Technology Overload

Let's call it out in the beginning! Here I am, sitting in my favourite cafe and ranting about technology overload on my laptop. Hilarious! I deserve no sympathy. 

Winter is pretty much here in England and it is a cold one! My partner and I have been spending a lot of time indoors and sadly, in front of a large flat-screen TV. In addition, I have been working on my laptop and at the end of the day, reading on my phone. I am ashamed to admit that outside of cooking, walking, and grocery shopping we have been 100% dependent on technology. More accurately, on screens. The short days and long nights have added to our inactivity recently. Even doing yoga involves my laptop now! 

It has been interesting to notice what happened to me in just three weeks of excessive screen time. My attention span has shortened considerably, my productivity has decreased, and my sleep patterns aren't looking good at all. In fact, I feel like I am living my life in a strange state of limbo where days blend into each other and nothing much is achieved on a daily basis. When the screens are finally switched off and I am in bed trying to sleep, my head bursts with thoughts. These thoughts then give rise to emotions and goodbye sleep, my old friend! Bad means I don't feel fresh the next day. 

Another interesting thing that I have noticed is the use of screens to escape my inner voice. It's almost become an unconscious habit where I will do anything to get in front of a screen to avoid the inner Jahnavi telling me to do something. Even as I write this, I am tempted to check my Twitter feed, have a peek at Whatsapp, and randomly read start a new book. 

In a strange way, I am screaming for some inner peace. As strange as it may sound, there is no apparent reason for my inner turmoil except for the fact that my brain needs constant stimulation to the point of exhaustion. I am no longer living in the now; instead, I am living a double life! One online and an inadequate one offline. 

Even as I type this, I know the answer is to practice mindfulness and/or meditation. To switch off the screens before bed and whenever possible during the day. To be in the now! To enjoy my surroundings, to be grateful. Why does it feel so difficult to do though? Let me try setting aside some time next week to do some of these things. I will rant to you the result. 

Resurrecting My Blog

I haven't been ranting into the void much lately. That's because my life has turned upside down and then been set right again. I have to say, this rebirth has been very enlightening. Yet, the most important lesson I have learnt from all this is, being an adult is hard! Is this how the adults in my life felt when I was a child? We had to put our trust in them blindly though. Terrifying!

Does anyone else feel like they don't know what they are doing and life seems to be passing them by? I miss the days of fun and fantasy when I was at school, and everything seemed possible. I could just reach out and touch it, my hopes and dreams, my ideal life. Now, I feel like I don't know where I will be next year and guess what? This year is about to end in less than a month and a half. 

Let me describe to you what I thought would be my ideal life. When I was in school, I thought I'd finish university with a science degree and get a cracking research job. I'd meet a man from a similar professional background and we'd get married. Then, I would wait two years and have two little girls. I would do yoga and feed my kids a balanced diet. I would slowly climb up the ladder to Chief Scientist and retire happy. Just kidding! I wanted to be a Bharatanatyam dancing astronaut! 

So what does my life look like now? I'll tell you. Let me stop laughing first. Okay, okay! Here we go. I am totally lost about what I want in life. I am shocked at how powerless I feel. Some days it feels like a challenge to even figure out what I will eat for three meals. I did meet a wonderful man and he is a great source of support in my life, but we have inadvertently ended up in two different countries. Last year's lockdown has changed my view of life completely and I am strangely comfortable with the instability I am currently experiencing. I have to admit, I don't like missing my partner all the time, but it makes our meetings all the more special. Oh, and I crochet my own clothes sometimes! 

So I didn't end up as a dancing astronaut or a scientist mother, but would I have it any other way? The answer is a resounding no! I have my beliefs challenged every day and it makes me do things that were previously out of my comfort zone. This helps me find peace even in the most turbulent of situations. I realized I was waiting for life to happen to me all this time. I was living, doing, and saying only what I knew I wouldn't fail at. In the last year, that has changed radically! I am not worried about failing anymore. Okay, let's be a bit more realistic. I am willing to try things that I may fail at. 

Instead of a dancing astronaut, I am a crocheting nomad. Haha, win, right? My new vision is to travel, own my own business, and have plenty of quiet time. The only thing I would like to take from my old fantasy is yoga. Let's add that to the mix. One of my aims is to blog regularly a.k.a. rant into the void more often. Even if no one is listening, I may like to look back at these posts one day. Signing off from Bath, UK where I am visiting my partner after a solid, turbulent, and exhausting year of long-distance. 

Jahnavi💓 

     

Book Review: Setting the Table

Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. Danny Meyer is an inspirational personality, no doubt. He was definitely 'born for business'. Growing up in a business family, he keenly observed his father's successes and failures. European food culture and hospitality had a profound impact on his outlook to life and business. He worshiped his father even when his business and marriage was failing. It is very touching to read about his relationship with his parents. Food was his place of comfort. He had the best of European and American food available to him. Reading about it will surely make you hungry. I advise people to sit down with a snack or after a major meal to read this book! 
How Danny got into the restaurant business is an interesting story. He tried many other professions before his entrepreneurial journey but one can easily notice his entrepreneurial spirit running through them all. When he finally realised his true calling, there was no turning back! My Indian heritage has taught me a lot about hospitality and how to treat guests. Danny's "enlightened hospitality" concept gets plenty of nods of approval from me. It's lovely to see that he seeks out emotional intelligence and empathy in his employees and extends his hospitality beyond just his customers. There is a lot to learn about business from Danny. One of the most important lessons would be to generate wealth for the community. Making sure guests feel heard and cared for is one of the keys to his success. Danny's generosity is truly inspiring.
Some things I didn't quite enjoy about the book was it's repetitive nature and poor structuring. It felt like I was hearing roughly the same thing again and again once I crossed the halfway mark on the book. The book touches on the some of the author's struggles with work-life balance and his wife's role but would have liked to know more about this.
Would I recommend this book? That is a hard question to answer simply because it wouldn't necessarily help a newbie get started in this business. There were a lot things that fell in place for Danny and many things that his family and influential friends managed to help him with. However, someone looking to take their business to the next level and earn more loyal customers would benefit from Danny's wisdom.

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Book Review: A Bit of Appreciation for Life

A Fortunate Life by Albert B. Facey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Struggling to decide between 3 and 4 stars for this. Let's say 3.5 stars. Before I write my review, I want to apologise because this isn't going to be very thorough. This story has a lot of aspects and I am going to talk about those that I enjoyed the most. Also, I must admit, I skipped over a lot descriptive bits and had to 'speed-read' at certain points.

I picked up this book as a part of the 'Around the World in 12 Books' challenge that I am doing with my friends. Through this book, we were exploring Australia! The author's childhood was heart-breaking. His mother abandoned him and at a very early age, he was sent to work. A lot of the places he worked in were unimaginably cruel to him. Once he was flogged almost to death. It is very difficult to read about the cruelty, the abandonment, the lack of education, the lack of opportunity to form long term bonds with people that Bert faced as a child. I was very touched by his courage and tenacity through it all. He showed great skill and promise while working in the farm. Through very trying times, he appreciated even the littlest of things. As mentioned in the 'Afterword', the role of a child in the house was very different back then. The one person who stood by him was his grandmother. She was a constant support in his life. She played the role that his mother failed to play. The saddest bit of his childhood was when he met his mother again and she inevitably asked him for money.

To me, the story has two parts. Before Bert joined the First World War and after. I felt like the descriptive bits were far less during in the second part and the story finally picks up pace. Surviving the war was no small task. The atrocities he described were chilling. One in particular was how he was horrified by the face of a man being bayonetted to death. He returned with very serious injuries and took a long while to recover. As soon as he did, he wasted no time in rebuilding his life. In modern times, with a growing awareness about mental health, I cannot begin to truly appreciate the effort it took to move past those horrific experiences and integrate into day to day life again.

One might think that a difficult childhood filled with hardships would make Bert a bitter man. That did not happen. He was a loving husband and a loving father to his children. The years he spent as a family man was also filled with many hardships. From his house burning down to crops failing. He lost his grandmother, his siblings and even one of sons. Finally, he lost his wife too.

Nevertheless, he truly believed he had a fortunate life. It was very inspiring to see his undiminished spirit, like a flame that keeps on burning. This story makes you truly appreciate how much you have in life. It is no small feat for a child who was illiterate to grow up and write a book which is so detailed. I was quite taken by Bert's memory. He wrote this book after retirement and yet he remembered his childhood in vivid detail. Bert's kindness and humility truly shows through his writing. You will often see him appreciating a good meal he had as a child and even how he slept that particular night. The book ends with his wife passing away and the last few lines bring tears to my eyes.

"The loss of my lovely girl, my wife, has been a terrible shock to me. I have lived a very good life, it has been very rich and full. I have been very fortunate and I am thrilled by it when I look back."

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Pandemic Puri

Merry Christmas from Puri Beach

This year I had the pleasure of celebrating Christmas while baking in the warm sun on Puri beach. Bliss! Sand in my shoes, the incessant roar of waves, foamy waters and a constant supply of seafood. Best Christmas ever! When I was a little girl, we would go to Puri and Digha on alternate years. I remember toddling about on the sand, looking for shells, building sandcastles, running after tiny crabs that disappear into holes. In fact, waves washing over my ankles while I stand in the warm sun and the sand being pulled from under my feet as the waves retract is my happy place. This holiday, however, was unique because of the pandemic.

We set off on Christmas Eve with our sandals, sunscreen and a good book. As a child, we would take an overnight train and my grandfather would pack us cucumber sandwiches for dinner. Mine were easy to distinguish because there were no tomatoes in them. Travelling was a far more social experience. We would quickly make friends with other people sharing our train compartment and soon we were sharing food and stories! Now, we put on our facemasks and shields, boarded a flight and reached the town of Bhubaneswar in just under an hour and a half. A taxi ride of another hour and half took us to Puri! My heart soared with excitement at the first glimpse of the sparkling waves and the clear blue of the sea. 

Mahodadhi Palace Hotel

The pandemic and the lockdown has all but ruined tourism for Puri. Trying to find a sea-facing room in a hotel would be totally impossible or very expensive in other years during an occasion. Many hotels are now shut or partially functioning. Some are yet to open after the lockdown. Another reason for the lack of tourists is the fact that the Jagannath Temple is still closed to visitors. This temple attracts devotees all year around and will not open before the new year. This seemed to work in our favour as we managed to book a hotel across the road from the sea beach and we could see the sea from our balcony. So romantic! It was probably an old stately house that had been converted to a hotel. High ceilings, four poster beds and carved wooden furniture still remained. They confessed to having reduced their staff considerably and were just about starting back up. Service was slow but we could hardly blame them! However, they were friendly and very hospitable even when the demand was relatively higher. 

Sparkling Waves at Puri Beach

All I did was sit at the beach and/or eat. No deadlines, no rush, nowhere to be. It felt great! When I was a child, we would head to the beach at sunrise and spend the early morning playing around in the waves. As the day would progress, the beach would get excessively crowded and finding a spot to sit would become a challenge. The mornings were very foggy on our this trip and we couldn't see the sunrise. This time the place was quiet and plenty of chairs empty for us to sit at all times of the day. We sat for hours under the umbrellas, watching waves rolling and crashing again and again, countless times. There was a meditative quality to the experience which made me feel like I could do it forever but reality beckons. I relived my childhood memories of looking for shells with my mother and eating monkey nuts in newspaper cones. I remember, peeling the shells off those nuts would keep me busy for ages as a child. The authorities have become very strict about the cleanliness of this beach and rightly so. Every vendor who sell you food, reminds you to use the dustbins to dispose off the packages and waste. The beach is the cleanest I have seen in my lifetime! Once tourism picks up again, it would be great to see the same level of cleanliness maintained. We ate some sweets and samosas, drank loads of tender coconut water and enjoyed every moment!

Food at Puri Beach

Seafood at Pink House Restaurant

My mother being quite the detective on social media found a great place to indulge our love for seafood, Pink House Restaurant. You truly feel like you are on holiday with the sand beneath your feet and fresh fish being served piping hot while the sun shines brightly on the white beach. We returned to this restaurant repeatedly during our stay and tried fish, prawns and crab. Our favourite was a simple preparation of fried King Fish with butter and garlic. After wash it down with some fresh lime soda, it was time for a nap! 

Sunset at Puri Beach (26/12/2020)

Sunset at Puri Beach (24/12/2020)

The Foamy Sea

Unfortunately, the sky didn't clear up for us to see a proper sunset. I managed to take some pictures before the sun set behind the haze. After sunset, you can see authorities coming to clean the beach and evening markets being set up. The temperature which was pushing close to thirty degrees during the day, started to fall close to fifteen. Sitting on the balcony in our hotel rooms, we continued to listen to the sound of the sea while reading. 

We left on the 27th with a heavy heart, saying goodbye to the sea by staying on the beach till the very last minute. I remember a time when going to Puri was so easy and done so often, we had stopped valuing it. In fact, I was reluctant to go the last few times. The pandemic and the lockdowns made going on holiday an impossibility. Finally being able to go, no matter what the destination, feels like a great blessing. If it includes the sea, that's a huge bonus! On other
holidays, we would be in a hurry to explore everything we possibly can in and around Puri. This time, we slowed down and just appreciated the beach across the road from our hotel. It felt very different and refreshing. Lockdowns have forced me to revaluate everything I was taking for granted and pay attention to things closer to home. This trip will remain close to my heart for this very reason. 

Book Review: A Dinosaur Book on The Rantosaurus Blog

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: The Untold Story of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got to this book after looking through the winners of the Goodreads Choice 2018 and a few friends' recommendations. For a person who is terrified of lizards (and most other reptiles), I am a HUGE fan of dinosaurs. Maybe I can get away with it because I'll never really meet one. Wrong! Birds evolved from dinosaurs and we see them everyday. This book took me months to finish simply because it was so well written that I didn't want all the fun to be over. Finally, I finished it as a part of my year-end clean up of books I have started and not finished.

The author takes us on many an adventure with himself and other palaeontologists throughout the world. I was instantly hooked by Steve describing how footprints and handprints on old rocks are interpreted to learn about the creatures who made them. It's so fascinating that it could be a book all by itself! He goes on to describe creatures called dinosauromorphs and how they evolved. All of this was new to me and had me frantically googling away in search of more.

I'd say a book that has me on googling is a very good book. As dinosaurs entered the picture, I was googling more and more to see what they looked like. Once again the author introduced us to famous palaeontologists from the world over as they set off of on adventures in search of dinosaurs. He often describes in vivid details, what the world looked like when the dinosaurs walked on it. Pangea, which was so far locked away in my geography textbook, leapt to life, filled with prehistoric creatures that capture the imagination in colourful ways. 

This book answers many questions that I didn't even know I had. What happened to the dinosaurs when Pangea started to split? How did the dinosaurs come to dominate the earth? How did some of them manage to get to such biblical proportions? How do you know how much a dinosaur weighed? The Titanosaurs really piqued my interest. Can you imagine a creature so massive, so gigantic that each of it's vertebrae is the size of a bathtub? Austroposeidon was that dinosaur! I was truly fascinated by the use of computer models to recreate dinosaurs from it's fossils. The author describes scientific methods in a very accessible way for a variety of audiences. 

Remember all the memes about T. Rex being dumb, trying to make a bed with it's tiny hands? Welcome to a world where the tyrannosaurus roamed and especially the T. Rex. I learnt a great deal about other tyrannosauruses that I didn't even know existed. My favourites being the the Siberian Kileskus and Uzbek Timurlengia euotica (yes, the name mentions Timur, the warlord). 

An entire chapter is dedicated to the King of the Dinosaurs, the T.Rex. The author delves deep into it's way of life, it's hunting habits, it's physiology and a lot more! It is fascinating to say the least! Evolution created these nightmarish creatures that walked the earth. It's easy to understand why the T. Rex became a celebrity. 

The best part of this book is the recreation of the fateful day when it all ended for the dinosaurs. An asteroid came along to finish the magnificent beasts. The vivid descriptions paint a horrific picture of how the mighty fell. I couldn't help but feel a deep sorrow for the glory that was. 

The book ends with the a chilling passage which is very hard to refute: 

"We humans now wear the crown that once belonged to the dinosaurs. We are confident of our place in nature, even as our actions are rapidly changing the planet around us. It leaves me uneasy, and one thought lingers in my mind as I walk through the harsh New Mexican desert, seeing the bones of dinosaurs give way so suddenly to fossils of Torrejonia and other mammals.
It could happen to the dinosaurs, could it also happen to us?" 

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Book Review: The Hunger Games, #0

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book was totally unnecessary in The Hunger Games series. It doesn't add anything much to our knowledge of post-apocalyptic world Suzanne Collins talks about. The book itself is very boring and I had to put it down several times. At the end of the year, I finish all the unfinished books and that's how I got myself to complete reading this. The writing is not very gripping which is a real shame because I enjoyed the books 1-3 quite a lot! The story had lots of potential plot points worth exploring but the author seemed to have missed those opportunities. 

Spoilers below: 👇

**I am going to assume you know about The Hunger Games Trilogy. If you are new to it, please do not start with this book. It will put you right off! Go straight to Book 1. **

The story is about President Snow (Coriolanus) when he was young. He was assigned as a mentor to a tribute in the Hunger Games names Lucy Gray Baird. He builds up special relationship with her. This slowly evolves into a love interest. I feel like the romance angle could have been developed a bit further. Very conveniently, one half the tributes die before the Hunger Games even begin. So the competition is halved. Even during the games, which aren't very interesting, Lucy doesn't face much of a challenge. Takes the suspense away and makes it obvious that she will win. Coriolanus helps her to win and his interference is discovered. He gets punished by being made a Peacekeeper in District 12 which also Lucy's district. 

Now this decision by the authorities is a bit strange. Why assign him to Lucy's district when his romantic feelings for her were so apparent? Needless to say, they reunite in District 12. As a Peacekeeper, he is faced with some difficult choices. He is torn between helping his friend who is assisting some rebels and serving the Capital. Finally, gives his friend up to the authorities and leaves the district with Lucy Gray. They turn on each other at the end and after so many pages, we don't find out what happens to Lucy! Coriolanus has a bright future waiting for him back at the Capital and his brief involvement with the rebels is not found out. 

We spend a lot of time in Coriolanus's head in this book, listening to his thoughts. Whenever an event takes place, the momentum is extremely short-lived as we are back in Snow's head again. He seems like an ambitious young boy who doesn't always agree with the ways of the Capital but tries his best to succeed. Somehow, his turn towards evil doesn't make a lot of sense. Some exciting things do happen in short bursts but that's about it. I was very tempted to skip over portions but I resisted. Also, Lucy is singer the author has listed out the lyrics of all the songs she sang. One thing I did like was the reference to William Wordsworth's poem Lucy Gray in one of the songs which gives the reader a semblance of closure about District 12's Lucy Gray's fate. She seems to have simply disappeared.  

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The Dalgona Coffee Bandwagon

My First Glass of Dalgona Coffee   

Yes, I did! I jumped onto the Dalgona Coffee bandwagon! During the lockdown 1.0, Dalgona Coffee was heavily trending on social media. Now, I am not one for social media challenges but my sister tried it and said she loved it. 'Try it!', she barked at me for days until I caved in. Well, I do love a tall, cold glass of milky coffee on a hot summer day so I decided to give it a try. 

So, how do you make Dalgona Coffee? It's quite simple really. All you need is equal parts of instant coffee, powdered sugar and hot water. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with espresso. You have to combine the ingredients together and whip it till it becomes a light and fluffy cream. Pour yourself a glass of milk (dairy free is absolutely fine too. I have tried it with coconut milk) with some ice and top it off with the coffee cream. You may garnish with some chocolate shavings or a sprinkle of cocoa powder (I often did!). Now get your camera out and show off your hard work! Unfortunately, for all you freshly roasted coffee lovers, this only works with instant coffee. Just before you drink, incorporate the coffee cream into the milk with a spoon. Remember to take all the fancy photos before you do this! 

Instagram is full of people posting pics using the hashtag #DalgonaCoffee. What is it, you wonder?

Posted by The Times of India on Monday, 30 March 2020

On my first attempt, I followed a recommendation and used 2 tablespoons of coffee, sugar and water each. I don't have a electric whisk so I used the tiny spice grinder jar on my blender. Probably wasn't a great idea because quickly the mixture stuck to the walls of the jar and wasn't blending too well. With a little bit of water, I managed to make it work and hey presto! I had my first glass of Dalgona. I was so pleased that I even garnished it with some dark chocolate chips. It was so delicious! I am not a seasoned coffee drinker, I am quite new at this so 2 tablespoons was probably too much for me and I was bouncing off the walls. Thankfully, I had a manuscript to review for a friend and the coffee helped me get the job done.

Chocolate Dalgona Coffee

If I can add chocolate to something, know that I probably will. So for my second attempt, I used 1 tablespoon of instant coffee and used 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder instead. It would stop me bouncing off the walls and how can I possibly say no to chocolate? I ditched the blender jar as it wasn't a roaring success and I whipped out my hand held whisk. I was about to use some good old muscle power! Only I whisked and whisked till kingdom come and never really got to the same consistency as my first attempt. I gave up after almost an hour and just drank it anyway. It was mouth wateringly delicious but I had to take the pictures quickly before the cream sank into the milk. I needed a new plan. 

Using just 1 tablespoon of coffee along with 1 tablespoon each of sugar and water was attempt number three. I also figure out that using boiling water works best. Didn't take me too long to whisk manually, maybe around 5-7 minutes. Finally, I were getting somewhere! I also used a smaller glass of milk to prevent the taste from getting diluted. Yes, I'll say out loud, I was bored during the lockdown. 

My Favourite Chocolate Dalgona Coffee

Did I add some cocoa powder next? You guessed right! In fact, if I had just searched for 'chocolate dalgona coffee' on YouTube, I would have gotten there sooner. After whipping the coffee, sugar and water to form the cream (I used 1 tablespoon each), I mixed in 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder. Bliss! My experiments had finally come to an end and I had a favourite. I mostly stuck to this recipe and still do when I occasionally make this drink. 

I have heard some complains on social media about this technique of making coffee having existed much before the viral trends. Yes, they are right! Beating instant coffee and sugar together to make 'beaten coffee' or the 'Indian cappuccino' has been around for a very long time. My late aunt used to beat a whole batch of coffee and sugar together which was then stored in an airtight container in the fridge for delicious coffee whenever they had guests over. When would come over to ours for holidays, we wouldn't let her leave without making her 'special coffee' for us. She would spend ages whipping the mixture with just a teaspoon and the end result was divine! She would pour a cup of steaming hot milk over the mixture and to my child mind it was the creamiest, most delicious coffee ever. I say with a lump in my throat, I have never managed to get that exact taste when I have tried. Understandably, it is missing the element of love. 

Beaten Coffee

 Is it Worth the Hype?

 Well, in my opinion, dalgona coffee makes for pretty pictures but once you mix in the foam and drink it, it isn't any different to the milky, sweet cold coffee that we are very familiar with. In fact, I find the whipped mixture to be very sticky and difficult to mix into the milk. I also have to scrape down the bowl and the whisk with a little bit of milk because I am paranoid about wasting all the deliciousness. I would recommend that you try it once and decide for yourself. You can find out what all the fuss is about and save yourself the trouble in the future. If you are a chocolate lover, do try it with cocoa powder added. If you have an electric whisk, you can save yourself from the sore arms the next day. It was still a lot of fun to do during the lockdown as we were stuck indoors for the summer months. As a newbie when it comes to appreciating flavourful coffee, I have since then developed a more refined taste (I can see you rolling your eyes!).      

Love in the Time of Corona

 So, 2020 is almost coming to a close. Most of us are tired and exhausted with the burden of cancelled plans, dreams put on hold, physical separation from the ones we love and most of all the crushing weight of uncertainty. We often refer to this year as one that was ‘wasted’. In these ‘unprecedented’ (I have heard and used this word more in 2020 than in my entire life!) times, I thought it would be a good idea to do some self reflecting.  

Sunrise at the Taj Mahal

Personally, 2020 began quite well. I visited my family with my partner. He did the whole scary ‘Meet the Parents’ thing and it went well (no arguments were had! Success!). We then did some travelling to see friends and visited the Taj Mahal (a big tick off the bucket-list). We sat at cafes in Kolkata plotting a Europe trip in June where we would start in Italy and end up in Belgium. We even planned a weekend away at Torqauy, relaxing by the English Riviera for his birthday. Needless to say, several weeks later, all plans were crushed and were locked down!  

I confess, I was quite panicked about the lockdown. I worried about my ability to work from home for an extended period of time, the lack of human contact and the state of my mental and physical health. There were days when my room felt like a prison, days when I felt like I wouldn’t be able get out of bed and days when I felt like there was no hope left. Even with everything going on, I feel like I managed to make some significant progress in certain areas of my life which I would happily neglect in other years due to my ‘busy schedule’. Here are few of those things:

• Exercise: Like many others, I would begin the new year bubbling with enthusiasm to get fit and exercise regularly. Much like many others, a few weeks in, the short days and cold weather would extinguish my motivation and I would conveniently slip back into watching TV shows all evening in my PJs and wanting an entire cake for dinner! Since commuting to work was no longer taking away my time, I was (still am) exercising regularly. Living on a floor above an office ruled out anything that required jumping so I focused on yoga. I began my year with a 30 Day Yoga Journey by Kino MacGregor and became an ardent fan of Tim Senesi. I have reached levels of flexibility and strength this year that I am truly proud of. Have I got on my yoga mat religiously every single day? No. I have showed up more often than other years though.

  

  Lemon Tea and Onion Bhajis

• Home Cooking: Makes sense to talk about food soon after exercise. I have cooked more this year than any other year of my life. Yes, there were days I ate a bag of crisps for lunch and couldn't be bothered to get up to get dinner. Restaurants and cafes being shut, forced me to learn more cooking from my great food guru (my mother) and my other great food guru (YouTube). Staying home through summer made me crave some signature dishes from my life in Kolkata and I finally had the time to learn how to make those!

• Reading: Wanting more time to read is my constant state of being. This year I have outdone myself and read a total of 75 books (okay, 73 and 2 that are nearly finished. Will be done before 2021, I promise!). I explored genres that I never bothered with before and I was fascinated! One of the many surprises in 2020 (this one is a pleasant surprise) is that I absolutely love graphic novels! I started with The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman and now am about to read Blankets by Craig Thompson.

Graphic Novels

• Relationship with Friends: I agree that virtual interactions pale in comparison to face-to-face ones. However, some friendships in my life have reached new heights this year. Two of my friends from school invited me to a book club where we read books from all over the world. We then have a discussion over video call. This has brought us closer than ever before! Previously, we would often be out of touch for several months! Some friends I had lost touch with reconnected with me this year. Maybe such reunions (though mostly virtual) would never have taken place if we didn't slow down for once.

• Relationship with Partner: Surviving a global pandemic together can help you get to know your partner like never before! Jokes aside, we had to deal with a constantly changing situation and plethora of restrictions. If nothing else, I have managed to transfer my love for reading, cooking and yoga over to him. For the last two months we have been separated geographically with little chance of him joining me due to travel restrictions. For a person who swore they wouldn’t be able to pull off a long distance relationship (that person is me by the way!), I am constantly surprising myself with the relative smoothness with which this is progressing. We have found a strange routine of video chats where we do yoga, discuss books and even cook together. I long for the time when we can see each other in person again but thanks to technology, the wait is less harrowing. 

Surviving or thriving?

Motivational speakers often ask this question. This year I would say that surviving and thriving are one and the same. This period has led me to redefine my sense of self-worth and truthfully examine the things that are important to me. 

When the lockdown began, social media erupted with people making most of the lockdown. Baking bread, learning new languages, completing online courses, exercising at home and excitedly attending events on Zoom. We know that for the majority of us, it may have gone quite differently with motivation decaying by the hour! Sometimes it is ok to just be and not reach for the next thing. In the world of free next day delivery and streaming services, we often feel uncomfortable with that concept. Going into the future, I want to remember to take time for myself no matter how many commitments I may have.