Year.introspect(2005)

Yesterday,I was arranging my book-shelf to accomodate new books and a paper fell-out. It was a receipt of a book purchased from Gangarams book store, Bangalore, dated Jan 31, 2005. The book, Head First Design Patterns, is still my favorite book. After reading the book, there is a conspicuous change in the way I write code. I have undergone a transformation, hehehe. A friend calls it metamorphosis. I have recommended the book to all my colleagues and the next day there were 5 more purchases of the book.

Incidentally, on the same day Jan 31, 2005, I've put my papers at HP. The co-incidence of the events developed a retrospective urge and made me look back and introspect the last year. I had more >5 offers on hand from good companies at that moment. I've truned down all the offers from companies in Bangalore as the real estate prices skyrocketed and the traffic is horrendous. Subsequently, I decided to relocate to Hyderabad, my native place and narrowed down on a medium sized company doing product development for wealth management segment of the financial industry.

The year was of mixed results, sometimes working more than 14 hours a day and sometimes with absolutely no work for weeks together! oh yeah! there was an onsite trip for 3 months to San Francisco. Oflate, I have become a passionate reader[almost a bookworm ;-)] and mostly I'm reading tech books (currently reading Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas Cormen, Geeeee).Things worked out ,more or less,as expected and the year was a break-even, if not lucrative. Wondering what 2006 has in store for me, wink!

The Jaipur trip

A week long trip to Jaipur had been full of joy and happiness. I was wondering if I could make it to Vivek's wedding amidst so much work. My manager finally relented and approved a leave for 3 days. Weekend + republic day added 3 more days. 6 days of total fun and joy.

I have known Vivek since my engineering days. He is a Telugu speaking Marwadi :-).
The train journey to Jaipur and back was really entertaining. I travelled along with 40 other friends and relatives of Vivek. There was no need to turn on the mp3 player as the kids were playing anthakhasari non-stop. Though, the particpation from elders (including me) was meagre, it was nice to listen to the Hindi songs.

The marriage and the reception were very elegant and full of activity. I never got a chance to see a traditional north Indian marriage, except in the movies. The baraath was the ultimate. We danced and enjoyed the music played by the band. It was all fun and an unforgettable experience. Look at Vivek on the horse..