Catharsis

  December 2024 After a couple of years of tracking the number of books I read/ movies & shows I watched (like everything in life this information is best plotted in an excel 😉🤣), I hit the target 🎯 of 200 this year ..drum roll 😎.  This practice of meticulously recording everything in an excel and setting the target 🎯 of 200 Books, Movies and Shows stemmed from the place of reclaiming  me-time  in this chaotic world of juggling multiple priorities.  (Source: Author's file photo) (Source: Google) I have always been a voracious reader, and there is something magical about being teleported (literally) to new worlds.  A few tips on how I consistently continued to read/ watch interesting stuff in pursuit of this milestone:                                                           ...

March 2022 If someone had asked me this question “What do you do to stay fit?”   a decade ago, my nonchalant answer would've been “cornflakes, coffee and potatoes 😉” .. Having fortunately been blessed with good metabolism, I always believed that eating good food in moderation would hold me in good stead for a healthy life (glorious twenties eh 😋😜).. I would still continue to dabble in sports activities during office events, especially throwball and Table Tennis , more for fun rather than with a lofty end goal of fitness in mind 😁😅💁🏻‍♀️. Fun times - beach throwball and late night table tennis practice 💁🏻‍♀️💃🏻👊🏻 While past couple of years have been extremely busy, going to office including taking local train ensured that there was a semblance of an active lifestyle. For someone like me who prefers curling up with Kindle 📖 during spare time, spending time on exercise was anathema 🙄🙄.  All that changed during last two years with working from home and longer working...

October 2021 I took the decision of quitting my job and embarking on my second sabbatical in June 2021 - this was not a knee jerk reaction to one event, but a reevaluation of pri orities owing to various factors over a period of time.  My previous blog “Musings of a Sabbatical-eur”  ( https://ac-catharsis.blogspot.com/2016/09/ ) talks at length about why it’s worth taking a sabbatical; this blog is more about my journey on a less-travelled path.  (Source: Google) The onset of the pandemic has changed all our lives in more ways than one. The second wave hit closer to home, and listening to the harrowing experiences of friends & family made me see things in a new perspective. Somewhere along the line, my life had been on default mode, just rushing from one task to another; neither taking the time to enjoy the moments in life, nor reflecting about things that truly mattered. Simba, our boisterous golden retriever pup, coming home and the Pawrenting journey was the ...

Dec 2018 One of my fondest memories of food is Ma leafing through recipe clippings painstakingly collected from newspapers & magazines; and whipping up mouth watering delicacies. Sunday lunches were a much awaited affair, with varying degrees of contribution from all of us - home grown vegetables from Dad's garden, me sitting on the kitchen table and regaling everyone with entertaining stories, and Aaru lending a supporting hand ;) While I would love to say that I was the most well behaved kid (ahem!), looking back I must accept that I was actually one of the fussiest eaters around. If the food had something green, was not deep fried, didn't have potatoes as one of the components, my first answer would be naaaahhhhh! It's amazing that my mom found solutions for all my food tantrums and full credits to her on making mealtimes something to look forward to. Moving away from home and staying alone in Chennai made me realise that I was definitely not a fan of ...