Hyderabad Days: The code we lived by before we coded

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

A nostalgic, big-hearted memoir of a Hyderabad colony in the 80s–90s—and the unwritten code of community that became a foundation for a life of software engineering and leadership.Hyderabad Days is a tender, humorous, and deeply nostalgic memoir of childhood in 1980s–90s middle-class India, told through the eyes of a boy growing up in a Panjagutta colony. With vivid storytelling and a cast of unforgettable characters — from cricketing legends of the lane to sari-clad sisters who led in silence — this collection of slice-of-life chapters paints a world of shared TVs, Gold Spot bottles, kirana-store diplomacy, and friendships that defied caste, class, and religion.But this is more than just a return to dusty lanes and colony cricket. It is also the story of how those chaotic, joy-soaked years forged the instincts of an engineer and, later, the perspective of a leader. The resourcefulness of stretching ten rupees for a cricket ball became the foundation for innovation. The diplomacy of settling gully cricket disputes became a lesson in mediation. The solidarity of colony life became the bedrock of resilience and humanity that guided a career spanning global teams and glass-walled conference rooms.Written by a senior technology executive looking back on the roots that shaped both his childhood and his leadership, Hyderabad Days is a heartfelt tribute to a way of life that has all but vanished — a time when childhood was local, laughter was communal, and every setback or success carried the quiet lessons of character.For fans of: R.K. Narayan, Ruskin Bond, Sudha Murty — and, in its own way, The Soul of a New Machine — blending nostalgia with the blueprint of how engineers and leaders are made.