Archive for May, 2009

I m Bac!!!

Published on May 30, 2009 in family and miscellaneous. 2 Comments

(Guest post by Vineet V Nair)

It’s been ages since I have posted something here..sorry brother I haven’t been a regular guest blogger. I am just plain lazy most of the time and how much ever you coax me into starting my own blog, I love being a guest blogger here. It gives me a choice, an option.

A small introduction to all those who know me and for those who don’t . I am varun’s younger brother… right now in London training (u can read trying also) to be a chef(someday for sure). I was in Vishakapatnam for nearly a year working with The Park Hotel managing their beachside restaurant called Bamboo Bay. I was also in Navi Mumbai for 6 months undergoing training with The Park, Belapur. Navi Mumbai is one of the best places I have lived so far, obviously apart from aapnu Ahmedabad. It was majorly because I was just 2 hours from Mumbai where Varun lived and I loved the hustle bustle than came with living in Mumbai . Even though Mumbai is one of the most crowded cities in the world, Navi Mumbai is so just the opposite. Calm and quiet with just enough shopping malls, cheap eateries etc. I lived in an awesome 2 bedroom flat which I shared with another guy called Azhar. A balcony as big as 2 10 by 10 bedrooms put together and bedrooms with huge sliding windows. I have had one of my craziest birthdays here.  I loved local trains. The journeys from borivili to belapur were always the time to think..so many things… Navi Mumbai is the place where I met one of my closest friends ;-) …the wink is necessary…Rains were always amazing here. Me and Azhar moved into this flat by chance but both of us loved living here. We were a small group of friends who would rent a car and travel to Mumbai every weekend or atleast every fortnight to party, wake up at 3 in the afternoon and talk about the party for the rest of week.. I would always love to work in Mumbai or Navi Mumbai but never settle down here (just like varun).

more to come….

Why parents love exams…

Published on May 10, 2009 in thoughts. 1 Comment

Because exams impose habits on you that parents have been trying to enforce for years. Mystery solved.

Varun is a CISSP now!

Published on May 7, 2009 in daily diary and personal. 6 Comments

CISSP logo I just got an email from ISC2 telling me that I am CISSP certified. Yay!

CISSP stands for Certified Information Systems Security Professional and is one of the most popular and renowned certificates in the information security arena. In practical terms the CISSP makes me much more attractive for clients and future employers.

I took my CISSP exam in the middle of April, got the exam results a week later, got Karthik to endorse me (thanks Karthik!), sent in my endorsement document and voila! – 3 days and I am CISSP certified. I am impressed the speed and clarity with which ISC2 has conducted everything beginning from the application till the the final certification.

CISSP covers 10 information security domains. I had worked in about 6-7 of these in various projects over the past 5 years of my professional career and that made it easier for me to be prepared for the CISSP exam. Just before the exam I studied for about 7-8 days, took a few mock tests, read through some summary notes and that was enough for me to clear the exam. To be honest the CISSP exam is not as difficult as it is made out to be. If you do have a lot of professional experience in the information security domain and spend some time doing some solid studies you are set to comfortably clear the exam.

I used the following resources for the exam:

Next Targets – ISSAP sometime in the next 4 months and CISM in December 2009.

If you know me professionally and would like to associate with me on LinkedIn here is my LinkedIn profile.