Explore .NET with Vikram Pendse: I am Silverlight MVP

Dear Visitors,

Today I am very much happy to share with you all that, I awarded as Microsoft MVP in Silverlight for year 2010-2011.This is my third year of MVP and I am so much happy to win this awards for second time for Silverlight Technology.

Year 2008-2009 was full of difficulties and challenges on each step, Global IT Slowdown made deep impact on everyone, In that era when all my work and assignments got dried out and I was on what they call as “Bench”,That point of time I was ASP.NET MVP and in that IT Slowdown time I had nothing great to do but just go to office and sit on chair. IT Slowdown may be a just another news for others but me and my friends in IT really saw that monster very closely.

IT Slowdown went bad for many of us ! I mean you go to office and you never know when next Cubic will become Empty ! or you might see your friend coming out of Main door with mixed feelings on his/her face. Sad things happened ! I also lost my job for few months in that era.Though impact was hard but the passion towards Microsoft was not that easy to break. Passion wins over IT Slowdown.

I started looking into Silverlight from its version 1. Believe me or not, It took hell lot of time in initial days just to figure out who things work here especially since I am from Client-Server arena. Slowly with version 2 I attracted more towards it and then I started putting here on blog, After release of first bits of version 3 I became very serious about it and given all my efforts towards it and finally got the MVP title in Silverlight and story is still going on...

Life of Microsoft MVP in general… :

There are lot of misconceptions about MVPs in people..Nothing like that we come with 2 brains etc. We do our 8 hrs “Paid” job with passion,We do work overtime and on weekends in office, We too get screwed up by Boss ! ;-) .. We do all the things which all others do like spend time with Family,Watch Movies and TV, Visit Hard Rock Cafe with friends and Dance there with Glass of Beer ! ;-) ..Play Cricket,Football, Go for long Bike Ride..get ticket for speeding from Police ! ;-) etc etc..so what makes us “Microsoft MVP” ? Here are few bullets !

Love and Passion towards Microsoft Technology/ies
Speak what you like and don’t like about specific product
Connect with community better
Spend quality time with Community, Partners, Investors, Business fellows to understand their practical problems
Generate awareness about Latest Microsoft Products in Community (This is a big job we do ! )
Understand other Technologies and their pros and cons over current products (e.g Javafx,Flash,Air ..Muhaa haaa )
Contribute back to community via Blogs, Forums, Newsletters,Online and Offline Sessions etc.
Bridge the gap between Microsoft,Microsoft Products and People (Another big job we do !)

This all we do in our normal life, This is not like we decide something and do, Its so natural that even we don’t feel pain of doing these things ! :) All above we do just naturally and with full of passion without any materialistic intentions and hence Microsoft each year recognize and evaluate us on basis of work we do over year and give us award saying “Thank you” :)

Want to join us, here you can start looking at :

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/

India,Microsoft India and Silverlight :

Humm..Things are much better now compare to Year 2008-2009. India is a big Hub for IT and tons of people are working in Web Development. From my visits/Interactions with Customers, Partners and Communities in India, I see that lot of people now very curious about Silverlight and already started building apps on top of it. Windows Phone 7 is like fuel in fire ! :) ..There is so much excitement in the Indian community over this since there are millions of Mobile subscribers in India, Silverlight on Mobile, Silverlight in Sharepoint, Silverlight OOB are 3 big buzz words I heard in all top companies Canteen these days ;-)… That shows the growing adoption rate of Silverlight, Learning and Implementing too.

Microsoft India done a wonderful job in this area, I am very much thankful to Product Teams sitting in Microsoft India Development Center (MS IDC) for their continuous support to community for Silverlight and Windows Phone 7. Scenario is really getting amazing day by day.

I wish all Universities/Colleges who are into IT/Computers should start encouraging students to learn and explore Silverlight like they are doing for .NET Framework and ASP.NET. I am sure that the hidden Silverlight talent will soon outshine from there ! :)

Wassup for 2010-2011? :

So what will I do over next year here..Silverlight only? Or Silverlight + something more ?

As someone said “Picture speaks 1000 words”..here I go :)