A few good things...

I finally found some time to write again. Did I get busy? Yeah, you can say that. Did I get so busy that I didn't have the time to post here? Not really. It is just that I have been procrastinating it all this time that I have ended up not having blogged for 4 months. And 4 months I never believed was a lot of time. That was because, I have always believed changes for good happen gradually and only over a considerably long period of time. But that might not be necessarily true. In these last 4 months, I completed my master's in Computer Science and graduated, got a job and bought a car. It is so amazing that all these could fit in a single sentence. Quite a lot of effort had to be put for these and some critical decisions also had to be taken. One thing of course led to another. I get a feeling this post is going to be a pretty long one, so, if you are already bored it might get even boring.

Starting with my master's completion, it has been a solid two and a half years. But retrospecting, it was a nice experience. When I completed my bachelor's I never was interested in pursuing my master's. Never was I truly interested in higher studies. For that matter, I wasn't interested in my bachelor's either. But, I should say I did a pretty decent job and completed my bachelor's with a highly decent grade about which I can be proud about. The decision to pursue my master's was not mine. It was one thing my dad wanted me to do. What else have I done for him? Almost nothing would be a fair answer. So, it now feels really good. I was living what has been unarguably the best phase of my life so far in Madras before I came to the US. I was so reluctant to come here leaving the things I enjoyed back home. My most favourite thing being spending time in the beach during the weekends with a few of my friends. Such small pleasures made and brought me great happiness. I truly hated Bozeman when I came here first. This was for more than one reason. I was missing a lot of things, Bozeman was too cold, I was longing to go back to India etc.. When studying added to this, it felt even more painful. But, after my first visit to India, I realized a few things. My friends back home with whom I used to loiter around Madras were not the same anymore. Everybody got jobs and were busy. They saw even the weekends as time to relax at home. Difficult it was for me to accept this change. But, I knew I had to live with it. However, I had still remained the same old me. I still hated any form of studying. Amazingly, I liked work. I enjoyed each of the internships I did. Being paid was an added motivation. Thinking of it, I have always loved challenges in any form. Though I may crib about things a thousand times, I will never give up and somewhere deep in my heart the passion to succeed will always live. I was reminded recently about how I used to crib about studies and how I wanted to discontinue my master's program. Having said that, I should also mention that I never screwed up my grades in a single semester. On the contrary, I have topped more number of courses than I would have ever imagined. I have at the end of my master's ended up with grades of which I could have only dreamt of at one point of time. My challenges were only doubled when my advisor started increasing his expectations. I am at least happy that I met his expectations. I ended up getting nervous a few hours before my oral exam. I was told there would have been something seriously wrong with me had I not gotten nervous before my oral exams. :)

As I was close to completing my master's, I had started looking for jobs. Even before my oral exams, I flew to SFO for an interview . I got a really good feeling about the interview and was absolutely convinced of getting a job. Unfortunately, I heard back from them and learnt that the position was scrapped because of the financial and economic situations in the company. I would have loved to work in CA but I guess for now I wasn't destined to. The hiring manager called me later and said he was disappointed he could not hire me and that I would have been a true asset had I been hired and I would definitely be considered if the position opens up again in future. 'Yeah, whatever' was my first reaction. But, he did not have to call me personally and explain things and praise me over the phone. I have known of other rejections where a mail is sent saying that the skill sets did not match and stuff. Though dejected, I thought about it later and found something to cheer about in it. And when things happened in RightNow technologies, it again happened in a flash. There was a telephonic interview which had happened a long time back. Until I felt like clearing my mailbox, it never occurred to me that I should call them back and know about the progress. And when I did, a personal interview was soon arranged. The interview went super cool and I was offered a job within the next few days. I just got one more reason to feel relaxed.

Even though my work place is pretty close to where I live now, it is almost impossible for me to walk a mile and half to work. And I for sure needed a car. People often are surprised how I managed without a car for almost 3 years *****************. Apparently I had and it was time now for me to buy one. Ideally I would have preferred to buy a used car and stay out of loans but once that idea changed and I decided to buy a new car, I took help from a few friends and it was just a matter of time before I decided on buying the Toyota Corolla 2009. Not knowing too much technical details about cars and settling for a fairly decent looking car with a good mileage and resale value can be attributed as some of the reasons for buying a Corolla. So far, my experience with my new car has been good.

Do these things mean I am stuck in ********* for a few more years. Maybe. Living in a place for 3 years does mean that you have learnt to live with the place and for all you know, you might start liking the place eventually. You might start to think that it is not that bad a place to live in. I have also started looking for an apartment to live in outside the campus. The sani dasa which started almost one and a half years back because of which I have made conscious efforts not to talk a lot and also keep myself away from trouble has finally started showing some good signs. Hoping for a few more good things to happen in the near future, here I blog.