Thank you, next
Hi, 2024 👋
What a year 2023 was! A true emotional and mental rollercoaster with a lot of action — a very busy year, I must say. Each time I sit down to write these year-end blogs, I realize how these experiences make me stronger.
Every year, I reflect on the past year, examining all aspects of my life. It was in 2021 that I started sharing most of it publicly through blogs, and I’ve continued to do so every year (2022, 2023). Witnessing my growth throughout the years boosts my morale 🌱
Importance of Having a Support System ❤️
At the beginning of the year, something happened that significantly affected my state of mind, and it coincidentally occurred around my birthday. I’m not comfortable discussing or making it public yet, but during that time, I realized how fortunate I am to have loving parents, my cute brother, a supportive boyfriend, Nemo (my cat), a few friends, and some people who genuinely care. It’s hard to put it into words, but I recognized the importance of having a strong support system throughout this journey. I am genuinely thankful to each of them ✨
One thing I am really proud of is that I am never afraid to seek help from my support system when I need it. I trust them, and it always helps me break free from my overthinking. Sometimes, that support system is my diary, just like this blog. I do write a lot to clear my mind !
So finally, after the event, I gave myself flowers and carried on with my usual activities. I’m proud that I could handle it all with the love of the people I have around me and my optimistic attitude. However, I anticipate that healing from that event will take some time 😅
Open Source & Community ✨
I did a lot around open source and the community. When I was reflecting, I thought, ‘Wow, how did you handle all of this?’ I won’t say that I’m not exhausted because, truly, I tried pushing my comfort zone in 2023. But that’s how I am; I love challenging myself and pushing my limits 💪
Kubernetes 1.27 Release Team Shadow!
At the beginning of the year, I had the opportunity to work in the K8s 1.27 Release Comms team and learned a lot. You can read more about it here; It is a great opportunity to get started with open-source contributions to the Kubernetes project.
CNCF Ambassador
I also got an opportunity to continue supporting the CNCF community as a CNCF Ambassador. It has been amazing so far to work with other ambassadors and the community.
Attended SREcon Singapore
I traveled to Singapore to attend SREcon. I received a scholarship for this conference, which I learned about through the Women in Cloud Native community Discord group, thanks to Apurva and SREcon! It was lovely to meet people, attend great talks, and finally meet some individuals I had only interacted with online.
Women In Cloud Native Community
I launched this community in December 2022, and it has now grown to almost 2000+ members across social media and Discord 🎉. Many people, including community builders, joined and supported the community in organizing various workshops, podcasts, and more. A big thanks to Bhavani and Sankita, who have been super active within the community, always leading workshops, interviews, etc. They are the pillars indeed.
I am super happy about maintaining consistency here and have had the pleasure of meeting amazing women in the cloud-native space, learning about their inspiring careers and journeys. Also, it just turned 1 Year this 20th December 🎂
Co-Chair KubeDay India
I loved working as co-chair for KubeDay India! Kubeday India happened for the first time in India and as co-chair, I was mainly responsible for reviewing and accepting talks, drafting out the agenda, and helping with other important tasks.
I also did new things like hosting You Got this conference, reaching out to people to record podcasts for Women in Cloud Native, and honing my video-making and editing skills, etc.
Organising & Speaking 💪
Organizing meetups and conferences — this is one of the skills I acquired in 2023. From ideation, planning, dealing with unexpected changes, overcoming challenges, constantly thinking about how to enhance the experience for everyone involved, and finally executing the event. The whole journey had a lot of moving parts to ensure a successful event 🎉
I must say there is a substantial amount of work and energy that goes into organising the event. Tasks such as finding a venue, managing operations, handling CFPs and finding speakers, dealing with unexpected challenges, etc. — all these aspects demand attention and effort.
- Cloud Devxchange LocalStack — Co-organized the meetup around Cloud Developer Experience with almost 90+ people attending in Bangalore. Kudos to all the teamwork here 🎉
2. Quinence meetup — I organized and delivered a talk at SRM University along with Ratul (Founder of Quinence). It was refreshing to return to a university, talk to students and share insights about Open source.
3. Cloud Native Sustainability India Mini-Conference — Organised the first in-person ‘Cloud Native Sustainability’ mini-conference in India at the VMware office 🌎♻️🌱 I loved Sancheeta’s talk. We have worked together at Blinkit before, and she has been doing inspiring work in this domain while also building a community — ClimateTechCollective.
I have shared more about my experience in this blog:
4. Devopsdays Bangalore & Aiven Meetup — Organizing
DevOpsDays Bengaluru 2023 along with the Indian Open Source Data Infrastructure meetup that happened right after DevOpsDays was crazy, fun, and amazing. This experience made me realize how tough this job can be! 🤯 We faced numerous operational and financial challenges, but I am glad we could pull off this event.
5. Elastic Meetup — Gave a talk at the Elastic Meetup. Loved meeting people and learning about what’s new!
6. KubeDay India Keynote talk and Emcee the keynote stage
I was nervous because this was my second time speaking in front of 1000+ people (the first time was when I performed the role of Gandhari in a school dramatics event — Andha Yug)
You can also watch the video here 😁. This day was indeed special for me ❤️
Work — Developer Advocacy 💼
This year, I joined LocalStack, and it’s been an incredible journey of continuous learning for me 👩🏽💻
I’ve undertaken exciting projects such as launching an educational academy — LocalStack Academy, creating engaging technical videos and organizing meetups. These opportunities have enhanced my skills ⚒️
Travel 🧳
Well, I love traveling. Recently, I was reading an article that stated travel is very good for mental health. People often ask me why I travel so much, and sometimes I wonder the same. Instead, I should just relax a bit, right? Until recently, I discovered that traveling is my way of relaxation. I feel more creative when I travel. It rewires my brain, and that’s why it’s important for me ✨
Excerpt from the Forbes Article: In Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life, Dr. Michael Merzenich — known as “the father of brain plasticity” — explains the importance of getting outside our comfort zone and embracing the unfamiliar. People who travel to new places, keep learning languages and continue to experience new things into old age, are far less likely to develop cognitive decay, according to Merzenich’s weighty body of research.
This year, I explored various places — traveled to Thailand with friends, embarked on a solo trip to Singapore (I love this city), went on a road trip with my partner, and explored some parts of South India with friends. Here are some photos:
Struggle with balancing things well 😓
In the end, I would like to mention one of the most important things. As I retrospect, I feel the need for rest, giving myself more time, and spending time with my family. However, that’s something I realized — I function well when I am busy. I like being busy. I struggled a lot last year with balancing things well. By the end of 2023, I had bad back pain and was not able to spend much quality time with myself and the people around me😅 This year, my goal is to prioritize what truly matters to me and learn to balance these priorities alongside my personal life.
Thank you, next (2024)
I am grateful to so many people and for the opportunities that came my way in 2023. I take pride in stepping out of my comfort zone. As I look ahead to 2024, I have big plans, and I hope to achieve success in them. I am eager to hone my skills and engage in more deep work. Genuinely, I want to learn how to balance my health, work, and personal life effectively. Additionally, I plan to dedicate time to extensive reading and develop skills in building products. ⚒️
