About Me - The Vadivel

Hello, I’m Vadivel Thekkamalai also known as Vel. I have over 15 years of experience in the software industry, working across various tech sectors. My journey started in a small village near Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, South India. I graduated with an engineering degree in Electronics and Communication in 2007. I worked in India until mid-2013, and since then, I’ve been living in the Bay Area, California, with my wife and two children.

Professional Background

I’ve worked in various areas of software, focusing on Bluetooth wireless technology. My experience spans embedded systems, Android mobile development, low-level programming, middleware, and framework development. I’ve also led software architecture and engineering teams, particularly in augmented reality projects. This has given me the opportunity to build products from the ground up and expand my skill set through exciting challenges. I’ve worked at several big tech companies. For more details on my work history, feel free to check out my LinkedIn profile.

Entrepreneurial Ventures

Combining my love for technology and photography with my partner’s passion for culinary arts, we founded YellowChilis.com, a food recipe site aimed at bringing delicious and accessible recipes to people everywhere. I handle the technical aspects, video production, photography, and content editing, while my wife is the primary chef who cooks and writes for our audience.

Running the site and my background in technology sparked my interest in WordPress plugin development. To make my wife’s time more productive and cost-effective by offloading time-consuming tasks and improving content quality from an SEO perspective, I developed a few plugins during my free time, which are now running on our site, YellowChilis.com.

I later realized these tools could help other content creators become more productive and cost-effective as well, which led to the launch of CurlyBracket.tech, where I plan to offer these plugins. While the site is still under construction, I plan to release them once they are fully ready for production, aiming to provide the best experience and satisfaction for users. Stay tuned!

Personal Journey

Growing up in a small village that hardly had any graduates and mostly school dropouts, I learned the values of hard work and perseverance early on. I walked 6 km each day to attend school, a routine I maintained until I finished middle school. With few people around to guide me, completing my education and becoming the first in my family to earn a degree, especially in engineering, was a significant achievement. I relied on hard work and self-teaching to take my journey to the next level and build my career. This journey took me from a small village with barely any proper roads to working for big tech companies in the USA, which I believe has inspired a new generation in my native village.

A small rice field with a blue mountain in the background, surrounded by light smoke or mist. — Our farms in my village around 2011.

Personal Life

While I spend a lot of time exploring different things, I’m very much a family-oriented individual, happily married to my wife for over 10 years, with two kids. We currently live in Northern California. When I’m not immersed in technology or my day job, I enjoy spending quality time with my family. We love exploring the great outdoors and capturing our adventures through photography, though I haven’t been able to take many photos lately.

Hobbies and Interests

An avid photographer, I have a keen eye for capturing moments that tell a story. Photography allows me to express my creative side and view the world from different perspectives. While I enjoy landscape photography, I also do food and portrait photography whenever time and resources permit. As a rationalist, I value logic and reason, free from bias, and I enjoy engaging in thoughtful discussions that challenge and expand my worldview.

I also love writing short stories and poems in my native language, Tamil, though I haven’t had much time to write since starting a family. However, if you know the language, you can read the poems and short stories I’ve written on my blog, Kakkai Sirakinile.

Feel free to connect with me on my social accounts: X, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Feel free to check out my photographs on my Flickr or Instagram pages. Here are some of my captures for you to enjoy.

Seagull in action at Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California.