Cogito Ergo Sum

In the past 18 months, there have been a lot of changes in my life.

• New Job in April 2010, changing domain from Communications to Image Processing
• Getting married.
• Shifting homes 3 times in less than 6 months starting May 2010
• Getting financially literate, and doing some actions between November 2010 and now
• Developing culinary skills, starting at none in October 2010. Focusing on fitness.

I think 5 events in less than 18 months period is huge for anyone to handle. I too struggled through them. Yet, I feel it is good that all these happened in such a high speed. Now I am kind of relaxed. This post is to write about each of them.

New job: I like the work at HP-IPG. Image processing is a good domain to work on, in the long run. One can immediately see what one is doing, unlike in communications where one will be only counting some bit rates, frame rates and will have to wait till project gets over at the system level, to see something happening over a Wireless LAN or a digital TV. Image processing is not too hard to pick up. Also, as HP is a big company, there are a lot of internal conferences which give scope to write and publish papers. Good amount of intra and inter team interactions help to improve productivity.

HP - IPG offers work - life balance. There’s no slogging involved, as my work is exploration type and not deadline intensive. There is family day once a year during May, which gives scope to get involved in cultural activities. There’s a tie up with a few fitness related organizations and hence some activities go on. Within IPG there’s a community connect team for social service. ….

Getting married: Got married in August 2010. I think this is a complete private matter, so less I comment, the better. All I can say is that it is for good and I can see more good coming out.

Changing homes: My office is in whitefield. I shifted home from Rajajinagar to marathhalli in May, to reduce the travel time. Then moved to Banashankari (about 30km from office) in August, and then to a location 10km from office in October 2010. The shifting involved a lot of things like packing and rearranging, and also transferring gas connection etc.

Getting financially literate: I knew there was something about finance I kept on ignoring. I was ok with it until I got married. I had no responsibilities, and I found no need to invest and create wealth. Not even for retirement, as my line of thought was that if I didn’t marry, then my retirement life would be very simple, as a caretaker in an orphanage or residential school. Once I got married, I started dreaming about the future and got a bit more materialistic. By the way I don’t see it as a bad sign. Even in Vedas it is said that you cannot give up something which you never had. Started thinking about getting sufficient life insurance so that my family will not be affected financially, in case I die. It seemed very essential that I save and make money grow such that at one point of time I will be free to retire from software job voluntarily and focus on other high priority things at that time. That is when I came across Jagoinvestor and Subramoney blogs. These two have changed my perspectives on financial planning and, (to some extent ) life in general.

Developing culinary skills: I am afraid I won’t be able to stop if I start writing about this. My mom-in-law, my co-sister and sisters-in- law and even my husband all of them are awesome at cooking that I felt very bad that I didn’t know anything. Thanks to my colleagues especially Veda who suggested a book by Ms. Rujuta Diwekar “Don’t lose your mind, lose your weight”, I broke the barrier between me and the kitchen. It’s not that I never cooked. I used to prepare carrot halwa often and curries very occasionally. Preparing food everyday was a boring job in my view. After reading the book, my way of looking at cooking changed. By following Rujuta’s four principles of eating and working out three hours a week, I’ve reduced 2.5 kgs in 6 weeks! As per the healthometer-a weighing machine we have at home-my body fat percentage has reduced from a big 35% figure to an okayish 31%. The key is not to go on diets, but to eat your food at the right time. More than the fat loss, eating home food all the time has lightened the mood and enhanced the spirits. Not to forget improved quality of sleep. Now I’ve picked her second book, “Women and the weight loss tamasha”, which conveys the message to stop trying for the weight loss and instead understand the body, associated changes and nurture it well.

Apart from these, one other good thing is: last week I rejoined music classes. My Veena teacher expired last year and I have been in no mood to continue Veena lessons with anyone else. Fortunately a musician friend of ours, Mr. Manasa Nayana suggested an excellent teacher for vocal, Sri R.N. Tyagarajan, elder of the rudrapatnam brothers. I am able to practice for at least half an hour daily. To someone like me who has no ambitions to give concert, this is sufficient.

Many of my readers have been asking me whether I’ve forgotten about my blog . I think now they got the answer. Priorities and passions keep changing for all of us; just that I have been getting passionate about other things, and was finding no time to write about them. Besides, as there’s always a friend of my age right next to me with whom I can discuss everything on earth, I am not dependent on this blog to let out my thoughts and feelings. Fair enough right?

Waiting for your comments, hope you haven't stopped checking this out!

# posted by Aparna @ 3:25 PM