Weeknotes - 2025-W26
My new favourite (hot) beverage?
āØHighlightāØ
The article I have been working on for a few weeks now, is finally published, and its available for you to read on Money Control: The railways does not need Tatkal reforms. It needs more tracks and expanded capacity.
Its my first op-ed that has got published. It was surreal to have my words be accepted to be published in a prominent space. My first step into what I hope will be the next step in my career ladder. Read on, please send me your opinions (hint: I love disagreements).
This would not have been possible without a battalion of people behind me and Iām thankful that Iām not on this journey alone - I have a bunch of badasses behind me, pushing me forward (you know who you are).
I think its safe to say that this week has been a really rounded week. I felt so many feelings this week, things I love, things I miss, things Iām grateful for and things to look forward to.
The fondest thing for me, in this week was that it had a lot to do with music, in many different ways. Someday, I will write long about what music means to me - on many an occasion, it gave me just enough hope to find myself to the next milestone. But for now, back to the weeknote.
Monday begun with me in Tumkur and heading back to Bangalore and then to Chennai. I had taken my friendās POLO GT and drove it back alone from Tumkur to Bangalore and what an experience this was. I am not an autohead by any means, but there is something about that car that just makes it feels like you and the machine are one. Of all the cars I have driven, the Polo GT remains my favourite to sit behind the wheel of.
I dropped the car off at my dear friendsā place and had lunch there before heading to the train. No amount of time feels enough with dear friends. But any time spent feels like time that Iād not spend anywhere else.
As I got on the Vande Bharat back to Chennai, I was contemplating what to do, and decided to listen to the playlist that Amit and Ajay put together for their Bruce Springsteen EIE episode (see w25 for the deets). Earlier in the day, I played Dancing in the dark and asked my father if he knew the song, since the song was released about when he was in his post grad and he said that he hadnāt heard it. When I was in the train, as I was listening to the album, whenever I closed my eyes, I could see my FIL. Heās another elder that I shared my music with, and him with me. There were SO many gems in the songs, so many lines that I knew that heād have loved to hear. I wouldāve asked him the same question I asked my father and weād have had a wonderful conversation about it. I missed him so deeply throughout that playlist. It felt like he was just there, but I couldnāt reach him to ask this simple question: āHave you heard Dancing in the dark by Bruce Springsteen?ā.
I think Huberman in his episode on Grief captures this feeling so well (Iām paraphrasing) ā¤µļø
Grief feels like that glass of water that is just out of your reach when youāre so thirsty and no matter what you do, you canāt reach it. Just when you think you do, it moves away just enough.
Many songs that were part of his playlists, are now part of mine. When I listen to them, maybe we are listening to it together? Iāve heard them enough with him to know how much he loved them and when I close my eyes, I can see him swaying to those tracks.
On Monday night, as 2 dearest friends were flying down to Bangalore, I got the news that theyāre stranded in Doha because of the Iranā/āIsrael clashes. When they were there, Iran launched missiles and thankfully they were handled and nothing happened to the airport. It was such an anxious ~ 24h for all of us. They were boarded and de-boarded a bunch of times because of the conditions and at one point, we hadnāt heard from them for many hours and we all started panicking.
Thankfully I was able to use flightaware to find out that there was only one aircraft in the air from Doha to Bangalore then and it left right about when we lost the connection to them. I checked with their family and they confirmed the timeline so I was sure they were on that flight. After they landed, they said that they were on the flight for 2h and it didnāt move and they didnāt have access to the internet too.
Iām just so fucking glad that theyāre in Bangalore and other than having a story, nothing untoward happened to them. Geez, what a world we live in.
This week, I missed gym on Monday because of travelling but the remaining 2 days were absolutely amazing.
- I bench pressed 43KGs š±
- I dead lifted 45KGs š±
Both these numbers look weird to me even writing them, but I did it! I feel so much stronger these days and my trainer assures me that its the initial gains that we get as we start building strength. Letās go!
Wednesday was bench press day and I was anxious that the badminton that evening might be hard, but badminton was amazing and we played for all of 1.45h with a lot of agility!
STRENGTH IS ADDICTIVE. GET IT IN YOUR VEINS NOW!
A dear friend of mine and I have become ābeverage buddiesā sort of. We share similar tastes and try each othersā recommendations. Iāve always been a cold brew person when it comes to not-south-indian-filter-coffee (read: artisanal coffee?). He recommended that I try out something called ācortadoā and I gave that a short at 2 different places this week: Ratio and Old Madras Baking Company. I actually liked it. Of all the āhotā offerings of the not-filter-coffee category, I think Iām going to call cortado, my choice of poison.
This week we had a celebrity visit us at home - Jangri. It was so much fun being around a kitten after being harassed by cat overlords on a daily basis. Showed us how much we miss being around that chaotic over confident kitten energy.
Are cat playdates a thing now? Should we do sleepovers?
On Saturday, Prasanna put up her work as part of a Rotary Inner Wheel event (she wrote about it) and this is the first popup where Sundarakala is selling merchandise. Till now it was only prints and framed prints but now they sell 2 (two) new things - Coasters and Tote Bags!
Weāve test run them for a while and we recommend them, so if youāre looking for a different medium to enjoy Prasannaās (awesome) work - then please DM her on Instagram and buy some of these amazing merch from her!
It was also her first exhibition without her father - who always played a silent but important role at each one of the places she put up stalls at before. But as they say,
The only way out is through, not around.
Till next week šš¾