. Though this did not garner any significant contribution to our product but through this I became the sole programmer to maintain GraphApi and GraphPaint libraries for our product.
March Had a wonderful trip to Birisiri with Zaman. During BCM training at the office, once I got genuinely indignant at the idiosyncrasies and strongly dissented with Tajul Bhai over lunch. This was one of the rare times when I stepped out of my character and stood up for something, for this reason, I'll always remember this among my numerous office memories.
May 6th This date needs a special mention. It was CodeCrafters 1st year Anniversary. All of us, donned in new t-shirts bearing CodeCrafters logo were getting ready to go the Sheraton for a grand celebration. Just before leaving office, suddenly I received a phone call from Dad. He was very agigatated, demanding me to come home at once. Upon querying upon the cause of this emergency I learnt that a letter from American Consular Center is awaiting me. By some utter dumb luck (again all praises to the Almighty Allah), I won the DV-2009 lottery. Upon hearing the news I immediately shared the joy through hushed embraces among my colleagues and friends (obviously not informing my boss Ellis). Though it was my first visit to a 5-star hotel, I was not in a mental state to marvel the decoration or ingest the salt less (in some ways also tasteless) food. Finally I could no longer avoid Dad's berated phone-calls and had to ask leave from Ellis in the middle of lunch to come home and collect the winning letter. Imagine what this means to me! Not only does it open a gateway to go to US (for which I was wistful at that time), but it was also my first win in any lottery and how! Earlier I used to consider myself so distant from any date with the lady luck since I even used to lose the coin toss before a cricket match all the time. Now I consider myself one of the luckiest person of 2008.
June After school I became somewhat distant from a bunch of my schoolmates. By this time, I started frequenting to Imran's place and met a lot of old friends while cheering for our team in the soccer tournament. I also took part for one half in the last match which was one of the high points for me.
July Just half a month before Minu Khala's wedding, I got diagnosed with Hepatitis-A. I had to take intra-venous saline solution and had to remain glued to bed for almost a month. Again thanks to Allah I recovered rapidly due everyone's love and care. On the whole, it was a new feeling to take complete rest after quite a while.
Sept-Oct I scored another A+ in Bioinformatics in Masters and was busy most of the time in office to facilitate multiple Index feeds in our product - CIM. This was one of the very few occasions in my work life so far when I felt challenged by the problem before me and felt I was actually contributing something.
Nov I sat for TOEFL on the 1st. The experience was something I have not encountered before. Suffering from a mild fever I had to complete my exam and by some miracle (again thanks to Allah) I scored an astounding 114 (Reading=29, Listening=29, Speaking=26, Writing=30), which is so far presumed to be the highest among csebuet alumni. I had an austere but hearty birthday celebration on 6th, first sharing a small cake with my school friends and then enjoying a nice family dinner. I had a notable contribution in painting and refurbishing our home and after a long time, started studying like crazy for the upcoming GRE exam.
Dec Just 2 days after Eid-ul-Azha, I sat for GRE on the 11th. Again by divine intervention, my exam became an utter show of miracle. I encountered only a handful of words outside what I've studied from WordSmart and billions of thanks to Almighty Allah, scored 1420 (Analytical=640, Quantitative=780). I invited Joyee and Apurbo Bhaiya on the 16th to our home and had a heartfelt chat with my best friend on the 17th like the old times. I ended the year with a bang - a rocking 3 day trip to Cox's Bazar with Nashad, Piou, Shaila, Saikat, Saad, Redwan and Ashik. We danced, partied, boozed, jumped in and out of sea, bon-fired and above all enjoyed every bit of time amidst natural beauties and old friends. This will always remain as one of the most memorable journeys of my life. Other than all this, I enfranchised for the first time in my life on 29th.
Being a believer (cannot term myself a pious or a devout yet) I've realized to accredit all the good things in my life to God's benevolence and all the hardship to His tests in this year. This is a lesson I hope to nurture in me throughout my life. One other important lesson which I've learnt may be put forth in a filmy way- Agar kisi chiz ko dil se chaho, to puri kayenaat tumhe usse milane to sazish mein lag jati hain (quoted from Om Shanti Om, dialogue picturized on Shah Rukh Khan. I later read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and found out the original quote). No one but me can fathom how profoundly this have come true in my life in 2008. This is a year that I'll always remember as one that has reaffirmed my belief over fate and has taught me to dream big again.
