After a long hiatus - 8 years

 Lot of life happened in the last 8 years. Much changed in my life. I got a son who's 9 years now. I've ping-ponged between a few companies. 

Let me tell the order:

• 2013: End of 2013 moved out of Xilinx back to Ineda as I wanted to do more work
• 2014 - 2015 : Worked at Ineda. Got to do excellent work. But, after a while, there was no work. I was idle for almost 4-5 months. I got an offer from SM Silicon (Soft Machines) and moved there
• 2015 - 2017 : Worked at Soft Machines. Didn't really like the work initially. I did the design for some good block. But, my manager's manager was an ass. He was abusive. I didn't like him. I had to work a lot of nights. Didn't want to take that sort of pressure and moved out. Asked Pidugu if there was an option back at Xilinx.
• 2017 - 2022: Pidugu forwarded to an IP team. I liked it there. Worked for 5.5 years till AMD acquired. AMD acquisition put me in 10+ years back designation. I was pissed, but I was moving on.
• 2022 - Currently: Got an offer from Imagination for decent money. I moved here. I was made a lead and responsibility has increased

This is work. Now, coming to personal life:

Karna: He's now 9 years old. How time flies!!! He's very energetic and naughty. 

Sahaja: I'm proud of her completing Acupuncture course. She's doing her Masters in Psychology. 

After Karna was born, I couldn't do my yoga so much because of lack of sleep for many days. I tried doing yoga. Body didn't like it.

So, I wanted some quick weight reduction. I hated walking and running. But, I wanted to try walking short distances. Did it. And slowly built up to 10KMs per day.

But then, as I'm wot to do: I started having bowel movements halfway in the walk. 😅😅. This made sure I had to stop walking. And in the morning time, there were dogs and this made the problem worse. I hated it.

I then tried going to my apartment gym with horrible treadmill, obnoxious elliptical trainer and a bizarre cycle. I didn't like the quality of it. So, I decided to join Talwalkars.

Like a typical globo-gym, a trainer caught me on day 1 and convinced me to train with him. I lost about 8 KGs in 3 months. But, I was extremely weak. I didn't like it. I wanted to be able to play with Karna and strong enough to lift him.

So, I started slowly moving towards strength training. Found Rippetoe. Bought his books. Did what I thought he taught. And was bad at it. I tore my rectus abdominis with 285lbs on my back while doing squat. I was terrified of going back to that weight for quite sometime.

In the meanwhile, Talwalkars chose to remove the only Jone's machine which I could with a barbell. I searched for some gyms and found "Core Fitness Station gym" near my home. Worked very well for 2.5 years before Pandemic hit.

In the meanwhile in 2018 March or so, I was frustrated with my lifts not going up. So, I wanted to get coached from Rippetoe's team online, which was then called Starting Strength Online Coaching and now called as Barbell-Logic Online Coaching.

I had a labrum tear in 2018 November and ended up with a shoulder surgery. And by 2019 end, I was getting slowly stronger and in 2020, pandemic hit and I had to stop going to gym......

But, then I wanted to get my own gym. I bought all the equipment required for all my lifts for about 2.5L. I put this setup in an apartment owned by my in-laws. 

Pissed about Samsung

When in 2011, Samsung released Galaxy S2, I fell in love with it instantaneously. Just the looks of it were enough for me to be a fan of it. Added to that, GSMArena said that this was by and large the best phone in the world at that time.

Being a fan of all new electronic gadgets, I immediately bought it on June 11th, 2011. It was good for one year. After that one year, it started getting very slow. So, I rooted it and I've used multiple versions of Android like Cyanogenmod, Batista foxhound etc. I used to experiment with those for sometime. It was all nice.

Then in June of 2013, people started messaging me that they were unable to call me. I didn't want to believe it. I initially thought that I was in a low network area. I kept clinging to my phone, in the hope that this was a small glitch. But, when I realized I can't even make calls, then I decided to ditch that phone. Pissed #1.

At the same time, there was an offer on Galaxy Note 2 for a buy back offer. If I give back my S2, I can get Rs 10,000/- reduction in the price of Note 2. Wow!! I immediately bought Note 2. All was well till 1 year. Then it's time came. I couldn't hear any voice from the phone for any calls. So, I gave it in the service center.

Service center guy said that in all probability motherboard is gone. That's what they say when they can't figure out what went wrong. I was OK as he said it would cost me Rs 13,000/-. He called me in the evening and said that the repair was done. When I went to the service center, I found a bill of Rs 2,000/- for charging pin change. I confronted him about that. Then he said, "Sorry Sir! Wrong bill. Your phone can't be repaired". Pissed #2.

In 2012, April I decided I wanted to join the bandwagon of tablet world. I bought a Samsung P6800 tablet, which was the only tab at that time that had Super AMOLED screen. I got it at quite a deal in flipkart. This worked till recently. I switched it off and didn't use it for the past 2 months (This isn't the first time that I kept it away like that). When I tried to switch it on, it didn't. I thought it wasn't charged and I charged it overnight. It neither got charged nor did it start. I gave it in the service center again. This time, they said, "Sorry sir! Motherboard gone". I asked them to replace it. They said they can't, because apparently "Samsung banned" these parts. I don't know why a company would ban it's own parts!!! Pissed #3.

I decided that if I were to buy any gadget ever again, it would be based on my spending capacity:

1. If I can spend good money, I'll buy Apple products. They are reliable and service is also really good.
2. If I can't spend or I'm not interested to spend money, I'll buy from one of the Chinese guys like Xiaomi, One plus, Lenovo.

But I'll never buy from Samsung ever.

I've to wait and see how many more days of life does my Samsung LED TV has?

Long time

It's been really a long time almost 2 years since I wrote my last post. I got little too busy. In 2013 January, I joined Xilinx. In June of 2013, I had to leave my parents to get married to my sweetheart Sahaja. On 11th July, 2013 I got married to her after being in love for 5 1/2 years.

I had to go to San Jose in September of 2013 when my wife was pregnant of about 8 weeks. We were happy to know that we were going to be parents. In all that happiness also, my lack of stimulated work environment kept me awake in the nights. So, I decided to change companies. My friend Murali asked me if I'd be interested in joining Ineda back.

I joined Ineda in December of 2013. On April 4th, 2014 my son Karna (Budugu) was born. We decided his name even before he was born. We decided one name for boy and one for girl. We didn't want someone forcing us to name him based on some stupid star and time of his birth. So, we named him even before he was born.

The moment I first saw him, I almost cried. I never knew I'd be that excited about seeing a baby. Basically, I thought I'm not a father material. But, once he was born everything changed. As Sahaja couldn't take care of him, there being a Cesarean operation, I'd take care of him. I learnt how to change diapers, how to bathe him, how to change his clothes. What started as a difficult task, started being fun.

The day when Karna was born, I called my mother first to inform her that he was born. She cursed me, talked very rude and creddled down the phone. That day, I decided I didn't want to call them again. Though I had the happiness of my son being born, I cried because of the way my mother started talking to me. I didn't call them after that incident.

Karna is almost 9 months old. Sahaja decided to celebrate his birthday on 4th of every month till he's 1 year old. I accepted. Everytime we celebrate his birthday, I get to eat chocolate cake, chicken biryani.....yummy!!!!

Speaking of chocolate cakes and biryanis, I remember a quote. A moment on lips is a lifetime on hips. Let me step back a bit and explain what happened after Karna was born. After he was born, neither Sahaja nor I had enough sleep in nights for almost 6 months. Therefore, I used to wake up at about 7:30 AM or so, against my 5:00 AM before he was born. So, I started skipping yoga, except on some rare days. This along with biryanis and cakes, added about 20 kgs of wait to me and a huge waist line.

I weighed 104 KGs when I checked my weight in October. All the people who knew me were saying that I was putting on lot of weight. So, I decided to do yoga again sincerely. But then, as I stopped doing yoga for a long time, my flexibility was gone and I had to start from the starting all over. I wasn't comfortable with that idea (though I tried it for about a week). Then I decided, let me start walking. My initial aim was to walk 1 mile/~1.5kms every day.

So, for the first time in my life I bought shoes for walking. I downloaded Nike+ run app, started using fitbit (that Xilinx gave me), started keeping track of my food habits using myfitnesspal. Till date, I've walked about 420 Kms using Nike+ (my overall is way beyond that ~600Kms). I missed walking sometimes, sometimes I overate. But that didn't stop me from bouncing back. I walk at least 4 - 5 times a week for 10Kms (everytime I walk). The walk takes me about 1 hour 35 minutes - 1 hour 40 minutes. I've cut down my intake of junk by quite a bit. Having a fitbit also makes me think of moving further and further. Now I've reduced by about 8 KGs bringing my weight to 96KGs. There's still a long way to go. But, then I've started my journey just now.

Books:
After my marriage, my reading reduced drastically, because of talking more and reading less. So far, I've read only <> books:

1. Oxford -- Indian History till 1911
2. Complete works of Sherlock Holmes
3. Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao's complete works 3rd volume

Only recently I started reading Ranganayakamma's "Ramayana Vishavruksham". I'll try to spend less time on TV and more time on books, the coming years.

Bike:
I bought my first ever motorcycle, Royal Enfield Classic 500 (black) in June 2014. I slowly built confidence over the days in driving it. I'd to read a lot of literature to really understand the dynamics of motorcycle and braking (which I was very bad at). I bought a decent protective gear, barring shoes.

Movies:

After my son was born, it became impossible for us to go to movies. Till we started feeding him solids, we couldn't even think of going out for movies. We had to adjust seeing movies whenever they come in TV. But after my son started having solids, the dependency on my wife became very less. So, whenever we had the opportunity (like my brothers-in-law being here), we went to movies. Interstellar (spectacular movie), Exodus (much below than average. I just went to the movie as Christian Bale was the hero) and PK (nice movie). May be these are last in some time to come.

I'll have to write more on my blog.

The fountainhead

My ex-colleague and a good friend Hariprasad has given me the book that I have been intending to read from a very long time. That book is "The fountainhead" by Ayn Rand.

This book is one of the finest books written by anyone. This book should be read by everyone who is an egotist (like me. In fact like many people I know). 

This book deals mainly with 5 people. 

1. Howard Roark : The protagonist. The best a man could be. He lives by his own terms in both his personal and professional lives. Actually, they aren't that different to him. 
2. Peter Keating :  Loser all the time. He copies the work of Roark to grow in his career. Ultimately loses everything both professionally and personally.
3. Gail Wyanand : Dear friend of Roark. A total contrasting personality compared to Roark. But Roark loves him, almost equal to Dominique Francon
4. Dominique Francon : Love of his life for Roark. A woman for a man like Roark (I have read this sentence somewhere. Forgot where). She marries Peter Keating and then Gail Wyanand. Only towards the last of the novel does she marry Roark
5. Ellsworth Monton Toohey : The antagonist. You wouldn't feel him to be a standard antagonist. His aims are common. Ways are totally different.

This novel isn't just a story. In many places, Ayn Rand tries to talk philosophy. Many things have an importance much later in the book. However, it sometimes gets little dragging. The same book for about 75-100 pages less would have been much more fast paced. Of course, this is my thinking (Isn't this my blog??).

The book might have been much more interesting if there were pictures that show the exact nature of the buildings which Roark has built like the Enright house, Cortlandt housing project, Wyanand towers and Wyanand's home at Connecticut. I am neither and architect nor a critique of architecture like Ellsworth to understand how each house is built.

If it were that I had an interaction with Ayn Rand (of course, she passed away more than a month away before I was even born), I would have asked her to have a book that's illustrated with all the buildings mentioned in the book (not just that of Roark).

Overall, this book gave me a satisfaction that I have indeed read a very good book. It was totally worth spending my time reading this book. I should thank Hari who has gifted me this book as a farewell gift. Another advantage (on a side line) of reading this book in public is that people think that you are an intellectual (which helps!!!).

If you are in a stage where you are deciding to read this book or not, don't think. Just go read the book. If I have to talk the way Roark does: If you have that question, you aren't fit to read the book. But I am not Roark. So, I recommend (very strongly, though) reading this book.

Last day

Finally the day has come to call it quits in my company. It was very fetching in terms of work. The work which I did through these 2 years 8 months was one of the best that any guy can ask for. There were ups and then there were deeeeeeeeeeep downs!!!

Let me not vent out my feelings which made me say "deeeeeeeeeeeep downs". Let me talk just about my ups only.

There were infinite things I learned in this company regarding my work. After doing 2 of the most important blocks, what I found is this:

1. There are certain IPs which are glorified to be the best work. But in fact, they are not that complex, if you know the basics.
2. There are certain IPs which are taken for granted that there is a particular way of doing it. This is also wrong. In fact, there are lot of intelligence and smartness that can be induced into those blocks to make them the best. 

However, for both the above most of the times your manager or his manager or his manager.....would put a stop to it. People say "Calculated risk taking is highly appreciated". In truth, it is not! The simple fact that everybody wants an IP to quickly work takes the highest priority at the cost of efficiency, speed and quality of both the engineer and the block as well. 

I am against this. Either say, "We hate risks. We go to the simplest and dumbest path for time-to-market" or allow the engineers to be smart. A good company, in my opinion should appreciate and encourage the engineer who tries to make the block smart, not just a dumb working piece of code which anyone who knows coding can do.

One quality of mine is a double edged sword in many companies. I tell the management that I can't achieve a goal in a certain period, if that is true. They usually get pissed with this style of working. They hate people, who would say these kind of things. In the long run, I feel good that I didn't commit to anything that I couldn't possibly do. Management also feels that I stick to my word.

Anyway, all said and done, another chapter of my career is complete. Now, I have to move on to my next chapter. Somewhere, someday, I would probably meet at least few of my buddies!!!

September 2012 Trip

We (my parents and I) had been planning for this Himalayan Trip from late may. Though we initially planned to go in October, we found out that many roads in Himalayas are closed by either Mid September or end of September. So, we set out on our Himalayan Trip in the following route:

• Hyderabad - Delhi (Saturday, Air India at 4:45PM)
• Delhi on Sunday
• Delhi - Leh (Monday, Air India at 5:50AM)
• PangongTso a.k.a 3 Idiots lake (Tuesday, Innova)
• Leh - Keylong (Wednesday, Innova)
• Keylong - Manali (Thursday, Innova)
• Manali - Kullu (Friday, Innova)
• Kullu - Dharmasala (Saturday, Innova)
• Dharmasala - Delhi (Sunday...Planned in Kingfisher, ended up in Innova. I will get back to it soon)
• Delhi - Hyderabad (Monday, Air India at 6:10AM)

Now let me go, one-by-one. So, let's start at Hyderabad.

Hyderabad - Delhi (Saturday, Air India at 4:45PM)

The first time, I ever flew business class. Oh boy!! Business class is something which is really good. For a two-hour long journey, business class really helps in getting your legs free and pretty good view of the outside world. Of course, I can't afford to go in business class. My dad and mom get that as part of their LTC and I got my business class ticket for much cheaper price than normal (because of some accompanying ticket or something of that sort).

Once I got down at Delhi, and throwing my luggage at the A.P.Bhawan, I immediately wanted to see "India Gate" in night time fled lights. Our driver took us there in about 10 minutes. Till that time I didn't really step out of air condition. Once I got out, I was immediately drenched in sweat. It was very sultry that day (September 1st , 2012) in Delhi.

Now, I wanted to get as many good photos as possible with my new Canon EOS 60D. I opened my camera and when I started seeing through my view finder, everything was blurry. For couple of minutes I thought my glasses were blurry. But actually the lens and the diopter were full of mist (because of the humidity). It took me about 5 minutes to start taking photographs. As expected, they turned out to be pretty bad.

By the time we came back to our rooms, we were so much drenched in our sweat that we necessarily had to take a bath before sleeping.

Delhi (Sunday)

Now, the places I wanted to see in Delhi were:

1. Raj Ghat
2. Jama Masjid
3. Humayun Tombs
4. Bangla Sahib

So, we started after our breakfast at about 8:30 AM. Our driver took us to Raj Ghat and said he will park somewhere nearby. We got down and were about to go into Raj Ghat, when the security guard there told us that Raj Ghat is closed on sunday. Uffff!!! I didn't expect that place to be closed on a sunday. What to do!!!!

We then went to Jama Masjid. It's almost opposite to Red Fort. The roads leading to Jama Masjid were very unclean. There were couple of police men at the entrance, who didn't even bother to check us.

This is the entry point into the Masjid. Once I entered, to my left side I found a guy feeding pigeons.

There was a pond in which the Muslims were washing themselves and also drinking the water.

A view from one side of the Masjid.

Inside the Masjid.

Through the corridors of the Masjid.

My mother in front of the building.

View of the actual Masjid.

Tower to the left of the Masjid.

After seeing Jama Masjid, we thought of going to Bangla Sahib. There lies a water body, more than a pond, less than a lake where you can find these beautiful coloured fish. After this, we headed to Akshar Dham thinking that Humayun tombs can be seen in the afternoon. But, clouds had different plans for us. After about half-an-hour, through Akshar Dham, downpour started and we had to return to A.P. Bhavan to rest for the night before we could go to Leh.

Delhi - Leh (Monday, Air India at 5:50 AM)

After we boarded the plane, I realised that it was much smaller than the one in which I flew from Delhi - Hyderabad. There were only 2 rows of business class vs 5 in Delhi - Hyderabad flight. The travel time was about an hour and half. While going to Leh, we could see the snowy Himalayan mountains.

These were the mountains, I was talking about.

Sea of clouds.

We got down at Kushok Bakula Rimpoche airport. The airport was so small that there were only two flights. One was Air India and other was Jet Airways. We were received by court clerk and were put up in a guest house, that was pretty near to the airport. It was so close, that I could see the flights from my room.

I wasn't bothered by the flights as there were only these two and none else for the remaining of the day. Anyway, we wanted to go to Khardung La (located at 5359m, about 39Kms from Leh). Leh is about 3,500m. But traveling about 2Kms upwards isn't good unless you are acclimatised to the height of Leh. So, we had to take rest till the evening and went around to places in Leh itself. One more thing: In the first week of every September, Leh has a festival. I didn't go to the exact market place, but the town was decorated pretty well for that only.

Anyway, we wanted to go to a place called Shanti Stupa (you can read about it here). That was a nice place to see. This was about 4267m. So, it wasn't much from Leh.

This is the entry point into the Stupa after you park your vehicle. 

Beautiful city of Leh seen from the entry point. 

I don't exactly know what this is. But, it seemed a good one for taking a photograph. So, I did!!

Snow mountains seen at the horizon. 

Stupa's pinnacle. 

Dharma Chakra

View from the Stupa itself 

My mother at the Stupa 

A small cricket ground seen from the Stupa

My parents in front of the statue of Buddha

City of Leh from Shanti Stupa

After seeing the Stupa, though our driver was very reluctant we asked hime to take use to the palace of Leh. This is supposed to be in ruins, though it doesn't look so.

Picture frames of Bodhisattva were found inside the palace

After this, we wanted to see one or the other Gompa (Monastery). But, our driver misguided us and ended us up in "Hall of Fame". This is about the Indian Army who were key in winning wars. This is maintained by the army itself. You can't take pictures inside, unless you pay for it. I wasn't that much interested in taking photos of photos, which I can get on internet. So, I didn't bother to pay for the camera.

But, as we were still pestering our driver, he took us to a very nearby Gompa, by the name of Kalimata Gompa. We were kind of perturbed. We thought Gompas had only Buddha or some form of him. We were right. I don't know why that name of the Gompa is so.

In the foreground in the above 3 photos, you can see the army's airbase.

Two monks chit-chatting

Returning from Kalimata Gompa, I decided to go to bed, as we had to get up in the morning to go to Pangong Tso (3 Idiots Lake). Before I was shutting down my camera, I saw these beautiful snow caps from my room.

Coming soon...Pangong Tso (a.k.a 3 Idiots Lake)