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About Puneet Singh Lamba
Puneet Singh Lamba was born on Oct. 18, 1965 to Surendra Singh and Jagdish Kaur at the Victoria Hospital in Fredericton (New Brunswick, Canada). He shares his birthday with Canada's legendary former prime minister (1968-1984), Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and the highly-regarded Bollywood/Hollywood actor, Om Puri.
He was educated at Mother's International School (Hauz Khas, New Delhi, India), General Raj's School (Hauz Khas, New Delhi), Modern School (Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, India), Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T., Roorkee, Uttar Pradesh, India), and University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada).
In 2001, Mother's International School placed first on Outlook magazine's ranking of grade schools and high schools in India (Dec. 10, 2001). Modern School, Vasant Vihar placed fourth among schools in Delhi.
In 2000, I.I.T., Roorkee placed eighth in the "ranking by faculty resources" category (and fourteenth in the "overall" category) on AsiaWeek magazine's annual ranking of Asia's science and technology schools. In 2000 and 2001, I.I.T., Roorkee placed seventh on India Today magazine's ranking of engineering schools in India. In a Jun. 22, 2003 '60 Minutes' report, C.B.S. News observed, 'Put Harvard, M.I.T. and Princeton together, and you begin to get an idea of the status of I.I.T. in India.'
In 2000, University of Windsor placed seventh on Maclean's magazine's annual ranking of "comprehensive" Canadian universities (Nov. 14, 2000). Comprehensive universities are those with a significant amount of research activity and a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including professional degrees.
During his time at the University of Windsor, Puneet played the drums for Groundwater, an alternative music band that played original songs as well as Neil Young and Bob Marley covers. Groundwater played at several Windsor avenues, including The Coach and Horses (of The Tea Party and Luxury Christ fame; 156 Chatham St. W.) and Changez By Nite (960 Wyandotte St. E.). Groundwater was: Chris Gagnier (lead guitar and vocals), Billy J. Coombs (rhythm guitar and vocals), Randy "Mr. Jinx" White (bass), and Marc Fedak (bass and vocals). Bill and Marc are now in Toronto with a band called Spacecraft7.
Puneet is a National Talent Search finalist (India's premier academic scholarship competition), a Microsoft Certified Professional (M.C.P.), and a member of the New England Java Users Group, the I.E.E.E. Computer Society, Mensa, A.C.L.U.'s Civil Liberties Task Force, and the Columbia University-affiliated South Asian Journalists Association's (S.A.J.A.) Stylebook Committee. He reviews technical articles and books for the Computing Reviews magazine, affiliated with the Association for Computing Machinery (A.C.M.).
Demonstrating an early interest in writing, as a grade 2 student he published a piece entitled My Pet Birds in his school magazine, Sandesh (Message). The next stage in his development as a writer included letters to editors, inspired in part by P.L. Pasricha of Connaught Place, Delhi, who used to write regularly to The Hindustan Times. Puneet served as a disc jockey (D.J.) for the University of Windsor radio station, C.J.A.M. F.M. 91.5. His news commentary has appeared on television and several mainstream newspapers and magazines. He founded The Sikh Times in 1999.
He has interviewed various personalities including Paul R. Brass, Cynthia Keppley Mahmood, Eric S. Margolis, Shauna Singh Baldwin, T. Sher Singh, Harjot Singh Oberoi, Gurmit Singh Aulakh, Harbans Lal, Hardev Singh Shergill, Khushwant Singh, Gurbakhsh Singh Kala Afghana, Dalip Singh Saund's grandson Eric Saund, Howard Zinn, Taslima Nasrin, Ian Jack, and Pankaj Mishra.
He is a seasoned I.T. professional with over sixteen years' experience, most of which have been spent developing software for financial services and workforce management. He is currently senior manager, technology at Sapient Corporation, a global top-ten technology consulting company where Puneet is leading a 20-person, $1.6M software development project for a global top-ten investment management firm.
Previously he was software engineering manager at Kronos Incorporated where he served as release manager during the conception of version 5.0 of Workforce Central, Kronos' flagship workforce management software product. Additionally, he drove the incorporation of significant extensibility enhancing mechanisms into the product, the unit test automation initiative, as well as the migration of the product's external data transfer operations to the X.M.L. paradigm. Puneet was an invited speaker at the Kronos Technology Summit 2003 (Apr. 5-8) and Kronos Technology Summit 2004 (Apr. 14-16).
Founded in 1977, Kronos is today a $342 million (fiscal year 2002) company and world's leading provider of workforce management software. Only six software companies in the U.S. received a higher rating than Kronos in BusinessWeek's Nov. 25, 2002 ranking of I.T. companies (Info. Tech. 100). As of 2003, Kronos is one of only three software product companies worldwide to have experienced 60 or more consecutive quarters of revenue growth and profitability. The other two companies are Microsoft and S.A.P. National Public Radio (N.P.R.) recently referred to Kronos as "the Microsoft of time management" (Marketplace, November 20, 2003).
Puneet is fluent in four languages (English, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu) and three scripts (Roman, Devnagri, and Gurmukhi). He credits his paternal grandmother for motivating him to learn Gurmukhi. Whenever she was away, he was compelled to write to her in the only script she could read, i.e. Gurmukhi. He is an avid athlete fond of several sports and has represented his school and/or university in field hockey, soccer, basketball, and squash. He married Samita Kaur on Jul. 4, 1996 at Bombay, India. Puneet and Samita live in New England with their daughter, Ria Kaur, and son, Ronak Singh.
He is author of a small collection of essays entitled Five Myths: Musings on the Sikh Condition.
Puneet can be reached at puneet@sikhtimes.com.
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Puneet - Kimball Farm, Westford, Massachusetts - Jul. 12, 2008
Puneet - Lamba Homestead, Greater Boston Area - Nov. 1, 2006
Puneet - Lamba Homestead, Greater Boston Area - Jul. 13, 2006
Ria, Samita, Puneet, Ronak - Lamba Homestead, Greater Boston Area - Jul. 4, 2006
On the occasion of Puneet and Samita's tenth wedding anniversary.
Wild Turkeys pay a rare visit (photographed by Samita) - Lamba Homestead, Greater Boston Area - Jun. 15, 2005
The wild turkey is the largest of North America's game birds. The one on the extreme left is the male. Males are also known as Toms or Gobblers. The rest are hens.
Click here for more New England flora and fauna, as naturally evidenced at the Lamba Homestead.
Puneet, with Ronak - Lamba Homestead, Greater Boston Area - Apr. 6, 2005
Puneet - Lamba Homestead, Greater Boston Area - Apr. 2, 2005
Puneet is wearing a Sikh turban (head covering), as he does on religious occasions and at Sikh gatherings. The Square D shirt is courtesy a consulting stint with the electrical control and distribution equipment company.
Puneet - Lamba Homestead, Greater Boston Area - Mar. 27, 2005
The lapel pin commemorates City of Windsor's centennial (1992).
Puneet, on the front porch - Lamba Homestead, Greater Boston Area - Aug. 7, 2004
The Gulfstream shirt is courtesy a consulting stint with the aircraft manufacturer.
Puneet, dunking the basketball - Lamba Homestead, Greater Boston Area - Aug. 7, 2004
Ria's basketball setup is visible in the background.
Puneet, with Ria - Lamba Homestead, Greater Boston Area - Feb. 28, 2004
Ria's first snowman. We used Mr. Potato Head's nose and Tigger shades. We thought we were done when Ria split a tree branch in half and proceeded to insert arms into the snowman.
Puneet, with Ria - Lowell, Massachusetts - Nov. 9, 2002
Lamba Homestead - Greater Boston Area - Oct., 2002
Puneet, Samita, and Ria (in Puneet's lap) - The Capitol, Washington, D.C. - Dec., 2001
The Capitol is the equivalent of the parliament in commonwealth countries and is home to the House of Representatives (the lower house) and the Senate (the upper house), which are collectively referred to as the Congress.
Puneet and Samita at their honeymoon - Mussoorie, India - Jul., 1996
The Montreal Jazz Festival t-shirt was acquired during one of the numerous consulting trips to clients in the Montreal region including Siemens (Drummondville, Quebec), Mont Tremblant Ski Resort (Quebec) and Goodyear (Valleyfield, Quebec).
Puneet - School of Computer Science, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada - Sep., 1987
Puneet's first home in Windsor was at 440 Indian Road.
Puneet, receiving an academic award from the school's principal, Ved Vyas - Modern School, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, India - 1983
The school's vice principal and head of the physics department, D.P. Kaushik, is visible in the background.
Puneet, age 3 - Fredericton (New Brunswick, Canada) - 1968
Puneet, age 3 - Botanic Garden, Fredericton (New Brunswick, Canada) - 1968
Puneet, first photograph - Fredericton (New Brunswick, Canada) - Oct. 1965
Puneet's birthplace, Victoria Public Hospital - Fredericton (New Brunswick, Canada) - 1965