• Think like a Simulations engineer – the blogs will revolve around using simulation tools, mathematical methods, and schools of thought to realize robust, stable, and high-fidelity computer simulations.

• Observations from attending technical talks, workshops, and meeting eminent professionals.

• General robotics commentary – right from build systems, multiagent frameworks, and learning-based approaches

• My experiments with different reconstruction methods, gradual understanding of computer vision and SLAM

• Unix insider tips, and making the most out of your operating system and build environments.

Since this is the first blog in this setting, I will reduce the technical jargon.

Workshop: Systems for Machine Learning - ACM student chapter, IISc

A visit to IISc always reminds me of what Bengaluru used to look like when I was young, and how it should have looked if not for the population influx. I am part of the influx, so guilty as charged.

IISc being an epitome of poise and beauty :)

The premise of the workshop was to introduce and motivate active work towards developing systems that are able to handle large data workloads in real time. Imagine being able to run advanced detection models on an edge device which can be slightly bigger than an average fist.

Systems design has always allured me, and with the traction rigged towards machine learning and autonomous systems reaching an all-time high, there was much enthusiasm and curiosity to attend it.

The series was initiated by talk from Dr. Amod from Harman Automotive. With multiple large automotive companies under their belt, Harman had a unique position in being able to dictate a standardization on edge computing development for autonomous driving. There were several golden nuggets that I derived from his talk, namely:

• The general outlook of moving from Domain controllers to Zonal controllers in the context of ECU placement in a car. The idea is to simplify wiring, cater to special purpose hardware at specific zones and bring down the general BoM costs.

• The general trend in edge computing devices and their capabilities – right from Raspberry Pi Zero to a Jetson AGX Orin. The compute (FLOPs), quick access memory and vision accelerator support (Encoder/Decoder support) has expanded tremendously.

• Driver state detection models were very interesting indeed. Right from being able to diagnose the state of the driver (drowsy, alert, non-chalant) through the movements of their eyelids, body posture and respiratory motions to doing early disease diagnostics. There are enough interesting verticals which can lead to a better driving experience and safety.

• Also an interesting vertical was the MLSecOps and how would the data exchanged locally be secured and not something that can be easily tampered. There is a gradual shift from cloud dependent services to on-device services.

• There was a sneak peek towards what would turn out to be a hands-on session – Federated Learning.

Moving on, we had a deep dive session from Divij who gave a very crisp introduction to machine learning and systems developed for machine learning. If you are someone who works in the CFD space, you should take a look at their work with FastVPINNs. Divij also explained the nature of parallelism that is exploited through GPUs – Model and Data parallelism and gave a distinct and clear understanding where one can be leveraged over the other.

As part of my notes was the online textbook – MLSysBook which I am yet to read.

The final session for the day was delivered by Dr. Alka who was affiliated to Harman. She walked us through different quantisation techniques that can be leveraged in order to obtain optimal outputs with efficiency and reasonable accuracy. I have added some notes from the talk below:

• Need to explore LiteRT models to be able to reduce model size and run at a faster inference time. Would be perfect for specific object detection models on Jetson Nano.

• ONNX alternative – TVM. There is an option to perform graph rewrite for the specific hardware. ONNX already does a good job for Jetson boards, but it would be necessary to have an optimized graph for RISC-V or newer architectures/boards. TVM also has a ML based cost model incorporated which could help calculate the operational costs as and when the model gets deployed.

• Go deeper into Structured Pruning of models based on the understanding of the model parameters and the hardware architectures.

• Look at lighter GPT implementations – SpareGPT, DistilGPT and Tiny LLAMA models.

• Take a closer look at Horovod which draws several parallels to the good old MPI distributed computing method for CPU.

• Understand Paged attention and flash attention models. There seems to be more intricate thought put there to develop mathematically sourced transformer models.
  

I wasn’t able to attend the event the following day due to a planned farewell of my manager in Mysore. The final day of the workshop, the day started with a talk from Dr.Suparna on Foundational models as an OS.

The idea of having a standalone, specialised Operating system which was built and functions for a specific use-case has been an idea which had been on the back burner for me and a couple of friends. The idea of packaging all the essential components of a foundational model into an operating system was perfect and had a very novel viewpoint towards systems design. I had several takeaways from the talk, I will share a few here:

• Foundational models stem from the evolution of moving rapidly from task based scheduler to a transfer learned model to a multimodal optimized large language model.

• The idea of having the foundational model as an OS was largely championed by arbiters who kept running into shared memory models or having to move with tweaking priority queues and doing effective resource allocation and tokenisation.

• Reinforcement learning methods are data hungry, leading to accurate policies after ingesting billions of datasets with somewhat clear demarcation of the action and reward space. Foundational models were made possible due to availability of well curated and labeled datasets.

• The computational overhead between the nodes, LLM tokenisation, keyframe matcher can be translated well into operating system subsystems.

• The common lingo of operating systems have operational equivalence in Large language models as well.

• The kernel is largely kept constant, what changes is the software/driver layers that change between operating systems. Foundational OS will ride on the same principle.

• I need to dig deeper into AIOS from Rutgers.

• There is a lot of potential to bring out a foundational operating system in the robotics space. Given the real time kernel-like operational latencies and multimodal data ingestion, the computational overload between different process components can be greatly reduced.

I greatly admire Dr.Suparna’s works and her journey so far. It was inspirational to hear from a subject matter expert in Unix systems on how we could look to the future for operating systems.

We completed the workshop with some thoughts on distributed machine learning and federated learning. I had come across Federated learning a year ago, when we were discussing AI ethics and privacy conservation of personal/sensitive data with a friend. I was glad to see the progress that has been made so far in this field.

To better supplement our understanding, we worked on a client dataset which had masked key value pairs. The workshop did pique my interest and helped me think about different verticals that can be incorporated into my work and robotics in general.

Well, that’s about it for my first blog here. The next blog will talk more about a talk I attended in Differential programming, which reminded me of my course on computational/automatic differentiation and work in computational fluid dynamics.

Disclaimer: No GPUs were burned towards writing this. All written as an output of my tiny brain :)

This simple thought draws great parallels from a scene in the movie “Imitation Game” where Alan Turing exclaims the following:

“Of course machines can’t think as people do. A machine is different from a person. Hence, they think differently. The interesting question is, just because something, uh… thinks differently from you, does that mean it’s not thinking?”

Leaving aside the debate of whether a machine can develop a conscience or not, which I believe is misdirected, we could hark back to the fascinating and intricate question of how we could make the machine think?

Reinforcement learning, which has been a derivative of adaptive systems and has existed for sixty decades, continues to lure curious minds to explore and translate learning to machines. If you are an amateur like me exploring this domain, here’s my take on it.

Breaking Down Reinforcement Learning

Let’s break down the steps in context of reinforcement learning - State, Action, Reward and Value:

1. State

My current state is an encapsulation of my experience with stochastic systems, Monte Carlo methods, distributed and adaptive systems. While there stands no pre-requisite to get immersed with RL, a good understanding of the underlying system and stochastic numeric involved helps your understanding of the formulation. Build on the foundations of state estimation methods, linear algebra, probability and random variables, this would give you a head start.

2. Action

The picture below depicts the action undertaken in order to maximise my reward. (I am cheating here since in a traditional RL setting, I wouldn’t know a priori if it would lead to a gain) Your action is a mere optimisation - reduce the amount the content you are consuming - pick a book like I did and in tandem a study partner who is undergoing the same rigour. And yes, please set up a space just to perform the learning routine.

3. Reward

Rewards are personal, based on your own projections of your future state. I pick some easy ones as personal awards:

• A chocolate (sweet tooth!)
• Play squash or head out for a run
• Purchase things - like this book to accelerate my pace to reach the next defined state

Rewards can also be public:

• Give a technical talk to your work colleagues or community forum based on your understanding
• Have a vivid discussion with the experts of the field

4. Value

As the book mentions, value function is the hardest to quantify and formalise. Eating a chocolate - a low reward for your body could lead you to complete your pursuit of understanding the RL framework. Here, my personal bias is playing out, but it could be about deepening your understanding of machines and playing out the answer to Alan’s question.

Conclusion

Good luck with your learning journey, if you are choosing to pursue it.

P.S. You could spot a book on Combinatorics next to Sutton’s book. I am trying to rig more mathematics while I am pursuing this journey. I feel like a child prodigy who is being homeschooled due to a flawed and generalised learning structure. 😄

This narrative is a continuation of a previous post which can be accessed here.

It’s been several months since we last met. How about we jog through our memory together, shall we?

Highlights from the previous story:

Solo vacation of sorts.

Pressed the “Rewind” button in Auroville.

My impeccable “planning” skills

Wait, Karthik, these weren’t the highlights! Didn’t you mediate inside a cave for a week, fight a bear empty-handed, and dance with the mermaids.

Sorry to disappoint you, my dear reader, but no.

Also, if you are looking for any profoundness or insightful writing, I wouldn’t want to take another 8-10 minutes of your time. Press the “x” next to this tab and listen to this live concert performance from Adele.

….

You didn’t leave?

Thank you! Let’s get back to our story. Straight to the supposed “cliffhanger” first.

I carried a phone with me. India has been very progressive on the digital payment front, and my frugal blunder was saved face by a digital payment app that I had previously installed.

And that’s exactly how I paid for the tender coconut!

Though I must say, the interpretations from the readers right from trading a story for a drink to providing marketing ideas were generous. As most know putting money where the mouth is, tops all of these short-term benefits. :)

I skipped past this previously, but let’s talk about the two hours I spent in Auroville right before I headed back to my place of stay. There were three things on the top of my mind:

• People 👨‍👨‍👧‍👧
• Memories 💭
• Titles 🎓

Let’s address them one at a time, shall we?

People 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

I had always felt like I was never a people person. It took me an unnatural amount of time to get over this notion I had of myself.

Slow down, Karthik. What do you mean by a people person?

Were you not comfortable conversing with people? Did you feel insecure in the presence of strangers?

…. Are you asocial?

No, no, none of this. As the definition goes, people’s person is someone who is very outgoing and makes social connections effortlessly.

Based on all my previous experiences, I labeled myself to be anything but a people person. If any, I was more inclined to name myself as someone who was avoided by everyone around them a.k.a avoidant.

I had my rationale to believe this since I felt that it had been the case for me up until recently. My mind was mentally prepared to be ignored by every person I had ever met.

This wasn’t a forced action but an instinctive reaction.

One can train can their mind through several explicit methods, but it always was such an uphill battle to prance over this mental obstacle.

But, was this mental obstacle formed recently?

No. It’s like lego blocks, with each block strongly magnetizing the other strongly.

I remember very well when the foundations were first laid down.

I need to take you down memory lane. Things aren’t going to be very pleasant, I would recommend you to listen to a happy piece. (my favorite one, it always manages to induce a sense of happiness in me)

This harks back to my younger days. More specifically the early to mid-teens. My mid-school started with me being a demure and my high school digressed with that of a recluse.

All the experiences and the little dots that led to this transformation had been well etched in my memory like it was just yesterday.

I wrote a bit about my demure experience in the first segment of this post. Without reiterating much from that post, the sole focus point had been bullying which led to mistrust, solitude, and abstaining from forming any deep relationship with anyone who isn’t my family.

I wanted to run away whenever someone wanted to get closer to me.

What if they were just doing it with some ulterior motive in their mind? What if I was just a tool they needed in order to accomplish one of their goals in life? What if they took this as an opportunity to learn more about me to mock me further?

Every day was a struggle back then.

Imagine being the only soldier on the field with no weapon of your own against armies that want to go ballistic and employ every cheap tactic possible to bring your guard down and make you feel so little of yourself.

Unsurprisingly, I made no friends or acquaintances in this period. Back then, my only company during the mandatory school hours where I was being tossed like a ball among different ethnic groups, had been books. <3

And this has been my best friend up until this day and has held my forte through my frustrations, helplessness, and unfulfilling morbid thoughts.

Things started to take shape on a positive quadrant when I entered college. I wrote a bit more about this shift in this post about escapism. But I still felt that something was amiss. I was holding myself from forming a deep friendship with anyone.

Most termed me as a closed, shy, and stubborn individual. I was neither. I just didn’t want to open up to anyone around me. There were countless thoughts in my head but it was all just held there.

This pattern repeated when I started my master’s, but call it either the level of helplessness in a new country or meeting more diverse people which led me to shed a few of my boundaries.

I was able to add a few more to my circle and call them friends.

Friends who didn’t expect anything from me apart from my time and attention. My notion of ignorance bias didn’t leave me yet, since it managed to somehow deeply root itself inside me.

I still kept my distance.

Things did get better on the people front up until the pandemic struck.

During this time I read “Who will cry when you die” by Robin. It did help put the people around me in a better light. It helped me shed some boundaries with a few people I met who I am fortunate to call now close friends.

What’s the point of triumph if you’ve no one to share it with?

Jeffrey Archer in “A Prisoner of Birth”

Since then, like trophies, I have been collecting people in my life who would cry when I die.

I will sum up what people who I call friends in my life, mean to me in the words of Jane:

There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”

― Jane Austen

Why don’t we switch topics to something I have little to no idea about – relationships. Quite specifically romantic relationships.

Yes, yes!! It’s getting spicy now! :D

No, not so much. My cooking is far more spicier and seen much more. :P

Only the clueless can be ardently curious and inquisitive about things that stay as a piece of common knowledge to others.

Whenever I get to meet couples, which is not been a lot, I try to understand the psychology behind them trying to stay together in the first place. What was the attracting factor? How did they stay hooked on each other?

There were so many questions, but so few answers.

The best way to answer them is to set up an experiment which I later did. I learned more about human psychology than relationships through my experiment. 🙈

For those who didn’t know, I set up a dating profile of my own and also a template for others to set one for themselves. In the initial days, I garnered interest from my own friends who either liked the idea or ridiculed it.

While the idea in itself didn’t work out, the template was duplicated by more than 60 people! This is something very positive out of the effort involved.

What did I learn about psychology from this? Precisely this quote from Rumi:

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

Rumi

Let me recollect a conversation I had with a couple who are destined to be together and live for/with each other. During the initial stages of their relationship, they had sought my opinion on how they should proceed further. (What an irony right? :D)

I spoke to them along the lines of chemistry right from balancing chemical reactions with the right amount of reactants to finding the “catalyst” which fosters their relationship. After hearing my 30-minute lecture, they were far more baffled than they were before they asked me. :D

Thankfully they sought counsel elsewhere and are happily married now.

This particular incident got me into reading more about relationships and here’s my framework which is less chemical and more mathematical. :D

I am sure most of you are familiar with set theory. Let us assume the two people in a relationship to two set A and B. I am assuming monoamourous (involving two people) relationship firstly to simplify things and set the context.

Most of us are aware of the types shown in the above video. What would you term as the most ideal relationship for yourself?

Balanced has been a clear predominant in eastern philosophies, where the intersection of interests isn’t a null set.

Aligned is the one most people wish for, the more common word being “soulmate”. Mathematically it would be either A or B with some outliers.

Dominant and Segregated are the extremes to which no one would want to subject themselves to, but are sadly left with no choice. The mathematical implication is apparent.

Let’s leave “explorative” and “polyamorous” alone because frankly, I still have no clue about the ideology behind them. It takes immense effort, time and energy to maintain one meaningful relationship. I cannot see myself taking more in and dispersing the love I have from one to many.

If you ask me what would be an ideal relationship to me?

I would say any one of the above could be based on how the people treat each other during their relationship.

And with that, I am drawing the curtain on romantic relationships. Looking at how little I have to speak about them, you can second guess how many people I got to meet on these grounds. ;)

But it is all well set and done. With ignorance, we can achieve only so little.

Now that I know what is lacking in the first place, I can improve on that front. Until then I will continue to be a third-wheel and love guru to other relationships around me. XD

And perhaps, I will get to say the below quote to someone in my life in the future. ;)

“So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.”

― Paulo Coelho

Let’s end it here. My story stretched longer than I would want it to. Let me give a sneek peek on what’s in store.

Memories 💭

While the actor danced, he could find no mirrors, so he leant back to admire his image in the chandeliers

Scott Fitzgerald

Titles 🎓

“I am nothing special, of this I am sure.
I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.”

Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

to be continued soon..

My Newsletter is my way of communicating with this world around us. It would be nice to have you there.

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My grandfather had a tape recorder which was one of his precious possessions. Each and every day until he was bedridden, he used to switch it on and listen to the sound waves radiating from this apparatus.

A Tape Recorder.

(Photo by Dave Weatherall on Unsplash)

Apart from the cassettes that contained devotional music, he used to listen to the recordings of my voice. Right from me singing, uttering unintelligent things to repeating prayers. I don’t remember the songs or the prayers but I have managed to somehow recollect this rather hazy memory.

On similar grounds, I am also able to remember all the mythological stories that my grandmother recited to me. Memories tend to be long-lasting when formed with people who have had a deep and constant impact in one’s life.

Without much hesitation, both of my grandparents always boasted to others that I was their favourite grandchild, and this post is a dedication towards their love for this device and me.

I recognized the analogy between life, and a tape recorder within this green space in an idyllic environment. After a 11 km walk, I found this beautiful location to reflect and reminisce through my sweet memories.

Nature helps bring clarity to one’s thoughts.

How did I get here in the first place?

Answer to this is foreseeable. A long standing article wouldn’t be necessary if we arrived at “our” destination promptly. Reminds me of the following quote.

“It’s the not the destination, It’s the journey.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Eliot was inspired by Emerson and wrote “The journey, not the destination matters.” Now that we know our destination, let us walk through the journey.

Rewind ⏪

As we press the rewind button on our virtual tape recorder, we find ourselves to be transported back on this particular date: 14th September 2021.

It’s been two years since I had taken a vacation. As coincidental as things can get, on 15th September 2019, I along with my sister went on an Europe trip for two weeks. The trip [very Schengen friendly!] started in Aachen where I was previously located. Proceeding further to Paris, Annecy, Chamonix, Interlaken, Munich, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and bringing a cyclic end back at Aachen.

While this story warrants another series of articles altogether, one of the major thematic revelation to me personally was this: my sister was an excellent planner and enjoyed this process immensely. Hence my decision was sporadic. I should definitely ask her to plan this vacation as well. But, alas, she was the intelligent one, as she has always been.

Initial impression of Pondicherry.

For a change, she wanted me to get along with the planning for at least the first week of the two week vacation (Excellent planners always make the job so difficult for spontaneous wanders like me). Here is how I phased out my vacation:

1. First two days will be spent along with sister.
2. Remaining days can be planned spontaneously.

Now that I had an extensive plan phased out, all I needed now was a location. I had a close ended list of candidates which like my plan was very well thought-out. I chose Pondicherry after eliminating the other candidates due to distance to travel, cost and finally the most important factor – open to flexibility for a spontaneous traveller.

All I did for the next two weeks was to book my initial accommodation for the first two days I would be spending with my sister, and another Airbnb near Auroville for a day and finally the tickets for the onward journey. Work took the better of my waking hours since we are close down on some critical tasks for my two jobs. A lot was at stake for the two weeks workwise, and to the dismay of my sister, I planned so little for our little getaway.

Let’s progress to the day of travel. To house our first novel experience, my sister and I travelled in a cabin during our onward train journey. We have never travelled in first class in a train and wanted to give the best kickstart to our journey together after two years.

Once we reached the station, we boarded the train onto the coach named “H1” and settled down onto our seats. The first thing both my sister and I noticed: this isn’t a cabin!! We shelled a bit of coin to get a normal sleeping bed equipped with an AC. That’s atrocious! Few minutes later, a couple entered our berth and continued to explain to us that we occupied their seats.

Panic sprang through our spine. What if we boarded the wrong train? To our relief there was an additional coach way ahead named “H1A”.

Perfect! We settled onto our seats which again wasn’t much of an upgrade from the previous one. Just when we started to get over the feeling of being cheated, a group entered our berth and proclaimed that we have occupied their seats.

Not again!

We approached the travel ticket inspector who asked us to proceed much further forward section of the train. I thought to myself “Is he asking us to sleep in the engine room?” :D

• 

• 

And to our delight, there laid private cabins!!

A cabin which housed four individuals within its vicinity. Our co-passengers were a couple who never stopped talking to us until bedtime. They spoke about movies without breaking a sweat! My sister and I being patient listeners, heard to every one of their little experiences and inserting flavour to our conversation at the right moments.

Since we were travelling to the same destination, Pondicherry, we exchanged our itineraries. I for one had absolutely no plan whatsoever.

The two days progressed so quickly that I didn’t have a moment to pause and reflect about the same. We managed to strikethrough everything that Pondicherry or more beloved called as “Pondy” had in store.

We singed on top of our voices, woke up early to almost catch the sun rising, ate at exotic locations serving one of the best foods and most importantly created memories that would hold traces in our brain as long as we exist in this beautiful world.

While most of what we did was spontaneous due to the irk I hold towards holding a travel checklist, our serendipitous weekend getaway was the most rewarding.

Discarding a comment on my height, we are so minuscule compared to the magnanimity of nature.

It was time to bid adieu to my sister as I continued my vacation alone for the week ahead.

One can derive great joy from doing several things. But, I realized during my vacation that, one can derive great joy by doing nothing. Several times we utter too many words, display too many emotions and mark down too many goals but still end up wanting for more.

To me this was an important revelation. I shuffle through a lot in work, and immerse myself through it that I don’t exactly appreciate the little things that happen around me. It is so easy to take things for granted, and one cannot feel the importance of an entity until it is lost.

I layered my reflections for the next few days as I stayed in Auroville, Chithambaram and finally my home city Madras, bringing my solo trip to a close.

Contemplate 🧘🏾‍♂️

To anyone who knows me too well, they do know that I introspect and spend more time in solitude. I do enjoy the company of others but it taxes me quickly. If I were to encapsulate the next few days into a quote, I will choose my favourite one.

The best and most Beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched – they must be felt with the heart.

- Helen Keller

I will break down my train of thoughts into different sections to cater to different “wheels” of life reflected at different checkpoints of my journey.

Walk 🚶‍♂️

Walking is my favourite physical activity. I push myself to the extremes when it comes to challenging myself on the grounds of walking. Last I challenged myself was a hike of 36 km which I accomplished in 7.5 hours during my time in Germany (more on that here).

• 

• 

And I was up for another challenge. Get to Auroville and back to my Airbnb with just water as my replenishment. The walk was 22 Km long when circled through, and hence I felt that it was extremely doable. I absolutely discounted the scorching heat during peak summer, my physical fitness levels and my frugal mindset.

How Frugal?

I left my wallet in the Airbnb. Yes, when I challenge myself, I push myself to the extreme. With my camera, phone and a bottle of water I headed on my planned walking action plan. One of reasons why I consider walking to be my favourite is the following.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche.

And I agree to the above quote wholeheartedly. My mind cycled through several moments of my life while recognizing the need to stay in the present. I only took a break once I reached Auroville. And here is when we reach to the start of this post. Yes, I reached the location where I reflected about many things in my life, trying to answer some of the questions which have rented my mind without paying a rent.

I spend more than two hours here during which a good twenty minutes on a call with my dear friend and Employer, Rishabh.

Auroville apart from inducing an intentional, radical and free thinking society also provided free and fresh water. I refilled my bottle and explored a bit more, venturing into restricted sections as I walked through another route unknown to most (including myself, thanks to my curiosity I found this pathway :D).

• 

• 

And while heading back, I started to feel the aftereffects of intense heat. Thanks to the tender coconut seller on my return journey, who replenished my hydration levels to normal and hence clearing my head from any form of discomfort.

How did I pay for the tender coconut?

You will have to wait to find out. :)

Let me leave you, my reader with a cliff-hanger (not really, if you think through this).

The other three sections to cover, which I reflected upon are:

• People 👨‍👨‍👧‍👧
• Memories 💭
• Titles 🎓

Let’s press the pause button on our tape recorder. ⏸

See you soon with the next one! :)

My Newsletter is my way of communicating with this world around us. I send one every month, adding some fun bits which led to my post or give a sneak peak into my day to day life.

Monthly Newsletter

You didn’t understand a word I typed, right? Neither did I :) And that is just how I would like to introduce India to you if you don’t know much about it. There is a wide spectrum and combinatorics of cultures/traditions/languages/customs that even one of the millennium problems seems more comprehensible compared to its complexity. Trust me I know how chaotic it is. So much so that they had to include secularism and diversity into my country’s constitution! If you haven’t read this document, no worries, about 90% of Indians haven’t read it word to word which includes me. It might sound like a stretch, but more than 30% of us don’t even have a slightest clue of its preamble (questionable metrics stated without any underlying proof).

Now, now, enough of this rather stale introduction to my country. Let’s get to the fun bit. In a few words, I will retrace my footprints across India.

Madras

The smoothly tiled surface upon which I first crawled was laid over a region which used to be called Madras until 1996. The government then went haywire (still mad about it) and renamed it to Chennai. Not to brag much about my home city provided I don’t actually own it, but it is considered as one of the safest cities in India. Ask me how safe it is? Well, personally I never felt threatened primarily due to my local language skills and keen disinterest in local affairs (politics, religion and social conflicts over celebrity worship). There are some locations I totally love in Madras (it will be Madras in my mind, bear with me) :

• Mylapore : This is one of the primary location which strikes my mind. Mylapore stands as the testament of the Tamil tradition and values. This is no way to demean any other city equally contributing to the identity of Tamil Nadu per se. Whenever I visit Madras, I try to fit in a stroll within Mylapore to my to-do list. Anyone who closely knows me, knows that I spend hours admiring architectures and art in general. A stroll without a plan along Mylapore would be a treat to your eyes with all its vivid lights and excellent architecture. But if you don’t keep your eyes on the road, it could be an easy roadkill. Indians aren’t the rashest of the drivers but perhaps a little too impatient. Being a pedestrian throughout my life I wish motorist can distinguish between what accounts to be a pavement and what doesn’t. My mother has lived about half of her life here so it is always a trip down the memory lane for her and more so for my grandmother. There are several shops here which have been passed down over several years and stood despite the test of time.

• Beaches : Despite being a Metropolitan city, Madras has a 19 Km coastline. Marina Beach which is about 6 Km long still stands to be second largest urban beach in our world and a specular highlight of Madras. Throwing the vanity metric out of the window, I find Bessy beach or Beasent nagar beach to be more well maintained. I cannot blame the municipality entirely for the ill maintenance of Marina as it serves as a hub spot for several protests and political rallies and what-nots.

Bessy sure has a different vibe. The above picture has a story of its own to tell. During my bachelor’s (a very long time ago coming to think of it), we planned early in the morning (read 10:30 a.m.) on a Sunday to play football together. “We” here constitutes to my close friends from college. We have thrived to stay in touch virtually despite the test of time. In our four years of togetherness in college, this was our only “physical” meetup. We usually hangout in Nungambakkam (“New York of Madras” without the skyscrapers and holding a promise to blow a hole in your wallet). To describe the setting, it was peak summer back then which roughly translates to this : a skin exposure to beach sand for more than few microseconds can obliterate your feet. We played for a few minutes despite the challenge imposed at us. Rest of the story is best restricted to private chats. 😉

• Nungambakkam : There are several nostalgic moments for me personally here. There isn’t anything unique about this place if you are a tourist. You will find stores of many international brands if you are into shopping😑 (but why would you want to purchase something which you can find just anywhere is something you must ask yourself). We met at Nungambakkam to have “communal” food, bowling, billiards and gaming in a very “calm” and “composed” environment (please note the sarcasm if it isn’t apparent).

I didn’t spend the entirety of my childhood and teenage years in Madras. A good chunk was spent in an oil based country and the other two years in a hostel which was arguably in the remotest part of Madras which makes it less accountable. My experiences in Madras can very well be drafted to be a 250 page book, let’s move on to another location.

Guwahati :

Did you notice the date stamps on my photos of Guwahati? I owned a little digital camera from Canon back then which offered decent quality of photos. You can guess how millennial I am while I reminisce the good old days of photos taken solely by a camera. My family owned a Yashica to capture moments of my childhood. The photos were captured over a film and developed later to physical photos. I really loved this concept of only capturing important moments to retain memories. There was no need to take excessive photos to showcase online one’s present state of mind or quench their vanity metric.

I bagged a research fellowship for a month in IIT Guwahati which is situated in the Northeast of India. For someone who has never travelled much east, I was vested (If you noticed the pun, here is a 🍪). I don’t exactly know how I remember this but I took a domestic Indigo flight to travel here from Madras. Here is the fun bit - before me on the check-in queue was a young rebel. It was common knowledge that Indigo is very strict on their luggage restrictions. If they mention 25 kilograms, you did better stick to it by the nail. This young rebel before me was creating a ruckus by calling the ground staff names for a mistake she had committed. Her baggage went 4 kilogram in excess! This young rebel was patiently handled even though she was completely at fault. After some confrontation which was consuming everyone’s time, this rebel reluctantly paid for the excess baggage. The unexpected bit was when this ground staff uttered sarcastically at her, “Thank you for flying with us. You have made my day.”

IIT Guwahati was situated understandably away from urban civilization. It chose to reside along the humble Brahmaputra river. A place of learning must exist sufficiently away from clamour and distraction. But what stayed unwarranted in my mind back then was that it was also an intrinsic beauty. Let me tell you this : the campus is huge, H-U-G-E. So huge that there is a mountain (pretty small one) residing within its premises to hike upon. Though I spent most of my waking hours inside the lab, I thoroughly loved walking around the campus early in the morning and during late nights. The campus was sufficiently empty as regular students were on a summer vacation.

Let me tell you why this particular building where I worked took away my sanity! Do you remember the staircase in Harry Potter which keeps moving? Well, imagine if they were fixed but ended up leaving you equally perplexed. The lab I worked in was situated on 2.5th floor 😶 and there existed several ways one could get there. Being an “expert” with directions, I always resulted in getting lost here. Some sympathetic researcher would always redirect me to my lab!

During my second weekend here, my colleague wanted to have a sneak peak of the real unfiltered Guwahati. As visiting students of IIT, we had a formidable perk. Free bus ride to the city (frugality++) !! Unbeknownst to us, there was a huge crowd awaiting to board this bus. Free ride took a whole different meaning that day. Luckily there were many buses to the city. To add to the mix these buses catered only to IIT folks which resulted in lesser incoming traffic (passengers) in further stops of the bus. We disembarked near our trek’s starting point. The crest of this trek is actually a very famous temple. I anticipated a never-ending horde of people to crowd our trekking trail. But to my surprise, there was no one on this trail. This was primarily due to a well established roadway which leads to the top. There were several public transportation options and some private cabs to ensure that this temple remain accessible.

To an acute enochlophobian (fear of crowds) this was a pure delight. We prodded along this trail which simply put was just climbing a never-ending flight of stairs. To add a complexity quotient, these steps were unevenly laid. One can never take their eyes off the trail! This temple was a bit disturbing to me back then for it had a designated spot to decapitate domesticated animals. No hate against their culture and traditional practice, but it was traumatising to see bloodstained walls and loud bleating of goats. Of course, I didn’t want to witness this act. After spending a few hours observing the crowd and purchasing some goodies which were unique to Guwahati, we proceeded to the city centre.

A peculiar contrast I observed among the common folk in Guwahati is this - they held a high regard for personal grooming and fashion. Be it a street vendor or elderly, everyone were so well dressed! Of course, you do know about my personal grooming from here. I didn’t feel embarrassed, but surely radiated the vibes of an oddball. I felt like a tourist in my own country. The best thing about public transportation here is that you can disembark just anywhere, not just bus stops (could lead to very ghastly consequences coming to think of it). Before we proceeded back to our shell, I purchased some Assam tea after hearing some jaw-dropping reviews from some colleagues. But it ended up being not up to the mental standards that I had set myself. And there ends my only Northeast-Indian expedition.

To be continued….

I failed to realize while conceptualising this article that I have much more to write when it comes to illustrate my adventures in India thus resulting in a continuation post. A little spoiler: sequent post will expand on my trips to Coorg, Dhanushkodi, Madurai, Kanyakumari and a secretive location (undisputed part of every Indian college student’s unachievable plan). I cannot particularly weave an interesting story about my brief visits to Jaipur/Udaipur, Kodaikanal, Trichy and Thiruvananthapuram.

Upon a suggestion from a Greek friend of mine who can very well be mistaken to be Japanese for her knowledge in anime and Japanese culture, this series was ideated. I request a short comment from my readers mentioning their favourite travel destination in India or their home country. This could lead to some very interesting conversations!

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Wow, that was an extremely long sentence!

A challenge for you: Try reading the first sentence without taking a breathing gap :D

Now that we have learned the necessity of breaking sentences at the right moment, in order to accommodate for a balanced breathing and impulsive memory processing. Let us move on to our next location.

Before the grand reveal, why not start with a hint?

In English, the literal equivalent is “The Virgin Princess”. It serves as the southernmost point of landmass of India. And most importantly, if you wake up early enough, you can witness one of the most beautiful sunrise 🌅

Kanyakumari - Indian Land of Rising Sun

The tagline is originally credited to Japan which is called as “Land of the Rising Sun”. Perhaps some day I get to visit it to witness the same with my own eyes. Until then, why don’t we continue our story with a place which is equally magical if not more!

April 10th, 2019

I returned to India from Germany before I started my final semester of my masters with a plan of a well deserved rest and a place to unwind. And my family came up with the perfect plan!

Off we crusade to the southernmost point of India. As long as I don’t have to make the itinerary or the course of action, I always say “yes” to any trip. Planning a trip is extremely laborious and my sister is always ready to volunteer to go through this painful and strenuous process.

If someone wants to go deep down into something they enjoy, we should just let them get along with it and watch the spectacle unfold.

And that is exactly what I did! I just let her do all the planning right from the minute we left our home until we got back. As most of you are quite well aware, I am not known for making travel plans. I just choose a destination and let fate take the upper hand 🙈.

We unload our luggage into a shanty which is centrally situated early before the sunrise. After resorting to routine hygienic care any sane human must resort oneself to, we proceeded to the sunrise point to get a first glance at our dear radiant Sun. While the rest of my family settled down close to the banks, my sister and I probed further to get to the limiting point.

And there we found it!

We walked steadfastly along the rocky and clunky path to reach the zenith of this serpentine trail. To our dismay, it was prepopulated with many onlookers. With second largest population in the world, this shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Most of you could second guess what we witnessed next, crediting to the love we Indians have towards food!

Oh Yes! Merchants and salespersons selling ornaments and refreshments at the end of the trail. It looked like a marketplace altogether. To add to the flub, there wasn’t a single trash can to dispose off the mess they made. Where can you find tranquillity here, where there was a constant murmur of politics, social status and religion and what-not!

Peace people, peace. Hear to your own inner voice for once! 🍀

Embracing this memory, I would like dedicate a poem about “Words Unsaid”. This is second poem that I have written, the first one never made it to the public eye.

Words Unsaid
Words, we utter too many or too little,
Every word we murmur under our breath,
Every word we holler to the whole wide world,
Or the words which are shunned by our undoing,
Every one of them wield an inexplicable power.

Words have lost its quintessential presence,
Wasted by the wielder,
Flinching unforgiving pain on the wielded,
Visual imagery overpowering over this fast-paced world,
Words would never suffice to convey emotion or thought.

Long were the times when,
A simple letter can put a smile on one's face,
Words winning hearts, gaining appreciation and love,
Words melting even the iron-clad hearts,
Every relationship forged through exchange of beautiful words.

Are we living in an unyielding world now?
Perhaps writing too much conveys too little,
One needs to translate their thoughts succinctly, 
For no one has the time or the energy,
To deeply understand the underlying placement of each word.

I always held “words” on high regard thus justifying my stance of being an aspiring writer. It has presently been predominately used to spew hate, utter foul or profanity. When words can be used to induce love, compassion and gratitude, why use add a negative connotation to it? The answer to which stands as a mystery to me until the very day.

Enough of lamenting, Karthik, you have a story to complete.!

Right! After basking/baking ourselves in the radiant and rather red-hot sun, we proceeded to have a sumptuous breakfast. Sumptuous not monetarily but rather satiating in the quantity.

South Indian breakfasts can be incredibly range from being unbelievably light to gosh-I-cannot-take another step!

Let me know in comments if you need any recommendation between these extremes or if you are brave enough, any food which admonishes the two extremes.

With our stomachs filled to the brim, we took a “boat cruise” to the island which hosts one of the two statues that you had seen above! I am not religiously nor spiritually inclined, but this is a must visit for those who have such an inclination.

Your initial test towards spirituality is the ride to the island itself!

No kidding! The “cruise” is filled to the brim with people who would take every moment to bring a disturbance into the order of things. From taking a photo for every inch that the cruise advances forward to sharing food and refreshments in the most immodest sense. If this is the route to spirituality, abort the mission and take the quickest U-turn.

I never understand the obsession that captivates people to indulge in restricted activities. It’s disrespectful to someone’s ideology and sense of decorum.

There was a clear notice on what are the basic etiquettes that visitors need to follow, in order to maintain the decorum of the place. One of the easiest things to follow, was not to take the photo of the idol or at restricted places. What I observed there shouldn’t be a surprise to you, my reader, and hence my previous rant.

From snapping photos to talking jarringly loud near the meditation halls, I have seen it all! We couldn’t take it after a point of inflexion, we got ahead of our schedule and proceeded to Mathur aqueduct which was circa 50 km away from Kanyakumari.

We spent close to two hours walking around and getting swindled inside by witnessing this beauty. My mom bought baby pineapples (so cute that you don’t want to slice them down :( ) from a local vendor there that we shamelessly devoured. So sweet!

My memory is rather dicey, but I do remember visiting a palace. 🏫

Aha! Not just any palace, but the Padmanabhapuram Palace! (Thank you for saving me just in the nick of time, DuckDuckGo 🦆)

Sadly we weren’t allowed to take photos there. But we spend very good quality there, indulging history and cultural inerrancies of the Malabar customs. What I do remember vividly, was the women empowerment was a bit more pronounced there than anywhere else in India.

If you aren’t aware of Nangeli’s tale who took it upon herself to protest against an obscene and submissive law, you should give it a read. It’s a disheartening, but also an empowering read!

Poovar - Can it get any more lushy?

The following day, we made our way to the ever so spectacular and gorgeously beautiful Poovar.

Am I exaggerating its beauty?

Yes. Just a little. Cannot help it when I am a hyperbole and somewhat dramatic. ;)

But if in your mind, this place also feels exceptionally spectacular, kudos to you. Yes, it was and hopefully will continue to be.

My sister being the amazing negotiator that she has always been, managed to half the cost to travel in one of these bass boats for close to 4 hours.

The overall trip was a bliss.

We got to travel to a secluded beach, eat in a floating restaurant and to add to the awesomeness, travel through creeps (the hanging ones, not real creeps :p).

All I remember when I retrospect now about this location is my close association with nature. 🍊

There was something strangely tranquilizing and serotine inducing about the whole place that I want every one of you to experience it in their lives!

I am going to leave this story with an open ending :D

I will be on vacations for the first two weeks of October in two exotic locations in India. And thus, this series wouldn’t be closed just yet ;)

My Newsletter is my way of communicating with this world around us. I send one every month, adding some fun bits which led to my post or give a sneak peak into my day to day life.

A Spoiler: I included a verse from my first poem in my current newsletter ;)

Monthly Newsletter

The story revolves around my quarantine experience in India followed closely by my time in Oman. Only time will tell if there would be another circumstance where I would be subjected to a similar setting. Let’s for the moment, hope that the likelihood of occurrence to be very low.

Place : Bengaluru, India. Date : 23rd June 2020. Time : 6:0o p.m.

As I proceeded further, away from the dreaded rungs of rickety noises exchanged within the meek capacity of the immigration authority. I half-hoped that my life would be relatively easier as I proceeded closer to what looked like the exit gates.

**But, wait, why would I spend the next 3 hours in this claustrophobia inducing space if I was so close to exiting it?
**
And here lies the twist.

The authorities wanted to show you the essence of freedom and almost immediately shove you back to your cage. Have you seen trained pets? How they despise being left out of their cages?

That is because they are well aware that they will eventually be put back, sooner or later.

And I was instilled of this rather quickly as I proceeded to collect my baggage.

“Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.”

 Ray Bradbury

Since I chose to spend the next 14 days of Institutional quarantine in a Government institution thanks to my sister, I was directed to an “exclusive” waiting room.

Just a quick reminder of my current state.

Exhausted due to dehydration and lack of food.
Disconnected with the outside world.
Mild headache both due to internal and external factors.
Lost in current proceedings 
Apprehensions on what the near future holds. 

I was frantically crying inside for any form of nourishment of sorts. Since it had been when the C21 was starting to gain momentum and attention, none of the food outlets were open, not even an automatic kiosks to purchase water bottles. And to add to the misery, I was basked inside a room with equally clueless individuals.

Being a naturally reserved person who kept his thoughts to himself, I didn’t utter a word for the next one hour. I silently observed the dormancy which occupied itself within every habitable space of this rather larky and dim lit excuse for a room. There was a constant murmur among acquainted folks, followed by wave of silence.

The governing authorities finally remembered our presence after escorting every other passenger from our flight to their bus rides heading to their respective hotels. They handed us special forms that need to be filled to get us C21 tested. And I let out a huge sigh of relief (not externally, but internally) celebrating too early.

Mistakes were made that day, they say. And how true were they, in that regard.

While filling this form, I was brigaded by a single question. The response to which was conflicting to me, since I belonged to both sides of the coin.

I have always tried to be self-reliant, timid to approach anyone seeking help. Without the accessibility of the internet, I quibbled with my inner voice to formulate the question I could ask the person who was seated within the social distance validating vicinity.

To my absolute surprise, the person next to me responded promptly with a smile. (I could see her cheekbones stretch which I assumed to be a smile. Hard to guess with double mask and a face shield)

There was something so welcoming about her that I initiated conversation with her. I did most of the talking for the next two hours, given the fact that I haven’t had an in-person conversation ever since I landed in India and I was craving for one.

We became friends in very quick time. She told me all about her life in Maldives with her husband, her aspirations to do a MBA and how slow paced life had been there.

There was something so magical to hear someone narrate their lives with enthusiasm and a sparkle in their eyes.

I requested her to give me her phone to contact my family. She obliged readily and stayed by my side until the very end. After we were done with all the nonsensical formalities we were subjected to, in order to mint money from us. We parted our ways.
**
What was this formality you ask me?**

Glad you asked. There was an external lab/agency to perform a Swab test to sense the presence of C21 within us. After 6 hours of spending time in close vicinity of to all likely positive subjects, we were made to reconfirm our probability of turning into C21 suspects.

Are we the lab rats now?

No, it was a precautionary measure.

But were we isolated?

Again no. We were made to quarantine, comfortably riding our cabs on three times the regular fare.

Is this a tacky method to revive the economy?

Though the answer is blatant, I did rather not comment on this.

My friend who kept me sane for the past two hours not only booked a cab for me. She made sure that I onboarded my cab safely and helped me load my luggage onto the car trunk.

And did I also tell you that she ran back and forth to spot my cab while I balanced by heavy luggage on wonky undersized trolley. What she told me next when I boarded the cab, was something which was etched in my memory.

“Karthik, reach safely! I am so pleased to have your company for the past few hours. It felt like I was talking to a brother I never had. Keep reaching new heights.”

A person I barely made a connection with, went all her way to make sure I reached safely and I sat there dumbfounded, overwhelmed by this kindness. I learned the power of selflessness and forming human connections on that very day.

All I could offer her before getting onto my cab was a packet of cookies I had purchased for my sister from Germany. She didn’t expect anything from me, and accepted this small token with a smile. I can never forget the cosiness I felt with her, like I was with my own sister.

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.

Albert Pike

We had exchanged numbers but I lost touch with her after a few days. Wherever she is right now, I wish her the best and cannot thank her enough for what she had done for me that day. On retrospection about the same, I believe that I am good at making friends, but not in maintaining them.

I reached my place of stay after 2 hours of cab ride. The cab driver sprouted about current events in Bengaluru along with a breather of how common folk were suffering from the proceedings. The cab service provider clutched 30% of the cab fare as their commission, and given the lockdown restricting movements, it has very hard for cab drivers to make ends meet.

I was able to spot my sister from a distance, waiting for me on her scooter. It has been more than a year since I had met her. I maintained my distance respecting the quarantine norms and the fear of not transmitting it to her if I carried any traces of C21. She gave me a sim card and few edibles as I marched toward my allocated room. The picture below was taken when I laid on my bed after having my dinner, more than twelve hours past my previous meal!

I was under the impression that exhaustion would have taken the better of me and I wouldn’t be able to spring up from my bed at least until late afternoon. Astonishingly, I was wide awake at 6am. Perhaps sleeping in an unfamiliar environment with thoughts constantly quibbling over minor concerns led to this. I had a hearty breakfast after which, I was informed that I couldn’t stay here anymore.

They had planned to turn this institution to a relief centre and just forgot to inform me when I settled in yesterday. Thankfully, my sister had a quick fix and I was shifted to another institution where I spent the next thirteen days. For the first week there, I didn’t have access to the Internet.

My only contact with the world out there was through a call with my family. My daily schedule was clearly monotonous: wake up, have food, read a few saved articles and watch Scrubs and then head to bed. In order to break this cycle and inspired by reading her works, I started writing my first post in Tex.

Writing the first one had such a domino effect. I wrote and rewrote the first three posts in quick time, organizing all the deliverables supplementing my post in different folders. All I needed now was internet for it to reach the public eye.

Within this enclosed space, there existed a television which was mounted onto the wall. I used the black screen to project various moments of my life, one at a time. I didn’t streamline electricity into this device to bring it to life with colours and stories illuminating or elucidating others’ lives but rather a object to focus and formulate my thoughts.

There were several moments where I sat with an empty mind, quite possibly discounting everything and anything happening around me. I interacted with nobody while I went to dine-in within a hall meant to serve food to all of us there, nor did I have any special requests to make my time comfortable there.

My writings were my best companion for the first week there apart from occasional few minute visits from my sister. Luckily, she brought some novels for me to indulge in, essentially escaping from my own inner voice.

The next week proceeded in much faster pace, thanks to the demands of beautifying my post with design system offered by WordPress. I also spend some time improving my application documents for my time was abundant but my will non-existent.

After these two weeks, I returned back home. I had changed considerably for the better or the worse. Only time will tell which of the two had been most likely.

Place : Bengaluru, India. Date : 27th March 2021. Time : 3:3o p.m.

And there I was here again, the most unglamorous location in Bengaluru.

Looking at the distance, you would hardly account for it to be present in Bengaluru.

To the uninitiated, it is the Bengaluru Airport.

I was heading to Oman to spend two months with my dad. Non-pandemic times, this would have been fairly straightforward. But my life has never been short of shortcomings or unrequited drama.

And you, my reader, please take a short break before you proceed further.

Events unrolled predictably until I landed in Oman. And then the “thrill” began.

By the predicable stance, I meant that my flight (“Oman Air”) landed late by an hour. It was an unpleasant prediction, given that they always keep their promise of being the most punctual airlines. But since it involves me, everything must unroll in disorderly manner.

As soon as I entered the terminal, disembarking the flight which carried us with little turbulence, I saw the horror unfold right before my eyes.

Queues as long as my lessons in life presented itself before my eyes. No one knew which queue lead to where, as there was no authority or placard as long as my sight could guide me.

Have you ever stood still at a single space coordinate and let time wade past for an hour or more?

My answer here is absolutely yes, without a spark of excitement. And to add to the turmoil, I didn’t have a sim card with me. Oman’s Airport had excellent Wi-Fi for those who had a sim card. Well, the authorities merely forgot to include inbound passengers who would not possess a sim card. Must have slipped their minds.

My dad was waiting at the other end unbeknownst to whether I had landed in the first place or not. Another one hour passed as slowly as it could possibly move. It felt like the whole world around me was in slow motion, and every step I took forward was spaced at twenty minutes, minimum.

Finally, two authorities in traditional attire glided past the amassed crowd. But, they weren’t here to catalyse the process but to be selective of whom they would help to end this misery. The authorities came to identify and escort the following target groups:

1. Families with or without children.
2. Women.
3. Foreign nationalities.
4. Omanis

Of course, I didn’t belong to any of the above categories. What was more surprising was the fact that, any nationality which wasn’t predominant among the mass assembled there was considered foreign. Blatant stupidity if you ask me, we were all foreign to this country in the first place.

Your worth is measured against your nationality is a lesson I learned that day. I proceeded finally to the next serpentine queue which was directed towards immigration control.

Believe me when I say this, I haven’t seen anyone lazier than these bunch of authorities. I don’t want to be tased by them, so I will leave the rest to your imagination. What should have taken 45 minutes given the length of the queue, took two and half hours.

To add to the mix, they sat there in their comfortable, cozy chairs pointing fingers at us and having the time of their lives. Finally, my turn arrived and after a few seconds, I was finally free.

Or was I?

No, I wasn’t. Another gigantic line lead to RT-PCR test facility to detect the presence of C-21 following which I received a wristband to track my moments in this country. I had to sign an agreement to indicate that I will spend the next 7 days in insolation in a hotel. This whole ordeal took another 1.5 hours.

After all this, I finally collected my luggage and proceeded towards the exit. And there I could see my dad completely exhausted after waiting on me for the past 5.5 hours.

He dropped me at a hotel facility and continued home.

Wait a minute, this doesn’t make any sense. Why do I have to spend the next 7 days in quarantine in an expensive hotel if I could just stay at home with my dad. Believe me, it made no sense to me as well. But, this was the protocol we had to follow to enter and stay in this country.

Another seven days of isolation and after showing negative C21 results, I was allowed to return back home.

What happened in these seven days was magical indeed.

I remember the day, time of interview and exact time when I got to know of the results, exactly in my mind. It is etched in my memory.

The day was 31st March, 2021. My interview for the part-time position was at 8:30 am. Raksha, who worked previously for the advertised position had referred me for this position. Though I have had several interactions with Soundarya who was my interviewer, prior, it would be my first face to face interaction with her.

I didn’t sleep for a minute the previous night. I had no idea what was causing these jibbers or nervousness. This wasn’t certainly not my first interview, I had walked through many. Familiarity with the interviewer was strangely fear-inducing. When not in check, my overthinking capability compound infinitely.
**
I was completely convinced that I flopped this interview big time, just a minute after it ended. But surprisingly, I converted this position. First, I was completely baffled. I read the email several times. I couldn’t just believe it. **For me, the most important thing that day was a moment of realization that someone out there wanted to take a risk on me apart from my family. The money didn’t matter, what mattered was the trust bestowed on me.

I returned home after spending my time in quarantine. What was unknown to governing bodies of Oman is the fact that I was a stay-at-home kid for the next two months as well. I wasn’t house arrested, I just didn’t know anyone there apart from my dad.

What kept me company every day while I was there was my part-time work. I indulged in work whenever I found pockets of time. While I wasn’t working, I was spending time with my family.

It felt like things were returning to normalcy and I wasn’t my past self who was self-deprecating for everything unpleasant that had occurred to me.

Soundarya and my family have helped regain myself in ways I would have never imagined. I would always be grateful to them as they were my reliable sounding board. I wanted to end this series with the following quote.

Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A world of optimism and hope. A ‘you can do it’ when things are tough.

Richard M. DeVos

I have changed for the better now. I am not perfect, but I am certainly happy with everything that has been happening around me now. I am now with people who understand, and care for me. Even though my circle has become extremely small set of friends, I am more than satisfied with what I have.

The following write-up is ingrained in my memory.

**My sincere hope is to leave this past behind, after carefully extracting the memorable bits and progressively moving forward in life. I have had the opportunity to work and learn from such amazing, loveable people.

I have had the fortune of finding such gems for quite some time now and I hope to continue to discover more as I lead through this journey of my life.**

Lastly, please, I have had enough quarantines to last a lifetime. Let me be, Universe. 🙏

If you managed to read this long and verbose ~3100 worded post, you certainly have the tenacity to read my short emails in the form of a newsletter supplementing my post. I send one every month, adding some fun bits which led to my post or give a sneak peak into my day to day life.

Monthly Newsletter

If this is the first time that you are reading my blogs, I pity and empathise with you. You must have ventured through the darkest form of web to get here. To the regular readers, no empathy can save you. It’s almost common knowledge now that I spontaneously plan to visit a city purely out of my instincts.

On 19th May 2018, right when I got off my bed and threaded to morning chores a sane human would resort to, I checked the next train leaving to any destination within my semester ticket’s vast applicability (did somebody just say a “free” ticket?). Within the expanse of the next hour, there was a train to Hamm and so began another adventure.

In hindsight, I should have at least checked the duration of travel from Aachen or the last train back home. But did I do that? The answer is in the tip of every reader’s mouth. I arrived twenty minutes before the train departs to just get familiar with the train and it’s “atmosphere” (wait what?). This was a solo travel for obvious reasons, nobody in their right mind would do this. Or maybe I haven’t found anyone who would sign up for this yet (convergence for this search tends to infinity).

The initial plan while I boarded this train : head to Hamm (primarily for the ham/hamm joke, wait till you hear the Essen one). What was oblivious to me then is the very fact that it would take 3.5 hours to reach this destination! While I comfortably settled down onto my seat, I crossed out my checklist for this travel :

• A bottle of water, enough to remain hydrated but not more than what would make me wreck my shoulders.
• A “light” snack comprising of bread and butter (made of vegetable fats as told by my German roommate).
• My dear camera with enough fuel for it to last the day and an empty memory (sorry for erasing your memory, it was crude but necessary).
• Something to keep myself entertained throughout the onward and return journey.
• An internet connection.
• Have more than a laughable phone battery of 48%

First things first, I switched to “Ultra power saving mode” for my phone though my phone was as good as dead. I searched emphatically in my baggage for some solace. Perhaps there was something which would enforce my survival, something, anything. And there rested that “golden ticket” wrapped neatly in the laptop compartment of my bag. Yes, you guessed it right, it was a research paper and two pens. You might as well have asked me, “Why not have a casual chat with one of your fellow passengers ?”. Pffftt, the answer is going to be amusing so I am going restrain answering that.

Anyways, for the next hour I was skimming through the paper to get a brief idea onto what it would like to convey, after which I was wearied out. Reading in a train needed some training, which I would religiously undertake the next semester. I did what I usually do when my mind wanders, I started doodling on blank side of the page. After close to 90 minutes, my curiosity took the better of me when my eyes were transfixed onto the telescreen displaying the station arriving next. Announcer’s voice pompously announced the arrival of “Wüppertal”. There it is, the battle cry : “This is Sparta” vibes. I don’t exactly know why I was excited to disembark here, I believe that his excitement which lacked for any previous station played a huge part to it.

I pave my way out of the station which was an embodiment of a typical station with much less glamour. You wouldn’t want to spend a minute within the station without a reason. And behold the sight before me, a backwerk (affordable coffee shop, great hot chocolate if you ask me). What followed the backwerk was a never ending street (a mere exaggeration) bounded on both the sides with shops. The ones I had no idea existed or the ones I didn’t really care about. After strolling for a bit, navigating through the crowd, I came across a “pristine” sight.

The museum stood majestically before my very eyes - what a sight to behold. My feet involuntarily prodded to the entrance of this museum (Von Der Heydt Museum). Being a frugal person, the entrance fee made me drift back the direction I had entered. Yes, yes, I know what you will be trying to convey to me, money should be spend on experiences. I agree with you now, but back then I would have mildly disagreed with you.

Nudging this little thought back then, I proceeded to explore Wuppertal. I ended up at the museum entrance despite my various manoeuvres. Either I was making circles or the aura broadcasted by the museum was very alluring. The former seemed more plausible, so I proceeded in the other direction and there was an acute slope.

AN ACUTE SLOPE

Right in the middle, slowly exhausting me with every step. Up until the very boss of it all..

After expending every ounce of energy left within my grasp, I finally reached the high ground. Before me, this graffiti stood tall. Was this extraordinary climb worth it ? Yes! Who wouldn’t want to treat their eyes with such a graffiti? Jokes apart, the very reason for this climb was the Schwebebahn (floating tram) !!! Sounds terrific right? Hear the original name “Einschienige Hängebahn System Eugen Langen”. I am going to leave you in the dark regarding its translation. All you need to need to know is that it is exquisite.

Let me tell you something which would blow your mind. It didn’t cost me a dime to travel by this beauty! If I remember correctly I used this service about twelve times in a single day. To add to the excitement associated with this train, here are some pictures I had clicked.

Fair question to ask : Twelve times seems like a stretch, why take it so many times in a single day? The answer being I am fascinated by little things in life. Especially when they do not burn a hole in my pocket. But this wasn’t my only reason, the tram stopped at stations which were very very curious! In the middle of a park for starters. One of the stations was located close to my life’s sole purpose.

All my life, I wanted to be accepted into a secretive cult. Think about this, you are doing something so exciting that you turn invisible. No identity in this society whatsoever. No visas, border control or stupid laws. But alas, this was just Vienna house (a hotel for the rich). With head sunken, and a new purpose in mind I headed out. To add to the travesty, I came across a statute of a person doing a handstand with his briefcase. I am not going to entertain a trailing thought associated to this statue. As I explored further, I loved Wuppertal much much more. There isn’t a particular reason why I loved this place. After such a blissful time, I headed back to Aachen with a satisfied smile and 46 percentage battery on my phone.

As I plugged in my earphones and played my favourite playlist comprising primarily of Taylor swift and Eminem. Two and half hours back to Aachen, I recollected every little road which I mistook to be the right turn, unsung landmarks in this city and the floating train. Nothing beats a day without the internet. I for one share a love-hate relationship with the internet. I wouldn’t know if Hamm would have been this exciting, McDonald’s served them anyways (bad pun).

It took me ~8 hours to write and edit this particular blog. I hope you enjoyed reading it. To add to my curiosity and reduce reader’s reading time I will convert this to an audiobook version. Stay tuned while I figure out the nuances of audacity. The audio version is available below.

Right!

You might be wondering, why is the word Anniversary chosen in the first place? Has India experienced a recurring event which needs to be celebrated? Maybe it has, but the reason to name it this way is to celebrate the first anniversary of my website.

Very, very exciting indeed! Cannot imagine what it was like a year back. 🎉 It feels extremely befitting to write a post on India in India.

What goes around, comes around.

Let’s cut short the philosophical backstory and get forward from where we left off previously.

Goa - Every student’s unfulfilled adventure

Oh yes. I felt just like you, my Indian reader. Goa was a far-fetched dream for me until I made it there. To my readers from other nationalities, an analogical location is ideally where the generation before you, didn’t want you to visit. If you are one such person, who visited a place despite a strong opposition from the previous generation, here is a cookie to you 🍪.

But if you haven’t been able to, here is a dark chocolate for you 🍫.

The dark chocolate is to downsize the dopamine shot you would get by reading my account. Goa is a land of dopamine shots overloaded. Of course, there are others who go exclusively to take other shots, but we were already uplifted by the natural beauty there to a higher state of mind.

We made our pilgrimage plans to Goa well before our graduation. To be precise, we made it there 3 years after we first planned. I did something which had a snowball effect leading to our Goa trip. I just booked the tickets and asked my group to join in. And surprisingly almost everyone turned up!

We landed in Goa and realized the first flaw in our plan. It’s pretty inceptive by the way. Yes, you are a smart one, we didn’t have a plan in the first place! Here we were, walking away from the Airport in the off-peak season (April), towards what could likely be a bus stop (you never know until you see one).

Pro tip to all frugal travelers like us: never book a cab from Goa Airport. They will reap you clean of all the budget you had planned . But Pro Pro tip: have a basic plan of line of action. The following four days were one of the best days of our lives. We switched living spaces every day, rented a car and drove based on our intuition and actually survived (well, who would have guessed!).

We drove even after the sun went down, watched the fishes waddling close to us deep water and sat by the beach like it was the last day of our lives.

Despite travelling on a budget, we went to one of the best casinos in India (not technically in India), shared some exotic meals and danced our heart out while the music reverberated with our soul.

Coming to think of it, I did something in Goa that I have never done in my life and probably never will. I gambled a minimum denomination of money in a casino which resided inside an anchored ship.

Wanna take a guess on what game I played?

No, it wasn’t Blackjack where the probability of chances were low or any other game where a simple mathematical intuition can convince you otherwise. I played the roulette, once. I bet on red colour which had a 50% probability of winning. And, I won the money I bet. I earned back my entry fee. That was good enough for me. 🥳

For the rest six hours, apart from the time we spent at a food counter to shamelessly devour what seemed like an infinite set of edible food. I sat and observed how effectively the casino was running its business. I stood and observed every game and understood how they were designed to trigger basic human emotions and was backed by psychology of money. It was very interesting exercise to say the least. I highly recommend this exercise to every one of you.

Only when I gambled, was I able to understand why it never appealed to me. . As many might know, one isn’t allowed to use their phone to take pictures within the premises of several casinos. And there wasn’t a single clock to indicate time.

They essentially want to make sure you have no levity to cheat nor hold a collective conscious of time trickling away.

Smart move by the staff, but my friend was smarter! He managed to click a snap of the poker chips which I have attached for you to see. I cannot go into the exact details the level of disgust I felt when money made people lose their minds but that is a story for another time. There was so much I learned within the extent of this casino, but I will shift gears to another interesting story

You will be surprised to know what we managed to do on our very first day. We rented a boat for half the price (thanks to the insane negotiation skills developed by my MBA friends) and went down under to snorkel. To be fair, it wasn’t snorkelling, but rather deep water diving, let’s just keep it between us. You may recollect from my post on “Escapism that I had a dripping fear when entering deep water.

But, I went for it all and managed to stay the longest under water. Pretty significant achievement that I am very very proud of. After which we did skin dipping (well yes, but actually no) along the shore before heading back to grab some Goan cuisine.

Let me warn you first. Goan cuisine is different. It has an immense Portuguese (Ola!) influence while partly blending it with south Indian cooking. Vegetarian options are fairly limited. I am sure seafood options were great, but vegetarian Goan cuisine wasn’t to my liking unfortunately. None of them stuck out to me or had a lasting impression. We switched cuisines the other day and went to a Hippie’s place.

Of course, none of us looked like a Hippie. Does that make us non-Hippie Hippie as we were fairly distinctive to those who were present there? I will let you answer that for yourselves. The décor and arrangement had such a calming effect on us. We felt very astute, composed and other-worldly as we settled down. I had arguably one of the best mocktails that I had ever had, here. I don’t recollect exactly what I had but it sure was heavenly. The whole setup had such a relaxing vibe. After having such a transformative change, we did what you would expect us to do. We headed to a club to dance our heart out. Plot twist: Only we couldn’t enter it.

Seven stags allowed to enter a club is extremely unorthodox and a very deadly sin in our country. We did what was the most logical next step. We started hunting down this alley for a sports bar. To our dismay, there wasn’t a single sports bar! Finally, a bouncer had some sympathy for us and let us in during the “Happy hours” (not to mention a bribe we had to pay to gain that sympathy).

For folks who don’t know what “Happy Hours” denotes, it’s simple. I am going to explain it to you like you are five years old (that’s how my friends explained it to me). During these hours, the prices are slashed to half and it is meant to cater to the heaviest of the drinkers. Here is a problem. Non-alcoholic drinks were priced at the same rate. It was basically an unhappy set of hours for non-alcoholics like me. But the important thing is that we had fun playing billiards and dancing to random music by a very ill trained DJ.

I vividly remember the night before we had to catch our flights to get back to our home cities. We just stood ashore and reflected at the excitement we felt for the past four days. Every one of us knew that we wouldn’t be able to experience anything remotely close to that for a very long time to come.

We stood there, immersing ourselves to the sound of waves rhythmically striking the shores. Not a word was uttered between us.

And our fears turned out to be true. We weren’t able to plan a reunion until now.

to be continued….

I will conclude this series with my enchanting travel to Kanyakumari along with my family. Due to my work commitments, I wasn’t able to complete this series as planned.

I thank Rishabh wholeheartedly for gifting me the following book and celebrating this anniversary with me. He is the one of the best to work with, and I am so grateful to have found him. Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without Soundarya, who introduced me to Rishabh.

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Unadulterated display of brilliance is when one is able to deliver their thoughts succinctly. Poets and lyricist bring out this flair with relative ease. Since I am part of the long form writer cult, our brilliance is quite lossy and veiled.

The global problem we as humans are trying to optimize is: Reaping great value from the little time we are offered. Ever so often, we lose sight of this and spiral down into an escape. I for one is no way unusual to this behaviour. By conveying my story, I would like to conclude that we tend to jump from one escape to the other barely scathing reality.

Our lives can be split into different portals embodying a particular escape or a subset of different escapes (a crude viewpoint of a lifetime). Before I dive into my tale, there is a question I want each of you to answer for yourselves?

Question: Why are we so comfortable to trickle our time into “unworthy pursuits” in the form of entertainment or a distraction? Why is a distraction so alluring?

To each one, there would be a different answer. While reading “Deep work” by Cal Newport, several of these vulnerabilities I had, started quibbling my mind and each preconceived notion began falling down like a domino. To list down my reasons towards engaging in Escapism:

• I wasn’t self-aware of my own abilities.
• Fear of venturing into a domain which I could be ridiculed for.
• Witnessing someone fail in a particular venture and reassuring oneself of a mirroring effect.
• I convinced myself mentally that I am meant to only divulge in this escape. This is a dent to self-confidence and my perception towards self worth.
• Many of my peers found common ground in my escapes.
• It was relatively easy. And I believe this was one of the foundational blocks to perform shallow work.
• “Paradox of choices” which I first encountered here.

Referencing to words from an article I wrote recently,

This was the year when I chose books as my medium of escape, because reality was quite scary to live in.

- “I’m Tired of Everything”

Throughout my twenty five years of existence in this world of ours, I was able to point fingers at different escapes of mine barring infanthood. We are currently living in a period where there is an array of options to stay distracted. Despite this, we are fairly less content with our daily activities. Due to the overwhelming nature of this, we are left famished from the paradox of choices. Breaking the line of thought that follows, here is a verse from my favourite lyricist.

They told me all my cages were mental,

So I got wasted like all my potential

- Taylor Swift (Song “This is me trying”, Album “Folklore”)

To disperse the intrinsic boundaries set by Escapism and extending the textbook definition in my own words, Escapism encourages a person to dwell in a fantasized reality delimiting their abilities. There exists some congruence between procrastination and Escapism despite being disjoint phenomenon. The end result accounting to irreversible loss of time.

Without further ado, I will articulate my different escapes and as usual, split them into three segments solely based on the period of their occurrence. On a concluding note, I will propose the steps I have taken to battle escapism.

First Segment: Childhood

“Run, run Lost Boy,” they say to me

Away from all of reality

- Ruth B. (Song “Lost boy”, Album “Safe Haven”)

My memory isn’t very well developed to be able to recall exactly what happened in this period. Much of it is hearsay from my family who have had some really interesting stories to recall involving me. Connecting the dots, I was merely a lost boy who never stopped running. Or to paraphrase it better, I made sure my loved ones were on a high alert.

Having a very poorly developed immune system, majority of my childhood was spent in hospitals and sick beds. I used to rattle in starkly noiseless nights, developing either a high fever or some other sickness which needed rampant attention.

My sickness served as an escape from a normal childhood. I don’t have any memory of playing with toys, other children or throwing tantrums. I do remember the crying. I was uncomfortably hydrophobic back then and rarely completed my meal. My family had a hard time, be it managing my sleep schedules, eating habits or having a good night’s sleep.

Adding to the mix, I was a taciturn and remotely silent and shy. Whenever I asked my extended family what do you remember the best about me:

• Everyone remembers about my hydrophobia, pretty strange that people always associate to a singular crummy trait.

• I used to question everything and had a very tangible belief system. (I still question everything, some things just don’t change)

• I utter very few words, but they are either brutally honest or unexpected. They felt that I was not very social but listened very keenly when anyone tells a story or a life experience.

I always lend my ear when someone tells me a story or a life experience. To the younger me, it served as an escape and now it accelerates my learning and reduces the time I need to spend to research more about it (this definitely depends on the authenticity of the person). Apart from some hazy highlights, this part of me is rather gloomy. I have heard that through hypnosis, we can unlock some of these memories but I am sure I wouldn’t gain much insight apart from my fascination for anything and everything sweet (I can safely say that this is a maternally acquired trait :D )

Second Segment: Tween to Teen

The worst things in life come free to us 

And we’re all under the upper hand

- Ed Sheeran (Song “The A team”, Album “+”)

If you haven’t heard this song already, I would urge you to give it a listen. It expands on an extreme escape: Drugs. I am not trying to belittle or glorify anyone taking drugs. I understand that it is hugely circumstantial, but once you spiral down this, very few are able to reach the surface again.

One is accountable to self on why they would undergo this action but this is something that I would never subject myself to. No matter how painful a memory is, I will handle it with my full conscience and not develop a trance state where superficiality trumps. To anyone who does take drugs (barring medical reasons), please ask yourselves why you would want to subject yourself to such extreme form of escapism? After all, as soon as this “high state” fades, you must continue living your life. Not an advice, it is important to realize the intensity of your actions.

Now getting back to my story. I remember the first computer that me and my sister had received from our parents. It was a Pentium III single core, Windows 2000. Other specifications of this computer are quite hazy in my memory. I still hold a certificate I received for holding the “first place” in creating a PowerPoint presentation 🤷‍♂️. Honestly wouldn’t consider that to be an achievement now to be proud of. But there entered the next escape in my life.

I particularly enjoyed programming in Logic which was rather simplistic. The first game I played on our computer was Dave. I wasn’t particularly good at this game, nor am I now (died in a few minutes🙈). I moved to different genre of games as years passed by, until I reached a limitation. A computational one. Our computer wasn’t able to keep up with the current trend. Apart from this sufficiently monotonous routine of switching between these games which only resulted in a better hand eye coordination, this also had an adverse affect on my eyesight.

Supplementing well with this escape was binge watching movies. Movies can very well be synonymous to an altered reality, nothing exempting documentaries/biographies can be replicated in such an orderly sequence. Seeing the mass appeal of movies, I sometimes feel that we are more inclined to witness and find ourselves in an altered reality rather than just accept life as it is. This explains the celebrity worship and overindulgence of oneself into their personal lives.

I am sure most of you have heard this quote included in the play “As you like it” written by William Shakespeare.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

Why try to shadow an actor, when we already are actors in our own play? Apart from this, I had a brief escape with music while playing violin and affiliated theoretical music learning. But this didn’t last quite long.

All fun and furore was cut short once I entered high school. Entering a remote residential school with the only objective of having a foothold into a premier institution left little room for pocket of distractions. Despite the apparent goal-driven environment, I was sufficiently allured by namely one escape which got me head over heels. Provided you haven’t guessed it already, it would be reading non-academic texts.

Prior to this, I had an on-off relationship with books. I often read fantasy novels, but never went overboard with other genres of writing. Call it immature requite, fantasy provided a glossy ramification of a rather predictable world of ours. During the discourse of my high school, I ventured into mystery, thriller and biography. A rather dull and predictive study routine was well complemented by thrill and excitement that these novels had in store. I don’t particularly recall any other portals of escape I fell into.

Third Segment: Adulthood?

Tell me something boy

Aren’t you tired trying to fill that void?

Or do you need more?

Ain’t it hard keeping it so hardcore?

- Lady Gaga (Song “Shallow”, movie “A star is born”)

According to the Majority act implemented in India, eighteen is considered to be the commencement of adulthood. According to the global definition of adulthood, one is termed to be an adult if they are self-sufficient, independent and responsible. For anyone subjected to Asian upbringing, there is a very palpable difference. Am I truly independent in my decisions? Am I self-sufficient? Do I take the full responsibilities of the causality of my decisions? The question mark following the title stands as the fortification of this ambiguity.

My peers played a significant role in the next two escapes I chose to dwell into for the next four years of my college. The two escapes namely : football and gaming. My stint with football continued until the very end of master’s. I can tell with surety that, I have safely distanced myself from these two escapes now. Football or gaming doesn’t excite me anymore. Coming to think of it, I believe these escapes have a circumstantial motive behind them. My friends had ingrained knowledge in these two activities which served as a magnet, attracting me towards them (opposite poles attract, given they are accommodative to the values one holds dear).

The football matches were telecasted very late in the night (read early morning of the next day). The next day following which was usually sullen due to the lack of sleep. Football was predominant in our everyday conversations and gaming more so. In hindsight, I observe that every one of us were magnetized to certain popular pivots towards discussion. This was an accumulation problem, common interests bring individuals closer, but these pivots evolve over time. We move to different mediums of escape to express these pivots. Gaming on the other end provided a medium of escape to achieve and experience plenty of fantasies that isn’t humanely possible.

To add to it, there were very limitations in these altered realities. The common debate of “whether videogames invoke violence” is controversial. I stay neutral regarding this, largely due to the fact that this depends on the upbringing and environmental exposure of the individual in question. To further justify my stance that escapism is purely circumstantial, the compulsive form of my distraction evolved once I moved to Germany.

And all those things I didn’t say

Wrecking balls inside my brain

I will scream them loud tonight

Can you hear my voice this time?

- Rachel Platten (Song “Fight song”, Single)

Cal’s “Deep work” affirms my association with nature. Turning to page 146 of this book, he provides factual evidence onto why it is supereminent to recharge one’s energy in a natural backdrop during their downtime. I have previously written extensively on my various solo treks, but the concrete reason why this form of escapism was important for a functional brain with a propensity for deep work was reinforced to me by Cal.

Prior to this, I was baffled by the therapeutic effect that exposure to woods had on me. I always found myself to be relaxed, calm and reassured after venturing into the woods. I realized in retrospect that many major decisions in my life were taken after deep introspection in the woods. I am someone who is very sensitive to noise, so a silent expedition to the woods always served my purpose very well and helped me concentrate better. Much about my escapes in Germany have been detailed in my graduate series, and I don’t want to reiterate them here.

Our minds evolve in enchanting ways. I am not the same person now, compared to a year before. I have embraced two distractions (writing and reading) currently to be part of my routine. It is debatable to label them to be distractions, since they directly contribute to my end goals. My justification partly holds due to time I spend towards engaging in these activities. After some contemplation, I have accepted that the notion of a distraction-free existence is utterly impossible to achieve (unless one is a sage). But we still have the power to channel our minds to objectively choose our distractions and escapes.

Following are the steps I have taken to hold myself accountable of my nonconstructive time and optimising it appropriately. These are purely experimental and are very well subjective to changes.

• I check the duration of time I spend on my phone at the end of each day. I feed this data into a table in my Notion workspace. My current average is 48 minutes.

• I have allocated utmost four hours every day towards writing. Be it this article, emails, responses to messages or tweets.

• I allocate three hours every day towards reading. Be it articles, posts, a book or a research paper. I don’t resort to mindless scrolling on LinkedIn and Twitter anymore.

• If there is an activity which requires my immediate attention and can be completed in a short span, I implement it right away.

• I allocate approximately three hours towards any visual forms, be it watching a video or a lecture or television.

Being a detracted human, I don’t hard-pressingly follow this routine everyday, but I try to be in close proximity to this schedule. Now that I have published it in my blog, I will be more accountable to my actions. What serves as a huge inspiration in developing this schedule is a superposition of following two sources :

• I am currently experimenting with GTD (“Getting things done”) by emulating this template developed by Soundarya. I would highly recommend you to explore her website, if you haven’t already. It is a treasure trove containing productivity hacks, neuroscience, her life experiences and much much more. Her writing laid the foundational blocks for my writing journey and I have written close to 42,000 words over the past eight months in my blog since then.

• “Deep work” by Cal Newport. I was first introduced to Cal’s works from this blog post. I am yet to explore Cal’s other works, but I can already observe vivid changes in my thought process despite being just halfway through the book.

I wanted to “reward” anyone who has read until the very end with a photo from my childhood (unless of course you scrolled to the very end without reading , that’s rude! 😐) . This is my first article containing stories from my pre-adolescence. I felt that it would be fitting to have my contrasting, younger alter-ego’s snap. You can very well ignore the supporting flawed statistics in the right, it adds no value to this post. 😀

To the regular readers, please expect two more posts to be bombarded at you within the end of this week. I have been writing three posts concurrently as a part of an experiment. The results of this experiment will be shared shortly.

Stay tuned!

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