(sorry for the cringe title, couldn't get more creative than this, feel free to email me about how many better titles could've existed)
It has been an amazing 2 years at Microsoft Research, India - a lot of things have happened in this time: adapting to WFH moving to Bengaluru, meeting talented researchers, making great friends, and more importantly, memories I'll cherish for the rest of my life. Personally, the experience at MSR goes beyond teaching what it means to conduct research. I've discovered a great deal about myself that I had no clue were traits of my personal self. I've learned about my strengths and weaknesses, both in personal and professional settings, identifying when situations are tough, and the ability to properly communicate and resolve. These are the things that have shaped who I am now - my long-term goals and have given me a glimpse of what I can look forward to.
Over the past two years, I've been a part of a lot of projects - each of them at different phases of their life and their own set of challenges. My responsibilities in a lot of these projects have been the crux of my growth. Experiences like these are invaluable, so much so that I notice how much I've grown(believe me, I'm as self-unaware if that's a thing as a person can get).
I'm deeply grateful that I was ever a part of such a selective, competitive program and had the opportunity to interact with such talented people. I owe a ton of gratitude to Akshay, Tanuja, Srini, Shiv, Sameer, Mercy, and Saikat (who noticed my profile, emailed me, and were one of many to interview me). It was never a boring day for me - there was always work I was excited about, friends who I've had deep and fun conversations (and games) with, and if nothing else, some late-night pool practice sessions! Being the self-appointed Table Tennis coach for folks at MSR, I can proudly say everyone has fared well in learning it, despite the constant disappointment I show for every (bad) shot. I'm only kidding about the disappointment (I'm not, but felt mandatory to mention I was kidding)
As always, moving on is bittersweet, but I hope that to the reader, I was a good friend, a good teammate, a good mentee, or if nothing else, maybe just an amateur(read as bad) blogger who made you realize you wasted precious few minutes reading this, but really hopes you occasionally drop by to see if the amateur has improved in his writing and also maybe visit his shiny, new redesigned website because sunk cost fallacy. And also check his work because you're extremely bored. And also check out some of his work on GitHub because you're just far down the rabbit hole. And also follow on Twitter if you just want to see some retweets on interesting papers and F1 on your feed(I promise it's not all about how Lewis Hamilton is the true 2021 F1 world champion). Also, feel free to drop an email or DM me on Twitter if you want to chat about anything and everything (including pointing out the universities I end up at have 3 campuses - no, the Dubai campus doesn't count smh)
(cute rabbits because of the rabbit hole reference and so that you don't skip the last paragraph for all the cheeky "I skim the content" people - you know who you are)
I'm also incredibly grateful to the friends I've made here(do check out their work - incredibly talented and supportive people): Millend, Tanmaey, Anurag, Rohit, Ranajoy, Shree, Shubhankar, and many more people I'm sure I'm missing. The camaraderie between RFs is incredible and it's what makes the experience so special. If you're someone who's stumbled on this blog post and who's considering MSR India, I highly recommend joining it, it simply awesome!
