In dialogue with Timothy

I'm often reminded of the line, 'we teach who we are.' When I was catching up with Timothy, my professor, I shared, "I feel I'm all over place."

T looked at me, leaned back more in the chair and said, "Life is a puzzle. Keep piling the pieces and learn from it. accumulate it."

We had a sense of silence to take those words. Continuing his answer, he shared, "It's important to fail, so that you get to say, I've done that already, I don't want to do that in life.' He continued, "The breadth of the world is big, I've reached here doing all sorts of things. The world is beyond the books."

Thanks T for your wise words. 

Soliloquies- unapologetically poetic

In the past, I was thinking if I'm given all the resources and leisure, I'd create art, poetry, writing. Lately, I've been telling myself that, despite the resources, leisure, time, I'd still create art, poetry, writing and be creative. To accept my creativity and perform without an approval is the first task of being an artist. What we create and how well our art resonates our nature, ideas is the process that we need to be evolved in. 

Soliloquies- 2024 in Months

2024 has been a blooming year with a lot of growth, healing, learning and unlearning. Let me reflect 2024 in months. 

Jan- Sought consistent support and endured my first european winter with a lot of writing and music. 

Feb-I explored Geneva on foot, walking around and beating up the winter blues.Shivam accompanied for a meal and walks for a long time. Grateful for his company.  

March- Harish visisted me in Geneva. Spent great time catching up on what we were upto in our lives. I travelled Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany. Caught up with Harish at Leuven, got a chance to catch up with his friends and also senior Sharayu in Netherlands. Spring break gave me a good holiday to get over the winter blues. Also, had my 2nd exhibition Empty Spaces- Flow was opened at Fab. 

April- A little bit of college, classes, exhibition, I had great time catching up with many people. Also, Akhila was getting married and returned to home for a small holiday. Hosted a couple of creative workshops. Worked on an creative intervention project near UN premises. 

May- Spent good time at home, met Shyam, Sunny and returned to Geneva to finisht the semester, exhibition and classes. 

June- An intense month as Dad was gettting retired, finish the semester and had to leave my student residence and few people. 

July- Stayed in france and caught up with Dan, Rob, David, Karen, Bart and enjoyed the summer holiday. 

August- Snigdha was leaving to India. Visited Geneva for a while, gave her send off and moved to Bern. Caught up with Tena, Alberto, Nancy, Liki, Rafael, Lucas, Ben and many others. Also, visited Germany to attend Vipassana course and met Chayan, Peer, Martin, Margaret, Nicolay and many other friends. 

Sep- Spent a week in Austria resting and winding down from  2months intense holiday and returned to Geneva to prepare for the semester. 

Oct- Moved to new home with Atys, Elcin and began to work for my Germany exhibition.Began to celebrate 30 days of birth month. 

Nov- Continued celebrating birthmonth and traveled to Germany to catch up with Sun, Sumin Ahn and many more friends. Celebrated birthday with all the loved ones. Also, the gratitude book, we worked on got released. 

Dec-

Questions

Recently I had to interview people for housemates and in order to know them better, I came up with these questions. 

What do you create/prioritise time for?- Most often people share their hobbies, interest but, I was keen to know what do they create time for in their day, week. Do they prioritise time to read, paint, spend time with family, learn a new craft. I'm interested how they prioritise their time as the actions speak louder than mere words I was told!

A came up with an interesting question- What do you have faith in?

It can be a person, religion, idea, ideology, story. It's interesting where people would put their faith in. 

Geneva Journals- Gowen Gallery Visit

On my way back home, I walked into my favourite galleries in the town. Mabe and Gowen Gallery. An exhitbition was about to get closed at Gowen Gallery and I got a chance to check out the art works of Amelie Ducommun. I love the collection of melody of memories. Also the exhibition included a lot of vibrant and intriguing paintings. I feel lucky to check the works on the last day of the exhibition.

Mabe gallery got a complete new collection. A few of artists whom I enjoyed watching are Francesca Giovanna, Olga burkard, Fuensanta Sobejano. A good day.

 

Memories- Walks back home

I love returning home on foot, after school hours/ college hours. A very few fond memories of spending time with myself was when I'm walking back from school. When I'm heading to school in the morning, there's always an urgency to reach in time but as the school ends, there's no urgency to reach quickly. One of my favorite walks from school to home are in different cities. In Hyderabad, I had to pass the RTC X roads, BSNL office and reach home. A lovely walk amidst green neighbourhood. I also remember my short walks in Nellore where the path is laid by a lot of green trees. During engineering college times, I always returned to basketball court. Walks with Vikas,Uday, Madhu,Jaya, Prudhvi are my favourites. Now, in Geneva, soon after the class, I walk back home along the lake and sometimes through the old town. It's a thirty minute walk and I love walking across this city. Sometimes, I walk into galleries and check the exhibitions, sometimes, into cafes to try out a gelato. I'm grateful I picked interest on walking from a very early age. 

Friends- Huddle at R K Sweets

L to R Sai, Madhu, Chetan, Jaya Charan, Myself, Prudhvi, Vikas, Saif, x, Shetty, Jaydeep, Chinmay(standing) Hemanth(Standing),meher, Wilson, x, Maurya,x,x,Naveen

 Soon after the basketball practice, we used to head to RK Sweets. I remember going on Meher's bike and having some interesting conversations. That's how we used to move around, in big numbers. Good old times! 

Interesting Link- Career is journey not a destination

Good to reflect on this thought- Career is a journey not a destination. I began to reflect on this idea in 2015, when I met a CxO from Cyient who shared his journey of being an engineer to business man and how one don't need to let a four year course define their path of life. 

 https://www.johnpabon.com/post/a-career-is-a-journey-not-a-destination

Gratitude- Grateful December

 Last year, I got on to gratitude program when everything seemed bleak, The biggest life lesson I've learnt in 2024, as of today is that- It's easy to be grateful for bright things in life. Learn to be grateful for the dark things/events that happen in life as it shows the importance of light in the life.

Geneva Journals- The Cold Lake Dip

On a friday afternoon, I've decided to take a cold lake dip. The usual routine for a cold lake dip is to carry enough layers to warm myself up after the cold lake swim. A bottle of piping hot water, head cap, gloves, food to eat after the lake dip was organised in bag. T accompanied me till the lake and to witness the 'madness' as she calls it. 

As we headed to the lake, the clouds cleared and the sun showed up for a while. I got into the lake and began to swim for a couple of minutes. A few minutes in water, I walked out warming myself up, sipping hot water, ready to lead the day. Good day. 

Gratitude Diaries- Grateful for the Struggles

As the new book in collaboration with Sanjna, Kiana, the Geneva Graduate Institute- The Gratitude Book was out. I was reflecting on how do I practice gratitude on the whole process. I began to share my gratitude with people who hurt me the most, recognising the help and their presence in my life. To be grateful to the good and great things is nice but, to be grateful for the people who walked away, who hurt you and who taught you a life lesson seemed to be an act where a lot of conscious effort has to be put. 

To be grateful for the Sun during the winters is easy but to be grateful for the cold wet rain, the missed flight, the job rejection, the cold fight teaches a lot more about life than being grateful for pereceivably 'positive' things in life.

It took me a day to get into that zone of gratitude for the people who hurt me. If I can't be grateful and thankful for people who helped me but also hurt me, I felt my art or the efforts to bring out the gratitude book would be a sham. Time to be grateful for the hardest things I could be grateful for!