In storage jargon false idle time refers to the idle CPU time when all active processes wait for I/O. I think it is best suited to my current situation as I wait for the green signal from USCIS to start working for VMware.
Yes I am missing my better half a lot and people are annoying me by asking same irritating questions everyday such as “आला काOPT?” (Did you get OPT?), “कधी जाणार US ला?”(When are you going to US?). As if I want to keep it a secret! One of my neighbors had assumed that I am no longer going back to US and looking for a job in India!But other than that there is nothing else to complain about.
I wonder whether I can buy this much free time in near future when it is simply fine to not log onto Internet for a week straight. You have no idea what it means to someone like me who spent past 15 months of my masters program treating my laptop as one of my body parts. This reminds me of my meeting with Dr. Yair Amir on my last day at Hopkins. He congratulated me for my decision to take a 50 days long break before joining VMware. He was fortunate to get A DAY long break after his PhD in Israel before moving to US! Now every year when he goes to Israel for a couple of weeks for a vacation he does not even carry his laptop. It is an extreme step for someone like him who is running a company and reminds me of a factory, given the rate at which he is churning out publications in the field of distributed systems. Shouldn’t I consider myself lucky that I don’t have to resort to such extreme measures to spend time with my family?
To avoid my empty mind from being devil’s workshop I started doing what I do the best. Read. So far I have read 5 Marathi books in a fortnight. One fine day will start blogging in Marathi too. Although I don’t mind reading English fiction (loved Kite runner which I read during summer, 07), I prefer nonfiction any day. I was searching for a good book about India as I feel that I am getting detached with my motherland. It may be due to lack of reading Indian newspapers or watching Indian news channels (most of which are after sheer yellow journalism with an exception of NDTV). Have started reading ‘India unbound’ by Gurucharan Das and will keep you posted on how it goes.
A while back Indian stock market was a gold mine. India was rated as one of the top 3 countries for investors. Even after the recent dip it still is a better place to invest than US.Gone are the days when stock trading was considered as gambling. Today an average Indian looks at stock market for a serious investment. I have tried taming the bull in the past and was pretty successful too. Compared a lot of options to trade online such as ICICI-direct, sharekhan, religare etc and I guess I will go for IndiaInfoLine. Here is a good guide if you are new to investing.
As mentioned earlier I am also going to D.Y.PatilCollege to guide MSc students for campus placements.
Blame it on my marriage but collection of my photographs is growing by 200 a day! Minu is yelling at me for not uploading wedding pics to our wedding website but I get demoralized just by the sheer volume of pics. Thanks to my awesome camcorder, making movies is the next best thing! I recently went to Stud farm too to shoot videos. I wish I could keep the camcorder ON all the time to capture new tricks that Mahi is learning day by day! I am yet to learn movie editing though.
Hearty chats with the family members, evening walks with Swapnil, simply lazing around at home…activities like these are refueling me with enthusiasm which I hope lasts till my next visit to India. But I must confess it does worry me that I am not working at the moment. I laughed at myself when I came across a blog from one of Blogger developers who is quitting Google to explore other interests for a while!I guess this guilt feeling ain’t my fault. This is the way we Indians are brought up. Anyways I sincerely wish
Well, the title has nothing to do with the reality show which was in news recently due to racist remarks against our very own Shilpa Shetty who eventually emerged as a winner.
Currently I am on an extended vacation in India thanks to USCIS who is taking its sweet time to grant me the OPT status. As there is nothing concrete on my TO-DO list I am simply looking for something to keep my spirits up. As usual Sweety, my younger sister, who is pursuing masters program in Computer Science under University of Pune, is my favorite target.
Once I found her resume lying on the table and I asked her what it was for. She told me that campus placements are about to start in her college. Her curriculum also requires her to do an internship in the last semester which is kinda neat. I started bombarding her with questions such as what preparation she is doing for interviews, which companies she is aiming for, which domain (applications/systems) she is interested in working. Sweety soon declared that it was the time to go to college just to get rid of my annoying questions. To her dismay I dint let go of the topic and kept pestering her for a couple of days questioning her career plans. After digging more I found out that no initiative was being taken by her College (D.Y. Patil, Pimpri) so I decided to meet her Head of the Department. When I discussed this topic with her HOD he suggested me to take up a session for MSc students on career planning and how to approach campus placements.
This sounded like a good project to keep myself engaged for a couple of days so I agreed to take up a session on how to prepare a resume and a cover letter, how to apply to companies, how to prepare for interviews and last but not the least importance of networking! It’ll be just like your elder brother telling you what to expect when you approach a potential employer. Reading articles like this and this while surfing internet is surely not just a waste of time! Hope these students get some food for thought out of this whole thing.
If you have knowledge then let others light their candles in it!
"भग्न स्वप्नांच्या तुकड्यांना कवटाळुन बसण्यासाठी मनुष्य जन्माला आलेला नाही. मानवाचे मन केवळ भूतकाळाच्या साखळदंडांनी करकचून बांधून ठेवता येत नाही, त्याला भविष्याच्या गरुडपंखाचे वरदान लाभले आहे. एखादे स्वप्न पहाणं, ते फुलवणं, ते सत्यस्रूष्टीत उतरावं म्हणून धडपडणं, त्या धडपडीतला आनंद लुटणं आणि दुर्दैवाने ते भंग पावलं तरी त्याच्या तुकड्यांवरून रक्ताळलेल्या पायांनी दुसऱ्या स्वप्नांमागे धावणे हा मानवी मनाचा धर्म आहे...मानवी जीवनाला अर्थ येतो तो याचमुळे! " -- वि. स. खांडेकर (अमृतवेल)
P.S. Used an awesome software called Baraha to write this blog. If you have trouble viewing this blog then read instructions to install Marathi font here.
Yet another year...Valentine's day is at the corner. If you are one of those who're away from their valentines( just like me :( ) and wondering what to do then watch 'The notebook'. It's the most romantic movie I have seen so far...It's even better if you've seen it with your special someone before:)
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone. It's not warm when she's away. Ain't no sunshine when she's gone And she's always gone too long anytime she goes away.
Hey, I ought to leave the young thing alone, But ain't no sunshine when she's gone, only darkness everyday. Ain't no sunshine when she's gone, And this house just ain't no home anytime she goes away.
What's more apt than this Bill Withers' song to capture my current state of mind! Now you know the reason in case you are wondering why Pune is getting colder these days:)
I have stopped dreaming and have started living my dreams!
It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting! When you want to achieve something the entire universe conspires and helps you achieve it...
I have stopped dreaming and have started living my dreams!