<aside> 🧑💻 I work in the technology industry in the San Francisco Bay Area. I majored in Computer Science and have been a software engineer for most of my professional life. While choosing to study Computer Science wasn’t entirely my decision, I’m happy for what it has given me — money, time and a way of seeing the world — all of which are extremely valuable. I spend the money to get more time, and I use the time to satiate my curiosity. Win-Win. The second “win” is for my parents, who wanted me to become a software engineer for exactly one of the three things I mentioned above.
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<aside> 🇮🇳 I hail from Shivamogga, a little town in the south of India, close to Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of India, and been only living in the U.S since 2013.
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<aside> ✈️ I went to graduate school at The Ohio State University and then moved to California in 2015 for work. Moving from the college town of Columbus, Ohio to working in the San Francisco Bay Area feels very similar to my journey from studying in Shimoga to working in Bengaluru. The similarity is not merely in the characterization of the places – town versus metro – but even in what they have to offer. One has simplicity, and authenticity, the other has opportunities for personal growth. The internal journey has been one of going back and forth, in pursuit of a healthy mix of both.
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<aside> ✏️ Reading the last line above out loud, it sounded like it made a small poem..
One has simplicity, and authenticity The other has opportunities for growth The internal journey has been one of going back and forth In pursuit of a healthy mix of both
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Shivamogga, previously called Shimoga, in the state of Karnataka, India
Shivamogga, previously called Shimoga, in the state of Karnataka, India
<aside> 👨👩👧👦 I’m married with twin babies(I wrote this page at 3.30 AM, when I was up to feed them). Being a father is a relatively new identity that I’ve taken on, one that is going to become increasingly important in the future and I’m not sure I grasp what it means to be a parent yet.
P.S. I realize now where the term “handful” comes from.
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<aside> ⏱️ Interests
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<aside> 📚 I like to read, mostly books, and primarily non-fiction. At any given time, I’m typically switching between 3-4 books on my Kindle. I don’t aim to read a certain number of books a year, or read at a certain pace. I let my interest in it guide me. And since most of my thinking and writing happens while reading, I take a long time to finish books.
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<aside> ✍️ I like to write, and I’m constantly trying to get better at it. It started as a channel for cathartic release but has evolved to become much more than that. My focus while reading, besides learning the topic that it’s about, is to find ways to improve my writing. There’s no dearth of opportunities for me to exercise my writing muscle since there are different kinds of writing that I get to do in my day, both at and outside of work. There’s constant chatting with people, writing technical documents, writing on social media, blog and my journal. My journal is what I consider the playground, a place for writing experiments, and it’s where most of my longer-form writing originates from.
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<aside> 👟 I like to run, and after contemplating for a long, long time trying to unpack why I run and rationalize it, I’ve given up. I have come to leave it at that. I just like it. It makes me feel good. Well, not all the time. Sometimes it sucks. But the sucking feels good in hindsight. When I say to people that I run, it conjures up images of a fast runner, somebody dashing through the finish line. I’m a slow runner, and I like to go long distances, and my condition while crossing the finish line is nothing remotely as glamorous as non-runners think. I’m usually miserable, second-guessing my choices and so exhausted that I can barely smile.
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<aside> 🚲 I like to bike, too. We call it cycling in India. I cycled for more practical reasons back there than I do it here, in the US. I now mostly do it for fun. While I like running for the simplicity of it, I enjoy biking for the pleasure and benefits of it. It’s a great way to experience places more intimately than in an automobile, and to cover huge distances, without gasping for air.
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<aside> 🌿 I follow a vegan/plant-based lifestyle, which means that it extends beyond diet. It means that I try my best to choose and do things that minimize damage to the non-human life, mainly animals, more so than plants. Their diet is not something that people often tell other people about — you don’t find people telling other people how they eat meat all the time, for example! — so I’ve thought about why vegans do it more often. I can think of two reasons, and none that come from a place of moral high-ground, or virtue signalling, as some might think. One, it’s more than merely the diet, it’s a way of life, a philosophy, they subscribe to, so they hold it dear. Two, because the choice is usually intentional, they likely deeply care about the reason for doing it, and probably would like other people to learn more about it. I do it mostly for ethical reasons, but I’ve since come to learn plenty of other good reasons to stick with it — to prevent the damage consuming animal-based products does to the ecosystem, society, and one’s health — physical, mental and financial.
My current favorite lines on the subject..
Right now, chicks’ beaks are being burned off in factory farms. Right now, raccoons are chewing off their paws to escape from steel-jaw traps. Right now, millions of rabbits, mice, and other animals are being abused in laboratories. Right now, animals in circuses are being beaten backstage. So, write now!
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<aside> 🤙 Contact
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<aside> <img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios/250/000000/twitter.png" alt="https://img.icons8.com/ios/250/000000/twitter.png" width="40px" /> Twitter
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<aside> <img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios/250/000000/instagram-new.png" alt="https://img.icons8.com/ios/250/000000/instagram-new.png" width="40px" /> Instagram
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<aside> <img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios/250/000000/sports-mode.png" alt="https://img.icons8.com/ios/250/000000/sports-mode.png" width="40px" /> Strava
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<aside> <img src="https://img.icons8.com/ios/250/000000/linkedin.png" alt="https://img.icons8.com/ios/250/000000/linkedin.png" width="40px" /> LinkedIn
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