My old blog address is back! Am so happy!! :)

Pradeep Chakraborty's Blog

My dear friends, this is a great day for me! Rohit Basa, manager – Business Development (North America), ProcSys, who is currently in the USA, just responded to an email I’d sent out inviting him for Durga Puja celebrations in town!

In his mail, Rohit very kindly informed me that my old blog address — http://pradeepchakraborty.blogspot.com — is again available for fresh registration. His message to me was crystal clear: “Book it before anyone else does and direct a link to your new website. I’m a great fan of yours, your blog and articles.”

Indeed! I was overjoyed when I re-registered the same old blog address, and got it back! I even brought back the same old look!! Well, at least, most of it!!!

The sheer pain of losing my original blog and blog address last August is something extremely difficult for me to get over! The effort I’d put in to develop that blog had been immense, and the loss was really shattering, to say the least! In fact, I even used to constantly check Blogger to find out whether the old blog address was still available.

While the pain has eased a bit on getting back my old blog address, I know very well that I simply cannot bring back the original traffic that it used to have. I moved my old blog to WordPress since that day it was taken off Blogger. The blog’s doing very well on WordPress. Still, the loss of my original Blogspot blog last year has haunted me every single day!

Thanks a ton, Rohit! I am so very touched and will remain forever obliged to you!!

I chose Sagar Desai of Symantec, from the US, a very close friend, as the next one to be informed that I’d got back my old blog address. Sagar stood by me in my darkest hour — when my old blog was injected with malware and later removed by Google in the middle of August, last year.

In fact, Sagar had commented just a while ago, on seeing my Durga Puja invite — “Did not know this cultural side of yours. Good to know that your life is just not semiconductors! ;)”

I’d then asked him whether I’d got typecast. His reply was — “That’s probably more to do with the way you brand yourself. Image set ho gaya hai! You need to break the stereotype.” 🙂

It is so very nice and touching to hear such remarks from a close friend! It shows that he cares, a lot! Perhaps, I am getting typecast as a semicon blogger.

Guess what! The other day, I was at a National Instruments event. A journalist friend and an ex-colleague, actually, found some new names for me. One was ‘Semicon Bong’ — since I’m a Bengali, and the other was ‘Semicon Bomb’! Ok, whatever that last one means.

Well, now I simply can’t wait to inform Usha Prasad, my associate and buddy, that I’ve managed to get back my old blogspot address. Usha stood by me during that time and has steadfastly been by my side since that time. I just can’t wait to see her reaction when she hears this news! She’s fast asleep now.. come morning, and this is the first thing I’m going to tell her!

Finally, many, many thanks to all of those friends who’ve stood by me all this time!

And, a very special thanks again from the bottom of my heart to Rohit! You really made my day, sorry, my year, buddy! 🙂

Here’s wishing everyone a very happy Durga Puja and Dusshera!

Future Horizons signs me as its India affiliate!

Recently, Future Horizons signed me up as its India affiliate. It is indeed, an honor to be an affiliate for any leading research and consulting house, and I am grateful that Malcolm Penn, chairman and CEO, thought that I would fit the bill.

I have known Malcolm for several years now. Although I know making any forecast is really tricky stuff, and nine times out of ten, one is bound to go wrong, owing to market conditions and other unforeseen happenings, I’d still stick my head out and say — hey forecasters, you do a great job!

Even I’ve asked Malcolm several times as to whether Future Horizons would be revising its forecasts. And yes, it has, it does and will probably continue to do so in the future. That’s the nature of the global semiconductor industry!

There is a lot of semicon related activity going on in India, besides solar/PV. Just take a look at some of my recent  posts on embedded, some of the initiatives undertaken by the ISA to promote the Indian industry overseas — particularly, in the UK and Japan.

With so much new activity in India, am sure that a lot of Future Horizons’ publications, its well known International Electronics Forum (IEF) and the Start Up Service will appeal to this market. I am new, rather a greenhorn, and will seek the industry’s guidance and support in playing my role as a Future Horizons’ affiliate. And no, I won’t be writing anything for Future Horizons. Of course, I will continue my posts on the global semiconductor industry forecasts with Malcolm, as I do with several others — here, on my blog.

Personally, I’d love to see an international semiconductor conference hosted in India. Am tired of hearing friends overseas telling me: Hey, there’s this big show being held in the USA or Taipei. Are you attending?

Incidentally, I was very pleased to be able to attend SEMI India’s Solarcon 2009 last month in Hyderabad — a truly global event with a galaxy of international speakers. So, I turned around and asked my friends — hey, why aren’t you attending?

I hope Malcolm can some day bring IEF to India, with the help of the India Semiconductor Association. It will really act as a major boost for the Indian semiconductor industry.

On another note
Today, it is exactly a year since my blog and I won Electronicsweekly.com’s World Title for the Best Blog in the Electronics Hardware category in Dec. 2008! Alun Williams from Electronicsweekly.com recently told me: “There is no EW blog awards this year, by the way. We’ll do it bi-annually, so you get to keep your crown for another year!” Thanks to Alun and Electronicsweekly.com.

Thanks for all of your kind support, dear readers, friends and well wishers, who have cared to stop by my blog now and then. Some of you also leave comments from time to time. I personally don’t know most of you who leave comments, but many thanks to all of you for doing so.  Hope that you continue to find my blog and my work useful.

If there’s something missing in my blog, do understand that I have several constraints, and also do not have access to lot of companies, regions, shows, etc., as I’m merely a blogger. Nor am I part of any large media house! Nor am I any authority on semiconductors, solar or telecom, and so on and so forth!

If, at any stage, I am forced to stop writing, or otherwise, this blog belongs to all of you!

Have a merry X’mas and a very Happy New Year, lest I forget to wish everyone. 🙂 Best wishes and good night!