Hi! My name is Gaurav, and am years old, from Chandigarh, India. As you might have guessed, I am basically into computer programming. Ofcourse, I do work around with networks as well, but then, my focus is on programming. All the same, I had never been interested in computing until I was in class VIII. Prior to that, as far as I can recall, I wanted to be a pilot (like my uncle) and later on, my ambition migrated to work with electronic gadgets and design stuff like flip-flops, burglar alarms etc, since my father is a professor of Electronice and Communcations Engg. However, since March 1993, I have found myself programming the silicon chip. I started off programming with BASIC, in which I thoroughly programmed for about a year, before switching over to C in August 1994.

After working in C for few months, I wrote an anti-virus program for DOS, PCClean, on which I worked for about 2 years before my class XII exams caught up with me in 1997. You can still get the latest version (4.0) of PCClean by searching for it at Google.

However, by the last quarter of 1996, I begun my graduation to Windows based programming, since DOS was dying out, as far as software development was concerned. I kicked off by programming in Visual Basic, which was followed by ActiveX developments, Win32 SDK programming, working with ATL, COM, and more. And then, in May 1998, my first article, on FAT32, got published in a regional newspaper, The Tribune.

In July 1998, I enrolled for my Bachelors in Computer Applications and also pursued my MCP, which soon materialised into MCSE and MCP+I in a period of 3 months. Soon, I took up my VB MCSD exam in 1999, followed by the VC++ exam. Upon completing the 2nd year of my graduation, I applied for a sabbatical at Satyam Computers, one of India's largest computer solutions company. My sabbatical was for a period of 2 months, from May 2000 to July 2000, wherein I trained software engineers of Satyam, with my rating being 4+, on a scale of 1 to 5. I also executed projects for them, which were completed successfully.

It was during my stay at Satyam that I just sent an article to MSDN Online Peer Journal (which has been taken off by Microsoft now), and it got published in their May 2000 issue. This was followed by another article of mine being published in their June issue. Meanwhile, I also cleared 6 BrainBench exams, attaining 6 certifications from them, which later rose to 16 upon my return back home.

Then, in January 2001, another article of mine, which showed how to interact with ADO using raw C++, got published in the Windows Developer Journal (WDJ). This was soon followed by a series of articles, including a series on C#, in India' leading IT magazine, PC Quest. September of 2001 saw me delivering seminars for PC Quest, as part of the C# series. Meanwhile, I also cleared Microsoft's updated certification exams for MCSE, and attained the Early Achiever in MCSE 2000, by the end of June 2001.

Year 2002 saw my publications getting to Developer 2.0, and also speaking at MSDN Sessions, conducted by Microsoft India, where I primarily spoke on .NET and related technologies. I also got my first fulltime job in April of 2002, where I am involved in designing web-based spatial systems.

In June 2002, I got an oppurtunity to speak at Microsoft India's Level 300 MSDN Session, where I primarily talked about best practices in .NET memory management and Internet services. This was then followed by my first MSDN Expert chat, in July 2002, where I was the subject expert for Managed Extensions for C++. Besides this, I keep myself active at Microsoft India's www.eXPerienceDotNet.com portal and the Indian .NET news groups.

1st of October, 2002 was another big day since I was awarded Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional (MVP, http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/) Award for .NET. I was among the 12 from the country, who were given this award. In December, I relocated to Bangalore, the silicon valley of India, and joined Hewlett Packard (http://www.hp.com/) India Software Operations, as a Software Engineer in the Microsoft Practice Team.

Late December 2002 saw me as being selected as one of the six outstanding MVPs for .NET, who travelled to Redmond to attend the Global MVP Summit in February 2003, all expenses paid by Microsoft. Here are the snaps from the Summit, including with Anders Hejlsberg, Chief Architect of .NET and C#!

In January 2003 end, along with other MVPs and Microsoft RD at Bangalore, founded the Bangalore .NET Users Group (http://groups.msn.com/bdotnet/), called B.NET.  Around middle of March 2003, I relocated to MA, USA, for almost 6 months, on a project. During my stay here, I was selected to deliver a session on .NET Interoperability Strategies  at the Hewlett Packard Global Software Forum 2003, from June 16-20, 2003, and also represented Hewlett Packard India Software Operations (ISO). I also did my 4th MSDN India Expert Chat, where I was the subject expert for discussion on Interprocess Communication in .NET.

October of 2003 got me my second MVP award in the row! Microsoft awarded me MVP for C#! Soon after, in November of 2003, I started speaking at Microsoft India's MSDN Events. November 2003 I talked about Office 2003 [at Bangalore, India], while in December 2003 and January of 2004, I delivered sessions at New Delhi, talking about Designing Secure ASP.NET web applications and Methodologies of Implementing Security in .NET, respectively.

In January 2004, Bangalore .NET Users Group completed its 1st anniversary of inception and I had the oppurtunity of talking about Whidbey C# [upcoming version of C# in the upcoming .NET Framework version], in all probability this being the first event where Whidbey was publicly discussed [even MS hadn't talked about it in India yet!].

Also, starting with January 2004, I have begun writing a new series for PC Quest, on Whidbey, the upcoming version of the .NET Framework, to gear the developers for what is in store for them. This is planned to be a six-month series to start with.

In the April of 2004, I joined Microsoft India as a Developer Evangelist. In this role, I focussed on engaging with customers across India (in SIs, ISVs and individuals) and help them better understand Microsoft development tools and technologies. I presented at various conferences like TechED, Microsoft Mobile and Embedded Developer's Conference (MEDC) during this period.  Also, during this period, I got engaged (on 11th May 2005) to Subhashini [she was the MVP lead for India in 2005-2006] and we got married on 16th April 2006. The, in August of 2006, I changed my job role (within Microsoft) and relocated to Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, to join the Common Language Runtime (CLR) team as Software Development Engineer, where I work in the execution engine team.

When I am not programming, I enjoy going for walks at the nearby Sukhna lake (when at my home town Chandigarh). I am also fond of reading, both fiction and non-fiction, even though my majority time gets spent reading technical stuff. However, in particular, I like the works of Jeffery Archer, Agatha Christie and Dale Carnegie. I also like to travel and vacation, especially in the mountains during winters! A chilling prospect, right :) ? And ofcourse, hanging out with my family and friends is my way of relaxing after a long day's work :)