Mahanthi Bukkapatnam

Brought up in Pondicherry, India, i started to like reading especially reading in between lines.

Also started playing chess and won my college chess tournament.

Got admission into MCA at Pondicherry Engineering College and fell in love with computers. Actually liked to solve problems, understand the aspects that make software work - Still doing it.
Went on to do a job for a living(sobs), and currently working in Des Moines, IA, USA for an insurance company. I love my current job - really I DO LOVE my job.

I don't have much interesting things to share apart from the above, but i try take an active interest in the things that matter most.

To fill in aspects about the following:
Chess
Bowling -
Pool -
Table Tennis-
Tennis

Non-Fiction books that i have read and feel they are important
    How to read a book
    How to study
    Getting to Yes
    How to speak and How to listen
    Critical Thinking - tools for taking charge of your professional and personal life.

Non-Fiction/Fiction books that i intend to read.(10 Year plan)
Golf - Why i am interested in it.
Tennis - Why i would like to play and watch it. Why i like Roger Federer and Andy Murray so much.
Meditation - How i ended up doing it
Rhymes(poetry) - They cannot be called poetry they are more like rhymes
Communication esp listening - How to speak and How to Listen
Argumentation and Logic - its role in understanding our world.
Sketching
Cooking - don't do much - need to improve
Map reading - tremendous interest in it
Puzzles - Some of the interesting puzzles i have come across and solved. I never could solve the Rubik's cube.
Music - the budding interest
Carnatic music - Why i need to learn it
Sanskrit and Telugu - Why i want to learn them
Self Discipline - How i came to cherish it and want it to be my identity after i am gone from this world/universe.
Calculus - Why i want to learn and master it.
Vocabulary and the love of words - I have been passionate about this for a long time and why.
Places i have visited in my life so far and the place that i fell in love the most
    Grand Canyons
    Eiffle Tower(? is the spelling correct)
    Chicago
       Sears Tower
       John Hancock Tower
       Lake Shore Drive
    California
        Golden Gate
        17 Mile drive (was really awesome)
        Monterrey Bay
    Canada
        Niagara Falls
        Hamilton - African Lion Safari
        CN Tower
    New York
        Empire State Building(2002)
        Wall Street(1998)
        Drove across the Verrazona Bridge(1998)
    Washington DC
        US Capitol
        Space Museum
    Kodaikanal
   
Investing - My philosophy and some notes
Patterns - Design Patterns, what potential lies in there, why my mind just went googa over it till in understood the concept and the power behind objects.
Writing - What is the mysterious force behind the process of writing and how i have started to tap into its mighty force.
Hypnosis - How it is related to meditation and why it might not be a long lasting solution.
Songs - Movie songs that i like.
Singers
Actors and actresses that i like - Revathi, Madhuri, Rajini, Shammi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Amitabh. (Do i have to include this in here?)
Marathon - I ran the DesMoines Half Marathon in 2003(5 year ago)

Classics Fiction - That i plan to read and the progress that i have made.
     Lewis Carroll
          o Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
          o Sylvie and Bruno
          o The Hunting of the Snark
          o Through the Looking Glass
     Charles Dickens (I don't want to read all of these works) http://www.online-literature.com/dickens/
          o A Christmas Carol
          o A Message from the Sea
          o A Tale of Two Cities
          o All The Year Round
          o American Notes
          o Barnaby Rudge
          o Bleak House
          o David Copperfield
          o Dombey and Son
          o Great Expectations
          o Hard Times
          o Holiday Romance
          o Hunted Down
          o Little Dorrit
          o Martin Chuzzlewit
          o Master Humphrey's Clock
          o Mudfog and Other Sketches
          o Nicholas Nickleby
          o Oliver Twist
          o Our Mutual Friend
          o Reprinted Pieces
          o Sketches by Boz
          o The Battle of Life
          o The Chimes
          o The Cricket on the Hearth
          o The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain
          o The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices
          o The Mystery of Edwin Drood
          o The Old Curiosity Shop
          o The Pickwick Papers
          o The Uncommercial Traveller
     Alexander Dumas
          o The count of Monte Cristo
          o The Three Musketeers
     Leo Tolstoy
          o War and Peace
          o Anna Karenina
     Jane Austen
          o Emma
          o Lady Susan
          o Love and Freindship and Other Early Works
          o Mansfield Park
          o Northanger Abbey
          o Persuasion
          o Pride and Prejudice
          o Sense and Sensibility         
     Daniel Defoe
          Robinson Crusoe
     Mark Twain
          o A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
          o A Double Barrelled Detective Story
          o A Horse's Tale
          o Huckleberry Finn
          o Letters from the Earth
          o Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
          o The $30,000 Bequest
          o The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
          o The American Claimant
          o The Gilded Age
          o The Mysterious Stranger
          o The Prince and the Pauper
          o The Tragedy of Pudd'Nhead Wilson
          o Tom Sawyer Abroad
          o Tom Sawyer, Detective
     Robert Louis Stevenson
          o Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
          o Kidnapped
          o New Arabian Nights
          o The Black Arrow
          o The Master of Ballantrae
          o The Merry Men
          o The Misadventures of John Nicholson
          o The Story of a Lie
          o Treasure Island
          o Weir of Hermiston         
     Victor Hugo
          o Les Miserables
    Jules Verne
        o
    Ernest Hemingway
        o
    W.Somerset Maugham
        o
    Herman Melville
        o
    Edgar Allan Poe
        o
    Aesop's Fables
        o
    Jack London
        o
    Oscar Wilde
        o
    Joseph Conrad
        o
    Emily Bronte
        o
Classics - Non Fiction
   
    

Where I grew up

Pondicherry, India

Places I've lived

Bangalore, Hyderabad, Charlotte NC, Schaumburg IL, Sunnyvale and San Jose CA, Des Moines IA

Companies I've worked for

Integra Micro Systems, Verifone India, VJIL Consulting, Infoweb Systems Inc, QCI and now Fiserv Insurance Solutions

Schools I've attended

Pondicherry Engineering College