Tea & Dark Chocolate

2022 has been a great year for reading - 80 books . 😃 2022 was also a busier year as compared to 2021. I started making and selling pots by Jan and sometime in April-May, we launched our brand, Vemu Ceramics . Apart from selling pots on per-order basis, I was also putting in time to develop my craft and create prototypes for new designs. It was both exciting and time-consuming, to be having a full-time job and investing ~20+ hrs per week on this hobby, both of which I loved doing. I had fun with all of it, so I guess it was okay that I put hiking, my other PNW interest, on a slight back burner in 2022 😊. Also, in late 2022, we moved back to India. As expected, an international move takes away quite some bandwidth for planning and executing, and that took some toll on our non-work lives. Maybe prompted by this upcoming move, I felt separation pangs that I wouldn't be able to checkout physical books from my local library (which is also one of my favorite places, ever 😊), I read in...

  In 2021, I read a total of  80 books against a goal of 60 books . This includes the  26 books  written by non-native-English-speaking-authors, a goal I carried into 2021. Here are some of the best books I read in 2021, in the order of my reading them in the year -  1.       On Tyranny : Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century  - This tiny book gave me much required validation about my stand for constant vigilance against misinformation on regular & social media, especially the kind that can change governments and people's stances about important issues like public health policy, immigration, human rights etc. With multiple examples per lesson, this book was a great, informative read.  2.       The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides  - This is a potboiler book in the thriller/murder mystery genre - not my chosen genre. This book made this list purely because of how gripping it was, so much t...

One would assume that in an year like 2020, when I spent my entire time at home, I should've read more and beat my goal by twice at least. Well, not really, coz in this bizarre year, I discovered Korean dramas and dedicated chunks of time to watching and rewatching some dramas. (Jump to the end to see how I approached Korean dramas 😃 ) Book-wise, 2020 has been a good year . Books that I read in 2020 that will stay with me forever, in the order I read them this year are - Normal People by Sally Rooney - I loved this book for many reasons, but the easiest one of all is - I am in love with Rooney's prose, so much that I read this book in one long sitting over one evening.  The Siege by Helen Dunmore - I picked up this book because it was recommended to be a book that would make me feel colder in the winter months. And the book delivered! More than the feeling of cold, I became aware of how St. Petersburg laid under a siege during the winter months, and more awareness of how peo...

What an year 2020 has been, right? We spent the entire time sitting at home, like everyone else, and realized in the first month that whining about not being able to travel is nothing but a sign of our privilege, when millions others were struggling for their daily meal. So with whining quickly out of the door as one of the options to spend time sitting at home, like everyone else, I had to look for ways to cope with the enormous bandwidth that was now mine. Work Work was busy, but with the added dimension of making it work across large teams driving decisions and making progress while everyone was remote and dealing with their own challenges. I got a lot of learning this year, both from the work perspective and from an internal dialogue on what I'd rather spend my time with. I still love the team I work with, people continue to be as awesome as they always were, and I still learn a lot from them. I think I have been fairly successful in working between 930AM-6PM on most days even ...

I believe that good poems come out of conversations and when you really feel! During one such conversation with friends today, the following stuff came out... On how I am forever penniless, and have to borrow money to fund my holidays... Oh, you cruel Vemu Making me the gruel Vemu Hoarding all the money Never giving me a penny! Separation of duties, he says But look at the bills she pays Yeah, the stocks I make Can't handle the breads I need to bake! Oh yes, I am on a roll Need more for my payroll On and on, I can wax on On how I drudge on! And on how I always underestimate our wealth... Round and round I grow and I count Taking away from my excel Giving you and you excel! At this point am saying that real pain gives birth to good poems *please insert a guffaw here* The anguish and the pain Along with all this rain This, the books and cooks don't help All I can do is yelp! I had a slighly unpleasant exchange with a co-worker when he mispronounc...

Again that time of the year when I try to cram in as much reading as possible in the last week of the year, and still attempt to spend time with my family and friends (I plan my India visits to be in December, mostly). Also the time of the year when I look back at the books I read and plan on the themes for next year's reading.    Per my  Year in Books  stats that Goodreads gives, I've finished reading 71 books in 2019, with an average of 296 pages per book.  Though I am pretty pleased with these stats (let's face it, I love numbers), especially given how often we traveled this year, and the frequent binges on Netflix that I've been on (thank you, Jane The Virgin and Breaking Bad!), the fact is - I read in numbers because I aspire to have at least 10% of my overall books read in an year as takeaways - books I can think of fondly or recommend or re-read. If I have met this goal, I rate the year as a productive one. Turns out, this year...

Off late, most of the conversations or debates I am having with friends fall in familiar patterns - someone in the audience would've said something that I disagree with, and I end up debating it with facts. Well, using facts not sentiments is the best thing to do, but what do you do in the world where every fact you pick might be discredited (either really because of the source of the fact or called as 'fake' news because people do not like this fact)? I have been thinking about this, I have a few options - I could move over from the argument and never touch it again with that same audience, or I could go at it in other ways. I flinch at the moving over bit, because that makes me feel that I am wasting an opportunity, both at learning and at giving it back. I am yet to figure out the right way to bring forth a valid point in a debate, something that will make the other person see the truth and not my face when I am uttering it.  This morning, a distant family member discr...