Archive for November, 2008
Home-coming!
November 23rd, 2008
Nothing beats home!
A small proof 
Four Fractions had its first official team meet - though nothing official was discussed, we had a ton of fun - pure simple fun.
Chilling over coke! - Sam and myself
The pizza that we destroyed - we sure were the costliest customers that evening - costed Pizza Hut an extra 350+90+70 bucks!
As it turned out - we were served the pizza and garlic bread with onions when we specially requested them to serve it w/o onions. …and ofcourse PH paid the price - a free pitcher of Coke
All the w/o onions thing made everyone so damn hungry!
Mr. Sandy - our chief guest for the evening
- brainstorming -
Ofcourse - he is shadow practicing for the future… just in case!
Posted in Blog, Family, Friends, Life | Comments (4)
My last network access from Pune
November 16th, 2008
Reaching Delhi in exactly 2 hours from now! …I’ve waited for this moment for more than 2 years now!
Feels like wow!
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HCL > Red Hat > IBM, Pune > IBM Gurgaon
November 16th, 2008
31st January, 06 - when I was still an HCL Tech employee - I had read a Paul Graham’s article - which mentioned that there are two type of people - those who earn their livelihood by doing what they love to do and those who do what they love by earning livelihood from something they don’t like so much.
The transition from HCL Tech (Noida) to Red Hat (Kalyani Nagar, Pune) had directly put me into the first category. Time passed, priorities changed, and with changing jobs, short term objectives also changed - but the long term objectives were still there, visible clearly.
Today, almost 30 months later - I am part of the second group, supporting what I love by doing things that support me financially. The bigger objective is still very much there. Getting back to Delhi with family & my team is just going to put that more into the focus.
Talking of getting back to Delhi - how can I miss the mention of Pune.
Taking the plunge to go and work with Red Hat, away from my family & friends - literally turned me ‘upside-down’. This was my first ever stay away from the family and a ton of things changed with that. Money matters suddenly became important, finding good people to live with became top most priority, finding friends whom I could talk at same wavelength became a challenege and what not. The independence came tagged with a sense of responsibility - which ofcourse took a back seat for the initial period - but it sure kicked in, hard - sooner than later.
When I came to Pune, I didn’t even knew how to operate a Debit Card in an ATM - or even how to deposit a cheque correctly. Ofcourse, driving was supposed to be even out of mention. And I really don’t feel ashamed about it anymore. As I realized, all the people I met during my initial stay in Pune were more or less like at the same page as I was - sometimes even worst!
And that turned out to be the best part!
Living away from the family literally taught me everything I needed. Independence, sense of responsibility & ownership, the missing sense of belonging to my roots, being comfortable with what I am, managing money matters (thought I still am a n00b at it) - and ofcourse driving
Luckily, I made some great lifelong friends in Pune - the D25 legacy!
Ratish & I met when we were playing against each other in a Tennis match about two years ago at Deccan Gymkhana Club. Though somehow I won that match… but the dude won my heart. We went on to become room mates in just a couple of months - and that was when I became part of the D25 group. Friends @ D25 were exactly what I was looking for in Pune - full of fun when enjoying and trustworthy when in need. Though the original members @ D25 are now scattered all over India, the legacy still lives on - D-25[at]googlegroups.com
Pune is a great city - unarguably the best after Delhi. A probable second home for Delhi folks who want to relocate.
The flight Captain just announced that we are going to land in a few minutes - so I am going to log off now. If you ever have any questions about life in Pune - please feel free to ping me.
Good Bye Pune!
12:41 PM, thousands of feet in the sky.
Posted in A strong urge to blog..., Life in Pune | Comments (0)
Anything but IST
November 4th, 2008
Its >1 am in the night and I’m dead tired - but since i’m totally out of sync of sleeping so early, my brain is in a hyper active state. From past 45 minutes, i’m simply shuffling through songs on the MP3 player trying to separate out beats from the lyrics… Its fun - try it once …requires lots of concentration 
Posted in Blog | Comments (1)