What I did in the last 2 months

Since, I was not blogging I must have been doing something in the last two months. Oops, nothing meaningful comes out. Anyway, I'll summarize what I did.

First, and most importantly I defended my thesis (on June 5th... google for what happened on June 5th) without offending my dignity. So, they allowed me to pass and here I am - Balaji Viswanathan, M.S. The defense was slightly strenuous and lots of technical and math questions. Pretty grilling indeed.

Then, my OPT got delayed. It happens that my OPT application (required for students to work in the US, fulltime, for a year without a valid work visa, after they complete their graduation) that I applied in April is not processed  yet. However, to have some sympathy for the applicants, the USCIS allow for the issue of a temporary work permit (valid for 3 months) when the OPT is not processed even after 3 months of application. So, here I'am working with this temporary work permit, though fortunately my H-1B is approved, recently.

I was supposed to start working on June 19th and made all preparations, right from booking an apartment to booking air ticket. Alas, the work permit caused a 1 month delay and left me wondering. I made a "brilliant" idea of using this time to visit India (in spite of the warnings from my company's Legal team stating the risks of coming back to US, since I have finished my MS and have no legitimate reason to come back).

I burnt my pockets and extended my credit limits and went to India. I happily attended the 3 marriages -  2 of my cousin's and one of my close friend's. I went for a tour-de-temple and had fun in enjoying Cauvery (a river in South India) in full spate. Also had a laser surgery to bring my eye power to 0 (so that I dont require any more wearing of glasses and lens). I also spent a lot of time shopping, going to my secondary school and high school and college and had nice talk with all the teachers there.

After coming back, I picked up my stuff from Baltimore and bidded adieu to the place where I did my Masters. Then headed to Seattle on the 3rd of July. There I went for July 4th celebrations and then did time pass by going around Seattle and learning to drive and reading the historic novel of Sivagamiyin Sabadham. Then on July 24th, I joined Microsoft as a Software Design Engineer in the Windows core team. We are working with developing tools for Remote Procedure Calls. The work is cool and having fun with learning Microsoft's work culture and environment. I'll put a detailed post on the non-confidential information about this great campus, soon.

Then, last week I bought a bike and using it to ride it to office.

 

Thatz it from me for now. Will update you guys later.