I am Gyanesh Chander. I spent most of my early years in Hyderabad, India, popularly known as the Hi-Tech City. Hyderabad is one of the fastest-developing cities in India. I went to school at St. Johns Church High School. After finishing school, I lived in Pune for four years pursuing my Bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering. I really enjoyed my stay in Pune and thought it was one of best places to live in India. Pune is supposed to be the center of education in India. In 1999, I came to the US to pursue my masters in Electrical Engineering with specialization in remote sensing and image processing. In 2001, I started working at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resource Observation System (EROS) Data Center (EDC) in Sioux Falls, SD. We are the world's largest archive of remotely sensed data, and we operate, maintain and are responsible for the Landsat satellite.
My parents live in Hyderabad and I have one younger sister who is married and lives in Manali. I've never been to Manali, but it sounds like a lovely hill station set among spectacular cool hills, dense forests, and emerald valleys. It is situated at an altitude of 6000 ft in North West India, right in the lap of Great Himalayas.
My hobbies include listening to music, traveling, watching plays and operas, collecting proverbs, eating good food, and enjoying the simple things in life. I have to have my daily dose of music. I listen to Soft Rock, Rock, Metal, Country, Hip-Hop, Jazz, Blues, Rap, Classical, almost anything. You might find me listening to Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Def leppard, Aerosmith, Bryan Adams, Eric Clapton, Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Guns-N-Roses, Michael Bolton, Madonna, Air Supply, Cliff Richards, Petula Clark, Righteous Brother, Tchaikovosky, Beethoven, or Mozart. I listen to a lot of other bands that fall in between.
I am an ardent sports fanatic. The sports that fascinate me are skiing, rollerblading, volleyball, football, basketball, cricket, tennis, golf, and ultimate frisbee. The NFL and NBA are the two leagues I follow very closely. Whenever I get time, I enjoy swimming, kayaking, camping, trekking and fishing. Some other sports that I would like to try someday include scuba diving, snorkeling, surfing and skydiving.
Skiing has become my latest passion. I usually go to the Great Bear Recreation Park, located just 3 miles east of Sioux Falls, SD. I am not much of a mogul fan, but the longer, faster, and steeper the slope, the better. I've been to Park City, Deer Valley, Alta in Utah and Heavenly and Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe. I would like go to these places more often, but it is a very expensive sport and I already have too many of them. If you have not tried skiing, you should.
I have always enjoyed volunteering. It's a nice way to get involved with the community and it brings so much satisfaction. I volunteer at the Washington Pavilion (usher), Sioux Falls film society (projectionist), and the volunteer service bank (Mentor). I love mentoring kids and have shadowed many students from preschools, elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. I actively participate in the EDC's Outreach activities by presenting to schools across SD via DDN (Digital Dakota Network) as part of the "Distance Learning" medium ("Science to Kids"), affording students the opportunity to "tune-in" to classes/presentation not otherwise available to them from their (perhaps remote) location.
I like literature, and over the years I have collected a number of proverbs. You can read some of my collection on my homepage. I have been collecting proverbs since the age of nine.