Aleem Bawany

I am curious, calm, pacifistic, liberal, optimistic, unafraid, objective, pragmatic and a technophile.

I was born on August 8, 1979 in Karachi, a city with beautiful beaches, bad traffic, late nights, greasy food, rampant piracy, corrupt bureaucrats, full service, and easy living.

This was until 1998 when I left behind the comforts of home and hesitantly transitioned to University of Toronto in Canada, having the wildest time of my life but somehow managing to graduate with a B.Sc., honours, specializing in Software Engineering. I found Toronto winters to be paralysing and unbearable but for eight months of the year I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I did some freelance work before graduation, then worked at a startup whose long hours made a hermit out of me. Some of those tendencies have stuck and I like to go in a hole every now and then just reading and learning. A few months in, the startup went under quite abruptly and I was out of a job but by some stroke of luck I landed a job at Microsoft in Redmond (Seattle).

Microsoft provided me with a potent environment full of enthusiastic technophiles sharing a passion for nature and the outdoors. My team went through about five re-organizations within MSN giving me the opportunity to work in various groups before settling in the Business Intelligence group where I worked on behavioural tracking for the most part–and miss it from time to time. I got to learn a great deal about the business of software from some of the best minds in the industry. It was wonderful.

After three and half years at Microsoft, I reluctantly resigned to return to Pakistan and prioritized my family above all. In March of 2008, I got married to my now lovely wife who also relocated from London. I currently flip flop between consulting, contracting and working toward a startup.

If you’re a technology enthusiast you may find my blog interesting.