Photo by ROCCO STOPPOLONI on Unsplash

Last week, I was traveling to speak at CityJs + HalfStack Conf Belgrade, and suddenly, I realized how lucky I am to live this life.

I could not hold my tears in my flight from Vienna to Belgrade.

I went back in time when

• I walked 8kms to my college so that I could save 8 INR/ 0.096 USD, so I can buy a vada pav for lunch.
• Avoid taking shared auto while returning home from work so I could save some extra money for my daughter’s treatment.
• Could not afford to buy a bed and mattress to sleep on.
• lived in tiny room in a slum.

I also realized how lucky I am to spend so much time with my wife and daughter.

There was a time.

• I used to work more than 80 hours a week in a startup and used to be in the office for days.

I am lucky that I can hug my daughter every day.

• I was so close to losing her.
• I remember when she was born, I couldn’t hold her in my arms, and I was scared for the next few months if I could ever do that.
• I remember holding her in my arms when she came back from the hospital, and never wanted her to let go.

The realization that I lived a life once, where everything was a dream, and now I am living that dream.

This is what keeps me grounded and makes me realize that I should never forget where I came from.

I realized how lucky I am to live a life where I can fly to other countries without thinking about money.

The important lesson here is to remember where you came from and always be grateful for what you have.

For many, the life you are living is a dream.

Thank you to everyone for being part of my journey.

• Thanks to my wife, who was always with me in my bad and good times.
• Thanks to my daughter, who loves me the most.
• Thank you to my friends who always support me.
• Thank you to the Angular and Tech community for showing love and support.

Thanks to the GDE (Google Developer Expert) program for all the support (Travel and Stay) so I can present my talks at the conferences.

Thanks to my employer and friends at Celonis, I can manage my time traveling and caring for my family between work.

Shout out to my GitHub Sponsors for supporting my work on Open Source.

• Appwrite
• Umair
• Anand
• Sunil
• Darshan
• Vikas