Life in the first 6 months of 2010 was abuzz with work. Completed my MSc thesis, interned in a lab working on hardware platforms performing Side Channel Attacks, consulted for a couple of startups on FPGA based system designs and was contemplating/deciding on my next career move. Of-course there were these never ending bureaucratic issues that needed fixing. Finally I decided to stay back at school and pursue a PhD (a separate blog post coming up). Before the start of this phase of my career, I had decided to do a mini north EuroTrip and spend some time with family/ friends back in India. So here I was in India for the past 1 month meeting a whole bunch of people and having pleasant exchanges. I am scribbling down a few memorable moments of August 2010.
- Meeting up with friends in Pune and Bangalore, discussing a wide range of topics from life to capitalism to Indian media to Ekta Kapoor / Indian film industry to state of Indian education to anything under the sky.
- A memorable night out at a farm house near East Coast Road with college friends and spending most part inside the pool again discussing random things.
- Finished reading Gone with the wind, AIDS Sutra, Animal Farm, A Whole New Mind and An Indian Odyssey. 5 books in a month. The last time I achieved this number was a long time back.
- Traveled more that 5000 Kms by air and land.
- Spent a good amount of time with parents.
The BIGGEST thing I will be missing back in Switzerland is the casual chit-chat with family and friends over a whole lot of issues – basically the feeling of connection at the emotional level and of-course the HOME comfort. Strangely enough, I DONT seem to miss Indian food. @sidcarter put it very well in this tweet earlier today. There were of-course some disappointments/frustrations; but I am in a very light mood as of now to even think about them.
Tonight I head back to work in Zurich, Switzerland. See you later, India.






