Looking forward to June 2011, Part 2 of the series

The previous post described few things...

1. my future plans once my contract gets over in June 2011.

2. things running in my mind.

I did not write about my interests which I would love to pursue once I am back in Bangalore. Yes, I have reserved it for a separate post. There are loads of things which I would love to do once I am back in Bangalore.

I would like to write all of them as I do not want to miss out on them. I have already missed out on loads of things in the period starting from June 2010, to June 2010, the most important being, marriage events of Abhijit, Vaibhav and Muthukumaran. ( I am sorry guys, please forgive me if possible ).

Before writing all the points, I would like to

1. Thank god for giving me such a lovely parents, for giving me such a lovely opportunity where in I can openly write about think about things which I love to do. I am what I am because of you God.

2. Thank my parents for giving me everything, till date. Yes you may be wondering, I am working since close to 6 years, but still I feel happier when I get something from my parents rather than I buy myself. (Its got nothing to do with spending my parents money instead of mine). Somehow I feel whatever I get from my parents is just gold.


Now straight to the point, here are the list of things which I would love to do starting from June 2011.


1.  Visit to Goravanahalli Mahalakshmi Temple.

I just love this temple. The last time I visited this temple was when I was in a company in ITPL and was praying for opportunities outside, and I was rewarded with this onsite opportunity. This time I have to loads of things to pray for. This is first on my list.

2. Listen to loads of music-

Hindi - Rock music, english retro, whatever. I am out of touch when it comes to the latest rock songs or movie songs. Would love to follow the one and only international music radio station in Bangalore regularly. ( I mean it ).

3. Read loads of books.

Yes, though in Singapore, I have taken public library membership, I regret not having read much. I guess buying books on Avenue Road for Rs 75 each makes me really really happy. Above all there is some library which seems to have started in Bangalore, with a branch in RRNagar, hopefully I can get a membership over there.

4. Play lot of PC Games.

In the year 2010, I purchased a new PC with the sole intent of playing games on it. But sadly since I had to move out I could not play much games. Now that I have decided to be back, I sure shot shall play lots and lots of games, Infact have plans to fit in a Logitech MOMO Feel force Steering wheel for playing car race games. I am keen on this one.

5. Swimming.

Though Best club close to my house has a swimming pool , I am not sure how regularly I can swim. But I would love to swim after a tiring days work. Great way to unwind infact.

6. Gym

I have even plans to join Gym. Hoping 3 days to gym and 3 days to swim would be meaningful.

7. Watch loads of movies.

After coming to Singapore, I have not watched TV even for atleast 30 mins, since I do not have access. Even though there is a TV in the place where I stay , I still do not watch it because not many channels are available. Never mind, once I am back I hope to see loads of movies, old ones, new ones, and even those movies which I have already watched, like Jab We Met.

8. Evening walk at RRNagar.

Though I have of interest in going for an evening walk with my friend in RRNagar, it is subject to his availability. My friend is married and moreover he is looking for opportunities outside Bangalore. So I guess time will only tell.

9. Weekend drives on Mysore Road.

This one is a sure shot. There is no second thoughts on this one. Mysore Road, Maddur, KokkareBellur, Ramnagara, Chennapatna, sure you can find me at one of these places on weekends. And Tatte IDLI on Bidadi, wow love to do that.

10. Photography.

I am keen to pursue photography. Thinking of attending a photography course after coming back to Bangalore. I am also keen on buying a good DSLR camera this year and take my photography interests to one more level.
I would love to capture few landscapes. Right now if you ask me which landscape you are currently imagining, I would say, on the way to Kunigal via Magadi, there is a lonely road, I would like to stop over there and to do some photoshoot. Sounds crazy, rite, but its true. Loved driving through that road> i miss it.

11. Gaming with brother and brother in law.

This one is also a top priority. Now that, I have a laptop over here and a good PC at home. My dear friend (who is also my brother in law now), can accompany me and my brother in multiplayer games. Wow what a sight it would be, 3 people one room, gaming and gaming and nothing else. I am sure, Abhijit, if you read this, you would also be as excited as I am.

12. Try out some other technologies.

Somehow after reading some blogs of people who use open source technologies, I am feeling the itch to learn loads of new technologies apart from .NET. this includes, Linux, C, C++, Perl, PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and loads of things. Infact experimenting with Linux instead of Windows is one of my main interests in the coming months.

13. Learn loads of stuffs related to Microsoft Technologies.

It might sound crazy but I would love to learn, COM, DCOm,Win32 Api.
Apart from this I am seriously considering about going for a course on Microsoft expression blend (if someone is ready to teach). I would love to learn WPF as well as VS2010.

14. Trip with my cousins.

There is nothing more than this one, which makes me happy. Sitting in the last row of a Tempo Traveller, cracking wild jokes in the middle of the night, laughing our loudly till there are tears in our eyes, is something what I am looking forward to. we have done it many times in the past and yes this year we are going to do it again.

15. Thinking of visiting Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari.

I could have written about this in the previous post, but since my cousins have already been to these places, they would not accompany us on the trip. I have to look for a new company infact. Let me see.

16. Visit the hill stations once more.

Love to revisit Ooty, KodaiKanal, Yercaud once again. Nothing like this.

17. Travel to Kerala and Coorg.

Would love to visit these two places as well.

18. Trekking.

Would love to trek to Kumaraparvata, Kudremukh and other places.

19. To blog more.

In the year 2010, I had written about 123 posts. In the 2 months into 2011, I only have 9 posts. I have loads of catching up to do. In other words, I have to blog more and more and more.

20. Helping my mother out with cooking.

It may sound silly to you, but I am pretty pretty serious on this one. I have learnt to cook basic stuffs over here. I would like to help out my mother once I am back in Bangalore. My mother has been managing office work as well as household since many years, all alone, I guess now its time for me to pitch in.

21. Technical blog.

This is something which I supposed to have started years ago. But better late than later. I hope to get more serious on technical stuffs once I am in Bangalore.

22. Side projects.

Learning new technologies goes hand in hand with this. So this should not be a surprise. Love to code more ...

23. Read more blogs / follow more blogs.

Love to read lots of other blogs. I need to install Sharpreader and start all over again. But do I mind.. Not an inch..

There are loads of other points which I am not able to recollect as of now. will update the post as and when I recollect few more.

Updated 21 Feb 2011.

24. Take drawing classes.

All through this blog, I have never written that, as a kid, I loved to draw. Though my drawing skillset is quite bad. Not sure whether pencil drawing or sketching can be taught or has to come naturally, but surely I would like to pursue it more seriously. I know I am bad at it. I want to learn. This occupies #24. [Am off to search on google trying to find if drawing can be taught or has to come naturally]

Updated 17 Mar 2011.

25. Start a new blog dedicated to portraits of strangers with a brief description into their life and lifestyle. Inspired by the website 100strangers.com

26. Cycling - I would love to cycle to my cousin's place in Nelamangala, via toll road, and also, along the road from Big banyan tree all the way to Magadi.

Cheers,

Straight from my heart - Part 1

This 2 series posts are very special to me. These are very close to my heart. I have spent day and nights thinking and thinking, and finally I have arrived at a decision.

I only hope this blog of mine and especially this post of mine never gets noticed at my workplace. I need to make sure, that I do not access my blog from office and clear the history from my browser.

Never mind, it should not stop me from writing this post.

In the month of May 2010, I received an employment opportunity with one of the organizations in Singapore. This was the first time I was about to work abroad. I accepted the offer and relocated to Singapore.

So now let me cut short my employment related thing, and talk about how I felt like.

I was seriously very happy on one side that, someone was providing me an opportunity to work abroad. (Else I would have to go in for a Visa, quit current job,move to another country, then look for a job there. Here i was rest assured of a job).

But on the other side, I felt I would be missing my parents, family, cousins, my car. I would miss out on long weekend drives, on Mysore Road, trips to neighboring places with my cousins.

Somehow I did not think much and just moved to Singapore.

Now that I am into my 9th month in Singapore, I can say that, I have learnt lots of things here, apart from work related stuffs, as a person I have grown matured. I hope my parents would be happier when they see me after a year.

Initially I was quite pleased about the whole aspect of working abroad, thought it would add great value to my resume. In other words, you can say for first 3-4 months in Singapore, I was on a high.

Later after 6 months of my stay over here, I realized I was missing loads of things. I had a crazy life style in Bangalore. I have always been under the shadow of my parents. I do not regret it even an inch, and I thank my parents for that.

After coming to Singapore, my life style was kind of different, I was no longer able to do those crazy things which I used to in Bangalore. So I thought and thought and then realized, I was more happier in Bangalore. So I decided to return back.

The problem  was I was in the middle of a contract, if I had to return back I would have to pay money. Hence I resisted the temptation of returning back after 7 months.

But now since the thought of returning back had come up in my mind, my heart started to feel happy. ( I dont know how to put it, but seriously somewhat my heart felt lighter).

The first thing, which comes to your mind when giving up current job is about your next venture. How are you going to find another job. The coming days, I started thinking of how to give interviews from Singapore to companies located in Bangalore.

I was and still am in touch with a friend of mine, who works for a company in Bangalore, asking him to get an interview opportunity for me. I even asked him if a telephonic interview was possible. Though it seems highly unlikely, he sure assured me he would do his best. In this current month, though my heart was happy I still was wondering, what would I do without a job in Bangalore. It still was pinching me, the whole idea of quitting Singapore job and landing jobless in Bangalore.

All these days, I was reading loads of blogs, travelogues, people who have travelled around Karnataka. I started to miss my weekend drives on highway even more.

I was wondering when would I feel better. Then came one such day, I was reading the blog of a person from Bangalore. The person had just quit his/her job in order to take up a career as a freelance writer/photographer and to pursue his/her interests in the year 2011. And when I read through the comments section I found out one more such person , who has just quit his high paying job in order to pursue his/her interests.

This kept me thinking. Finding a job in Bangalore was the biggest hurdle in me continuing to stay over here or coming back. I just gave a thought on this particular direction, about quitting the job over here whatever may be the case. I may get or may not get a job in Bangalore, but who cares.

Then I felt happy, seriously happy. My heart now feels better. I have nothing to worry. I can go back to Bangalore and look for a job over there. I have nothing to prove to anyone.

I have also decided on taking a month's break before joining.

Firstly thanks to these two people who literally influenced my decision. Secondly these days I end up reading loads of inspirational stuffs. I have posted few of them on facebook. Thanks to these guys too..

So now that I have decided to move back to Bangalore in the month of June 2011, I can now decide on what all the things which are all the unfulfilled desires of mine, and which are my interests which I am going to pursue in the year 2011.

Well, infact, I originally intended to write those things in this particular post, but never mind, I had a long (I hope not boring) story to tell. Will reserve those things for another post of mine.


Cheers,