2023: Year in Review
I was wondering what should go into the introduction paragraph of this blog. I’ve been writing blogs for over four years now, published more than a hundred blogs but still struggle with the opening line for any blog post. Okay, now into the topic. Like Spotify and Swiggy (yes, it started this year) Wrapped, I did one yearly reflection the previous year, focusing only on the movies I watched, books I read, and the places I traveled in 2022.
This time around, I thought it should be more than that, where I should reflect on different aspects of my life in 2023, and see what I’ve done over the year. So, let’s get started.
Disclaimer: For the movies, web series, or books, I didn’t write my detailed thoughts in this blog post. I mentioned the ones I liked here, without getting into why as I wrote the reasons in detail in my other blog posts.
Before we get into the pulp of the year, let’s look into the numbers. Because as people say, numbers speak!
Note:
- The “Travel” column has Yes/No responses based on whether I visited a new place or not.
- “No. of Steps” is the average number of steps I walked every day this year.
I measure these topics because these are the ones I write my blogs on — movies and series I watch, books I read, and the places I visit. I remember reading in Atomic Habits that you can’t improve the things you don’t measure. So, I started counting these numbers back in 2021 when I watched more than 10 movies in one month but wrote only one or two blogs.
Since I’ve presented the numbers, let’s discuss them first followed by reflection of other things. Starting with movies first, as usual.
Cinema 🎥
I’ve watched 65 movies, old and new combined, at cinema halls and on OTT. I haven’t added the ones that I watched in parts, but only the movies that I finished. It’s ~5 per month, and the number is not concerning for me. Last year I watched ~80 movies.
Among the ones that I watched, these movies stood out for me:
English
Bullet Train and John Wick Chapter 4
Both are action films and I loved both of them. I re-watched them this year. And also watched a few scenes multiple times over the year. I realized stylish action films are the ones that I like the most.
Tamil
Por Thozhil, Maaveeran, Chithha, and Ninavo Oru Paravai
I liked the above three films + Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s short from Modern Love Chennai. All these films had me hooked, moved me, and gave me a different high! I’d recommend these movies.
Hindi
Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, Konkana’s part in Lust Stories, and Animal
I loved Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, especially the self-aware comedy written by Karan and the team. Rocky meeting Rani for the first time is my go-to scene. I watched it many times now, laughing at the antics and dialogue of the actors. And not to forget the terrific intro of Rani with the background score. The comedy worked big time for me.
And Konkana’s short in Lust Stories too! Amazing one.
Animal — I like the film in parts, but didn’t like a few parts of the film. But a few scenes are so amazing that I want to watch only those over again multiple times. I couldn’t watch it again in theatres owing to my lack of patience to sit through a more than 3-hour film (I watched it only once on the release day).
Telugu
Virupaksha, Ms Shetty Mr Polishetty, Month of Madhu, and Hi Nanna
Coming to the Telugu movies, these are the ones that I loved in Telugu. I didn’t have expectations of any of the above Telugu movies, and they took me by surprise. Except for Virupaksha, I watched the remaining ones at the cinema halls, and I wish I had watched Virupaksha too in theatres. Again, except for Virupaksha, the other three films have good comedy and emotional scenes. Apart from these, I also enjoyed watching Keeda Cola and Bedurulanka 2012 in parts, owing to their comedy.
Kannada
I’ve only watched SSE Side A and Side B this year and liked the two. So, I haven’t watched many films to choose the ones I loved the most, but yeah, these two would do!
Among all the movies that I watched in 2023, Chiththa stood out for me.
Web Series 🎬
If you know me personally, you know that I don’t prefer watching web series as often as movies. The only reason is the commitment that a series requires. Among the 8 web series that I watched, I loved these two series: Rocket Boys and Jubilee.
Live Performances 🎤
Apart from these movies, I was fortunate to witness live performances of artists as well and meet them. I was present at AR Rahman’s Chennai concert, attended Arivu and Agam’s performances in Chennai, thanks to Sasank; I attended a theatre play by Jhansi garu, thanks to KMG garu; and I happened to attend Keeda Cola premiere (and meet Tharun and Vivek among others), thanks to Sruthi and Sampath. I was in Mumbai for a few days this month and attended a Film Companion FrontRow event where I met Siddant Chaturvedi, Ananya Pandey, Adarsh Gourav, and Sneha Menon. It was lovely meeting the artists whose work I admire and witnessing them talk/perform live.
Books 📚
The total number of books I read (turned a few pages, not the completed ones) is 22. Out of which I think I completed reading ~18. I read books ranging from fiction to autobiography to filmmaking to conversations to self-help. Among all the books I read, I loved reading these two books: Duppatlo Minnagu by Yandamoori and Something Like an Autobiography by Akira Kurosawa.
Towards the end of the year, I made it a point to read at least 5 pages a day, and have been doing it for the past few days. Increased the goal to 10 pages a day, and in the next year, I want to gradually increase the limit. Let’s see how it goes!
Travel 🛫
I’ve been to multiple places this year, and thank god, I could visit these places, meet people, and attend events. I’ve traveled for at least two days in eight out of twelve months this year. I’ve been at home only for four months, and I didn’t count the number of times I’ve traveled between Hyderabad and Gadwal.
Out of all the places I’ve visited this year, two cities had my heart: Udaipur and Mysuru. I loved both cities the very first day I reached the respective cities. The places have such a vibe that I can’t wait to visit those places again.
Health ❤️
I wanted to focus on my health, but didn’t do any sort of physical activity in the last 2–3 years. This year, I started tracking my steps every day. That came to an average of ~5k steps per day. I enrolled in Cult Fit and attended Yoga classes too. The goal is to start showing up regularly, increase the challenge, and do strength training.
I was reading a blog by Ali Abdaal last week where he mentioned about the reflections and goals. He helped me reflect on my year along the following lines (although he outlined several things, I touched upon the topics I could relate to and think about):
Major Milestones 💯
I think one of the achievements I’m proud of this year, is completing 100 blog posts, over four years. Thinking about it, I started my blog on Medium during college, writing it for fun. Never I thought I’d be at it for more than a year, and published over 100 blog posts. So, yeah! This has been a great experience though 🙂
Challenges Overcome 📊
Being regular to Yoga classes. Over the last three years, I’ve been trying to be consistent with Yoga but was never able to. This time, as I moved to Hyderabad, I enrolled in Cult and have been attending the classes regularly. This is one of the challenges I overcame, and indeed keeping me happier.
Unfulfilled Aspirations 🤔
I have a few of these aspirations I couldn’t achieve. One among them is publishing a book of short stories in Telugu. It’s not like I’ve not made any progress there; I wrote the first draft of six short stories in Telugu. I’ve not been able to type them and re-write them. So yeah, many things to do towards this in 2024, manifesting it 🤞
Gratitude 🤗
I’m most grateful to the people around me this year, who supported me, took care of me, and inquired about my well-being continuously. My family, friends, and colleagues (apologies for not naming anyone) with whom I had conversations, fun, and crazy experiences this year. And not to forget you, yes, you, the reader of this blog who has been a great support system for me throughout. I could publish these blogs only because you were able to read and motivate me to write more! My sincere gratitude to everyone who helped me this year.
Yeah, these are the things that come to my mind when I look back at 2023. Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy 2024. Let’s be kind, and happy, and find peace! ✌️
