Opera India

So it's one year ago that I first put my foot down on Indian turf. In some regards it feels like ages ago, while the overall feeling is that time flew by like a supersonic plane. Yes, the extremely hot summer days and nights felt never-ending, but in retrospect the whole working thing did shorten the perceived time.

So, in order for me to realise that I used my time properly, a list of statistics of things done in this one year.

323	days in India.
42	days outside India.
Less than 30	rainy days in India.
2	sunburns.
5	days with diarrhoea.
Uncountable	days with diarrhetic symptoms.
17	places visited (in India): Chandigarh, Shimla, Rhorhu, Manali, Ladakh, McLeod Ganj, Srinagar, Amritsar, Dholowal, Delhi, Jaipur, Kanpur, Rishikesh, Dhera Dun, Haridwar, Jim Corbett, Bangalore, Mysore, Mumbai.
9	place visited (outside India): Gothenburg, Oslo, Helsinki, Lappeenranta, Pori, Singapore, Halmstad, Copenhagen, Manila.
5	Indian borders crossed.
14 000+	kilometres ridden on Dhanno (Royal Enfield 350 Bullet).
0	real accidents. Knock on wood.
<300	kilometres walked.
5 kg	weight gained. ;(
1	serious Cricket match played. And we kicked Cue Blocks' behind!
15	Ultimate pick-up games played.
3	Ultimate tournaments played.
2	Ultimate tournaments I injured myself.
3	shirts from other Ultimate teams I played for bought.
1	Ultimate teams stared out of which 0 survived.
100+	great new people met.
6	new close friends made.
Far too many	AISECers met.
2 sets	new "adoptive parents".
0	girlfriends
300+	nights eaten out.
2	dishes cooked: Pizza and pasta.
3	weddings attended.
2	engagements attended.
10+	Bollywood movies watched. Enjoyed every single one.
6	nights out partying (in India).
13	nights out partying (outside India).
3	farewell/welcome back parties in Oslo. Thanks guys!
Too few	parties at home.
1	sheesha (hookah, nargile) broken.
9	days in silence.
More than ever	books read.
~100 maybe	words spoken in Hindi/Punjabi.
7	kurtas bought.
2	occasions wearing a turban.
More than once a day	having the dialogue (with minor variations): "Which country you belong?" - "Austria." - "Oh, Australia! I have a cousin in Sydney! Beautiful country." - "No, Austria, Europe. South of Germany." - "Oh! You are from Vienna?"
0	other things from the big ToDo list.

I guess this should give a pretty decent account of what I have been up to. One could say that this year here has been a bit of a detox, even if I have been a lazy bum and gained weight moving away from the fit person I used to be. I do blame the weather and the lack of good sport facilities (no, a gym is not a sports facility) on that, besides of course my laziness. However, at the same time, this year has been transformative in many ways - especially spiritually and work experience wise. As long as these transformations are not complete it does not make sense for me to move, even if you'll hear me complaining that "nothing's happening" and things being boring. And, I have to admit that I never had expected to survive here for so long. One thing I definitely have learned being here in India: "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."

At this point I shall only still say dhanyavaad (thank you) to everybody who's have been there for me facilitating this experience. Thanks for listening to my complaints, thanks for helping me to organise this or that, thanks for the time spent, the awesome food eaten and thanks for all the "envious comments" that kept reminding me that I am at a wicked place that so many people want to experience.

Thanks for mom for understanding and supporting! And thanks for the patience with my slow status updates.


This post also appears on my personal blog.

It was one of those lazy Sundays where I was lying on my couch and I was thinking my perception of perfect place to work, and here it goes


1. Allow to play some kinda sport (preferably cricket) in the workplace.
2. Movies and dinner once in every week (a bit more of ask I know ).
3. "Freedom of speech", I know it's there in our constitution but most work places do not follow it.
4. Code for fun
5. Ideas which are implemented as soon as they pop out of your brain.

I told this to my friend, and he just told me I have gone nuts, he asked me to come out of the "lala land" and said no company which will take care of its employee the way I want. It was only some days after I got a call from Opera, for an interview, and guess what... after a series of interviews I made into Opera. And for a person like me who wants to mix work and play, this place was so perfect. As soon as I entered the office my first wish was fulfilled, I saw a cricket bat lying in front of me, I happily struck the first wish, I was a bit optimistic now

The day I joined was a Friday and Opera takes Fridays very seriously -- oh don't get me wrong -- Friday means fun day, and Opera takes "Fun at work" seriously. My manager just walked to me and said "Would you like to join all of us for a movie and then dinner?" I happily showed my "teeth" as sign of "yes" and happily struck the second wish off my wish-list.

Now this all was secondary, the main thing was the work for which Opera had hired me. Believe me, work in Opera is fun. One works among the most talented people in the world and it is a privilege to work here, your ideas are always respected and the implementation of them is almost instantaneous, ideas are accepted whole heartedly no matter who gives them. One works on technologies which other people have just heard of, One always feels motivated to work, as the energy level is very high. Opera helps you to grow professionally by giving you an opportunity to work on challenging projects. After working for a couple of weeks I happily struck all the wishes off my wishlist.


Its been 8 months now and there has not been a single day that I am not motivated to come to work. Working in Opera is fun, it's never stressful, it's always good to see all my colleagues coming happily to work. They made me feel comfortable right from day 1, the transition from newbie to "Opera'ite" was so smooth.

"All work and no play makes jack a dull boy" and no one other than Opera understands it better ...gone are the days where I used to say TGIF (Thank God it's Friday), these days I say TGIM (Thank God it's Monday). I always find an excuse to come to work.

Opera rocks

Bruce and I are in the middle of the Opera India University Tour, and haven’t exactly been getting the opportunity to blog a lot. However, in the next few days you’ll probably see a lot of posts from us, starting with this one.

A few days ago, Opera was in Mumbai, where we had a fantastic time. We presented a seminar at VJTI, and later had a community meetup at the Hard Rock Cafe.

At the meetup, I had the pleasure of meeting some familiar faces, and some new faces who were equally awesome. Case in point, Kaushik, who made this awesome card



At the end of the meetup, we were given a questionnaire to complete, and we couldn’t resist adding a little geek humour.



Bruce was taught a little bit of hindi. We taught him that the hindi equivalent of ‘Hello, how are you?’ is ‘Tum bahut khoobsurat ho. Aati kya khandaala?’ . I hope he doesn’t get beat up if he tries that line with an indian woman (and if trying that line with an indian guy, I hope he doesnt actually end up in khandala!)

Once again, a big thanks to everyone who came, and I look forward to visiting this fantastic city soon.

More photos here.

Last week, Wolf, Arvind and me once again went to IIT-Kanpur for their event Techkriti, and just like last time, had a whole lot of fun and some great conversation with bunch of enthusiastic and bright minds. In the morning we set up our stall, and had a great bunch of people lining up to interact with us, learn more about Opera and to win some cool prizes.

In the afternoon, Wolf and me presented a talk on Design, web standards and more, to a curious and bright audience. I was impressed by the questions asked, and it was a pleasure interacting with them.

The next day we also went to a FOSS event, where I spoke on 'The Open Web', and why open web standards are so important. Once again, the audience asked some interesting questions, and our Q and A session went on for quite a long time, but I didn't mind at all.

Kudos to the guys at IIT-Kanpur, especially Pranshu and Aditya, for conducting a great event and the warm hospitality.