StayGeo

Investing in foreign, particularly US stocks has been in my radar ever since I started earning and got into stock market. Back in 2010s, the process to open a demat account was complicated, more so if it was with an international broker. On top of that, foreign equity investment was treated as debt back then and taxation was not favourable to investors - especially since long term meant holding for three years. I had posted a query in the AIFW Facebook group and I remember getting advice that for smaller ticket sizes foreign holdings won’t offer a huge income boost. With limited surplus in hand, I decided to stick to domestic investments and they have held up reasonably well so far.

However, international investing is something I always wanted to try and with the launch of GIFT City, I learnt that it’s going to be easier! I have been on a wait since then and the interest surged again with the news of Dhan launching US Stocks last week. Soon came the news of other brokers like Zerodha getting the approvals too. Since I don’t have an account with Dhan (I am a huge fan of what Pravin Jadhav aka P J has accomplished there in this short time frame) I started my research about should I wait for Zerodha (my current broker) to launch their offering or get a Dhan account.

When I signed off from my first job after college on February 27, 2026, after 14 years and 7 months, I was not prepared to be without an offer. The expectation had been a smooth transition to a new role over a single weekend. However, it became evident during my final few days that the ride might not be smooth, and I had to prepare for a break of at least a few weeks. As a positive-minded person, I calmed myself down by recognizing that a break like this might never come again, and I should make the absolute most of it.

The following week, I sent back my trusted work laptop, a Dell Precision 5560, and switched to my old reliable workhorse: a Dell Optiplex 990 running Ubuntu 24.04. This machine would become my primary companion for learning, tinkering, and job searching.

I was clear about one rule: I would not deviate from my daily routine. I set up a dedicated Growth Spreadsheet to track my progress on a daily basis - not just in terms of job applications, but focusing heavily on my daily learning, milestones, and technical exploration. I had read about the psychological benefits of documenting every single step, no matter how small, and decided to apply it here. Looking back, I feel incredibly proud of how I spent those weeks. Keeping that ledger helped me maintain the right growth mindset when things felt stagnant.

What started as a simple reset between roles slowly became a volatile mix of experimentation, reflection, physical repairs, interviews, travel, and deep dives into the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem.

Yesterday, I opened the control panel for our borewell pump after its power plug started showing signs of melting. On closer inspection, the socket had developed minor cracks, so I decided to replace the socket and plug top. While doing that, I opened the control panel just to be safe and noticed heavy rusting on the terminal connectors.

My first instinct was to either clean it thoroughly or replace the entire starter panel. Cleaning seemed tricky; AI suggested using a contact cleaner, which I didn’t have, and I wasn’t sure it would restore the terminals properly anyway.

But curiosity got the better of me.

With some guidance from AI, I slowly began understanding what was inside the panel: a contactor, a few capacitors, a relay, and terminal strips. No electronics, no circuit boards — just a handful of electromechanical components working together to start and protect the motor.

To be honest, I didn’t know much about this type of system. I wasn’t even aware that terminal strips were available as replaceable components. Fortunately, I was able to find them at a local electrical shop.

Before touching anything, I sketched a quick wiring diagram and labeled the connections in my own way (I still need to learn the standard way!).