I write this sitting in Bangalore where I have been since past five days, trying to create two 3 minute stories (paid work). I shall fly back to Goa tomorrow morning and before it’s too late, let me look back and reflect on the year that just went by. December was especially too fast to handle.
- Learnt para-sailing along with biwi.
- Visited Italy with biwi and made another Holioke – finally got to fly my quad-copter in a vacation (got taken in by the military too)! In Italy, we travelled to Milan, Alta Badia, Venice, Rome, Florence, Naples, Salerno, Sorrento and the Capri Island.
- Got a commissioned 3 minute story assignment that made me travel to Kampala (Uganda) in Africa.
- Did river rafting for the first time (Jinja, Uganda).
- Crashed my quad-copter in Uganda; but recovered it too (haven’t yet checked if the thing still flies).
- Published eight 3MS’ (got paid for one) and shot about two dozen weddings.
- Tota & Maina gave birth to a baby girl; I will call her Bulbul here. Met her, played with her and clicked her photographs.
- Gave a talk and conducted a visual story-telling workshop at IIT Kharagpur.
- Evolved as a photographer, especially after spending time with Shanta and CCC.
- Shahenshah died (cancer). [described in the character’s list here.]
- Roamed with biwi in Himachal Pradesh without fixed plans and ended up undertaking a grueling trek to the Indrahar Pass.
- My baba (grandfather) died (old age).
- Other than the cities in Italy and Uganda, visited the following Indian cities (some for the first time): Bhopal, Jaipur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Anand, Akodara, Bangalore, Pune, Kota, Kolkata, Kharagpur, Deoghar, Patna, Vizag, Delhi, Manali, Dharamshala, Chennai and Panchkula.
- Watched an insane number of non commercial movies (@home; on a huge projector that was bought this year+in Mumbai Film Festival+in IFFI, Goa).
Looking back, a few marathons thrown in, could have made the year even cooler. Let’s do that this year. How did you do in 2015? Best wishes for the new year. Keep rocking till you are alive! Find problems to solve and make yourself useful in ways that you feel good about! All the best!