Fernando Salazar

Sorry for no posts for some time.  I returned to USA three weeks ago on 18 July.  My first week back I spent getting over jet-lag, doing some unpacking, and keeping caught up with work.  My real “reintegration” back into things here started the week after, when Kim and I spent a week in North Truro at the Topmast Resort, our long-time summer vacation getaway.  We played some golf, saw some sights here and there, but mostly we sat on the beach, swam, read, kayaked a bit.  Going to the Cape is for us a bit of a family ritual, and the familiarity of the place we’ve been visiting 15+ years helped bring my mind back here and away from the other side of the world.

Since coming back friends and acquaintances of course are asking, “What was it like?”  I still don’t have a proper answer.  The time in India was enriching, since I saw so much that was new; yet is was also disheartening in that much of what I saw was very sad.  The time was stimulating and satisfying, since I met so many new colleagues and friends, and (I think) we did great stuff together; but at the same time it was disappointing in that I feel I could have done much more.  Finally the time was rejuvenating, in that it was an opportunity to look at my lifestyle and make changes, for the better I hope; and then it was exhausting in that it is hard work living in a place that is so different and where you are always on display.

I guess another sort of hard work now awaits me here at home, more unpacking:

Above is the shipment of our India goods: kitchen items, books, clothes, rugs, mementos, etc.  Also shown is our chair, which Kim now needs to have re-upholstered using some fabrics we brought back.  Since I am greatly against clutter, we have to reorganize and/or dispose of lots of old things about the home, to make space for the new.  I foresee it will be some weeks until our living room is navigable again.

Finally to add to the mix, yours truly has a new job.  Well, not 100% new.  My job was Chief Architect for IBM Sametime; there my priority was the technical strategy for the product line, though I also had to do a lot to promote, explain and sell the product.  Now my job is Director of Product Management for IBM Sametime – and IBM Docs – where I have ownership for the overall Sametime business, which means leading the development of the roadmap, negotiating budgets and investment, forging partnerships, and lots of evangelizing to customers.  So to paraphrase Pete Townshend, it’s a bit of “meet the new job, same as the old job” – but I’m sure a lot will be totally new, some of which I hope to share in these pages.

So, I’m back.  India is not out of my blood yet, but I don’t think it ever will be, not totally.  Yesterday with our grilled lamb I asked Kim to make a spicy cabbage dish we oftentimes had during our time in Pune, very similar to this recipe or to this one.  I guess once a Punekar always a Punekar.

Till next time.