Blogger Vacation

We slowly approach our first milestone at work. Over the last month my role has shifted from that of a developer to that of a program manager. Coding has given way to Microsoft Word. Debugging has given way to sending some 50 mails everyday telling people to do this and do that. Fighting with developers and testers has given way to making developers and testers work together to meet our client requirements. Spending hours behind the computer has given way to spending hours at meetings which end up where they started. Incessant phone calls to the client to make sure we got the tiniest detail right. And then there is the lunch and dinners which you never get to attend as a programmer, when your client visits the company. In short, I was actually getting into management. Not that I didnt enjoy it, but I missed getting my hands dirty with code.

And it was time for my quarterly review with Director saab! From my previous experience I knew I had to go about singing my own praise and not criticize myself. So I was on full song. My director says, "Good, even I like the way you managed things. I plan to keep you in this role for the next projects which follow." Geez! Talk about kicking yourself in the butt yet again. No more coding! Microsoft Word, zindaabad.

Was talking with Dad on the phone and I told him the same boring story as above. He says, "You can continue programming at home. But you can never learn management sitting at home. Specially after you are married, your wife takes over that department (ok fine, I added that last bit)."

Meanwhile, a NRI-Nanguys reunion seems to be coming up soon. Pals and Bakshi will be here. How many of you wanna bet that the weekend of 12th August will be raining in Baltimore? Its the Pals Effect. I am putting down a few thousands on that.

Abbs has finally got his USA visa. He finally took my advice and wore a shirt which says "I dont booze, Save Bird from extinction, I am a Republican, I can kill Pals for free and I love Farro" with Farro's+GWB's pic to the consulate. The lady flipped! She didnt know what Bird we were talking about and volunteering to kill Pals made things simpler. Come next month and I'll have a booze-um buddy!

And with that I am going to be off blogging for a while (I can sense Bird rejoicing). My brain, heart, body and laptop all suffer from lack of attention. The laptop goes for some repair work (now is the right time since I have no coding responsibilities). This gives me time to get off my net addiction, take some time off and reflect on my life. Concentrate on some personal milestones. Also I can give time to my BharataNatyam dance class. Deep down inside I am scared it'll drive me nuts. Cant imagine getting up in the morning and not having a PC to check e-mail. We have become a slave of this e-World!

Of course, I'll be checking ya blogs and mail from work. Perhaps posting once in a while. So keep writing!!

And yeah, I was joking about the BharataNatyam part, altho it would be funny if I start practicing it.