२०१० - २०१२

I am disappointed with myself for not writing for such a long time. It was in Jan 2010 that I posted last and life has had many turns for me since then. I want to summarize my experiences for my own future perusal and hopefully for others who find it interesting.

I brought to closure many things in Cisco and with a heavy heart left my first job - which gave me a lot more for the next couple of years during graduate school. Went out with friends and caught up with as many of them as possible before leaving the country. A lot of visits to relatives, before my first flight out of the country. Bangalore->Chennai->Brussels->NY->Raleigh, my first itinerary with some NC State students, who eventually became good friends during graduate school.

Me, with Sangu, bro-in-law & Swara

Received by my sister, brother-in-law and Swara, who came out a little early from her fun day care on a very hot day at Raleigh. Went straight home, unpacked a little bit, had great dinner and blissful sleep. The first semester entailed a a lot of fun with my sister's family -travel to DC, Wellington beach, Smoky mountains and Outer banks - apart from the many places we visited close to Durham and Raleigh. Many in Raleigh thought that my commute from Durham to Raleigh on a daily basis in public commute was ridiculous, but it wasn't bad at all - with excellent connectivity during peak hours. Looking back, I am glad I did it for the first semester and a few months in the second semester. Apart from all the fun, the stay with my sister's family was educational and was a crash course on efficient survival in the US with minimal or no degradation of quality of life :)

Second semester was miserable, to say the least. Tough coursework, move to Raleigh in between - my sister's family moved to CA -but I managed to complete it successfully.

Mahesha (not in picture) was with us too!

A key semester and some key course work, which has bought me to where I am today (in Samsung) - thanks to the association which eventually happened during the summer semester with the Networking Research Lab. Association with new roommates was an important development this semester as well. I can't believe I squeezed in a trip to NY. May not have been the best time of the year (Feb) to visit a beautiful city like NY, but we had fun in our own way. I don't know when I will visit NY next, with destiny pulling me to the west coast. May be sometime when I want to visit Niagara!

Not all the CA boys in picture-a memorable trip

Summer was a lot of fun in California. It was nice to be back in Cisco, pinging my old friends and making new ones in the Nexus 1000v team. New room mates, trips to San Francisco, Great America, Six flags, Santa Cruz, Mission Peak, Berkeley, Stanford Universities, Tahoe, Big Sur and the 17th mile drive was all fun. Weekly meetings with the lab over Skype took us forward to a workshop paper in CoNEXT 2011. I tweaked my return itinerary from SJ to Raleigh a little bit and went and met Srinath in Phoenix. We didn't do anything worth mentioning here in a public blog. Before I knew it, 3 months flew by and I was back in Raleigh for another interesting semester. I also met some key people during this period and they were all so helpful when it came to my career. I was going to be in the job market soon after my graduation and these people did make a huge difference. I was also in a huge dilemma about going through with a thesis and finally decided I should indeed go ahead.

Me & Mia,our hostess at the hostel

Summer's work payed off and I had a small publication behind my back. More satisfying was travelling to Tokyo on an NSF travel grant. A very interesting experience talking to researchers in networking and answering some rater difficult questions regarding our work. Trip was bettered by Abhisek and Vijay's company! A beautiful Tokyo hostel, weird vegetarian food full of sea weeds and enchanting Buddhist temples.  Came back to Raleigh, only to look forward to some exams and a wonderful trip to India!

A view of my house's main entrance

India was as beautiful as it always was! I had goose bumps when the British Airways air hostess announced the local time in 'Bengaluru'. I felt completely at home the moment I landed, drove my parents to Usha's wedding and called all my friends! I was excited to live in my renovated house for the first time - it wasn't fully done until after I left to the United States. Met up with most of my favorite relatives and friends, had a blast in the New Year's party in Madhu's farm (most pictures are not share-able, sorry!). We tried to catch up as much as we could in the little time we had together and before I knew it, it was time to get back. I got news about lack of funding in my laboratory and decided not to go ahead with my thesis as well.

Chilling in the cabin Jacuzzi

 I was back to a calm semester - Two courses only and one of them was my favorite - Volleyball! Apart from the interviews, the process of applying and decision making, there was nothing really painful in this semester. I was extremely fortunate to have people who believed in my abilities in Cisco, IBM and finally in Samsung! I decided after a lot of deliberation with many to join Samsung and once I made this decision a calm set in. I was relaxed and enjoying life! Cooking with friends, walks to Raleigh lake and the extended volleyball and badminton games with the intermittent projects and assignments consumed this semester. We squeezed in a memorable trip to Shenandoah and Luray, VA. Etched in memory are the wonderful friends, great cottages & the driving ticket!

Me with a fake degree - the real one's on it's way!

 Before I knew it, they said I was a Master of Computer Science. I have a Graduate degree now and I was off to London to spend time with my sister & nieces - I hadn't for a very long time. Here I am writing this from 'Great' Britain. With ample time to think about life, it's been discipline which has been shoved (doesn't come naturally!) by my parents & my stint at my sister's place in Durham, NC that has made my ride on the USA coaster smooth so far! A long way to go and there are many things to look forward to, from here on. I know this has been a boring blog for other readers - this is for me mostly. You'll hopefully see more interesting ones soon - I hope I write more regularly.

With Vasu, Varsha & Anu at Covent Garden