Savouring Tech and Spice: A Dive into Indian Cuisine and Tech Mastery with Microsoft MVPs Rachit Garg

Mark Smith: 0:37
Welcome to the MVP show. My intention is that you listen to the stories of these MVP guests and are inspired to become an MVP and bring value to the world through your skills. If you have not checked it out already, I do a YouTube series called how to Become an MVP. The link is in the show notes. With that, let's get on with the show. Today's guest is from Australia. He's a principal technical architect. His first award is MVP in 2023. He loves solving complex business problems for enterprise customers and he loves to share his learnings with the Microsoft Dynamics community via blogs and speaking of various community events. You can find links to his bio and social media in the show notes for this episode. Welcome to the show, Rachit.

Rachit Garg: 1:30
Thank you, mark. I'm really excited to be at your show. I have been following your podcast for years now and you have been an inspiration to a lot of inspiring MVPs, so really happy to be here and kudos to you for all the great work you do for the community.

Mark Smith: 1:47
Thank you, sir. Thank you sir. What part of Australia do you live in? I live in Victoria, Melbourne, Nice, Tell me. Tell me food, family and fun. What do they mean to you? Everything that doesn't involve work.

Rachit Garg: 2:00
That means a lot. That means life to me. So, yeah, I think food coming from I actually belong. I was born and brought up in India, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and I belong to city of Taj Mahal, agra, so it's famous for its food and the food is really hot and spicy there. So I grew up eating that food and it was like my daily staple diet all hot and spicy stuff. So food means a lot to me and there is so much variety of food we eat. We grew up eating, so food is definitely something I look forward to and, to be honest, in Melbourne I really find a rich variety of Indian food options available. So in that terms, melbourne is really good from cultural blend perspective. So, yeah, I moved to Melbourne almost 10 years back. It's my second home, live here with my wife and eight year old daughter and yeah, there's something new to explore in Melbourne, like, even after living for 10 years, there are places I go for the first time. So it's quite big and a lot of things to explore in Melbourne.

Mark Smith: 3:22
It is a great city and, of course, famous for its foodie culture, right and coffee. In a former life, when I used to live in Australia, I spent one day a week in Melbourne, or every week, so I'd fly down from Sydney Just about the food and the hotness. What's generally the spice that creates the heat in your local Indian cooking.

Rachit Garg: 3:50
Yeah, that's a tricky one. So the thing with Indian cooking is the spice box. We have a lot of spice plantation happening in India so, like what I see here is, people don't use a lot of spices when they cook food. But when it comes to Indian cooking, it's basically the right ratio of different spices which go into a particular dish. So some dishes may have more of chili, some dishes may have more of another spice. So it basically just depends on the type of dish we are preparing. The thing with Indian food is the taste changes every 200 kilometer you travel. So you eat a food in a city and you travel another 400 kilometer. You eat the same dish. It may taste different because the ratio of spices are different, the base of the curry is different. So that is one thing. But yeah, it's basically different type of chilies as well not always red chili or green chili that you can find yellow chilies and different flavors of them. So yeah, that's one thing which drives the hotness. And also, I think people like to explore because they have so many options. The spice box is like full of 15 or 20 different spices. So once you explore something, experiment, it becomes your unique selling point, and there are a lot of unique food chains in India who have their secret formula which makes them famous. So yeah, that's where it is.

Mark Smith: 5:22
When it comes to chili, like why I'm asking? Because I'm growing chilies myself and what I see coming from America and maybe a bit from Europe is people who can create the hottest chili. So you know, I've got some habaneros and I've got some ghost peppers and I've got some Carolina reapers and which I think are the hottest, and I'm not a chili eater. My chilies that I've eaten in my life have always been dare based. In other words, I dare you eat a whole chili. If you eat one, I'll eat a whole chili type thing. And I've done that a lot. I've done that a lot. The last time I did it I was in London when I did it and I regretted it because I was with a girl and I challenged her and she just picked up the chili and munched it straight away and then that left me having to eat a whole chili. So you know raw. So it was tough going seeds and all. So that's why I asked because, yeah, just understand, you know the type of chilies that you grow, apart from the color. Is there any particular names associated with those chilies?

Rachit Garg: 6:41
To be honest not across it, but generally I also eat raw chili, raw green chilies. Is that something which I like to have with my meal? But yeah, yeah, right. So that is definitely a part of my diet, because my wife and daughter doesn't like hot food, so they give me chilies separately and this is what you eat. Fair enough, fair enough.

Mark Smith: 7:09
Tell me about your journey into Microsoft business applications. How did it start? What brought you to where you are now? What area do you kind of specialize in in the entire suite that is Microsoft?

Rachit Garg: 7:25
I basically started my first job after my college in 2005 and it was a job of X++ developer. When I got that offer I was like, what language is it like? Because that was the era of everyone was after C, sharp or dot net or Java. But I thought to explore it because I read ERP in my college and I was a bit interested to explore how to build these enterprise grade applications using some unique programming languages. So I joined a company called Euro info system which was in India, and they came to know they were actually a reseller who were working with Damguard even before Microsoft acquired except so they had some good, good knowledge base in that company and people with whom we can learn and grow. So, yeah, I mean, the journey started in 2005 and then the way this platform evolved over a period of time kept me, kept me engaged with it. So it was not a monotonous or repetitive work which we were doing because it had to. It had so much to offer and so much to explore. Every time we solve a problem we face, we were given a new problem to solve and even now, after, like, spending 17, 18 years in this field, I still, you know, get new problems to solve on this platform. So it always kept me engaged, kept me excited about what's happening, and Microsoft had their good focus on this product. So it kept evolving with time. So when it was Originally launched, it was like a two tier and three tier application with its own database server and UI layer separate. But With time it got more matured and Microsoft brought its compiler into dotnet and now it's cloud based. We write code in visual studio, so so the the tools and frameworks Microsoft brought in this ecosystem actually kept everyone engaged and kept us up to date with latest technology trend. We do not Feel that we are being left out. So that was one of the reason for me to like stay in this technology and grow with it. And once, once I started and got some deep understanding of the frameworks, then then you Start exploring more, because once you understand a level of detail, then you get an idea of okay, this is how it works in real life. So yeah, and one another good thing was I was based in India, so I got to travel around the world for different customers to implement the product. So I got to travel to US, netherlands, uk, and then I also traveled to Australia for a few assignments in 2008. That's when I felt this is a great country to where you can actually live with the family and Explore more opportunities. So, yeah, in 2013 we moved here and since then I'm here and, yeah, loving living in Melbourne. It's a bit far from India, like the flight is a bit long almost 14 hours but yeah, still it's good to be here. And, yeah, you of course, miss family. Nothing can replace that and but, as I said, there is a lot of good Indian culture presence in Melbourne, so it keeps me connected to my roots. I can visit temples, I can go to social gatherings where festivals are celebrated and, yeah, so that's where I am.

Mark Smith: 10:53
That was the same year I moved to Australia oh yeah, 2013 but I left in 2017 and went to Europe. So have you always been in Melbourne? Is that where you've been based?

Rachit Garg: 11:06
Yes, I have been based like the most of the time I've spent in Melbourne. I have traveled to Sydney, brisbane, for some assignment and travel purposes, but mostly my base has been in Melbourne.

Mark Smith: 11:18
When I used to work there and I was building my practice, I bought a lot of people in from India, relocated them back then it was a 457 visa, from memory, that you'd come to Australia on, and so the organization I was working for had a legal department that handled that for me, and so it. When there was a skill shortage, I was able to tap into some great minds, you know, and Out of India and bring them into Australia. Now that, of course, is all pre-pandemic. That was all around 2015, 16, 17. What some? Is that still happening? Is there in your community and connections? Are you still seeing a lot of people immigrating from India in the tech sector to Australia? I know the visas were changed, but are you seeing that?

Rachit Garg: 12:09
Yeah. So 457 visa has been here for a long time. So I myself came on work visa, so Sable 37 was the partner for whom I was working when I came here. So 457 work visa is one of the key pathway for companies to bring talent to Australia. It still exists and it has. I think they have changed few laws around how long it is valid for. So initially it used to be valid for four years, but now I think it's valid for two years and then you have to renew it for another two years, but it still is a pathway. During pandemic there was a bit of a pause and didn't did not see a lot of companies getting into sponsorship because, yeah, I mean it's tricky to get to that stage where you can actually sponsor an overseas skilled professional because you have to go through that layer of labor laws and a lot of declarations to be done at government side. But I think now this year I have seen the market is opening up and a few of my known people network people have migrated, and not only from India. I've seen people migrating from Dubai, people migrating from Singapore, migrating from Saudi Arabia. So, yeah, I think Australia being the way Australia managed its pandemic situation made it more preferred location for people to migrate. So I see a lot of interest in people who want to migrate to Australia and one of the key reason is the way we managed pandemic here. But, yeah, it is there. People are coming. I think it's opening up now. It's a good time. The market is. It all depends like. The market is growing. Companies are finding more projects now so, yeah, the demand is also increasing.

Mark Smith: 14:02
What are you doing in the area of AI? Are you exploring AI from a personal use case? Are you exploring it for customers? What's the story with Dynamics 365, finance and AI? What's your thinking around all these areas?

Rachit Garg: 14:20
Yeah, I think AI is definitely a game changer for a lot of applications, not just Dynamics, but the way we use technology in our day to day life is going to get impacted and it has already started Like we are not in a phase where people only talk about it. There are good AI platforms which are already released and companies have started adopting it. People in personal, for their personal use, have started adopting it, so I think it is definitely something which will become like a core skill in few years down the line, even like it may get more interest when people are graduating or doing studies. It may become part of core, part of their curriculum. I think I see it as a positive vibe that yes, there are some unique, complex problems which technology can solve, especially in areas of healthcare, the type of AI solutions which are coming and which can help people to recover from their illness in a more smooth way. I think it's going to be having good impact In terms of personal use. I actually showed it to my daughter and she loves to play with Dalí and creating some crazy images and she comes up with some crazy ideas and says, hey, dad, let's try Dalí and let's try to create an image and she actually gave me some feedback that when I use some particular keywords, this is the type of image it created and it was not what I expected. So the kids are like she gave me a feedback. If I give it a long sentence then it doesn't prepare give me the right image, but if I give a very crisp, precise instruction, it gives me what I asked for. So it was interesting to see how even kids are able to interpret the behavior and give a feedback. I think the use cases are going to be too many. I think in Dynamics 365, microsoft has started introducing AI embedded capabilities, especially using OpenAI in sales marketing, where the customers, the interaction can be analyzed and automatic email reply can be drafted. Also, in terms of finance and operation, there is one capability which is using chat, gpd and OpenAI, which is around whenever a purchase order confirmation gets modified. What is the effect of this on other commitments and other purchase order and how it can impact your supply chain. So there are some models which Microsoft is introducing in out of the box product. However, I think there are a lot of potential use cases which can be enabled. Ai has been part of finance and operation, like there are demand forecasting functionalities which were available in the product from many years. There were planning, optimization, master planning, which uses all these machine learning AI algorithm, but I think this whole new OpenAI and chat GPD thing is also catching a lot of attention. It looks like in AI it's a parallel word of AI where people don't like to talk much about machine learning and traditional AI regression algorithms, but they want to focus more on what chat GPD can do to solve their problem.

Mark Smith: 17:40
Yeah, large language models and generative AI right is all the focus at the moment. How did you become an MVP? What was the journey to MVP for you?

Rachit Garg: 17:52
Yeah, Journey to MVP has been a long dream for me. Actually, when I was in my formative years, when I traveled to actually Europe for one of my assignment, I met few MVPs. Kurt Hettlewick was one of them. When I interacted with him I got a bit of inspired from the way he thinks about not only about a solution for a customer, but his talks were more focused on industry what can we do to revolutionize the problem for the industry? That's where I came to know about MVP program and I started looking about it. But then, due to my migration and a lot of things always happening, it was always in the back of my mind that, yes, I have to work towards it, Although I have been contributing to the community from last more than 10 years. I have a blog where I have all the collection of technical articles which go way back to 10 years. But I think and that's one thing, what I hear a lot of MVP says that you keep giving back to the community and MVP comes along with it. But I feel you actually have to prepare and work towards it if you really want to be an MVP. You have to bring a structure to your contributions. You have to sometimes go above what you normally do to meet that benchmark, Because I felt like first time I MVP award was rejected, which is fine, because there were a few things which were not in the right timing. So timing is all about what you have done in the last 12 months. So what you have done in the last 10 years is not the criteria, but what you have done in the last 12 months is the criteria. So you might have written 50 blogs five years back, but that doesn't count now. So if someone is aiming to become an MVP, it's very important to understand the process and how you build that collection of your contributions. That is very important and you have to need to have a plan, work towards it, identify what you are comfortable doing. You don't need to go to forums, write a blog, go to YouTube, go to seminars, do a podcast. Identify your core strength and what you are comfortable doing it and focus on that area. So I realized okay, my focus is more towards doing sessions in the community that's where I focused and blogging. So I was mostly focused on blogging and doing sessions. So these were my two key areas. I did a bit of forum things and created YouTube videos, but that is something which I'm planning to maybe get more. Give it more attention next year and this year I continue focusing on what I am doing. So, yeah, my advice to people who want to target MVP is plan in advance, focus and identify what your core area of engagement is, core way of engagement is, and work on that. Have your backlog of last 12 months activities ready how you impacted the community, how you brought value to them and try to have a unique offering. Because what I feel sometimes I feel like, okay, let me go and create a video on how to write X++ code, but then when I go to YouTube, I see there are plenty of videos already out there. So what my content is going to add value to, whom I'm going to add value to? So identify what type of community members you want to target. That's also another important thing. Build your brand, yeah.

Mark Smith: 21:26
I like it. You've just given and provided the listeners a whole bunch of very valid, very relevant advice to becoming an MVP. So thank you so much, Rachit covering on the show, because I think that if people just took that last piece of what you said from your experience and apply it, they could find themselves becoming MVP before too long.

Rachit Garg: 21:52
Thank you for that, mark. Yeah, I think it is important to understand what your journey is and once you get MVP, then you feel really happy about it because it's not something which just came by itself. You work for it, you had a goal which you have achieved and that fuels your passion towards it, and now you can explore other areas and you get into that network of MVPs. You can take their help to connect and establish more, better brand in the market for yourself.

Mark Smith: 22:22
Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host business application MVP Mark Smith, otherwise known as the NZ365 guy. If you like the show and want to be a supporter, check out buymeacoffeecom forward slash NZ365 guy. Thanks again and see you next time.