Diary 📒

My therapist advised me. First time starting a journal in life :)

August 2024:

New gardening batch ready with these seeds – Alyssum, Aster, Calendula, Cosmos, Gaillardia, Lovelies Bleeding, Mesembryanthemum, Ornamental Kale, Phlox, Salvia, and Zinnia. Hoping for full germination.
Dozen handwritten postcards again to friends across world.
Went to City museum and listened to attenborough talk of life in Ocean, sitting on shore rocks.
Got a resistance band for home workouts, although found a park with my fav outdoor situp board, rowing machine and some.
Got city library membership. First book to borrow is GEB, finally trying to finish again.
Very happy to notice our garden hosting all kinds of life. Larva of Oleandar hawk moth, earthworms, millipedes, dozens of butterflies, Indian green lynx spiders and common tailorbird
Went to city park at night. Sorry chennai, but ours is far better than semmozhi poonga.
Got a skipping rope. Never skipped before in life, and I am not even completely recovered to skip. But I just wanted to start.

July 2024:

Zeroth day baseline run for marathon prep. 3km run and 666 steps climb for 45min in drizzle.
Back to home. Got auto-upgraded two levels by IRCTC.
Finished reading Chennai: A biography by V. Sriram. Vandaarai vaazha vaikkum Chennai.
Day in Chennai museums, botanical garden, public libraries and bookshops with sibling. Loved Idiyappam 😋
Finished reading The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. Makes you see affordances and signifiers everywhere.
Played Shamans, Decrypto and High Society
Went to agra on one day solo trip. Seeing Taj at 6AM literally made me cry. Best time as sunlight hits, birds flying and peacocks dancing in the garden. Agra fort and Baby Taj are worth the time too.
Went for a morning walk in Hauz Khas Deer park and a Mongoose walked within a feet.
Finished reading Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. Just perfect!
Finished reading Losing my Virginity by Richard Branson. Funny and the attitude of let's do it.
Finished reading What to listen for in Music by Aaron Copland. Makes you question and see layers of music
Morning birdwatching and nature walk with WWF.

Agra and Chennai

June 2024:

Piano concert by Rishabh Jain. Mendelssohn, Brahms, Debussy, Beethoven and Nipun Cheema. heartstrings on debussy.
Played Onitama, The Crew, Epic Kingdoms, Azul, and Monet's micropuzzle of londji 😍
Loved Akoda french band. Made new friends. Hi Ulla and Jay, if you are reading this.
Did yoga first time in life on International yoga day. Completely different experience to my usual HIIT. Fun.
Loved the evening in lalit kala akademi art library. Love MoMa, Maps of Delhi, Escher and Crafts of India books.
Bought a wood carving tools set. Time to find wood and start Whittling
Went to ballet DVD screening of tchaikovsky's sleeping beauty. Longest ballet and goosebumps. Love the performers fluttering Entrechat and pas de bourree courus especially.
Few weeks since learning music theory # item67 , sheet reading and math of my own, so could appreciate classical music better. Love Robert Greenberg and these videos of sheet music, conductors and orchestra analysis
Played Blokus 😍, Cat in the box, Secret Hitler, For sale and Love letter 😍
Pausing all books, blogs and media reading for few weeks, as I was using it as escape mechanism over more serious things. More free time to introspect and ponder for bucket list and esp. # item42
Finished reading Machineries of Empire trilogy by Yoon Ha Lee. Love his math twists.

May 2024:

Finished reading Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure by Vaclav Smil. First read of vaclav and love his details and criticism.
Unlimited popcorn and 2001 screening again at American embassy.
Played Pinnacle, Camel Up, Hexpert, and The Networks
My first digital immersive art experience Walking through a Songline
Enjoying habitica. Levelling up quickly with enjoyable tiny habits!
Brekkie after 50 days. Cauliflower, Spinach and Fenugreek flatbreads. 😋
Finished reading Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace , love him ever since I saw his commencement speech.
Went to a museum for international museum day and got a free wooden camera toy as souvenir. Gonna gift it to friend.
Went to a choir for the fist time. You would get immersed quickly.
Got a mini keychain rubik's cube and rubik's cube to practice for # item 37. Leaving CFOP and roux for now; ZZ and 3-cycle this time.
Played Fit to Print 😍, SHASN, No Thanks!, Sushi Go!, and Nidavellir 😍.
Finished reading Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control by Stuart J. Russell, Not as good as Tegmark.
Finished reading The Final Curtain by Keigo Higashino. My fifth book of Keigo but not as interesting as Journey Under the Midnight Sun
Finished reading On Photography by Susan Sontag. Lovely rhetorical analysis
Finished reading The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works by Helen Czerski. Want to go to beach right now.
Another Piano violin concert. Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Manuel de Falla, Piazolla
Bookstores and boardgames. Played Project L 😍, Point Salad, King of Tokyo, Codenames, and Trekking through history.
First live Piano concert by Elia Cecino and Soprano by Cheryl Bains. Puccini, Liszt, Brahms, and Sciortino
Went to National Rail Museum and National Police museum.

Apr 2024:

Went to YiYi movie screening and BYOB bookclub meet. Loved them both.
Went on spiritual spree and asli dilli walk. Read here
Finished reading 14 Historic Walks of Delhi by Swapna Liddle. I love Liddle's analysis and trust me you cannot get any better tour guide than her. Check out her Connaught place and Chandini Chowk books too.
Finished reading The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values by Brian Christian. Brian keeps you curious and the style of writing is natural and layered in complexity just like a CNN is
Finished reading Providence by Max Barry. Very light sci-fi
Went to “deerparkreads” and made new book buddies.
Finished reading Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael Benson. Engrossing and transporting you to the greatest film-set.
Private movie screening of phenomenal 2001: A Space Odyssey with “Delhi Movie Club” biggest meetup and made new film buddies.
Evening walk through Sanjay Van forest and reading night at Qutub Minar again.
Wonderful chat with Kevin Leyton-Brown. Meeting him years after I did his coursera course is cool to talk about.
Finished reading Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. Davinci has always been my favourite person for his diversity in interests and everlasting curiosity.
Finished reading Permutation City by Greg Egan. Egan makes convoluted hard sci-fi albeit with simple meaning

Mar 2024:

Solo date to Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum, Prime Minister Museum, Gandhi Smriti, Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial, National Museum, Bikaner House, National Gallery of Modern Art, and India Gate. Just one saturday
Fun chat with Kirthiga Reddy. Be humble and be curious.
Self-treat of the month. Dinner of Medu Vada(10INR), Spinach Fritter(10INR), Chicken Momos(20INR), Chicken Biryani(50INR), French Fries(20INR), Pani Puri(20INR), Banana(5INR), Guava(10INR), and Grapes(15INR). I know 😋 160rs budget.
Last day of Dune 2 movie in city. So first midnight imax experience.
Unfriended everyone on discord with mood swing
Finished reading Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters by Oliver Franklin-Wallis. If you care about Earth, just read.
Finished reading The pleasure of finding things out by Richard Feynman. My first Feynman book, and I decided to read half dozen more of his books.
Moved to exercising two times per day. 10 reps of 15 full body HIIT exercises morning and night.
Finished reading Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer. Infectious enthusiasm and equally scaring risks of perfect adventure.
Finished reading This is your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan. Always love Pollan's journalism and curious thought process.
Finished reading Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss. Refreshing to hear dozens of diverse personalities takes, worth in adopting atleast 10% of value.
Visited Crosswords, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, booksonthedelhimetro meet, Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, Humayun's tomb, Purana Qila, and Bikaner House. All in a day
Finished reading Xenogenesis trilogy by Octavia E. Butler. Damn, thoughtful and eerie than Peter Watts.
Finished reading Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. Lmao, gonna see Denis Villeneuve in direction fourth time soon. Read Dune series, Arrival, The Son, and this now.
Wrote 14 handwritten postcards to friends. Watch out for postal delivery buddies :)
Finished reading Beautiful News: Positive trends, Uplifting stats, creative solutions by David McCandless. Reminded me of the hope as when I read Hans Rosling.
Finished reading The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu. That's it, Ken is as good as Ted Chiang.
Finished reading The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. “Even in your wildest dreams, you’ve never heard anything like this.”
Went to Hauz Khas deer park. It seems I like cowrie(bakthuk) more than thukpa or laping.
Finished reading Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What The Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves by James Nestor. Enchanting and traumatic, especially with the context of my drowning accident in primary school.
Visited Birla Mandir, Buddhist temple, TTD temple, Kali temple, Talkatora garden, RB museum and Amrit udyan, Gurudwara, Philately museum, Jantar mantar, Chakra museum, Triveni Kala Sangam, Agrasen ki baoli, Max mueller, and Metro musueum. All in a day

March handwritten postcards

Feb 2024:

Finished reading A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Bryson has good humour and child like curiosity
Finished reading The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben. Read entire book in middle of trees. Hug them.
Finished reading Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark. Interesting Gedankenexperiments.
Finished reading Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships by Eric Berne. How well transactional psychology fits as a model.
Finished reading The City & the City by China Miéville. Eccentric writing style and I like it.
Finished reading Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin. Will definitely want to travel to Africa someday.
Finished reading The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Maximum information in minimal dialogues.
Finally goodbye to Smart AudioBook Player, now migrated to audiobookshelf. Also only Foliate and Sioyek instead of Moon Reader these days
Finished reading The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data by Gene Kim. Grinned from ear to ear and surprised to see Scalzi sprinkled.
Started learning 12th language – Mandarin Chinese. After starting Spanish, German, Hindi, French, Dutch, Korean, Japanese, Norwegian, Greek in last 9 years.
Finished reading Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence by James Lovelock. Formulator of Gaia hypothesis
Finished reading Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel. Ingenuity and pettiness sides of humanity.
Finished reading The Will of the Many by James Islington. Islington is phenomenal in world-building and character creation.
Jaipur literature festival, love Yuvan Aves, Mary Beard, Colin Thubron, Kai Bird
Sleepover at friend's home after years
Air force museum and Toilet musuem

AuthorsAudiobookshelf

Jan 2024:

Finished reading Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. Always love economics, and this is the perfect macro look with good skepticism.
Finished reading Licanius trilogy by James Islington. Finally, a worthy competition to Sanderson's Stormlight archive and Sullivan's Riyria Revelations.
Finished reading How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner
Wonka is a wonderful musical
8-ball pool solo. First time. 65 shots to clear table 😅
Party time. Honey chilli potato, Afghani chicken, Tandoori chicken, Chicken tikka, Kadhai chicken, Garlic Naan, and Lemon soda.
Got big magenta Dahlia for vase
Finished reading Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon. Your respect for Mom, Womb, and Women can only increase more 😭
Went to a temple for Sankranti here, after years. Deja Vu of 3 AM temple trips for winter Suprabhatam, courtesy of mom, from school days.
Still low weight, 57kg, but three good things are – I have no regrets on food I chose to consume (which is very less UPF), chosing to climb 400 steps easily daily, and flat tummy even after full meal.
Finished reading The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
Handwritten postcards to Mexico, USA, Germany, Belarus, and Russia
Walk through Safdarjung Tomb, Lodhi Gardens, and India Habitat Centre for Sophia's 1.5hr bharatnatyam.
Finished reading The Immortality Thief by Taran Hunt
SSRIs making me sleepy 70% of the day. Hopefully brain adjusts this week.
Finished reading The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton Christensen
Finished reading The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward by Daniel Pink
16 friends, 8 plate idlis and vadas, 6 filter coffees, 4 bowls of gajar halwas and gulab jamuns, and 2 four-feet dosas and 1 paneer tikka in a single row banquet seating 😋
Finished reading all volumes of Hikaru No Go. Damn, I think I fell in love with Go since a week of starting # Item 50.
Finished reading Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith
Finished reading Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn't Food ... and Why Can't We Stop? by Chris van Tulleken
Finished reading No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
To a better new year!

Dec 2023 :

The year ended with me drinking amla juice in a lost new year game and ofc puking it all.
Wrote dozen postcards first time to friends for new year
Started with SSRIs first time
practising Palmer Method for handwriting letters
Finished reading A Brief History of Time
Got big red rose for vase
Finished reading The Soul of a New Machine. The kind of challenges that should draw people.
Finished reading Chip War
Half hour exercises after lunch in park is serotonin and endorphin booster
Finished reading Capital in the 21st century. Good macroeconomics and data analysis for world inequality
Went to Kerala restaurant first time. Vellayappam and Puttu, but Malabar Parotta is always my fav Kerala dish.
Went to Raja Ravi Varma art exhibition [gonna post in blog soon] and got miniature astronaut toy
Went to the park and Qutub Minar at night again, solo. 🌌
Love going to art galleries and museums 🥰

Books2023

Nov 2023 :

Finished reading Debt. Amazing anthropological analysis
Got Adept and Google IDX access
The math alarm is back again at 6 AM now. I need to solve five math equations as a captcha to stop the alarm
Got a large white Chrysanthemum. Yes, I occasionally buy flowers for myself. Item 61
Went to a Korean restaurant for the first time; Jjangmyeon, Sikhye, and Castella. Yes, I watched Korean dramas when I was in the hospital for months
Started eating correctly again. Mom will kill me if she hears I lost 10 kg in 15 weeks and went underweight. I gained one kg.
Got free GPT-4 subscription from OpenAI. Developer perks
Went to Qutub Minar at 9 PM with friends
Went to Eras tour film. First-time theatre solo, my review

NovImage