Rewind. Replay - 2020

Welcomed 2020 at home and travelled to Sirohi to meet the children and spend quality time at school. Three more months, fellowship was about to be ended. With a lot of vague plans, ambitious decisions, I welcomed the 2020.

Never I have ever imagined the COVID crippling us to stay at our homes for months. I realised how fortunate I’m to have a home to stay in. There were a lot of people who struggled to live during these tough cruel times. Lockdown has given me a lot of time to reflect. At beginning, I thought a lot of death. Over the time, I began to be at peace with all the situations that were happening around me.

Learnt to be grateful for everything I have. COVID-19 has showed me the inequalities of the society in magnifying glass.

I began painting in 2020. Done with more than 30 paintings.

I also began waking up at 5am. I always assumed; I can never be a morning person. Reflected on the futile attempts of staying awake at night and began waking up early. Enjoyed the sunrises and early mornings.

Read 33 books in which I completed the books, I badly wanted to finish since a few years.  Loved the biographies of Leonardo Da Vinci, J.R. Moehringer. In fiction, Pearl S Buck, Murakami, Anthony Doerr were enjoyed. In non-fiction, got introduced to Sherry Turkle, Nicholas Carr, Robert Sapolsky. Need to explore more genres and authors.

Watched 104 movies in this year. A lot of movies could be skipped. I began watching Bengali movies this year. Began watching the classics of Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray.

Collaborated with Shivani Sharma and wrote poems for ten days without a break.

Completed the first draft of ‘Window Seat.’ Got a lot of work done on it.

Scribbled a lot of synopsis and ideas for the next draft. Happy with the ideas I got on for upcoming books, I’d be writing.

Thanks to Pandemic, I turned more regular at blogging and published 464 posts. An equal number of drafts are lying in the box. Will upload them soon.  Went in field and interviewed a lot of individuals

Not always a big fan of virtual meets, I began my work through virtual mediums. Facilitated 10+ workshops. Pursued 5 courses through MOOC platforms.

Got introduced to the literature on psychology.

Travelled in and around of Sirohi. Trekked around 3 places, visited a lot of waterfalls. Travelled to Kumbhalgarh, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Tilkeshwar, Maha kundeshwar.

Spent a lot of time at home, playing with Mikey.

Grateful and happy to reflect my journey so far, in 2020.