Date: 24th May, 2025
Location: Microsoft Office, Noida
Event: Grafana & Friends Delhi Meetup (feat. MLSA)
Mood: Techy with a touch of philosophical chaos
While the sun was melting Noida outside, inside the cool, corporate air of Microsoft’s office, I attended an event that promised dashboards, dev-ops, and just the right amount of existential dread (read: AI talks). The Grafana & Friends May’25 meetup didn’t disappoint — and neither did my barrage of slightly off-topic but extremely necessary questions to the speakers.
One of the most memorable conversations? With none other than Dr. Umesh Pandit, Advisor Solution Architect at DXC Technology. Sure, he spoke about visualising Azure metrics with Grafana in minutes — but I was here for the real talk. So, I went off-script.
Here’s what happened when I asked him the questions no one dares to ask at tech events.
Q1: If you had today’s experience at the beginning of your career, what kind of project or product would you have pursued first—and why?
Dr. Umesh gave me the “I’ve seen things” look and said:
“If I had the skills and exposure I have now, I’d help students who are struggling — especially the ones around me. Some of my old batchmates are still stuck, and honestly, if I was capable back then, I’d be training freshers for free. Sometimes, all someone needs is a bit of guidance to build a better career.”
Translation: Be the mentor you never had, and maybe skip the part where you're 10 years deep in your career thinking, “Ah, I should've helped someone instead of binge-watching ‘Friends’ again.”
Q2: Is there something you avoided early in your career that you later found valuable?
“Coding. I decided early on that I wasn’t going to code. Then I realized... maybe I should’ve. Better packages, better placements, better everything. Coding builds your logical thinking, and that mindset is gold when solving real-world problems.”
Translation: Coding is like spinach. You avoid it as a kid, but one day you realize it's the reason Popeye had abs and you don’t.
Q3: If your younger self asked, ‘Will coding ever get easier?’ would you smile… or just walk away?
“I’d definitely smile. Thanks to AI, coding has become a lot easier. Think it, type it, boom — you get the code. But understanding the output, debugging, and proper prompting? That’s where real learning comes in. I've seen even kids doing crazy calculations — smart ones start early.”
Translation: Yes, AI helps. No, it won’t save you from your own poorly written prompts. Sorry.
Q4: What advice would you give to people who are just starting to learn coding or thinking about getting into it?
“First, choose a language — Java, .NET, PHP, whatever. Don’t try to learn everything at once. Figure out where the good packages are, because, let’s be honest, money matters. Second, master that one language. Once you’ve nailed one, switching to others becomes way easier.”
Translation: Don’t try to marry every programming language on the planet. Fall in love with one, master it, and you can date the rest casually later.
Final Thoughts (Because I’m Emotionally Exhausted)
From Kubernetes to career lessons, this event had it all — tech, tacos (okay fine, dal chawal), and truth bombs from people who’ve been in the game longer than my attention span during Zoom meetings.
So if you ever attend a tech meetup, don’t just sit through slides. Ask weird questions. Ask life questions. Ask "what if" questions. You never know — someone might give you an answer that changes your path... or at least makes for a killer blog post
Until next event,
– Shelby
Top comments (0)