Excursions

Last week, I was on a work trip to Chennai. I have been to this town before, but never spent any meaningful time here. It was either during a packed schedule or during a layover en route to places like Pondicherry.

The schedule this time was different – I had a free workday, which I wanted to make full use of. So I decided to take an auto to Elliot’s Beach and walk down Elliot’s Promenade.

It had rained throughout the day, and the weather had cleared slightly as the evening dawned. I had forgotten my AirPods at my hotel – and I could not have been happier. I got to enjoy the place in its most natural form—the wind, the sounds, the absence of the hustle and bustle that comes with a beach in India.

I spent a good couple of hours roaming around the empty street, drank a couple of filter coffees. Walked down a wooden walkway straight to the crashing waves – I couldn’t have been happier to see that, given that I didn’t carry any extra shoes with me.

It’s a place I would love to spend every evening at. At the same time, Chennai is not a city I can ever settle in. So the evening was a one-off, but I carried back many memories with me.

At the start of every year, I read posts from people where they set goals for themselves. I love the theme, but setting goals or resolutions doesn’t work well. I am not a stickler for goal tracking.

Recently, I read a couple of posts where people put out a list of their hopes for the year. Latest from mei. This inspired me to pen one for myself. I thought I might struggle to create such a list when I started writing this. It was surprisingly simple when I put them in buckets - self, health, relationships and interests. So, here we go!

1. Write more than I did in 2023 - target 365 posts
2. Read one book in a month - target 12 books
3. Publish one short story
4. Find a medium that helps me be social on the web
5. Find a place for music in my life again
6. Make a journal entry at least once a week
7. Keep stories on my website updated with one new photo every week
8. Go on a date with my wife once a month
9. Go on a play date with my daughter once a month
10. Family dinner with my wife and daughter once a month
11. Take one picture of my daughter and one of me & my wife every week
12. Meet my two friends circle once a month
13. Inspire interest in Curious Bee to create again
14. Find and connect with people whose ideas resonate with me
15. Improve physical fitness by walking 5 days a week
16. Improve mental fitness by meditating 5 days a week
17. Do Pranayama and Surya Namaskar at least 2 times a week
18. Take care of my face
19. Achieve better work-life balance, minimize life during work
20. Learn to cook roti
21. Visit a cafe alone once a month
22. Speak up my mind, even if it disappoints others
23. Learn to use the calendar to structure day and week
24. Learn to use my smartphone better for reading and writing

I accept it’s slightly late to publish such a list. But I have already been working on a few of these. Plus, it’s better late than never.

Friday evening began promising and then just fizzled out. I had planned many tasks but couldn’t get through to the majority. One big reason is that I am shit tired. My time at work is hectic. Worse, it is chaotic. So, each day leaves me mentally exhausted. Today was no different.

Not that I work long hours. Just the daily grind of finding clarity amidst the chaos, finding the right answers and the way forward sips the energy and drive from the non-office hours. Friday’s are worse because there’s the unspoken promise of recuperating through the imminent weekend. So, I simply give up on all the plans and sway along with my wandering mind.

Today was no different, as I signed the day off. With the hope that tomorrow, I regain the drive and cover for the time I lost.

I watched three movies over the weekend. I don’t usually do this, but after a hectic week at work, I had to give myself some relief. Two of the three movies were absolutely (and surprisingly) brilliant. Another one was just a mindless filler.

The first was 12th Fail. Such an inspiring story told in a simple, no-nonsense manner. In today’s phase of over-produced, over-dramatic, loud action movies, the plain narration was a treat. There was no ear-splitting background music and no unnecessary slow-motion effects. The life the movie was based on already had enough drama that it didn’t need any additional masala. Plus the music from Shantanu Moitra was mesmerising, especially the track Bolo Na that plays in the film. A beautiful, uplifting movie that can be watched with family, something that’s rare these days!

Next, we watched Migration – an unplanned rush to the theatre with the only intention to spend quality family time. And we did. A light, colourful movie with moments of hearty laughs. Of course, with a bucket of popcorn and coke. I always feel refreshed when my daughter has a wonderful time in a movie theatre. Watching her guffaw at the silliest of the jokes brings a big smile to my face. Today was no different.

With this much of the weekend spent on entertainment, I still had time for myself, for writing and lots of reading. I must be doing something right. I have a theory, but I am not ready to share it yet.

The last few days have been extremely hectic at the office for me. I want to get hold of things, but there just are too many threads to look after. I need some system of sorts – I know prioritizing and time-bounding the tasks has helped me in the past. Plus I have come across so many useful systems for getting more done.

But I, of course, still need a system that works for me. I am starting small – stitch a list of tasks, merge a few to shorten it, and finally get them lined up to be ticked off. My only concern at this point is I am adding a lot more tasks to the list than I am getting off of it.

My hope was things would settle down in a couple of days. I am afraid it’s not going to correct on its own. Tells me something is inherently wrong with how I am managing stuff.

Back from a week-long vacation, the first thought I had when I logged into my system after a couple of days rest was I must have missed so much. I wasn’t wrong, of course. My feed reader and timelines were full of unread posts. I did what any sane mind should do - I marked all items as read and started fresh.

It’s very unlike me. I tend to skim through the list and keep things to catch up on later and discard everything else. I simply discarded everything this time. I have learned from the past. I rarely catch up. The list stares back at me the psychological pressure rising with each day until I eventually mark everything as read.

I pre-empted that this time.

One entry missing from the list to handle this time was my email inbox. Surprisingly, HEY has that covered brilliantly. Nothing that’s not of interest reaches my inbox anymore. After a period of indecision on the utility of HEY, I am hooked to the service now that it has solved my email problem.

Every friendship day, me and my family spend time with our friends. Meet them to relive old memories. Individually. This year, I decided to spend the whole day with two of my closest friends – my wife and daughter. We visited a children’s museum and had a blast playing and having fun together.

We had a service person visit us today – the plan was he would take some measurements & quote the price for the service. I’ve never met a service person as techie as this guy. Laser-based measuring tools. An iPad Pro for drawings, taking notes & quotations. Of course, with a Pencil.

Impression was made. The objective was achieved.

After almost a month of chaos, I sit at my desk on an evening with nothing eating up my brain. Nothing too urgent. Or Demanding. I like this sense of calmness, this feeling of being idle. It’s this hollowness, the lack of thoughts, that birth the words in me.

Otherwise, I am busy drowning those thoughts in guilty pleasures. Scrolling meaninglessly. Reading, but not really reading. Binging on YouTube videos. I do that with the hope of feeling relaxed. Instead, all it leaves me is feeling futile.

Every time I find a book enjoyable to listen to, the number of steps I walk increases. Or the time I do house chores for. I love putting the headphones on and listening to the story progress. My current listen, The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz, narrated by Derek Jacobi, is one such book. With a good intriguing plot and wonderfully involved narration, I am having so much fun listening.

As a result, I am walking a lot more and keeping my home absolutely clean. A welcome side-effect.