Break for 1 month :)

I wanted to take long break from daily routine life for quite a long time. In April 2009 I told this to my colleague and tapri partner Chetan at least 10 times. What a boring life - daily routine for everything is fixed. Get up at fixed time, get ready for office at fixed time, daily follow same route, come to office on fixed time. Do the same work everyday, almost same things happening everyday.
I was desperate for a break. I did not dared to ask for 1 month leave for long time, at that time I was the only person working on my project. This project is quite like a baby for me and every-time I thought about applying for long leave, guilt and feeling of giving up responsibility did not allow me to do so.
Then in August 2 developers from UK joined my project. I finally dared to ask for 1 month long leave. Leave for complete December was approved!! (Thanks a ton Jesus Christ for having your birthday in December).

I was very happy in the August when leave was approved. The enthusiasm was so great that the OpenGL book I planned to study in December got almost finished over weekends before November, Also the work tasks which were pending got finished at quite dramatic speed.

What did I do in December?
I wanted to visit Shripad Shrivallabha temple at Kuravpur for quite a long time. My first and foremost priority in December was to visit this temple. It is beautiful place near Raichur (Karnataka). Thought it is one of very important temples of Shri Guru Datta, being located at remote place there are very few people visiting this temple. I really felt good after visiting this place. There was no hurry for finishing the trip quickly. When we go to spiritual places with calm mind, we could really enjoy the company of God.

I spent most of my time in December studying book "Advanced Windows - by Jeffrey Richter". This is really amazing book and a must read for any Windows application developer. After reading this book I was really puzzled why was I taking salary of software developer for past @4 years without even knowing ABC of this windows world (I have worked most of the time on windows based development environment).

Whenever I used to get bored from studies I went for short drives with my good old Bajaj Boxer. I went to Hinjewadi almost after 2 years. I tried to take bit different route this time - to my surprise at about only 2km distance from TTIL office there is huge agricultural area (yes near IT park phase-1!!) and it was really surprise for me to drive 10KM along that road.
On working days if at all I go for morning walk - I generally go @ 6.30am and come back before 7.30am, in this leave period I used to go for walk @ 8am. I the kind of people who are on road dramatically changes in this short 1-2 hour time. It was fun to watch people around at these irregular timings at every place (otherwise most of the times - the places of your existence at given time are dictated by clock and work).

I read one of 'the' good Marathi book in this period - it is "Jagachya Pathiwar - by Sudhir Phadke". This book source of inspiration for fighting against odds, for learning lessons on patriotism, it also has some good lessons to learn about the attitude of forgiving people knowingly with open eyes. After reading this book, now I like Sudhir Phadke as a person, as much as I like his Geet Ramayan.

It was also fun watching detective series of Agatha Christie on youtube. She is genious, it is difficult to predict the exact criminal in almost all her stories.

In all, December 2009 will be very memorial month in my life. It was full of fun, new experiences travel and following my own heart. Finally I joined back my company on 4rth Jan 2010. From this experience I surely think that it is worth giving time to yourself when you really need it.

Cheers!!
Ashish

Leave for strange reason

Yesterday unexpectedly I got caught up in rain. Distance from my office to house is @ 17KM. When I reached home I was completely wet. Jeans was completely wet and I hardly had any hopes that it will dry till morning. In morning I tried to iron it but then discovered that it's life is over, stitches are giving up their life. I went to wardrobe and tried my best to try whatever other pants I have. It was not very surprising that for past 6-8 months I am using only one jean :). I have gained 10+ kg weight in 2009!
Actually 3-4 months back I had brought one new formal pant but again that was with the hope that in next 1-2 months I will loose some weight - but I added 4-5 kg :)

Now it was question to me "How to go to office now?". I thought of different possibilities, and then gave up plan to go to office. Shops in my area do not open till 10am and altering the height generally takes 1-2 hour. So I decided to take leave.
The actual reason was very difficult to write in SMS (to manager). Finally I wrote following message - "Hi ---, because of some strange reason I can not come to office today. If required I will explain it tomorrow".

Different experiment

From the 1st June I tried some new things -

1. I stopped opening Orkut and also stopped going online on Gtalk
Result : Tremendous increase in efficiency and concerntration

2. I took 1 week leave from office (13 June to 21 June) and stopped attending phone calls (at least stopped calling others except for urgent work).
In first 2 days of leave I felt very relaxed and now on 8th day I am feeling like relaxation for month.