WC Nepal 2015

Nepali WordPress Stars: Meet Sakar Upadhyaya Khatiwada

Sakar Upadhyaya Khatiwada is a young talented PHP-based web developer from Proshore. He just finished his Bachelor’s in Information Management from Tribhuvan University. During his leisure, he loves to research on anything and everything that sparks his interests; technology being his favorite subject. Also, he enjoys writing Nepali poems and cooking. We got to have a little one-on-one talk session with him at the recent WordCamp Nepal 2015.

Sakar (left) accepting his token of love

Sakar (left) accepting his token of love.

Your WordPress “origin’ story?

I have been working for almost 3 years now. I started working with PHP frameworks. I did that for about a year. Then the company thought of shifting to WordPress. My WordPress journey, thus, began. I mainly work with PHP but I thoroughly enjoy working with WordPress. I then started handling the Content Management duties but this was short lived as well. Currently, I work with web application development at Proshore. But WordPress, it is free and almost anything can be done with it. Not many platforms can say that and have the flexibility to match and adapt.

How has your career evolved since using WordPress?

Even though PHP is my forte and career, I love using WordPress. I do my own research on WordPress and the boundless opportunities it presents. I was a speaker in last year’s WordCamp Nepal as well. The video of my session was put up on WordPress.tv. My presentation was liked by many. Plus, my video being put up on an international website was a matter of joy and pride. My family finally got to see a part of my work life. Talking at WordCamp Nepal 2014 exposed me to the warm WordPress community. Whenever I attend an event, be it a community meetup, people recognize me. I get to meet inspiring people and make friends. In addition to all that, I learn, I help others learn. This year alone I visited two colleges and shared my knowledge on WordPress. I can say WordPress has helped me and my career evolve to newer heights.

Can you tell me something about yourself that isn’t WordPress?

I don’t like to talk about work during the weekends. The weekends are exclusively for pampering myself. I cook and eat, hang out with my buddies, socialize and just chill. I’m very inquisitive. I love to research on things that I find interesting. I also write poems every now and then. I am an avid traveler. I frequent travel to places. Just recently, before Dashain, I went hiking to Chisapani with my friends. I don’t mind travelling alone either. I can recall a story. It was during the SAARC Summit last year. The office had not officially called a holiday but I got a call at around 11:00 saying, “Today’s a day-off.” Impulsively, I booked a 15:00 flight to Birgunj and flew there. I had a friend, who lived there, visiting his parents. So the next day, I called him up saying, “I’m here. Come pick me up.” My friend gave me a tour of the city that day. It was quite fun.

What are your future plans?

As of now, I plan to continue with web development, hone my skills. And eventually, I plan to start my own company.

What do you think makes a WordCamp inviting and engaging?

Networking. We, who work in the IT field, don’t get that many chances to meet people. All of our work involves sitting in front of the computer and doing our stuff. Before my college ended, there were ample openings to connect with people. But now that I’m done with college, it isn’t so. The WordCamp or any event of that matter brings all sorts of interesting people – from users to developers. It is very inspiring. You get acquainted with like-minded people, re-connect with old friends from previous conferences, learn AND have fun all the while.

What would you like to say to anyone who wants to start working with WordPress?

Start from the Basics. Go Slow. Just because WordPress is an open source and easy to manipulate, don’t cut corners and ignore PHP, HTML and CSS. People may get the desired output but if they don’t understand the functionalities of WordPress, what’s the point?  It won’t be as efficient. Moreover, those amateur works will represent other hard-working coders and developers of Nepal, the ones who believe in quality service. Hence, spoiling the image of Nepali coders and developers altogether. So I suggest them to learn from the very beginning.

Where can we find you online?

You can find me in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and my own website.