There are many .NET developers in the world. Then there’s Computan’s .NET team lead, Abdul Khaliq. The don of .NET, Abdul leads the development of all of our custom programming jobs done in .NET. In this week’s Behind The Coding Abdul shares how he keeps himself in shape, why he rarely stays late for work, and one of his favorite team-building exercises.
Hi Abdul! How are you today?
Pretty good thanks Sajeel. How are you?
Good thanks. What are the last 3 things you Googled and why?
I don’t really remember. I do Google and research a lot for work though. One thing I Googled out of the ordinary was furniture polish.
Furniture Polish? Why would you Google that?
Well, I had a long weekend just now and took the time to research ways to clean some of the furniture in the house.
What kind of polish? What kind of furniture is it?
Wood polish. I also Google about the latest .NET happenings too.
Why do you feel so highly about .NET?
For me, .NET was a game-changer when I went to school. It was the biggest framework, it’s what they were teaching. Even now to me .NET 6 is revolutionary. Microsoft continues to build on it and extend its reach beyond Windows-based applications. Support for non-MS platform stuff in .NET 6 is really nice.
What else have you been Googling?
Gas/petro prices.
Why? Are you a crude oil commodities trader in your spare time? Or do you like to find places with the petro costs to save money?
Hahaha….definitely the latter. Fuel costs are so high these days! I try to find the places giving the cheapest price.
Who are 3 people you would like to have dinner with and why?
3 childhood friends of mine – Haseeb, Nasir, and Saif.
You haven’t seen them in a long time?
No no. I see them all the time! We met while playing cricket as kids, then did our high school and many years of school together. The 4 of us all did Computer Science too and are all .NET developers too. We’ve been friends for a very long time.
That’s pretty amazing!
Yeah, it’s quite special.
What would you guys eat?
Normally Pakistani/Indian food – Karahi chicken. But mostly BBQ stuff these days?
Why BBQ?
I’m trying to lose weight. Have lost 7 kgs (15 pounds) in the past year.
Wow! By eating BBQ meat?
Not only eating BBQ meat obviously. Before work, I try to go exercise and then watch my weight.
What kind of exercise do you do? That’s a lot to drop in a short period of time
A little bit of everything. Some cardio/running and some weight lifting.
Great to hear that Abdul. When was the last time worked after hours to solve a hard problem?
I was working on a site of ours that has a WordPress front-end but a .NET shop and training portal that was built custom. One of the WordPress team members made some changes to the navigation on the live site and those changes needed to be done quickly on the .NET areas of the project.
Directly on the live site?!?
Yes, I wasn’t super happy either. Normally we do things in staging and deploy at a later time together, but this was urgent. Got done quickly regardless. I don’t ever stay late usually.
I’ve noticed that. Why don’t you like working late? Most team members like to work late and come online late. We seem to be a late-arriving group…except for you and a few others?
I’m just very regimented. Always like to be organized, prepared and consistent. I get that from my dad.
Sounds like he was in the military?
Hahaha, no-no. He just taught me to be early, do my work, organize myself and prepare for different things that the day can throw at me.
Words to live by for sure. When was the last time you cried tears of laughter?
That’s easy. Whenever I play cards with Shahid (Shahid Hussain, .NET developer on the Computan team). He’s a fun guy to play with and always doing some funny acting or voices. On the Computan Trek in December (2021) we played a ton of Robbery (card game) and he was always making everyone laugh.
All very true! Where were you when you first saw a computer/laptop?
I was 10. My uncle bought a Pentium 1 and I played pinball on it. I bought my own computer when I was 18 or 19 with my own savings. That was really special.
Everyone always remembers their first computer!
Absolutely.
What are some things your teammates don’t know about you?
After one of the trips and a few social events, I think they know me pretty well. One thing they may not know is I’ve memorized the Quran and all 604 pages of it!
That is quite an impressive feat!
Yeah, it’s something that can be taught and some people that are really interested in the book or scripture go for it. I was and I did it.
How long did it take you?
Several years. The more you read it the more you memorize it. Kind of like you and your Spiderman knowledge Sajeel.
Very funny Abdul 😊.
