Confessions of a 30 year old

So I turned 30 last Sunday, on 21st September to be exact! My exact feelings at turning 30 were “Uh?”. I honestly couldn’t imagine how 30 years have just zipped by. Given the average Indian life-expectancy, I guess I am about half done Huge thanks to all my friends for the party(ies) and special thanks to B&R for getting my favorite Black Forest cake. Turns out old people enjoy cake too.

Everyone has been asking me the usual questions. Allow me to answer on a public forum.
1. How to you feel?
Answer: Pretty freaking awesome! I am happier, richer and certainly a lot healthier than I ever was. I never thought I would ever wear size 30 pants. If this is getting old, BRING ….. IT ….. ON !!

2. What are you most happy about?
Answer: I am healthy, I got great friends and wonderful family.

2. Any regrets?
Answer: Plenty. Just like everyone. Big one is that I am non-confrontational to the point of ridiculousness and really avoid sticky situations. Hence I have put up with a lot more shit than I should have, but one learns. Also, I am shy and do not share my feelings easily except with close friends and family. Although this has saved me from some pain it has cost me a lot happiness too. I also do dumb shit too often for my liking.

3. What next?
Answer: A little more “pedal to the metal”. Something I should have done in the 20s

4. Advice for people who aren’t there yet?
Answer: Don’t put anything off for later.  Do crazy stuff, make as many mistakes as you can afford, do dumb shit but just make sure you learn your lessons well. Also unless you really care about someone, do not care about what they think of you. Now I am totally preaching what I DO NOT personally practice but I am certainly trying.

Here’s to the next decade, year, month, day, whatever !!

Yahoo Music on Search

I usually don’t talk about work on my blog because I work 8 hours a day as it is. This bog is my release. But we really rocked today. I was a very small part of the team that did the following.

CNET
Yahoo adds full-length music tracks to search results | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10045466-2.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea

TechCrunch
Yahoo And Rhapsody Team Up For Full Song Playback In Search Results
www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/18/yahoo-and-rhapsody-team-up-for-full-song-playback

And my favorite online gossip mag, Valleywag which never has good things to say about Yahoo! Even this time, it was sort-of a complement, not a full one.
http://valleywag.com/5051762/the-ad-yahoo-ought-to-air

It is nice to know that what you do is consumed by hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. It is also a little scary that if you fuck up, there are going to be a lot of not-so-happy campers. But that is what makes it exciting and challenging and fun and all the good stuff.

Also, although I know not too many people read my blog, I want to acknowledge all the people who were on the project and worked as hard (or harder) than any of us but will not get full credit because they aren’t with Yahoo! anymore. And no, they weren’t laid off or nething. They are among the smartest people I know and are doing their own things, very cool ones I might add. I usually don’t name names on my blog (without permission) because it doesn’t seem right but am going to make an exception this time. Lucas, Mike D, Ian, Lino, Doug: As they say at Yahoo! Mad Props !!

A little of Jersey City, and a little bit of Boston, and a little bit of NYC :)

Sorry for not posting for a bit but I just got back after visiting my sister for a couple of weeks and spent this week a little “under the weather”. East Coast was lots of fun though. I did not take too many pictures but stole some from A, Check them out at  http://www.flickr.com/photos/24791341@N00/sets/72157607069954058/. Some of the highlights from my trip:

Family: Got to see my sis and brother-in-law. Said bye-bye to S Dada and A Vahini before they just left for Netherlands. Also met N Mama and family after a long, long time. Overall, it was great to catch up with everyone and playing with A

Friends: A and his wife drove down from Virginia for the long weekend. I hadn’t seen him in years and we have been friends since forever. It was great to see them. Also hung out with K one evening. We walked all over NYC and chatted, a lot. It was fun! Had lunch with MC at Shake Shack. Those guys make the best Mushroom Burger in the world, also probably the most unhealthy. A portabello mushroom stuffed with cheese and deep-fried, in a bun. Yuuuuum.

Work: The Yahoo NYC office is real cool, right by Times Square. The phone where I was bunking totally sucked tho. I walked around Times Square a couple of afternoons and felt like a total tourist.

Food: East Coast food rocks! I would strongly recommend Helmonds in Boston, street food in NYC and my sister’s place in Jersey City She makes the best baked veggies in the world. I really pigged out, all the time. To make up for it, I ran quite a bit on the Waterfront in Jersey City and also worked out for a couple of days in Boston. But I still ended up gaining about 4-5 pounds over the 10 days. I can live with that though, I will get rid of them in no time.

I almost decided that I like Jersey City and NYC better than Santa Monica. Family, friends, not having to drive, cheap subways, it is pretty awesome. And then it started raining and got gloomy and crappy. Just a reminder how lucky I am to be down here in SM I loved catching up with everyone but glad to be back.

Viva NYC

I just got back from visting my sister in Jersey City. I also worked out of our Yahoo NYC office for a few days and visited Sachin Dada in Boston. I ate and I ate and I ate and I ate, East Coast has awesome food. And then I ate some more. Met Anand after what seemed like ages and also said hi to a couple of Yahoo friends, good times! Detailed blog post on the way !!!

Before leaving, I will share why I like NYC so much. It’s real, and there is nothing better I can say about it.