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Saturday, June 26, 2010

Updates From Dallas

It's my first time living alone. I've always had roommates before this. At undergrad, there were a bunch of us in the hostel (or dorm, as it is called here). After the first two years, we had single occupancy rooms but that hardly meant anything. Most of us would keep our doors open throughout the day and people would be shouting out and walking into each other's room every now and then. Then Bangalore happened and I was lucky enough to find three friends from college to lodge with. It became a mini hostel and anyone that we knew, who came to Bangalore, would stay with us. In fact, throughout the first year there were only a couple of months when only the four of us were staying in the house! Charlottesville hasn't been very different. A roommate, the occasional birthday celebration and the impromptu get together for beer, meant that my habit of having quite a few people to talk to, to eat dinner with or just to go out for a drink on a day to day basis, stayed.

Not anymore. And 3 weeks into this, I have mixed feelings. I'm leading a pretty disciplined life. Office, home, go out for a jog at times, watch football highlights while having dinner, read a book or surf the net and go to sleep. And I can't say that I'm bored or particularly feeling the need of having people to shout out about a FaceBook status message, a news item or some stupid joke. It's a little weird. For the first week, I would go to sleep really early for lack of anything else to do. So then I started reading and have managed to finish my first book in a year. About A Boy by Nick Hornby. Quite liked it.

Weekends are fun. Coincidentally, one of my very close friends from undergrad is also interning at Dallas. We hang out on weekends. I talk about my MBA experience and he updates me on the trials and tribulations of a PhD student.

Work's picking up. It has been a good learning experience so far. Just getting up to date with what's happening in the wireless industry and getting a sense of current and future trends. My day typically begins with going through endgadget, gizmodo and similar websites to keep up to date with the iPhones, the Droids and the EVOs. Have been able to see and play around with a few. And I must say, there's a new found appreciation for non iPhone (read Android) devices. No, I'm not switching anytime soon but it's a really fascinating and continuously evolving space. There are an insane number of things that are being done by the startups and app developers - from location based services to media streaming to content aggregation to social networking. Reading about them in itself has been an eye opener for me because prior to coming here, I  thought that I had a fair idea of what was happening in the Smartphone world. Turns out, I knew very little!

Haven't really explored Dallas much apart from a few bars and pubs. Weekends are pretty much spent watching the World Cup. Praying for an Argentina - Ghana final which Argentina wins 3-2 in Extra Time. Is it asking for too much ? 

5 comments:

zubin said...

Dude I thought u were asking for a Holland-Argentina final..U change allegiances very soon...Btw, Ghana-Argentina and Holland-Argentina are both possible yet.
And btw, who is the friend from undergrad?
This post truly shows you are slowly turning into an American :D. :D. There is so much Americanism in this post. Such as dorm or undergrad.
Btw..I just coined a term for all you Pseudo-Americans, and how quickly guys start using American terms, and am sure your accent would have changed too..DBCA!!
And lest I forget, Nick Hornby is awesome.
Sorry for spamming this space :D.

Anonymous said...

yaar n900 ko bhi try kar le. it might appeal to the geek in you!

-akshat

Atish said...

Zubin - the whole purpose of writing this post was to get a comment exactly like this from you. Mission accomplished :D
and I have a feeling that the C in DBCA doesnt stand for confused anymore :P
Akshat - dont think we have that here.

Ronnie said...

Atish,

This is Nitesh. I will be starting at Darden this fall. Anyways, I have been in Texas for past 6 years of which I have been in Dallas for almost 4 years now. Unfortunately, I am leaving for Charlottesville tomorrow morning. Anyways, you can always reach out to me in case you need any Dallas related info (esp. around restaurants and pubs).

Cheers.

Nitesh R

Rohan Rai said...

I GUESS SOME PRAYERS REMAIN UNANSWERED ...