Parathan

Hello, dear readers!

Uki – Instructor

I’m excited to bring you along on the latest leg of my journey in this blog update. Recently, I took a significant leap in my career by transitioning from a software engineer to a technology instructor and lead at Uki, a coding boot camp sponsored by Yarl IT Hub. This initiative, aimed at propelling Jaffna into the realm of Silicon Valley, is brimming with potential.

Uki runs three centers in Sri Lanka’s Northern province: Jaffna, Kilinochchi, and Vavuniya. I’ve been given the honor of leading operations in Kilinochchi, a role I enthusiastically embrace. This position is a prime opportunity for personal and professional growth, allowing me to refine my technical skills, enhance my teaching abilities, and oversee the center’s administrative tasks.

Reflecting on my journey, I’m filled with pride and happiness. Just six years ago, I was a student myself, and now I find myself in this incredible position. On June 3rd, I joined my first day at the Uki Center in Jaffna. Despite the workload, it doesn’t feel burdensome; rather, it’s invigorating and fulfilling.

In addition to my role at Uki, I’ve been conducting part-time lecture sessions on the MERN stack technology, mirroring the full-time curriculum we teach at Uki. These online sessions take place on weekends from 9 AM to 1 PM. Currently, I’m teaching JavaScript, and I’m continuously developing new strategies and lecture materials to keep students engaged and motivated. I’m committed to giving my best and am excited to see the progress we make together.

That’s all for this week’s update on my new job experience.

Freelancing & Projects

This week, I earned my first freelancing income from a US-Pakistan-based client. Even though it’s a small amount, it keeps me motivated and engaged in interesting freelance work. I’m looking forward to continuing with future freelance projects.

Additionally, I’m collaborating with two others on a mobile application that we aim to release to the market soon. I’ll definitely share more interesting details in future notes. For now, there are a few improvements and changes I need to implement to enhance the user experience.

Volunteer Activities

Noolaham Foundation in Jaffna is a digital library that digitizes and preserves the knowledge resources of the Tamil-speaking community in Sri Lanka. I had the chance to work full-time as a software developer there for two years, from 2019-2021. Later, I moved to another development job but continued to volunteer for website and infrastructure-related issues. This week, I discussed with the CEO the possibility of receiving compensation for my work, as I currently don’t have allocated time to volunteer. This would allow me to dedicate more time to address their day-to-day problems.

I also wrote a Python script to upload PDF files to Amazon S3 for backup. I received guidance from someone who works at Amazon.

Another volunteer activity I’m involved in is for the Tamil Academic Journal, which is based in the UK. They are a small group of young individuals interested in developing a journal to publish Tamil-related research on various topics. I joined them last year and have been helping with tech-related tasks. We have several plans for future implementations.

Exercise & Mental Health

Currently, I weigh around 74 kg, similar to two years ago. In 2022, I successfully lost weight from 72 kg to 54 kg. I hope to achieve similar results this time. However, I only managed to exercise once this week. I will try my best to exercise more in the coming days, at least by taking on walking challenges.

On Saturday, I went to Point Pedro to send off my dearest friend, who got married two years ago, to her husband’s country. I’m happy for her and pray for her to have a good life.

On Sunday, I enjoyed fun moments with my mom, brother, and his wife at a shoe and bag exhibition in Jaffna, accompanied by my loved one, who came from her place. Later, my mom and I visited Linkan Ice Cream, a popular spot in Jaffna, where we had rolls, ice cream, and tea before heading back home.

Future Plans

Finally, on Sunday night (June 9th), I planned to route my Parathan.com domain to GitHub Pages to showcase my portfolio. I will be moving my tech-related blogs to blog.parathan.com, nostalgic notes to nostalgic-notions.parathan.com, and my weekly notes to weekly-notes.parathan.com. Let’s see how it goes in the future.

Now the time is 3.34 am (10/06). I would appreciate it if I could follow the rule of going to bed early and waking up early. (Note to myself).

Stay tuned for more insights and updates in my next weekly notes. Thank you for joining me on this journey!