The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 25 trips to carry that many people.
Here is a list of all the towns and cities where I have been to in the UK. This is just to keep track and remember those wonderful experiences:
1. Bristol
2. Slough
3. Bath
4. Cheltenham
5. Chippenham
6. Malmesbury
I know, London still does not feature on this list! Because, I have never been there, thats why!
A trip to Sussex is on the cards next week and it reminds me something funny from the past. As kids in small town Sanawad in India, we used to participate in local tennis-ball cricket tournaments with a team from our locality. Priyank, out of no where suggested we should call it Sussex. He had heard this name somewhere in the county cricket news on TV and his argument was, when breaking up this name ‘Sa-Sex’, the ‘Sa’ in Hindi, means with and ‘Sa-Sex’ will become ‘A team with so much sex appeal’.
*face palm*
Teenage Hormones! 
Anyways, we never won any tournament or won more than a match. Sussex Cricket Club from Baheti Colony Sanawad remains in memories.
I don’t feel like doing anything. It has been a week since the Uni started and all the assignments results are coming out with positive vibes. But still. Nothing is exciting me enough. Really looking for that kick to get back to track.
Honestly, this is s bit worrying as the dates for the assignments in this term are out and staring hard at me.
It is easy to say nothing is wrong, but there is. Just cannot find the issue OR get that spark to light-up the cold caves of my mind and heart.
I just hope that this passes soon.
I was wondering over my new year’s resolution of doing 52 ‘things’ I have never done or experienced before and was planning to do. After much thought and pondering over the idea of ‘new’, I realised that, one can never decide over doing a new thing consciously.
It just happens!
If we look the open outlook at the life’s offerings to us, we can count and receive the ‘new’ thing as a gift or surprise.
Here comes the first thing of the year which was so not regular, it has to be counted as one of new thing!
Thing 1:
Watched two Real D-3D films back-to-back in a cinema namely Tron Legacy and Gulliver’s Travels.Also, add the 3D trailer of third Transformers and there is some evening to marvel about!
I am keeping those glasses for some time :) !
So they all jumped in to bid adieu to me for a long journey across the ocean in fall of 2010 and it all started from the last post of last year.
I know there are so many things which are not mentioned in the middle but is it necessary to log about all the pain and struggle we go through in painful d-e-t-a-i-l-s? No one wishes to open a blog and see a cry baby shouting over the world for the pains he has been bestowed upon! And it is no fun in writing either.
There!
In short, it was a good struggle and hard work but I managed to reach Bristol, UK on 23rd September 2010 for what is going to be a new world and a new life.
I love my university, the University of the West of England, the campus is so big, I haven’t managed to see it all till now. The faculty is innovative, teaching methods are better than home, classmates are teenagers who constantly talk about games, new technology or the faculty. A part and parcel of the age.
A fortnight later, Himanshu arrived and proper house was setup to live in the UK. We went for the night outs, experimented with canned vegetables and ready to eat food, tried various phone companies for a better and cheaper plan, browsed through various supermarkets and concluded the best value options from different stores.
By the time Priyanka came to Bristol in November, the winter set foot all over the Europe. It was cold everywhere, colder than what was expected by even the locals in that time of the year. News said it was the coldest winter since last 25 years and some called it winter of a lifetime.
On the last Friday of November when I was in the university lab, it started to snow.
I ran as hard I could to just get out of the building and feel something I never experienced all my life. It was really special. Following weeks were fun and colder.
At university front, all the assignments were submitted by 16th December and Christmas holidays started to last for a month. It was a big bore period as there was practically nothing to do but to sit inside and watch snow outside from the window. The temperature plunged to -7 degrees centigrade, it started to get dark at 4 PM and no sun in sight.
Those were the days when I started with HTML5. Finally after all these years, I booked the domain to myself as http://www.dushyantkanungo.com and developed the site ASAP. Counting it as a birthday present to self, I turned 28 on Christmas eve.
Priyanka gifted me a light jacket and Himanshu got a bottle of bubbly for my birth day. A night before that we had a cake, brownies, crisps (what we call chips in India are called crisps here and chips are French fries or finger chips.) mince pies, and some fun. In the afternoon, we decided to go for a walk on the historical Bristol-Bath railway path.
It is January now. University term starts from next Monday and I cannot wait to get back in the classroom.
I won’t deny it, I am having the time of my life!
That is right. You guessed it!
My new year’s resolution is to do 52 new things in 2011.
You are right again! That is one new thing a week.
Finer prints read that the “Thing” doesn’t has to be expensive or free cannot be measured in monetary terms. It has to be something which I have never done or experienced before in my life.
Quite an ask you say?
I know, but hey, this is a new year and I am in a country which I still need to explore!
It is going to be fun! Look, I am already excited!
I am going to blog about each new “Thing” by numbers here to keep track of it all.
Goosebumps!
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.
A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,900 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 37 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 387 posts. There were 5 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 333kb.
The busiest day of the year was May 26th with 80 views. The most popular post that day was Baheti Colony Days.
The top referring sites in 2010 were in.linkedin.com, twitter.com, linkedin.com, facebook.com, and en.wordpress.com.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Baheti Colony Days April 2010
Never Say Never – The Karate Kid – with lyrics June 2010
1 Like on WordPress.com,
Resume October 2009
Contact Me October 2009
About Dushyant September 2009
3 comments
The main purpose of this blog, when started almost 6 years back was to chronical the ups and downs of my life when I just started in the world of software and web designing.
As many of you are aware of the fact that I got an unconditional offer from UWE, Bristol for a Web Design degree, starting September’10, and have resigned from my current job, I am trying to keep myself from blogging about the process in between.
That said, it is not the case of extreme business or lake of thoughts, but the very reason of my ongoing struggle to arrange the funding to show for my visa.
Long spells of depression and sleepless nights are a norm.
I read this morning on the office notice board while I am doing the hand over to the new guy who is going to replace me, ‘If you wish to shine like the sun, you have to first burn like one.’
That said, personally, I am going through hell.
Hope in the end it all will turn around alright.
This time again the age old trick has worked. I heard long time back that if you face a problem of which any solution is not coming in sight, step back and give it some space. There is no point graying hair over something which cannot be solved immediately. Solution will come automatically.
And it came.
A sense of relief now runs along as the pressure for the next step mounts high.
Catch ya later!
Wow! I am in the gang of people who actually have sleepless nights worrying over money matters.
And to add to injury, this is happening for the biggest dream of my life.
Good news first, I got an unconditional offer of admission from the University of the West of England to study BSc. (Hons) – Web Design from their Franchy campus at Bristol, starting 13th September this year. This comes with a 3 year student visa and work permit for following couple of years. Also, included in this is work visa for my wife for the entire duration.
Can it get bigger than this?
I think not.
Now the laundry list:
1. Apply for loan
2. Pay the fee
3. Sit for IELTS (for just being on the safer side)
4. Apply for visa
5. Book tickets
6. Fly!
I have resigned from Rishabh yesterday and serving the notice period for the last two months. Now to kick the list above, first thing I need to go with is the loan application and the most important document missing there is the clearance from the bank as need to clear the education loan taken for Priyanka’s MBA.
Aww man!
This is gonna make me lose weight.
