Ever since I read Philosophers in my final year at BITS Pilani, I asked myself several questions. One of them is “What Matters In Life?”. Whenever am at crossroads in life, I ask this. I asked this when I had to choose between a military career and a corporate career. Again when I had to choose between a startup life and a corporate life. And again when I had to choose between one startup over another. Every time I had to make a big decision in my career and life, I turned to this one question, “What Matters In Life?”. Unsurprisingly, the answer didn’t come to me while I was sitting under an a ..read more

On a bright Sunday afternoon, I was visiting Decathlon to purchase some travel gear. While I was parking my bike, I noticed a kid trying to shoot the basketball into the hoop. I parked my bike and started walking towards the entrance. The kid kept shooting the ball. The next attempt was more intense and fierce than the one before. Mind you it was sunny outside even for Bangalore weather and here was a kid relentlessly shooting at the hoop. I finished my shopping and came back home. But the picture of the kid tirelessly taking shots stayed with me. Image by Varun Kulkarni from Pixabay A few day ..read more

I was someone who published one blog post every week for 30+ weeks straight. It was hard to maintain a routine. Writing is perhaps one of the hardest things for everyone to do. That’s why there aren’t enough of us expressing our thoughts. And yet I haven’t written a word for days together. It’s very hard to be consistent especially when it comes to doing stuff I like, leaving no hope for things I don’t like or things I have to do. Photo by Madison Inouye on Pexels.com But those 30 weeks where I published blog posts, hit the workout mat every day, cooked and ate good food, spent quality time wi ..read more

The evenings at the isolation centre are peaceful. A walk in the park (A luxury I didn’t have at my native), a bit of stretching and some interesting conversations about culture and life. That evening it was different. I was asleep till 5:40 PM, so I skipped the stretching and went for a stroll on the lawns after I woke up. After the walk, I was sitting by an old man, probably in his 60s. I couldn’t help but overhear his phone conversation (Thanks to the loudspeaker on his phone). From what I could make out, the discussion was about someone in the ICU. Someone tested positive for COVID 19 and ..read more

It’s 8:40 PM on 28 Nov and I got a call from Mom. Though it was the usual timing, the tone was very unusual. She asked me where I went today and where that picture was from [referring to the image from the bouldering session by Avathi Outdoors I did earlier today]. I replied very casually that I wanted to try bouldering and gave it a shot today. She immediately took off saying, “Don’t you have any respect for your life? Do you wanna just throw it away by doing random risky stuff in the jungles?” Avathi Hills Bouldering- Spot #2, Trail #1 If it was any other time, perhaps, I would’ve retorted w ..read more

I read this blog post by Paul Graham a few months ago and couldn’t help but reflect on it today. It’s titled A Project Of One’s Own. He talks about how working on a project of your own lightens up your life. He says that working on a project of your own makes you feel alive. And having crafted a trip for me, I couldn’t agree more. Most people who know me know that I escape from the city on most weekends. I cram myself into a corner of a moving bus and escape the noise. I do this while many of my colleagues and friends are partying under the neon lights. Of course, there is nothing wrong with g ..read more

During my initial days of travelling, I used to ask several people (online, offline, blogs etc) if the place I want to travel to was safe. I wanted a sense of reassurance that Hey, everything is gonna be A-Okay. And I wanted that reassurance from someone else. But despite all that reassurance, in moments of absolute distress, it was me who stood up for me in those trips. The truth isn’t that their assurances weren’t helpful. They were. But the fact is that all assurances fade away if I am not feeling okay about doing it. Oh, I am not claiming that I am 100% self-reliant. I am dependent on my f ..read more

This is part 2 of the drive to Kemmangundi from Bengaluru. Although this speaks exclusively about the trek, I highly recommend reading part 1 before you continue. Part 1 of this journey sets the context in which this trek happened. Hoping that you’ve read part 1, let’s jump right into the journey, shall we? So as I robotically drove through the forest stretch, ideas of how to get out of my difficult situations in life started bombarding me. As I was slowly drowning in those ideas, evaluating each one for its merits, the meadows entered the scene and knocked some awareness into my head. Until t ..read more

It was a bright sunny day. Blue colour scattered the canvas above my head and streaks of puffy white clouds dotted it. And as soon as I got down the car and looked at the mountains of Kemmangundi covered with a lush green carpet, I knew I was home. I am home, I shouted excitedly. The ride from Bengaluru to Kemmangundi was certainly worth it. The bygone months have been some of the most trying times of my life. Locked inside our homes for the most part. Forever scared about the deadly infections of Covid-19 and the effects thereof. It was a scary situation yet, I & my brother left the comfo ..read more

“Oh time is just flying so fast” “Oh! Is it end of March already.” Happiness writes white by Martin Amis. I keep hearing these dialogues from a number of people lately. But I somehow don’t feel like it. I feel the time is ticking at a snail pace. I can see every distinct second as it goes around the clock. But why?? Why do I feel like time is dragging? But did I always feel like this!? As I unravel my professional and personal experiences in the numerous conversations I’ve been having lately, I realized I didn’t even remember how the good times flew by. Looking back, all the amazing times I ha ..read more