Unplugged

 There is a void…sudden void…as if suddenly we r unplugged…the muscle memory, the dram memory, the cache automatically takes you to the laptop, the desk, the arena, the battle ground…that’s where you spent most of the last many months…that exact die area and power domain…that’s where so many things happened…every day, every hour and minute thinking of only one thing…the project, the closure, the tape out…every nerve net, every thought signal was on what all r the current problems and how to solve them..:convergence, congestion, timing, PV, going back, finding alternate solutions, discuss, debates, trials, runs, crashes, calls, meetings, many misses, like the edges with the new ball not carrying, when you put 128.4% into it…when we only talk about the project…any other talk is noise…when work outs, vacations, anything out of the project is a wide or a no ball…get back to the bowling crease and target the wickets…when even the spouse, kids talk of the timing and PV status…no idea when the sun rises and sets…taking bath and puja between calls..day and night are false paths…weekdays and weekends are unconstrained…when sleep is limited to meet the min pulse width…even that timing window overlaps with thoughts of problems and solutions in hand…the fear of missing out something, the challenge of solving things and the race against time…for months and months…you don’t have time even fall sick.::even you go to a marriage or in Tirumala queue, or a movie or for a ptm, the thoughts are in the project, the chat on the work…the patience and perseverance and focus needed like Dravid playing in the test match…like a gladiator teaming up with the others and fighting it out…and then suddenly it’s all over…no mails, nobody joins the calls, no teams ring tone..u just login…no runs to fire..:no reports to check…no hold to fix..the gds is out….but the mind and soul dug deep into the nwell…takes time to come out..:on a slow capture clock..:before normalcy is back…before the voltage levels r restored…before the data is shifted out of the scan chain…takes time..:the post Tapeout syndrome…