Interlude

Original large-size painting in Panduri Srinivas' house (in his kid's room). Panduri has two nice large originals in his house and I think its a really good idea as decoration.

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I have been wanting for a while to do a "Taking Stock" mail about how things are going in the bigger picture of the sabbatical, but have not done it for various reasons. Anyway, here is a quick note about one aspect. This is that I don't feel *at all* like I am on vacation or that there is a sense of lassitude and since I don't really have to do anything, I start finding it difficult to do anything .. stuff like that. This was one of the concerns I had about doing this sabbatical. Au contraire, I feel like I have built up a lifetime of backlogged stuff that I need to/want to get done. Not to mention that there is always a lot of work at Timbaktu. Regarding the backlogged stuff, there is always travel (though I have had a surfeit of that at the moment), stuff to do to get my affairs in order (like get a new driving license!), then lots of smaller stuff around the new flat that could do with some maintanance work, help Priya with her classes when possible, go back and start doing RIM work, things like that. On the backburner are still more things: learn languages (Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, French), get more exercise and play games like squash or tennis, and some bodybuilding (!), take some technical classes on software stuff that I didn't learn very well.

So the way time is going is a very nice aspect of the sabbatical. It is somewhat strange, I don't feel the lack of a regular job at all, I am always running from place to place doing some stuff or the other (though perhaps not very efficiently or very momentous things) and it keeps me in a state of mind that is more or less akin to having a full-time job (and one that is more all-round enjoyable than my previous one!). I am curious about the side effects of getting used to this new way of spending time and what adjustment problems it will cause to go back to a regular lifestyle.