Off to San Francisco!

Wow, looks like June's becoming a special month of sorts. Last year, in June, i flew to the east coast in the US and visited both New York and Miami. It was an amazing experience, to be finally able to see the "fabled" land of the US, given the couple of years of slogging I went through in India.

Looks like I'm being rewarded again, Tonight I fly to the west coast, to San Francisco for four days on a business trip to the Hadoop Summit in Santa Clara. This time, it's business class all the way. I mean I can't believe my luck. Damn!

Then again, there's a part of me who's loathing the trip a bit. For the most part of the last decade, I've been traveling alone. I think the last time I've traveled with my family is back in 2001, for my brother's wedding. I've now associated travel with a bit of loneliness, a time for reflection. And on this particular flight, (one of Emirates' longest non-stop flights), it's going to be 16+ hours of traveling all alone. Yup, that's a long time to be left alone with your thoughts.

Don't get me wrong, I've become perfectly accustomed to traveling alone. There's always this excitement of seeing a new place, and a word in the English language describes it perfectly: Wanderlust. But there's always this feeling, a longing for someone to share the experience with.

I remember remember going to NYC / Manhattan alone. It was exciting at first, roaming the streets by foot, stopping to catch my breath, opening up this cumbersome pocket map and navigating my way through from Grand Central Station to Central Park to The Met, 30 Rock and Times Square! But at the end of the day, It was a bit depressing. It would have been nice to have at least another person that I can turn to, talk to, enjoy exploring the city with.

And it's going to happen all over again. I didn't want to spend too much time in San Francisco, but I'm not dumb. I've earmarked a day for sightseeing, I just might sign up for some sort of city tour or something. But It's going to be one day, all alone, at a place I've seen so many times in movies and TV shows. But I won't have anyone to share it with. Bummer.

Am I going soft? Maybe I should man up, there's so much that I need to finish in my life before I "settle down". But will it be too late? Will I turn into Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) from Up in the Air? Am I doomed to see the world and all it's glory alone?

Hope my Mom does not see this post :)

Duuude Noooo!

(Not for the weak-at-heart, gruesome double entendres may follow)

So I've been frequenting the fitness facilities here at QF. Might as well, right? Great facilities, free of charge, and I'm feeling great now that I swim almost everyday. But there is one thing that really pisses me off. The sheer number of people who change without stepping into the changing booths at the locker.

I mean, please, come on! Why the F do you have to show the whole world your junk? I just don't get it. It's been like the nth time that I've accidentally walked into someone changing right in the hallway without bothering to use a booth. My eyes still hurt from the scene. Dude! I don't even know your freaking name!

"Sure, we're all made the same way. and we all have the same "apparatuses" or whatever, but please, just take it inside, at least here in Doha. No, we're not that cool about it here. I mean if I was in a ladies locker room, then...well.. lets not go there. How did this become acceptable locker room conduct? I mean who started this whole concept?

Ugh. Please god, I don't want to see anymore bananas and coconuts.

Back to Life...

Why am I complaining?

I have a nice, comfortable job, in my "home"town, that is not a run-of-the-mill IT job. I'm doing research, I work on projects that are pretty close to what I worked on in IIIT. Home to Office commute is roughly 10 minutes, 5 if i decide to put the pedal to the metal on my swanky new car, a vehicle I cannot dream of owning (and fueling) in India. Heck, I could go out on a limb and admit that this job is probably the best job for me in Qatar. I could also claim that this job is identical in work to typical MS/PhD research work, but with a fairly generous paycheck.

But it really isn't. I think it has something to do with what my Boss said when I had lunch with him in the first few weeks of my time here:

"When you are a student", he said, "you can afford to be spontaneous, you can walk around campus aimlessly, you can have 2-3 hour discussions with fellow students about life, universe and everything. This life is addictive, you are free of responsibilities. You are responsible only for yourself. And then there's 'real life'. It's like a big red button that you choose to ignore as you study. But it gets bigger and bigger as time passes. Finally, when you step out of grad school, you push the button and you enter real life, with all the responsibilities and stress and other goodness that come complementary with it"

I haven't gone to grad school and gotten a PhD. But having done what IIIT essentially calls a "mini-PhD", I understand exactly what he's talking about.

It's not like my life's chock-full of stress and responsibility. Not yet. But its slowly becoming mundane, routine, boring. What really hit me was my friends asking me about my plans for a PhD, and what I'd be doing when I was leaving IIIT. Even though the work I'm doing here is pure research, on par with what is expected from a PhD student, it's not the same. I don't have the luxury of being a carefree student anymore.

Have I pushed the button too soon?

India (2003-2010)

2003-2010. 7 Years.

Memories. So many memories. Bittersweet memories. A wake up call for life, a reality check for a person who hardly spent time outside a tiny little nation called Qatar.

Transformations. From a naive NRI brat to a brand new person, educated in both computer science, research and life. From tunnel vision to broad-mindedness.

This blog was all about missing home. Tomorrow, I go home. For good. I used to look forward to this moment like it was the biggest thing in my life, but I don't anymore. Looks like it's time to start a new blog, one about restlessness and boredom, because in spite of all Qatar has to offer in comfort, quality of life and family, it just can't offer things that India offers:

Things like spirit, adventure, and scale. The spirit of India, the adventure that daily life is over here, and the sheer scale of this country, the size, the unknown sights and sounds and smells. So much to explore, so much to do, so much to experience, probably for a hundred lifetimes!

India has left a lasting imprint in my soul, my character, my being. Tomorrow marks the last day for me here. I'll never forget the places I've been, the people I've met, the friends I've made and the experiences I've had.

Never.

The end of an Era...

Where do I begin?

I’m such a lazy ass! I love to write, but I don’t. So many amazing things that have happened my life but I don’t bother writing about them! I think I should at least capture the essence of the most defining moments of my life, so that I have these milestones in my life noted and remembered somewhere “in the cloud”

In a few hours, I’ll be defending my Master’s thesis. In academic terms, it also means defending your honour, your work, your research. And that marks the end of an era, a time I’ll never forget, here at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad.

Where do I begin? This place has given me so much and took nothing in return. Two and a half years of working on cool Research problems, solving them, having it accepted at a major international conferences, going to said conferences, and having your work recognized by your peers. It’s been amazing, and on this journey, two special people (Dr. Kishore Kothapalli and Dr. PJ Narayanan) were there to guide me at each step of the way.

I could go on and on about the nitty-gritty of the past couple of years here at IIIT, but I don’t think I have the writing prowess to pull it off and capture the essence of what was essentially the best time of my life. All I want is to be able to come back to this post, look at it and smile at one of the happiest moments in my Life... :)