2022: Twice the Duality

Hello there! Yay, we survived 2021 and entered a fancy year with so many twos in it. For some reason, as a kid, I used to think something special would happen on 2/2/22 because it's an easy date to remember. Nothing like that happened, but a few special moments mixed with 'what the heck just happened' was sprinkled over the course of 12 months in my 2022. Please note there are photos of trigger warning content such as road accident injury in-between, feel free to scroll fast at the March month to avoid seeing it. Not for the faint-hearted.

January 2022

Hello 2022!
Sunshine and Sunayana on the terrace

New temporary home, uncertain finances, ransacked emotions, and craving for stability. If you have read my blog about 2021, then you must be knowing my dad ended up in a situation where we had to sell the house that I grew up in for over 25 years. It's like selling a part of you. For me, the place holds dearest memories and a personality of its own. As a kid, I used to think if I ever became famous, my home would be immortalized as a museum or something like a physical entity of my autobiographical blog. But that dream is in vain. So, the next obvious step was to stop daydreaming and bring myself to the mundane reality of finding an affordable temporary home that could fit in all the house items and accommodate the stages of grief my family members were going through. My dad was very paranoid and wanted to get out of the home as soon as possible once it got sold. After a long serious search, we rented a cramped space in a nearby neighbourhood till my dad settles all the balances of borrowed money and invest whatever we were left out hopefully in a new house if possible. I am aware of the privilege that not many even have a house to sell and settle debts, but in my story, I like you to see it with empathy instead of criticism. Because deep inside we are humans after all.

KK Nagar - The new temporary residence

After a month of living in a new temporary place, the newness finally started to wear off. One fine night, lying in bed, a sudden realization occurred that the home is now gone forever. This time it felt visceral. Like there is no going back, no reset button to stop it from happening. Losing the home felt like I witnessed the demise of a dearest family member who was my constant when the world felt uncertain with its worries and woes. My lungs felt heavy and unbearable to accept that there is no way to retrieve it back. My eyes got heated up to the point it was welled with tears. Resentment in silence. Then other thoughts came up such as a home is like a huge cupboard to store humans safe and sound. Home is what you make out of it, any place can be a home if you can prepare it to be home otherwise it's a nightmare or boring place to be in. Till then my workplace felt like home for the daytime. 

Cat at office

To lose track of this heavy feeling, I chose to learn a new skill that will make my dad happy. Car driving - I was not eager to learn it but it was part of my bucket list. This time my brother also joined to learn and get a driving license. The driving school guy made us go in circles, literally round and round the same street, till we got it right. Going in circles in the early morning is not fun, gave us headaches. We even got spooked that the car brake works on its own. It was like we were driving a possessed vehicle. Turns out the driving school instructor seated parallelly has a lever that can control brakes and clutch. 

My maternal aunt gifted an artisanal saree for my mom's birthday
My mom was not so fond of it but a gift is an embodiment of care
Cherish it even when it's not what you expected

I have no idea why colleges think suits have to be a mandatory purchase for students 
Another useless item that I can't discard as it costed a lot

So proud I ended up visiting so many places in 2021 with a mask on my face

Speaking of mask

My office people had a jump scare about uprise of Covid cases again
They gave us an N95

Wearing N95 all the time sucks

Crinum Lily at the office

Like any place with people comes certain practices that are done out of courtesy, but when you try to opt-out and prefer not to participate in that courtesy, the majority crowd tends to peer pressure or judge or even add in unwarranted snide remarks onto you. One such incident I witnessed was at the office. The office building comprises head offices for three companies whose owners are related as family members. The staff of those companies planned to buy a cake to celebrate the birthday of one of their boss. I was not informed about this. After their boss cuts the cake, they gave me a piece of it and deliberately asked me to pay my share of the money for the cake. I didn't feel like paying because I was not aware of it beforehand and I have no professional obligation to pay for it. Also, my family was going through a financial crisis. Mentally, I was so disturbed by anything money related I wouldn't even have touched the cake if they had told me this beforehand. So, I basically had to say no I can't pay for it. I wish they left it there but gave a piece of advice that for a person (their boss) who looks after paying for their work, this is one time of the year to pay back with gratitude, and it's not nice that I chose not to participate in it. I was baffled by this logic, thankfully it was just a snide remark, not a brawl. To some, it might sound trivial that splitting the cost of the cake is not really a costly affair but I see it as a behaviour where I was taken for granted that irked me.

The unpleasant cake

Lush Indian almond tree

Wilted Peepal leaf

The house owner of the temporary residence
began renovating, lots of cement everywhere

One thing to love about KK Nagar,
lots of stray cats roaming around

Backyard of the temporary residence
that looks like an excavation site

Stray dog basking under the sun

  My dad's garden muse

Garden visitor - Blue Mormon
Second largest butterfly in India

Beach visit epiphany
An acquaintance asked me to try taking pictures with a DSLR
After a couple of shots, ended up realizing I am into capturing the moment rather than perfecting it
Thus confirmed, phone camera is my go-to gadget for photos

Funny meme on the general misconception on
How organizations for empowering women are seen only for women to participate in

Terrace time with dad

Terrace time with mom

Wanted to gift a wallet to my brother
Sent this photo and asked him to choose; He said no need for a wallet
I rarely think of gifting but when I do it ends up futile

Puzzling times with my college besties

And played more board games

February 2022

A month of searching for a home became months. Purchasing a house is not as simple as buying things from a grocery shop. It has a myriad of choices or, as I call them, 'headaches' like cost, area, square feet, seller's mood, property's legal documents, credibility, etc. Only after checking all of this can one possess a house, if lucky, with desired preferences. A shift in family dynamics was caused because of this tense situation. My dad tends to not take problems or unfavourable situations lightly. He tends to think that he will become the reason for that failure or unfavourability, whatever the actual reason be. To divert from this negative thought, he has a peculiar habit that annoys anyone who knows him as a family member. Instead of finding ways to solve the problem, he shifts focus and starts to target people around him by pinpointing their flaws or negative memories. It might give him a momentary relief, but in the long run, he is losing valuable relationships over this petty behaviour.

This time, he reminded me of an incident where I was a high school kid worried about the internet not working, so not able to know if I have passed 12th or not. He shared how he took me to the BSNL office to enquire about this issue and how I cried from the way the rude boomer lady at the BSNL office behaved towards my query on when the internet issue gets resolved. He did not do anything about it but boasted that he handled it pretty well without getting affected by the words of that BSNL lady. I got furious and sad at the same time. How can he not understand the gravitas of my state at that time? At that precise moment, I thought, why would someone remind a sad incident when it's irrelevant to the current conversation and emotionally hurting. We were talking about buying a house but my dad began talking about my unpleasant incident. Why pinpoint a vulnerable moment of others to make a statement that he was strong and I was weak. Is this how toxic masculinity sounds like? If you relate to this, a piece of advice for you will be please don't be like my dad or me either. Don't trigger negativity, also try not being on the receiving end of it either. It's hard but will change if realized soon.

Spring feels like Fall

Origami bunny
that looks like corgi's shadow

Volunteered for career coaching to
 corporation school girls

Morning surprises from the cat

Dad tried growing bitter gourd

A big tree got cut down

Blooms of Heliconia

Meeting a cat in another neighborhood

Catching up with high school friend
West Mambalam is getting cool cafes

Cacti

Veggies were sown at the office garden

Branches

Chennai Annual Book Fair

A portable hands-free sanitiser at the book fair
Seeing it for the first time

When nothing is going in the right direction, we tend to move in two ways to distract ourselves from reality. Because sometimes reality is an amalgamation of all that can be intense to experience. So, to handle its intensities, we choose either to solve some other problem to get some dopamine or remain still and get depressed. This time to distract myself from the house hunt fatigue and career contemplations I chose to solve the issue of my mom's knee pain. She's been having swollen knees for a while and started limping a bit for a few months. Took her to Orthopedician, turns out it was due to aging and standing for long hours. My mom spends 70% of her day in the kitchen and rarely goes out. She always cooks while standing and has a low exercise routine. In the fast paced world, we forget to notice these signs until some problem comes lurking after us. I felt guilty that I never thought about her wellness throughout the years, she's been keeping my family alive for years but never got the care she deserved from us. Aging cannot be reversed but a little care goes a long way. 

Glistening sun and wilting leaves

It says 'take care of me everyday' in Tamil
Quirky reminder on a random vehicle

Agarbathi times
There is something gratifying about watching
a solid stick burn into ashes and smoke

Paw print at office garden

Career coaching for corporation school girls

March 2022

Visit to beach

Sunset

White Bougainvillea

Metal art piece at the beach

Flora of Besant Nagar

When life mumbles with new things to explore, work left undone tends to catch up. House hunting after brief hiatus. This time it was on the lines of ECR and OMR. Some were near slums, some were not built properly, some were at remote locations, some were sold out and many other reasons that made us lose hope in finding a home. Further searched in Ramapuram, Virugambakkam, Valsaravakkam, Porur and other familiar neighbourhoods or possible domestically habituated areas in Chennai. Dad found a really good house through an online ad but in a remote place of Iyyapanthangal. But, change of fates, it did not come to the price we negotiated, and someone else bought it for a slightly higher price before we could. High hopes, futile returns. We almost started believing the universe was conspiring against us since we were not deemed to have a home of our own after losing one.

At the office, we were preparing for International Women's Day campaigns for the theme #BreaktheBias and the pose was crossing arms over like X. Working with a global NGO that fuels empowerment of women in STEM around the world means March is a huge deal for us. Because it's the month of International Women's Day, we get to do a lot of member engagement. After all the planning and executing campaigns, I had an epiphany of why it is more festive than advocacy-oriented. Like it was more about social media, talks and PR stuff like temporary change where I was not able to envision long-term radical results out of it even though I invested 4 years of my time in it.

(This is the part you can scroll fast and skip reading; road accident story and it's pictures)

When my conscience was in crossroads about finding a home or finding a worthwhile career, life had a drastic way of reminding me of a third element that I forgot about - My Health. One fine morning in March, I took my scooter and started to reach my office from home as usual. Time was ticking, I was worried I might reach the office late, and a bunch of other worries like home, career, identity crisis and more shuffling through my mind as I navigated the roads of T. Nagar to reach Teynampet. At an intersection I was crossing at, a speeding auto came out of nowhere perpendicular to my way, hits the tail of my scooter, tossing me along with my scooter to the ground.

I became unconscious, saw pitch-black darkness, opened my eyelids gently, saw a bokeh effect view of the sun and then slowly retained my vision back. Now the trouble was I was not able to get back up because my left leg was sandwiched between the road and the fallen scooter. The scooter fell in a way its on top of my left leg and my left foot was oozing with blood after completely scraping over the rough surface of the dusty road. Can't explain the physics of it, but you get the idea right, it was a brutal fall. I was scared that my leg might have been fractured, but I was able to move after a few minutes. I stood up and picked my scooter back to its right state. Now, suddenly, the passersby people remembered to come and check on me. It is so weird that the general public fears taking care of road accident victims when they need serious help instead of being ready to help once they are alright. Hypocritical times we live in.

Anyhow the random passerby people held my arms firmly to the point it felt unwarranted, and kept on telling lets go to a hospital instead of calling 108. A guy from the crowd in particular was too firm with his grip on my arm and kept telling in Tamil 'Akka vaanga ka hospital polam' which means 'sister come lets go to the hospital.' I immediately dismissed it and said, 'I am alright and thank you' to let them leave me alone so I wouldn't reach my office any later than it was. My work mindset was so active even at that stage, I chose to go to the office and fulfil my professional commitments instead of visiting a doctor to take care of myself. At that moment, I didn't realize that I traded myself over external liabilities. Once I reached the office, people, after hearing my incident, just enquired if I was alright and proceeded with their work routine. I took the first aid kit, went to rest room, cleared debris, cleaned the wound with antiseptic liquid (Ouch Pro max), applied Povidone-Iodine ointment, resumed attending three online meetings, and addressed bunch of emails.

Bruised

Iodine ointment makes it look more gore

I don't know why I expected some sort of attention or care from my office people with whom I spent interacting for over 4 years, to arrange medical help or an auto to a nearby clinic to treat my wound, but in reality, it is none of their business. If any employee lives or dies is none of the co-worker's business in a formal setting. But knowing no further steps were taken for my care deepened my wound, not the one on my feet but the one on my soul. Still trying my best to be less attached and less emotional over people but its part of my DNA I guess. Maybe I need to try my best to be immune towards disappointments.

After all this, I finished the work hours, rode back home and showed my mom the injury. She shrieked and told me to go to the hospital without an excuse. Something about moms, when they tell you to do something we often do it than argue over it. I obliged and went to a nearby bone clinic with my brother. The receptionist of the clinic said the doctor will come late. So we took a detour to a nearby hospital. From the first impression the nurse asked which doctor you want to see, I move my face towards my dried crimson feet. The nurse gasps and rushes me to see the duty doctor to treat it immediately. Till then, it felt good, and I was thinking maybe it is serious, and I should have visited a hospital sooner. But then the young lady doctor, before examining, got too judgmental and started asking in a condescending tone that if I am educated, where do I work, did I report the incident to the police and other things unrelated to medical treatment. In the end, she criticized that I am dumb for not visiting a hospital immediately even though I am literate, working in a white-collar job and other false assumptions that people use to mark a person's sanity and capability to make decisions. I felt accused and humiliated for seeking care from a person who does the opposite of that. When did our doctors lose empathy?

Hospital times

After that torturous sarcastic session with the doctor, I went to the nurse's cabin to finally get what I came for - Medical attention. She was kind enough to treat the wound instead of repeating an interrogation. While she was tending to the bruises on my feet, I was silently thinking that the majority of people are quick to find fault with the victim rather than making this world a better place where another incident like that can be prevented. We are born with the ability to criticize rather than be solution-oriented.

Nurses are way kinder than doctors

Came back home with cotton gauze wrapped around my left foot and hopscotch my way to bed. I so wanted the day to end so I could sit on my bed in peace. I put up a story about this incident on my Instagram earlier and was finally having the time to read messages. People said more annoying things than something I can act on in the present to get well soon. Let me share what I had to hear:

1. You should be more careful while driving - As if the fault was on me, not on the speed limit of the auto guy and I get to control mishaps of life.

2. Haha, is the other vehicle safe after hitting you? - So injury to a non-living being (auto) is more important than a person getting injured? And some people think insensitive stuff like that to be funny.

3. Why didn't you catch the person and file a police complaint? - I was unconscious and alone. For what joy would I be chasing the auto guy, take him to police and waste my time for? All this while my foot was bleeding?

4. I knew you would get hit someday - Thanks, really helpful. Not the kind of hit I hoped for. What kind of sadists are out there who wish despair upon people and rub it on their faces.

5. You are bluffing, right? - No. I would never prank about health and injuries.

6. The wound is not that badly hurt. It could have been worse. - Grateful but not helpful to hear.

7. Let me tell you my accident story which is worse than yours - Is this a competition? Recovering from PTSD and don't trigger it with your unsolicited accident story.

And I can go on but I don't want to complain much since I am alive and recovered. But some of you must be wondering what to tell then? It's simple, just tell get well soon, take care and, if possible, tips for quick recovery. The toughest pill to swallow is the people's ruthless queries I guess.

Red pill or Blue pill?
I get to choose both

WFH times

Daily rituals: Removing the gauze to check on the wound

Still a long time to heal

   Swollen joints

Swelling reduced, scabs increased

Pareidolia

Removing scabs that are loose
Felt like a snake shedding its skin

April 2023

Visited an expo about toilets
A sanitation worker lady franticly asked where is the loo for actual use
To be frank there were lots of exhibits about toilets but no sign of where to actually use one
The irony of the whole incident

This toilet changes the plastic seat cover when waved
Automated but not sustainable

Stories on public toilets

Some experiential exhibits on public toilets

And some toilet-inspired art

Sanitation workers were felicitated at the expo

Cat on the ledge

Another interesting quote on a truck
It says in Tamil, "Panam irukum idam thookam illai, Panam illaa idathil vazhkai illai"
which means 'In the place with money sleep is not there, in the places without money life is not there'

Dad attempted to grow a pineapple

Sunsets at office

Dad made me buy shoes to avoid
anymore foot damage while driving

Sometimes tech can catch feelings too

Went as a volunteer to teach school kids about gardening and composting

Kids are either eager to grow plants or happy to bunk routine

Attended a festival on roots and tubers

Variety of native rice seeds

An array of roots and tubers

Seeds of pulses, greens and veggies

Pineapple grew some roots

Flowers of Tecoma stans

Some rummaging after 1 month of healing the wound

A stray kitten visited us at midnight
Meek meows, faster heartbeat and tired stance

The kitten got stamina the next morning
played hide and seek under the scooter

And some pampering

Choosing what to wear for a work conference

Filtered the ones to pack

Found a poem I wrote in college times

Borbo cinnara

Office garden flourishing

After the March road accident fiasco, one might think I drive extra carefully and have mitigated any further chances of repeating such incidents again. I mean, technically, now I am more careful leaving 3 feet distance from fellow vehicles and moving at the pace of a snail on the roads to avoid any chance of getting hit. What I didn't anticipate was repair to my scooter. One fine day in April 2022, on my way from the office to home, in the middle of the journey, the scooter ride felt wobbly like it was jumping instead of moving smoothly. I didn't stop to check since it felt like an amusement park ride and eased my lower back pain. Somehow, with this effect came a traffic signal that was 2 km away from home. While waiting there, an old guy sitting on the pavement noticed and said that my scooter got a flat tyre. At first, I was sceptical, but upon inspection, I got to witness a tyre puncture for the first time. I don't know why I was thrilled to experience a new occurrence, be it positive or negative, and was looking forward to observing how a punctured tyre gets fixed. I called my dad for help and he came to the scene. We both walked the scooter to the puncture shop, but on the way, my dad changed his mind and bought a new tyre for the scooter. What an anti-climax. 

Dad - Tyre puncture savior

Met my mentees who completed their schooling and looking forward to their college times

This dog came, smelled our plants and went back to the streets
How serene life can be at times

I was hungry suddenly at night
Out of nowhere my mom was awake and gave me chilled apples to eat
Sometimes parental instinct is a real deal

At the printing shop to get
certificates printed for the work conference

Just like that it was time to assist the most anticipated annual conference organized by the global non-profit I worked with for over 4 years. Besides being a virtual conference, it involves lots of dry runs, backend planning, testing and coordination. The core organizing team planned to meet at Bangalore and it is always fun to catch a plane sponsored by the office. Me, my boss and my Chennai work colleague took the flight from Chennai to Bangalore. For my colleague, it was the first flight trip, and she was very excited about it and that made the journey joyful.

Dad dropping me to a nearby metro

The only escalation that doesn't give me anxiety

Waiting for the train

Train came but not on my track

Hopped in

Parangimalai
Chennai has hills too

Reaching Chennai Airport

Vimana Nilayam
I tend to remember the Metro lady voice-over while reading these Tamil words

Lots of walking

Electric kiosk to check in and print flight tickets

Fancy centralized AC

Brunching

No idea why air quality is displayed at airports

Boarding ahoy

The entrance of the plane feels like a space shuttle

Chennai from up above

That mandatory photo we all take in a flight journey
Jokes apart, I believe the sky is the more photogenic thing to capture

If you are inquisitive like me, you will flip the juice packet
and get to read content that says
'If I can look up, so can you!' - such a positive message

Bengaluru, here I come

Touch down

Kempegowda airport

Bengaluru airport is technically on the outskirts

Entrance of the stay

Room card

Reaching the rooms

Checking the room around

Room's viewpoint

Spacious room
The best part is resting on the bed covered with clean duvets

Coffee to brisk up

Tasted Capers for the first time

Some dessert therapy

Star hotels tend to teleport us to a different landscape

The convention hall side

It was nice to have a work buddy to
capture pictures of each other

Dinner at a Thailand restaurant
learning to use chopsticks

Jasmine tisane
Surprisingly it tasted better than I imagined

Forgot the dish's name
But mango sticky rice was yum

Late night revision about the conference agenda

Breakfast snacking
Day 2 of work trip

Work mode view

A day-long online conference backend work

Evening mall visit

Climbing the ladder instead of breaking the glass ceiling, I suppose

Getting conference gifts inside the conventional hall was a hassle
    Too much permissions and formalities

Executive dinner with conference core members

Chandelier
(almost can hear the song by Sia)

Just watching the pool that I can't use
Because I am on a work trip and it was open for visitor's view

Spa place - such good incense
Just window shopping

Exploring other sides of the hotel

Can't play but can portray

Goofing around

Macaroons are overrated
They look nice but the taste was meh

Visited the nicely decorated home of our senior colleague in Bangalore
She's an inspiring marketing expert whose wisdom I still use in my work
We later ended the night with chatter, laughs, and some rolled ice cream with her son

Day 3
Work mode off
Travel mode on

Final breakfast from a fine dining buffet

My boss was kind enough to pay for the car ride to tour around Bangalore after hearing us two girls confused about where to start and that was a huge relief to finish sightseeing the city in a day. More than the work conference we both were anticipating our tour itinerary for Bangalore. We were planning for it a month ahead and were so excited it became a huge list. Since time was less, we struck off a few places and then compared places proximate to each other on the map. Some were a miss but we visited most of it (Lalbagh Gardens, NIMHANS Brain and Heritage Museum, Vidhana Soudha, Cubbon Park, Bangalore Palace, ISKCON)

Lalbagh gardens
Large place to walk among trees and plants

Tranquil lake at Lalbagh Gardens

A tiny rocky hill at Lalbagh Gardens

NIMHANS Brain Museum - Photos not allowed inside
An array of preserved brains on display
Fascinating mystery isn't it? A soft gooey organ functioning all of us
And making you read this! :)

NIMHANS Heritage Museum
Not a popular tourist attraction 
but I love anything about museums and human psyche

Display of lots of items to test the brain's capability

Stroop word and colour test

Tests for abstract and concrete thinking

Vintage Oscilloscope

Patent Magneto Electric Machine

Leiter Adult Intelligence Scale

Ruckmick pictures

Anaesthesia unit

Machines for Electroconvulsive Therapy

Ultra Microtome

Cubbon park
By now we decided less walking and
more watching places from the car to save time

Vidhana Soudha
Neo-Dravidian architecture

Bengaluru Palace
Place where the royals used to reside

Palace courtyard and afternoon sun

Vintage electric switches

This was particularly a different art piece on caste

Palace walls covered in greens

ISKCON

Finally, we reached the Kempegowda Airport for our return flight to Chennai. At the airport security, we were asked to stop for additional checks. Apparently, the plants that we got at the conference return gifts needed a check to let in. The security personnel took a small strip, dipped it in the soil, and loaded it into a machine to check if any narcotics or any other illegal substance was present in it. It was so interesting to watch the monitor showing the results and fascinating to experience the testing machines used by airports to keep criminal activity at bay.

Plants got approved to enter the airport

Back to Chennai
Got so tired roaming, I woke up at 4 PM the next day

May 2022

It took me six months to finally accept the home we lived in was not ours anymore. The feeling started to sink in that it was now an acquaintance that I once knew. After the foot injury, I became more serious about focusing on the career advice my dear ones were stressing me on. Switch jobs, earn more, learn more, network and grow. I was happy at the current job facilitating programs for inspiring women and girls around the world to achieve great heights in their careers in male-dominated engineering spaces, which aligns with one of my core values. DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) is something I will always be an ally for. As a job for a fresher, it was really great exposure, but as years passed by, I felt saturated, restless and underpaid. I did get a fancy job title, autonomy to work on my own, travel to places and a seven-hour work day. But there were qualms here and there. I was given miscellaneous tasks that were not relevant to what I was hired for, no social security benefits, and no offline co-workers who stayed more than six months. The accident was a wake-up call for me to step outside my comfort zone and venture into a new career path. Hopefully, that provides financial stability, opportunities to work with varied departments that support large organizations and many career aspects that I envied knowing from working people on LinkedIn and other career-related sites. I took rigorous steps to switch jobs, and the scar on my feet fueled the idea that I get to choose where and when I want to spend my skills. 

After attending rounds of job interviews, I realized the tone of most recruiters is like judging for some competition than welcoming talent to their companies. Why are job interview processes so cold and daunting? Like being interrogated for some murder or something. It's a fellow human being on the other side; look at their resume as a life story rather than just an education and work experience summary. And it's more scary if the job seeker is not an expert in one field over the years, such as me, who knows about food science, human resource management, office administration and community management for a non-profit but is not a seasoned expert in any of them. Jane of all trades, master of none. An interview question that's a pet peeve of mine is 'Tell me about yourself' and after you tell about yourself, their reaction would be astringent. As in you are not valuing my time by not asking why I applied to this company or role and if I have any pre-requisites to perform in this job requirement. Rather, that question makes me feel like, are people that inept to comprehend a resume or here to listen to me blabber and pass the time?

After so many emails saying, 'We regret to inform you,' you all know the rest of the generic contents of a not-selected letter from a recruiter or talent acquisition bots. One becomes hyperaware and self-conscious in a way that negates the very worth of your existence. As children, especially in Indian households and school systems, we are fed with multiple avenues to seek validation and generate comparisons. The idea of excelling needs to be relevant, known and not so queer. I see a similar ethos in the recruitment process that makes it tedious by seeing all roles as the same. It's not. Sometimes, the whole recruitment system needs a revamp and sensitization on tailoring the employee hiring process to the role rather than seeing it as another bulk requirement of the company. 

After you accept, it's okay; it's human to err; the recruiters and job interviewers are humans, after all. Then comes the news that some companies have ATS (Applicant Tracking System), a software that rejects your job application from its plain text and hiring keywords or rules set by the company. Now how to compete with that! When did the Human from the Human Resources get depleted? Another annoying thing is creating multiple accounts with new usernames and passwords for multiple companies with the same job application site, such as Workday. Like for each company I need to add details, upload a resume and even though its by the same HCM (Human Capital Management) site. In such user cases, I appreciate sites like Naukri and LinkedIn. It saves time and helps people find jobs instead of wasting time filling in the same information about themselves again and again.  

After all these job search spin the wheel, I finally got selected at a company that offers Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management services. Two industries I staunchly didn't want to work at; anything that is related to healthcare and finance. But in my case, life gave me this on my way to take it up as a fresh new start to move on from the past, and it is all I can afford at the moment. At first I almost did it out of fun, attended interviews and waited for another email saying not selected. But to my surprise, I got selected and now I was panicking. I don't know what to do next. How to exit from a company when I am the only employee working in the current org who wore multiple hats being the receptionist, recruiter, representative and more. I had this deep pit of heaving feeling to confess to my then boss that I am switching jobs. Something intuited to me it would be a bittersweet departure.

So, after lots of prodding, I took the decision to give a 1 month notice period, informed ahead and delayed my joining at the new company. As feared, my then boss didn't take it well, he got angry, added that he's disappointed and told me I will not find such good work environment, the tasks will be mundane and lots of things to convince what a bad decision I have taken. Back then I felt remorse hearing this from the first person who helped me kickstart my career by hiring me based on my skills and someone I looked up to. As an elder person in his seventies, he has seen the world both figuratively and literally as well. He's an expat from the USA, but as an early career professional, switching jobs for my betterment didn't feel like an illegal or flabbergasting thing to do. I did dedicate my 4 years of career there, and it was not a light decision but a decision based on years of observed patterns, need for change, self-awareness and more. I was on cross-thoughts to decline the new job until I hear him say swear words directed to my parents, who partially influenced my decision to change jobs. Atleast they didn't leave me hurt when my feet got injured I thought. The very final reason I considered staying even though the pay was less and the declining communal care was for the respect I had there, but that day, it got shattered and liberated my guilt. 

Switching jobs is a tuff break up to experience I guess. I wish bosses understood gaslighting is not the gratitude given to people who stood by you with the capacity they had. Once it is depleted, its not a bad idea to let go of the employee that is not able to serve the job. Life is so fast-paced I had to prepare myself for the new workplace. Calculated, and turns out I was so much less paid that I easily bagged a 74% hike in salary. I later checked in AmbitionBox that I bagged a below-average salary pay from the new company but still was on cloud nine. I was now able to worry less about homelessness, my parents' health bills and my pension.

Conference plant growing

My boss gave me the gift he was
meaning to give the keynote speaker
This was before I confessed exiting the org

Lizard & Ants
Life is as simple as one's carcass
becoming fodder to another

Yellow Heliconia

In my notice period, saying my goodbyes
to the workplace I visited for over 4 years

After checking a house for potential buy and returning back,
my mom fell from the scooter and insisted on taking her to a hospital
Healthcare places as you know will milk out as many tests as possible
Thankfully they only made her take an MRI and it was nothing serious

World Trade Center, Chennai
One of the places I wanted to visit was fulfilled

One thing I notice common among all posh-looking
new corporate buildings are the eerie parking lots
Isolated. Silent. Empty.
And hard to navigate

The exterior though says a different story
Glass Grandeur

Even the bathrooms were elegant

So the actual reason I got to visit it was for a job interview
Waited for a while, passing time watching vehicles of OMR

Later, they invited me to be a guest audience at their event for Tamil Nadu startups to scale up, coached by the founder of a SaaS company that gifted his employees BMW cars. I was told it would help me understand the pulse of the non-profit I will be working for, which was founded by him. I was in a dilemma, do I need to repeat what I was doing the last 4 years, or will this be different? I patiently listened to brilliant to mediocre business pitches for the event to end and my interview to begin. Turns out there was no women entrepreneur in the event. I was the only girl in the whole room and that shows how important the work of diversity is in every career space. I was honest with the interviewer and told him that I was a bit confused, and even though I am passionate about working towards humanitarian causes, their cause didn't reflect a prominent one. It was about promoting the local economy and was a little too advanced for me to understand. Also, the primary motive I wanted to switch jobs was to secure my retirement, and this job cannot fulfil that. And that's how I dismissed a job offer from an org at a workplace I admired. Sometimes, it's not about the building but about building yourself up. Wise advice: Think long-term in your mid-20s.

Exiting the complicated parking lot

But it was worth it
Look at this architectural beauty

Later visited the beach to process
what I just went through

Ever scanned your hand?
Tried and it looks just like a colour photo
Don't know why I thought it would be different

The skeleton of metro escalators though

A chance at one last work trip

Chennai Airport

Reached early, checking out airport decor

Some elements of mysticism

Some elements of bridging rural and urban

Some procession

This was my first time taking a layover flight

Meeting the sky on eye level

Reading about my native from the in-flight magazine
I wish I knew more about my paternal side

Reached Hyderabad airport

Vertical gardens

Free to view art display that no one took time to visit

Hyderabad airport roof was beautiful

Had a doughnut to suppress hunger
Not really into sugar stuff but sometimes carbs help

Off to final destination

Flying around the fluffy clouds

Reached
The carpet had this design of people dancing in the Dandiya pose

Visiting Vadodara

A beautiful art installation at Vadodara airport

Getting used to Gujarati signage

I chose to stay at the home of an aunt I knew through work
Coffee and conversations with a Tamil Nadu-origin women leader in Vadodara
She's such an inspiration to reckon
She also inspired me to add car driving to my bucket list

We had Gujarati thali for dinner
Sensory wise it was tricky
Some foods that looked spicy tasted sweet
For a South Indian it takes a while to adapt I guess

Next day went to the work event
The intended purpose of the trip

Later visited the nearby mall

The next day was the part I was awaiting

Touring the places of Vadodara ft. Auto rickshaws

Ticket counter place was fancy

Entering Laxmi Vilas Palace
The palace was filled with swords, guns and objects of power

Completed my visit to Laxmi Vilas Palace
Photography inside the palace was not allowed

Squirrel corner

Photos were not allowed here either
This place had a vast collection of life-size statues and paintings
Got to view many of Raja Ravi Varma's original paintings up close

Next stop, visiting the Baroda Museum
Guess what? Photos were not allowed here too

Baroda Museum looks timeless

This museum is every historian's dream
It has stuff dating back from the 1800s with two floors neatly
dedicated sections of art, artefacts, carpets, vases, swords,
zoology specimens, rocks, paintings, skeletons, and history to learn

Look at that Indo-Saracenic beauty

Planetarium near Baroda Museum
Too crowded so checked it out from the outside

Park near Baroda Museum

Sat on the park bench and thought
Visiting museums reminded me we often observe past
but not the present that is happening around us
As in we frame, photograph, film or capture a memory than live in it

Got dehydrated and drank lemon soda
Vadodara summers are so different from Chennai
You won't even sweat, it gets evaporated here

Saying goodbye to Vadodara
A solo work + travel trip to remember

Return flight got delayed
It's a small airport not much there to pass the time on

That mandatory photo for delighting my parents
that their child indeed flew the skies

Light refracting through my earring
2-hour flight seemed like forever

Back to Chennai (home)

June 2022

Right after I landed in Chennai, my dad took me to check out a house that's nearby to my new workplace. It turned out to be the house for us to live in. Sometimes, things we focus on come at random times, so trust life's process. 

Seeing one's parent going through
auditory hallucinations are not easy to watch

Sealing the deal
Visited the property lawyer to check if the house
we were thinking to make our home was legit or a scam
Me and my dad later chilled over an Ice apple and Coconut water juice

Volunteered for an art activity at an orphanage

Ended up creating a snake and ladders game

Such impromptu masterpiece 

New office, new chapter
A glass building hereafter

Industrial estate scenes

Landmark of neighbouring area

The art of napping

Attended an event as part of Pride month
Learnt gender is not only about sex but
also about identity, expression and attraction

Sometimes I wish the rivers of the city
are revived back to it's pristine condition

Joining a new office, especially a corporate one from an all by myself start-up sort of office environment, was a sugar rush to my career mind. But also with joy comes tribulations. When in need, I am sure anyone who has worked in a corporate will know this line: Raise a ticket for it. Whoever invented it was a genius and a sinister in disguise. Anything that needs a ticket means it will inevitably get delayed. So my joining felt like:

1. Can I get my identity card? Raise a ticket and email your image in square and in jpg, not jpeg. 

2. Can I get my work laptop? Ask your manager to raise a ticket for it.

3. Can I get my user login access? (Guess what?) Raise a ticket for it.

4. After all this, I login to see every app and website is blocked except Microsoft Teams and Outlook. By this time I didn't even ask and proceeded to raise a ticket.

I thought my welcome to corporate would be as rosy as those random professionals showing off on their LinkedIn profiles. But there is a stark difference. There is no welcome kit, no individual contributor-specific induction, and maybe the only constant was raising tickets. I wish I raised my standards in life as much as the number of tickets I raised to the company's IT, network, and server teams. There is too much stuff for a new joinee, and corporate culture is not as fancy and welcoming as I thought.  

Brinjal flower at dad's garden

Kitchen garden maintenance at an orphanage

Random library visit
As a person who writes a lot, surprisingly I read so less

Curious case of furled leaf

Attended my first Pride Parade in Chennai A mix of cheer, celebration, community along with lots of colour, dance, music and dehydration

July 2022

Oh my god, it's finally happening. My dad paid the amount to purchase the home in a locality nearby to my new workplace. It's official! We have become a 'House Rich, Cash Poor' family. We have shelter but need to work hard for food and other necessities. 

Post-home purchase went for lunch and got stung by a wasp
My life has always been about such humbling moments
Dualities indeed

This time we didn't feel much sorrow while shifting to a new home. We knew the drill of throwing all the stuff in big bags and boxes ready to shift. The new home didn't have fans fixed yet, and the neighbourhood is filled with concrete buildings with fewer trees in sight. We all were sweating and were using a table fan to cool us off while slowly unpacking essentials to miscellaneous stuff. The packers and movers lorry didn't have space to allocate the plants that my dad had, so we had to leave them behind. But if you know my dad, his garden is like his lifeline. Immediately after settling furniture and other stuff inside the new home, he went away. He borrowed a truck from his friend, picked all the plants and drove them to the new home within a few hours. Find yourself a person who looks after you like my dad looks after his plants. No matter what, my dad and his plants are inseparable. A fascinating tale of muse and madness with his greens.

Dad's garden delivered

All plants are now inside the home, and my dad finally felt everyone in my family reached home
If there was an Aadhar card for plants my dad would be the first person to register them

Balcony garden

Unpacking stuff felt like rummaging inside a time capsule 

Random newspaper title saying
An Ecstasy of Ideas

Adenium - A plant that came along with this house

Bought a wall-mount TV for the first time

Unlimited access to the terrace after 26 years
My previous home had a slant roof so we never got to experience an open terrace

Using a clothesline at the terrace for the first time

Tried making Dhoklas
Surprisingly it came out well

First bloom of the balcony garden

Neighbourhood temple pond

Rubbing salt into the subsiding wound
The home I lived in for 26 years was demolished
It doesn't hit your mind until you visually see and realize there is no turning back
It is, what it is.

This neighbourhood has so many cows roaming around

Getting familiar with the new home's interiors

Healing happens in stages

Clerodendrum flowers

Random temple idol procession
And just like that, I turned 27

August 2022

Just after 6 days of turning 27, as a bachelorette in an Indian Telugu household, I was subjected to the subtle marriage talks. How can I tell them I am too woke to be handled by any human and that too a person that might end up being my life partner. Committing to getting married is one thing, but the pathway to choose the ideal person to spend a lifetime on when I myself am often drowning in mixed states of existential crisis, joy and 'who am I' is another thing. Marriage - A topic I don't have answers to then and even now. Till then, I am going to focus on my career, most likely something I can count on. Or maybe it can also be tormenting too. The next ticketing system in my office was to use an outdated VPN system to log in when I got to work from home. The agony of typing lengthy usernames, strong illogical passwords and waiting for the OTP to get a notification saying, "An error occurred; try again". It happens so often that I sometimes think about what I am doing with my life. Trying to plead a screen to let me in, convincing it's preset criterion of a company's security feature to let me work when all I want to do at home is binge-watch and sleep. 

Also encountered my first work mistake which gave me the nickname "Recall". As part of my new job, I am responsible for publishing internal communications via emails built using HTML through the company's ancient proprietory emailing technology. On one occasion, I published an event email where the email image designed by a colleague had the incorrect event date. I didn't notice when proofreading, the stakeholders didn't notice when reviewing, which got published and and caused chaos. There is an emergency forbidden technique to recall the bulk email sent to thousands of employees' inboxes, for which I had to raise a ticket and plead with network and server team people to help me remove the mail from the inboxes of thousands of employees, which take hours to happen. Till then, I was accompanied by a cold, empty, silent office floor and a couple of warnings blarred by my boss on WhatsApp. The error was related to info about an small employee engagement event, no one got murdered or the company didn't end up getting cyberattacked or something. But the incident added a scare to my career beginnings at the coporate as a communications professional. After a few years, I learnt corporate is full of such happenings, and how you deal with it makes you a real deal. This incident kind of ended up helping me in suggesting an intranet feature that got deployed years later where employee engagement events of all locations are shown in one place, editable, streamlined and ambient for the employees to view real-time and know about than just plain formal invite in their Outlook inbox that is neither correctable nor synchronous. Don't worry if you have palpitations, mood swings, politics, unrealistic deadlines, demotivation and much more when you are in corporate. My mantra for you would be, mind your business. When at work, ignore everything and focus on the business to thrive. Problems can come from anywhere, and if it hasn't come, it means you haven't done anything. Be sure to use the problem as an opportunity to find solutions.

First moon watching at the new home
Even though not visible in the photo, I had to save the memory 

Korattur station
The railway station in my neighborhood

Overhead bridge view

Greys of the train
A place you can see a diverse range of people all at once

Train travel after ages indeed

Attended an event at TIDEL Park in Taramani

The event was about 5-year celebration of the NGO I was volunteering with
Surprising met some of my mentees in person, heartwarming to meet them

Name of the celebratory event - Ilakku
A Tamil word for goal 

Even though we have the liberty to go out,
precaution with masks were still there

Interior of TIDEL park in Chennai

Later went on a stroll to a nearby park

Newly added
Namma Chennai 2.0 Park

Metal sculptures

Dog and wall art

Freshly painted Taramani MRTS

Interior of the MRTS can improve though

Waiting for the train to reach home

Sunset at Korattur

Oh the bliss of lying down with no bother
for yesterday, today and tomorrow

Collage of sunsets I witnessed

Independence Day
All homes got a chance for Har Ghar Tiranga
Indian government initiative to sell Indian flags at subsidized rates

My twist on the Indian Tricolours
Made a collage of Orange, White and Green pictures from my gallery

Being on the First floor became less fun, here comes the sleep wrecker
Right next to my bed is a balcony window with an AC outdoor unit on the top
Every morning at 6 AM a pair of pigeons sit on it and make annoying coos

Flood prone zone
Adapting to the neighbourhood topography

Hibiscus thriving

Shady leaf

Porridge for the cold

Oh the bliss of resting on a petrichor-filled road

Roaming the city even though I am in Suburbs

Roof of Thiruvallikkeni train station

I rarely keep myself hydrated
This was one such occasion

September 2022

Dad usually waters the plants everyday in the early morning. On one such occasion, he started having a chatter with a random lady in the street who stopped by and examined a nearby building that was in demolishing condition. So anyone who stares at that building for more than a minute, we all know it could be a buyer. But the catch is that the property is in some other litigations, so no one eventually buys it, and it looks almost haunted. Devoid of humans connected to it. Seeing homes in dilapidated conditions makes me re-think why some people invest in a home when they don't stay there anymore. I understand that the price will rise, and it's an immovable asset that helps in financial security. But on a rudimental level, I think, why have something when you don't have it for its intended purpose. That is to live inside the house and make the shelter one's home instead of letting it rot. So she saw this and a previous home we were supposed to buy but we didn't because it was small and got weird room dynamics. Apparently, this buyer lady told my dad that the house had a suicide case in it and didn't have a good aura. Thank god we got a better home instead of that house. Sometimes, you never know what or where to look for good signs, but as long as you manifest the guidance, it appears in unknown sources like the current house me and my family live in. Shifting to this house reduced audio hallucinations to my mom, cut short my trips to the workplace, and gave me designated garden space for my dad and a separate room as asspired by my brother. Look out for signs but don't wait for it. Trust the process.

Moving into a new home is one thing and getting accustomed to making it work is another thing. For over three decades we had a house help who ardently assisted mom in cleaning floors, vessel washing, sanitising the bathrooms, grocery shopping, babysitting me when I was a kid, listening to mom's endless woes and other support that can't be quantified. Shantamma was a blessing, and there is no other woman who can replace her presence in building us up as a family. You can read her life story in my previous blog if missed. As part of selling our old home, we had to forgo her services and kindness and move away from all the years of her service to this bunch of people who she saw as family. I sometimes feel guilty that we never gave her severance pay when we shared our last goodbyes. Back then we weren't sure about our financial situation but by the time we got the new home, we lost her contact and just like that a women who dedicated so many years of her life with us was forgotton. In this new home, we were all reinventing ourselves in learning to adapt and do those chores which Shantamma was helping us singlehandedly. One fine day in this new home, while dishwashing a pressure cooker, a tiny swirl accidentally splashed the soap water into my eyes. That's all, my eyes got red, watery and burning with pain. I washed my eyes immediately with cold water and used ice to relieve. It reminded me how often we take house help for granted. Remember to thank your house help if you have the chance to do so. 

A new trash tune came up. Every day, early in the morning, like an alarm, the tiny battery-operated trash pick-up vehicle plays a song in Tamil, talking about keeping our places clean, segregating the wastes and making Chennai city a clean place to live in. You can listen to it online by searching 'Namma Ooru Semma Joru' song. It had quite a pleasant tune, but when did our makkal (word for people in Tamil) like pleasant stuff. They changed it and replaced it with a peppy tune sung by a celebrity music director, which at first was fun to hear, but listening to it nowadays makes me want the older trash tune back. It was an OG early morning song of Chennaites. I don't think most of us want to wake up to a song that is dance number-worthy over a breezy tune.

Monsoon sunset

Saw a 20 rupee coin for first time

Random water colouring

Remembering the roots

Hibiscus blooms

Desert rose

Camouflage

Quenching times

Visit to Madhavaram Botanical Garden

Seed covering of Earpod Wattle

Egyptian crowfoot grass

Butterfly

Paw prints

Lotus pond

Sunset

Walk buddy

Lightning strikes

Volunteered with an NGO that offers scholarships for students from underprivileged backgrounds
I helped the scholarship applicants to fill out their forms and prepare for the primary round
Got to interact and hear life stories of the first graduate in the family, single parent child, sibling died of cancer, abusive father, lost a parent to suicide and much more that changed my outlook on life

Government schools can be colourful

A cafe pathway filled with lush greens

Amusing to see how reed diffusers work

A fragrance I liked
I am rarely a scent person

Tried checking our profiles at matrimony sites
And learnt why it is better to live single
This one always gives me a chuckle :)

Visited German language school to attend an event

They have this QR codes and exhibits for storytelling

Waiting for my turn
Saw this ceiling of animals seeing down 

Ready to use Virtual Reality stuff
They were easy yet uneasy gadgets to experience

Ticking off from my list of random experiences
An out-of-ordinary event involving Virtual Reality

Attended a talk on Indian Heritage

I am a sucker for symmetrical tiles

Tried Russian honey cake

The night guardian

A rainbow between freshly dried blankets

A random Post-it activity at the office for the 'No Food Waste' campaign
But was also guilty of wasting paper
Eco-anxiety is a real deal

October 2022

Within a few months of joining the new company, I was worried that all I would learn about was monotonous work, a ticket to raise for anything to happen and call it a workday. Surprisingly I work in a department called Corporate Communications. It includes special projects now and then. And my team is short-staffed at a company that employs twenty-seven thousand people. So it's more like a start-up team vibe serving a global corporate organisation level. The project one of my colleagues was in charge of was to coordinate a corporate video shoot at our Chennai Offices. They hired a team that works for high-quality advertisements with fancy cameras and equipment. It looked like a live demo of a serial or cinema shooting at my office. I got the opportunity to tag along with her and had a field visit to all the functional departments, office spaces and people of my new office. And the best part was I learnt a lot about what sort of shots are useful and what ends up being stock footage. Made me think I would have liked studying Viscom or Mass Communications, if someone told me about it. Representation matters, especially when someone needs an opinion on what to pursue in their college. Till then I see everyday learning like these moments as my college.

All that glitters is not gold. Hope you know what it means. Day one of the shoots was fun. Day two ended up being deep, and I learnt a bit of the ground reality of most corporate offices that hide behind the glossy-looking glass buildings. As part of the shoot, we had to take a few minutes of time from employees at specific office spaces. On one such interaction, at the wellness room, we heard from the nurse that one in twenty night shift employees are suffering from various recurring lifestyle illnesses such as migraines, fever, cough, colds and more. This means there is a probability of 1,350 cases of people becoming sick due to the night shift lifestyle. I know not every correlation equals causation. Some might be sick because of their habits, habitat and health in general. But it is alarming to see our labour laws are so weak that people can be exploited of their circadian rhythm for serving people who are not even from our nation. The real price and power of an American dollar, I guess.

Got a new clock

Made an imperfect cheese sandwich

Unexpected Terrarium at home

Bryophyllum leaf ready to propagate

Leaves of Agave

Writing our names in different languages
Fun at the office feels as simple as that

Kaempferia elegans

Exploring filters in Google Meet

Dad's upcycled Ikebana

Colleague's desk decor

The branch office of my company
Something about glass buildings that makes you feel majestic 

First time witnessing an office DJ party
Lots of heart-thumping loud music and blinding lights

I was awed by the company's initiative to organise an awards show for employees
but now I know every company organises it as an easier tactic to retain them

Admiring the calmness of the night clouds

Tried making a snack out of a potato
It came out bad - sometimes own recipe experiment might fail

A colleague gave a belated birthday gift in this cute panda bag

Ikebana growing roots

Another DJ party at the office
This time I understood the assignment
Witness and come out within seconds to avoid Arrhythmia (I am kidding, or am I?)

Visiting a fancy bakery recommended by office people

Tasted meh

But brownies can never go wrong
They were yum

Witnessing Sunrise

Witnessing slumber

Flower of Globe Amaranth

The Greater Crimson Glider

Mom's Deepavali
Arranging lamps at the dungeon-like altar with devotional objects

Deepavali of mine
Arranging a bunch of lights for myself

A new vegetable plant

Winter times

Bougainvillea

Aesthetic event space

Attended a random talk by a costume stylist for Indian films
Heard some fascinating details like real gold Jewellery used for Ponniyin Selvan's movie

Volunteered to train people to mentor school girls on career intent

My maternal aunt suggested a cream to lighten the wound colour on my feet
I don't understand why people are obsessed with fair skin over skin health

Even though it was demolished
The old house was there in Google Maps
Something to hold on to before it vanishes everywhere

November 2022

Trying a new dish from the office canteen
I have a not-so-fond relationship with food
I prefer to be detached from it as much as possible as a reflex
So it's a rarity if I order food for myself 
(mostly because winter was crazy cold and warm Maggi helped)

Blooms of Broad Beans

Mornings be like

Went to a team lunch
At a restaurant that uses biodegradable cutlery

Walk at the neighbourhood temple pond

Walking buddy - Dad

Visited the neighbourhood temple

Unique temple flooring

Flowers of Turkey Berry

Train travel

A rare sight to view - Empty local train seats

Slumber of a railway dog

Keen observer

Took a detour to the metro

Empty metro places

Saviour for metro commuters

I am there somewhere 

Reached the dog rescue place for a volunteering event

Dog's hide-and-seek

The lady who takes care of the strays

Was waiting with the dogs till the NGO people came

By now I lost count of the dogs

Entered the makeshift shelter for dogs

Most dogs were eager to connect with new humans

Got scratches 
Aftermath of greeted by group of doggos

We painted the shelter space amongst the dogs
Very unusual but fun volunteering activity

Paint and paws everywhere

Then visited the place for cats

  Cats were less playful but were intrigued

Colouring the walls where the feline friends nestled

Almost finished

Some silhouettes are priceless

Telling our byes

Once final glance to farewell

Learning to use the metro QR method

North Madras AKA வட சென்னை

EV charging points at metro

Tip-toeing my way through the stairs

Royapuram Train station
The first railway station in South India
Third oldest railway station in India

A colleague of mine took my work diary without my permission and scribbled numbers
I get very upset when people grab and use my belongings without my consent
I wish people follow the basic etiquette and good manners

Golden Guinea Vine

Money plant sprawling the balcony

Street scenes
A playful interaction between a dog and a calf

Chennai rains begin

Walk towards the neighbourhood lake

A muddy pathway filled with rubble

Reached the lake

Accompanied by dad

A vast expanse of water and plants

Bunch of buffalos crossing by

Sub-ecosystems of the lake

End of the lake visit

Goodbye Korattur lake

Hello to the neighbourhood mall

Most visited place for people in Nort-West Chennai 

Interesting wall painting

So many designs on the floor

Attended a birthday party of a colleague's daughter, a practice that I took a while to get used to
My family doesn't spend lavishly to celebrate or gift each other, we follow spending based on necessity
When I was a kid I used to feel bad about this, but as I grow old, I understand how practical that is
Some Vanilla Ice Cream and Gajar Ka Halwa, anyone? 

Cold remedy that helps me
Hot water, Turmeric, Black Pepper and Cloves

Watching all shades of sunsets

Visit to a random art gallery
A candid picture of me surprisingly that came out well

Cold got so bad I started sneezing and coughing up Phlegm with a hint of blood
I wish offices kept ACs at bearable temperatures and kept the vents clean
Apparently, you need to stay hydrated in an AC environment or else you will catch ENT infections
Learnt about Catarrh and honestly prolonged experience of it is not well

Harvesting elephant ear beans

Silhouette of tree branches 

Visit to Dakshina Chitra Heritage Museum

Aesthetics to live for

Sunshine enters

Checking out an art installation

If I actively used Pinterest, this would have been pinned

A photo quote to tell Cultures of India are as vast as
the sizes of pans depicted in the picture

Interesting technology
This machine makes water out of the air

Wall that talks about using sustainable materials

A long walk

The fun of visiting life size museums

About natural dyes

Block printing

Fascinating mutation of தமிழ் letters

A room with antique items with strings attached

Art of idol-making

Life-size architectural replicas to witness

In awe of them

Grateful to born in this era
As a tall person, stairs like this would have been disastrous

Textiles

Traditional motifs to adore

Some more to adore

Each house represents a Southern Indian State
This one is for Karnataka

Colourful glass panes

Mirror and me

For the love of windows

Evening hours

Impromptu plans
My first time attending a music concert

The whole place was decorated with lights

I would rather sit and enjoy the music concert 
than listen to it standing among the crowd
After effects of growing old

Dusk at office

Flowers that bloom at night
Dad's garden wonders

Prepping for a trip
Remember I was having a cold?
It was worsening but my zeal to travel was strong

Taking a train to Chennai Central
My dad asked me to call him once I reached it, which made me think of the thought
our parents tend to worry about their children because we are a part of their hearts outside them,
and they prefer to protect the heart at all costs

Grafitti at the station

Ahh the iconic Indo-Sarascenic heritage building

Side effects of noticing everything

Playing UNO to pass time
A leisure trip with work colleagues

Misty mornings

Literally, mist everywhere
This is a lake

Reached Ernakulam train station

Settled in the rooms
Satisfied hunger pangs with a local delicacy - Pazham Pori
Tasted like a warm gooey sweet banana fritter

The homestay

The thing about travelling with my work colleagues is they are more chill types but I am more of let's prepare an itinerary and stick to it to make the most out of our time in this new place
Made me realise I am better off travelling alone or with like-minded strangers than stuck in the clutches of the lazed-out folks

Visit to Folklore Museum

Looked a bit fancy
Maybe because it is privately owned 

Lots of woodwork typical of Kerala architecture

Entrance

The place was crowded with many artefacts

Like each corner one turns there is a relic

Some wooden heritage pieces

Majestic doors

Anglicised art pieces

More decor everywhere
At some point, it looked monotonous

Stone stuff

Hand printing machine

Utensils

Metal figurines

And some more galore of cupboards filled with antiques

Footwear

Masks

Jewellery

Chains

They could have labelled it better

Caparison

Windowpane

Beheaded

Creepy looking dolls

Brass dyes
Very unusual item

Finally, the visit to the museum was over
It had all things Kerala but less about what they were for

Footpath of Vasco Da Gama Square, Fort Kochi

Walk buddy

How magical trees can look up in the sky

A fancy hotel to lunch at

The place was filled with splendour of architectural marvels

Mauve butterfly orchid

Immovable seater  

Fishing boats of Fort Kochi

Bastion Bungalow
I really wanted to visit all the places, but the downside of travelling with colleagues is they run up late, and one has to miss some places on their bucket list

Night view inside a bridge

People started contemplating whether to take the boat ride or not just like the wavering of the boat on the waters moving in the serenading salty breeze of the west coastline

String of lights at Marine Drive, Kochi

Leaning branches of Western Ghats 

Viewed a river on the way

Dandelion seeds

Snacks
A traditional one and a modern one

Witnessing the norm of rose-coloured herbal warm drinking water
served at restaurants in Kerala

People got bit by leeches while wearing Crocs
It's an interesting phenomenon that an insect can make you bleed without pain

Flying a kite at a park in Vagamon

Sunset and shadows

A local festival was going on in Kochi
Evening streets were filled with lights and people

Slanted roofs
Another common architecture in Kerala

Mattancherry Palace

Palace museum history

Wooden ceiling art

Pallaquins poles

Intricate windows

A calming view to sight

Cartography

Some more ancient hand-drawn maps

Archaeological museums in India

A lizard nestles in a corner of the palace

Water lily

Had beef fry for the first time

Coloured panels

Drizzling weather

Vypin island & Cochin shipyard

Looks beautiful but a very dizzying place to stand at

At home, dad got grow bags to harvest new veggies

Pigeons at every nook and corner

December 2022

A work colleague gifted us an Instax print of a group photo
from the Kochi trip to everyone who came

Made a paper star

Eager to see which veggies might be harvested in 2023
But cyclone Mandous came up, and even gardens had to be rebuilt

Fancy baked food at office break
I am still trying to wrap my head around making myself comfortable
spending extravagantly on non-essential food because my work people are big foodies
It's kind of hard to say no when I don't earn as much as they do, and pay parity is a fantasy
I find it unfair to pay my equal share when
I eat less, order less and earn less compared to my colleagues 

Meanwhile, some tiny cakes to nibble on
while my brain is remorse about it

Made a flawed attempt at paper plane

Came for a talk on food science at a photo studio
Fancy venue to hear a person speak about what I did Bachelor's in

They gave us a snack

Visited a seafood place

Looking at wall murals until seafood arrives on the plate

Visited a game cafe
This game is called Abalone but I would call it Leave Me Alone
(I was super bad at playing it)

This one was a memory game called Dobble 
Guess what? I am bad at playing this as well

Tutti Frutti - I finally found a game I am good at!
But the win was short-lived, my time at the game place was over

Dad's lush garden glistening in the morning sunlight
The prettiest ornament on the balcony

Attended a random public event,
in the end it felt like a shamanic session

Unique entry pass for an event
(That's not a tattoo, its an ink stamp - If wondering)

One day I will photograph the moon in its glory
Till then here you go, a blurred pic of a mytical full moon

Hibiscus blooming at dad's garden

Karthika deepam scenes
(Not religious but fond of fun activities like these)

Flowers defying gravity

Dad started using clothesline to grow more plants

Eventhough my relationship with food is awkward
I am taking babysteps to try something new at the office canteen
Pasta to begin with

Symmetry of leaves

Interesting mural to admire
while signal goes red

Visit to Chennai's best public library

Reading random books
Ofcourse they had to be colourful and illustrated

This library has a beautiful view of Chennai

So many books, limited time

Random wall art nearby the library

Made some more paper stars

Back to office - View of Ambattur Industrial Estate
Sometimes I do miss visiting the central areas of Chennai

Christmas coming up

Colleague unwraped the toys from Kinder Joy

 

Pushcart slumber

An unique encounter while waiting for my train and staring at this roll of metal
A grandma with wrinkled face and lean strature came up to me and asked
if I am married, where I am from and shared a recipe to solve my mouth sore
Haven't tried the recipe but choice of the ingredients were indigenous
The unsolicited Recipe: Manathakkali leaves + chilli + coconut water + small onion + ghee rice

The thing about relocating to a newer area is
 I am always far away from event places I wish to visit
So many detours to take for places that used to be within 10 kms are now 20 kms away
The exhaustion is real

The revamped areas of Chennai Central

Victoria Public Hall
Buildings used to be regal,
nowadays it's all dull and minimalistic

Attended a random event on Agile and Project management
I am a sucker for learning things I am not familiar with

Cooum - A river that could have been an
excellent waterway now filled with sewage

I walked so much that I ordered fruit juice - Quite proud of this feat
Since I am not used to ordering and eating outside
Hydration is essential and I wish there were enough clean restrooms for all of us
to drink fluids without feeling worried about a place to pee at

Drink of the day - Nungu & Coconut water

The government introduced free bus rides for female passengers in Chennai

Christmas decor at a mall

X-mas embellishments

Attended a music concert with work colleagues
By now I have lost interest in standing in crowds to listen to music

Bryophyllum leaves

Ridge gourd at dad's garden

Christmas decor at the office

Visit to Kanchi

Gopuram Silhouette

So many chiseled stone pillars

Such intricate designs within the pillars

Temple lake
Something serene about sitting here than
waiting in queue and watch a sculpture of a diety inside

Got hungry - Temple prasadam for the rescue
Tamarind rice made in temples always has a unique taste

Visitng another popular temple in Kanchi
Because why not

This temple was less crowded

Even though the sun was scorching bright,
inside the temple, it was so cool

Symmetry

A digital time capsule letter to self, it says:
Hi Sunayana,
I hope you find what you were looking for!
If not the joy and learnings are yet to come. :)
- Sunayana, 2021

Just like that 2022 got over. My longest procrastination in writing ever. I started it in 2023 and was able to complete it in 2025. Newness and new beginnings are supposed to be joyous occasion. In my case, new home, a new job and many new things ended up occupying a large portion of my life. All of a sudden I had to adapt to a new routes, new routines and new habits to sustain what just came up both with and without a choice. Thanks for reading a part of my life that I took years to write about. See you with the next blog on my 2023. Will I survive it? Yes. But at what cost? That's the fun part for me to reflect on and for you to read about! 

The bonus part of my 2022:

3 Places I went: Bangalore, Vadodara, Kochi

2 Books I read: Futuretainment, The Big Book of Us

150 Movies & Series I saw: Pannaiyarum Padminiyum, Atrangi Re, Extinct, Miracle, Pushpa, Putham Pudhu Kaalai Vidiyaadhaa, Varudu Kaavelenu, Shark Tank India, Shyam Singha Roy, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Tinder Swindler, The Imposter, Good Luck Sakhi, The Courier, The Mitchells Vs The Machines, Gehraiyaan, Mahaan, Oz Land, The Chef of South Polar, Kho Kho, Don't Look Up, Sir, Hridayam, Social, The White Lotus, Maid, Big Bug, Nine Perfect Strangers, Single Drunk Female, Promising Young Woman, Back to the Outback, Turning Red, Astrological Guide of Broken Hearts, She Builds, Chennai Megafloods, World's Greatest Dogs, How Dogs got their Shapes, YouTube Revolution, Valimai, Live Telecast, Human, Happy Old Year, 83, Kadaisi Vivasayi. Badhaai Do, The Act, Human Resources, Eternally Confused and Eager for Love, Moonshot, Minx, CODA, Love and Leashes, Etharkkum Thunindhavan, Skylab, Thermae Romae Novae, The Gig is Up, House of Gucci, Spencer, Save my Seoul, Hi Mom, Okko's Inn, Abbott Elementary, Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi, Hey Sinamika, Gangubai Kathiawadi, Oh My Dog, Roar, Belle, The Lost City, Beast, Modern Love Mumbai, K.G.F 2, 12 B, Escaype, Old Enough!, RRR, Kaathuvakula Rendu Kaadhal, Everything Everywhere All at Once, For Zeko, A Wrinkle in Time, Don, Kusama Infinity, Aiyyaa, The Lost Girls, My Daughter Joined a Cult, Supermarket Woman, Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Sarkaru Vaari Paata, Gatlopp. Made for Love, Together Together, Vikram, Ante Sundaraniki!, The Bob's Burgers Movie, Rocketry, Modern Love Hyderabad, Sivakumarin Sabadham, F3, The Package, Good Luck Jerry, Lightyear, Fresh Off the Boat, Thank You, Bewakoofiyaan, Gurkha, Eighth Grade, DJ Tillu, Acharya, Man's World, Yaanai, Ananya, Lootera, Venky Mama, Orphan First Kill, 2 Penkuttikal, Thenali, Nailed It, Not Okay, Sita Ramam, Indian Predator, Nna Than Case Kodu, Jhimma, Archana 31 Not Out, Land of Dreams, Santa Evita, Thiruchitrambalam, Babli Bouncer, Populaire, Escape Room Tournament of Champions. Room 104, Karthikeya 2, Aadavallu Meeku Johaarlu, Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu, Rosaline, D Block, Ponniyin Selvan, Oke Oke Jeevitham, The Tale, I Love You You Hate Me, Love Today, Nitham Oru Vaanam, Kantara, Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko, Senior Year, Anel Meley Pani Thuli, Goodbye, Sardar, The Wonder, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Wonder Woman, Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey