At present, I’m working as a programmer at a startup in Bangalore. The job is fun, and I got to learn a lot — libraries, practices, patterns, and a lot more. I met interesting people who have been in the startup space for a long time. This is my third startup, but the first funded startup. Both my previous tech jobs were at startups which were either service based (somehow making money to pay the bills), or funded by the government. So the first experience at a startup which has investments from big names in the industry (VCs, angel investors, etc.) was an experience of its own.

Its actually a relaxed place. We do work, everyday, and with tight deadlines. But somehow, there’s no hurry or tension of any kind. Even with third party API integration, which I’m responsible of, goes on very smoothly. I’ve actually enjoyed this job more than my previous jobs.

So what went wrong here? I don’t think anything went wrong here. Its more about the industry as a whole. I can’t do front end design for squats. So any kind of front end job is not for me. That effectively takes out JS on the web side and most of the mobile app development side. I’m left with back end programming. And I love it. But its starting to get a bit monotonous lately. I’m not talking about my current job, again. Its the industry as a whole. I have two degrees in Embedded systems and tried my hand in that industry as well for a while. For me, both software and hardware seem to be hitting a plateau. That, or I still haven’t found my calling in life.

Some of you will definitely know the importance of finding your calling in life. Though its not mandatory to find it early in life, its also not good to be unaware of it till late in life. This is my first article/blog-post after almost six years. I love writing, but after I stopped writing professionally, I thought I’ll not do it again. But here I am, doing just that.

You might be wondering, what’s the point of this post, what am I trying to tell you, or if I want to tell you anything at all. I’m wondering that myself. I think I just wanted something to write and I thought this would be a good starting point to get back in the game. I’m thinking of writing more, more frequently, and about more stuff. I’m not sure how many people will actually read this. As I’m new here and this is my first ever Medium post, I’m not actually expecting a lot of engagement.

I recently went on a road trip to Kerala with a very good friend of mine. This was the fourth time to Kerala in the last few years. I love going there mostly because of the roads uphill. They are made for biking. We hired a couple of Royal Enfield Thunderbirds for the trip and had an awesome time. This was also my first trip after I started my professional life, so that’s a first in five years. So the way I look at vacations has changed, and I realized that only after going there. I was feeling relaxed, disconnected, and uninterrupted. I didn’t carry my laptop with me, obviously. And didn’t have Wi-Fi at the resort we stayed, so I only had my awesome Nexus 6 and the 3G connection on it. We did have a TV in each of our rooms, but none of us got a remote control to operate the TV, nor did we get a cable connection. Yes, even I don’t see the point of mounting a modern, flat-screen TV without a remote or cable. Anyway, the point is, I had very little help from modern technology to keep me entertained. I ended up watching a couple of YouTube videos in bed before falling asleep. But this was at 11:30 or 12 in the night. Till then, we sat out in the balcony. It was cold out in the night and we had a pretty good conversation, much needed. We took up random topics to talk and rant about. It was fun.

It was good to be disconnected from the internet for such a long time. I kind of fell in love with the feeling. The feeling of having such raw, unrefined power in between your legs (500cc of Thunderbird engine), the feeling of the cold breeze brushing your skin and hair in the night when you are sitting out, and the excitement of waking up in a new place in the morning. I don’t know which one was it or if it was all of those, but I wanted more of it. So we have now decided to do a couple more of these road trips this year to some places that we have never visited. And I’m thinking, is it possible to actually make this my profession? Travel blogging? Well, I’m not sure. Every professional travel blogger I’ve talked to tells me that its not as exciting as it sounds. I don’t get it. Travelling or back-packing is not supposed to be easy. Because you are going to experience something new in a place you’ve never been to. And yes, there’s the money as well. You need enough vitamin M for such a profession to fund your fun-filled journeys. But all that apart, it definitely sounds more fun to me than programming.