Abhinava Pratap Singh

I am Abhinava Pratap Singh, also known as AP and Naru by my friends; and Munna in my family circle. Some people also call me Munna Bhaiya (NOT Munnabhai, Thank You!). Besides, my Bengali relatives (apart from my wife) and Bengali teachers with heavy Bengali accent, call me Obhinobo. Well, I am a married 27 year old living in Namma Bengalooru for the last eight years. Therefore I have now qualified to call Bangalore as my second home (or should it be called my first?).
Currently, I am working as an Integration Expert (Development Specialist) with SAP Labs India Private Ltd in Whitefield, Bangalore. Prior to this I worked with Infosys Technologies Limited in Mysore and Bangalore.


My Work Experience

I have been working for SAP Labs India since March 14th, 2005. Currently, I am a member of the team which is developing Services and Business Objects for mySAP ERP. We are enabling all SAP Functionalities as Business Objects which shall be accessible via Web Services according to the International Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) standards.
Apart from this, I am a member of the team that is responsible for maintaining and developing Project System mySAP PS which in turn, is a sub part of mySAP ERP. Project System, as the name suggests, is a tool to manage data pertaining to different types of projects.
My primary responsibility is Software Development. However, I am involved in a gamut of activities which govern the success of Project System (PS) in the market as a product. My job can also be described as the continuous improvement of PS as a product. Depending on the market requirements, I add new features to PS and also enhance the existing features. I also fix problems with PS when reported by the SAP Validation team. Besides these, I am also required to author technical guides for the benefit of people testing or in other ways interacting with PS.

Prior to my employment with SAP, I was associated with Infosys Technologies Limited from 11th August, 2003 to 11th March, 2005. Infosys, being my first company was, is and always will be very special. Especially, I can never forget those moments when I had a chance to interact with NRN and Nandan Nilekani. I have been a big fan of NR Narayana Murthy and will always be; even though I have left Infosys for good.
At Infosys, I was working with the Information Systems (IS) team. We developed software for internal use by Infosys. The eRecruitment System which we developed for Infosys Technologies Limited is now being used by the company to recruit people in large numbers. Starting from the early days when the recruitment process was centralized, to the conceptualization of the current scenario when the recruitment of Best-In-Class talent has been decentralized to the individual Practice Units, I was involved in the project. The portal is much better now with many more features. However, it feels really good to see that some features and screens that I had developed are still being used.
Similarly, I have also contributed to the Asset Logistic System for Infosys. It is the System that is being used by Infosys Computers and Communications Department (CCD) and the Infosys Security Department for the tracking of all material movement in and out of any Infosys Campus, between buildings in the same Campus, between different Campuses and even from a Vendor to any Infosys Location. The User Interface of this application has since changed, but many of the core features are still in use today.

My Education

I hold a Bachelors of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communications from Visweswaraya Technological University, Belgaum. I pursued this degree from Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore and graduated in 2003. The four years that I spent in my Engineering were the years where my learning was most disorganized. However, these were the years when I had left home and was coming to terms with the real world all own my own. I have many bitter-sweet memories from my college days which I shall document sometime later on.

Currently, I'm pursuing Post Graduate Program in Software Enterprise Management (PGSEM) from IIM Bangalore. The learnings and the events during this course are being documented in my PGSEM blog.

Prior to the Engineering, I did my twelve years of schooling in West Bengal. First I studied from 1986 to 1996 in Dreamland School, Makhla. I was the top scorer from the school in the ICSE 1996 exams with 86.8 %.
Dreamland School used to operate only till the 10th standard till then and I had to move on to a new school for further education. However, the results of our school was delayed because of some mismanagement from the school's management. By the time the results were delivered, most of the much sought after schools had closed their admissions. I had to ultimately get admitted to St. Thomas' High School, Dassnagar; which was one of the few places where seats were still available.

Studying in St. Thomas' High School, Dassnagar was a very tiring ordeal. I had to ride a bicycle for about half an hour to reach the Uttarpara railway station. Then I had to take a usually crowded Suburban local train to Howrah. From Howrah I had to take another Suburban train to reach Dassnagar railway station. From Dassnagar railway station to the school was a brief 5 minutes walk. The total conveyance time used to be around two hours to school and another two hours for the return journey. Thus four hours everyday was spent in uncomfortable travel. This could increase to five or six hours, depending on the availability of trains or political blockades. Needless to say, I used to be very tired after returning home and hardly studied during the weekdays. The little that I studied on weekends was focussed towards preparation for IIT JEE.
The stickler that I was about rules, I attended school every-possible-day. Even the commitment level of teachers at STHS was much lower than that of Dreamland. So I didn't learn much in school either and wasted my time regularly for the next two years in just travelling to and fro.
Though it was quite a late realization, but still, I realized in early 1998 that I barely had two months to my ISC examinations. I chalked out a detailed schedule and managed to somehow complete 80% of the syllabus before the examinations. Compared to my preparation for ICSE. where I had three revisions and numerous mock exams, this was a poor preparation. However, to my surprise and satisfaction, I manged to get a score of 80%. I am now embarassed to say that even this barely-80% was the highest score in the school for the ISC batch of 1998 in the Science section.

However that year, I could not secure a seat for myself in any Engineering or Medical college owing to the fact that I had underprepared. With a stronger resolve, I decided that I shall prepare hard and crack the IIT JEE exams the next year. However, due to Daddy's pressure, I joined Raja Peary Mohan College Uttarpara for the B. Sc. (Physics Honours) course under Calcutta University.
The one year that I spent at RPMC was a wastage of time according to me. I was never really interested in the course, but attended the classes as a rote. Still I learnt a lot in that college about things that I would have otherwise not seen. The biggest exposure I got was not studies but Student Politics. The students at RPMC were mostly affiliated to Students Federation of India(SFI), which is the students wing of CPI(M). Every student had to be a member of the organisation and had to contribute the Annual Membership fees which was Rs. 2. EVen I had to become a member. It was here that I saw for the first time crude bombs and countrymade pistols. These used to be carried by students coming to college in flowing kurtas. Frankly speaking, I could not like the ambience in the college. The professors and lecturers, however, were really good, primarily so because it was a Government College. Even though I was attending the college just for the sake of attending, my knowledge of Physics definitely became stronger in the one year that I stayed over there.

Anyways, I passed the first year with moderate grades. Parallelly, I wrote numerous Engineering College Entrance examinations. I had taken my mind away from Medicine, simply to have one paper less to prepare for. To my misfortune, I fell sick during the IIT JEE examinations and the fever continued till Roorkee College of Engineering Entrance Examiunation. I did not get a good enough rank anywhere else, either. However, I had also appeared in the Karnataka CET and had secured an All India Ranking of 945. This was a good enough rank to let me study in one of the top ten colleges of Karnataka. As I did not want to continue with B. Sc. , I took admission in Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore.
As mentioned earlier, I passed the Engineering Course from DSCE in 2003.


My Family

Family to me would mean my wife, parents, and brother. Of course, my inlaws would definitely feature in my extended family.

Let me start with my wife. I have a very loving wife named Anindita. I lovingly call her Annie and some other names too. She is the greatest gift that God has given me in this life. The most amusing thing about us is that apart from sharing our lives, we also share our birthdays. So wish each other "Happy Birthday" on the same day and we, of course, wish each other "Happy Marriage Anniversary" on the same day as well. We have celebrated our first Anniversary and are waiting for the next one.
Annie is slightly moody and gets disheartened very fast. But I'm always there to cheer her up,; and believe me, she doesn't need anything more to cheer up. She loves me vey much and I wish that she remains like this forever.
Annie works as a Senior Software Engineer in Infosys Technologies Limited. Its there that we first met and subsequently fell in love. For that story, you may visit the sweet stories of our romance.

Coming next is my younger brother, Abhishek. He's followed me everywhere in two years time. He came to the world approximately two years after me, then joined the same school after two years and came over to Bangalore two years after I came over and he joined the same college too.
Perhaps like every other pair of siblings, we have fought a lot in our childhood. Fistfights and kicks were very common. Apart from the fact that I am perennially angry with him, he's one of my most loved and pampered family members (especially by mommy). He's my brother but he's very very different from me. His ambitions, principles, friends, taste of food and music etc. are all totally different from mine. However, because of him I always get to look at the other side of things and learn a lot by virtue of my arguments with him.

My parents are living in Makhla, which comes under Uttarpara municipality, a small suburb of Kolkata. My Daddy, Mr. Sri Kumar Singh is the most sensible and balanced person I know of. Always level headed and one to take decisions without mixing emotions, he's been an inspiration to me. He's currently an "Assistant Commissioner" in the Customs and Central Excise Department of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
He is a man of principles. His philosophy has sometimes felt very harsh to me; but sooner or later I realised that his principles are time tested isms which have been cultivated by the thorough study of Gandhism, Vivekananda and even Hitler and Machiavelli. He is a well read and very enthusiastic man.
He holds Bachelors degrees in Physics and also in law. Currently he's pursuing a Master's degree in Law from Jodhpur University in the part-time mode. 53, and still yearning for a degree. No its the quest for more and more knowledge. I wish I am as enthusiastic about the pursuit of knowledge at that age. He's always supported me in whatever I've done and I greatly appreciate the fact that it has been a lucky me to have a father like that. I have looked upto him for inspiration, whenever I have felt that the chips are down.

My sweet Mommy, Mrs. Gita Mani Singh, is the most loving mom, one can ever desire. She has been a strict disciplinarian and if we brothers have grown up to be good and responsible, she has a major role in it. She has been very loving and caring to us. Every paise that she has saved, she had no hesitation in spending for us. When I fall sick in Bangalore, I have to play it down. Otherwise, she would be more sick than I actually am. Though she unnecessary worries too much about our well being, I guess that's a mother's heart. Again, I must say that I am fortunate to have a mother like her.