Shanthi will show you how it's done, Bollywood style

Geek in question: Prashanthi Chitre aka Shanthi
Job title: Program Manager, Desktop Management Services

How long have you worked for Microsoft?
I’ve been with the company for eight years, and just started in a new position two weeks ago! I’ve been in the products groups (UCG) the whole time, as an SDET for seven years, and now as a program manager.

I feel a lot of job security at Microsoft. You can move around and still keep your job. I’m on my third job in eight years, but I’ve stayed at Microsoft the whole time.

So, in my hunt for Microsoft’s biggest Bollywood fan, a ton of people mentioned you. Why might that be?

I was so surprised! I guess my dance work is popular with Indians at Microsoft, and so even if they don’t know my face, they must know my name.

I come from South India, Hyderabad, where Microsoft has their big India development office. I’m a dancer, choreographer and a dance teacher. I teach Indian classical dance to kids, and since moving to Seattle I’ve choreographed several Bollywood dance ballets.

I run a dance group called Dreams and we’ve done two dance ballets so far, both adapting western stories into Bollywood song and dance. One was based on Cinderella, and one based on My Fair Lady — where we twisted the theme from English language to Bollywood dance. Now I’m focusing on my third ballet, which is due in November.

We did all of our dance ballets in partnership with Cry, which is a non-profit organization that raises money to help underprivileged children in India. We raised over $14,000 for Cry with My Fair Lady!

Does Microsoft support your nonprofit work?
Microsoft matches volunteer time spent with nonprofit organizations, so we’re trying to set it up so that the time we work on Cry-related shows, Microsoft will match our time with a donation.

Ok, I have to ask. Do you have any movie recommendations?
Jab We Met is my favorite new movie. It’s so cute! My all-time favorite is Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

Yay! I love Shahrukh Khan!
As far as composers, I like A.R. Rehman’s music a lot — he combines the modern instruments with the Indian traditional music. The music sounds awesome, and I love choreographing to his songs.

I also have a couple favorite dancers. Madhuri Dixit — she looks just beautiful, and is an amazing graceful dancer. She’s got lovely moves. I also love Shahid Kapoor — he dances with precision and style. I pick at least one or two songs from his movies in my shows every year. And then there’s this guy, very famous, Hritik Roshan. He’s got great dancing style.

For Shanthi, work skills and dance skills are all the same

Do you apply your choreography skills to your program management? Or your program manager skills to your choreography?
I have a computer science background, and definitely started in the technology field as an SDET. In my work with dance and my volunteer dance troupe, I wanted to make sure everybody was happy. Developing those people skills with my dance troupe was why I decided to try the program manager role!

Both dance and software require focusing on the end product, without getting distracted. And both are very focused on relationships. I’m glad for my computer science background — I can always apply those technical skills. But people skills are so valuable for both dance and program management.

Let’s shake it with some links:

• All about “My Fair Lady: A Bollywood Ballerina”
• Cry, the charity Shanthi works with