Monthly Review: January 2025
“Travel less” is one of my resolutions this year, as when I travel, my schedule a week before and a week after travel takes a hit. My track record in the second half of every year proves this point — I roam around places unplanned in the second half of every year. So, self-restraint on travel is something I wanted to do this year, but January had other plans.
I was in Bengaluru for a four-day office trip and then in Mumbai for a two-day trip. I’m glad I could travel because yolo! This month also offered me a few live experiences that I cherish.
Okay, enough of the teasers, let me get into the details now 🙂
I was at my college friends’ place to celebrate New Year this time. It was a small group of friends, discussing a lot of things under the sun while having drinks and welcoming New Year. Among all the topics we discussed, there were Taxes too! Yeah, somehow the topic drifted towards taxes, and we were all in, and gulped a few more drinks after that! And yeah, today’s the day we all wait for. Grab your popcorn and watch the live budget updates 😀
On 1st January, I was casually browsing through Instagram (yeah, reels) and found a scheduled classical dance performance at Shilparamam (a place near my house) by dance academy students. I went there and had a good evening watching the artists perform. It was a Kuchipudi dance recital, and the event was fun!
The following week, I was in Bengaluru for a four-day office trip where a few of our colleagues and team worked from a cafe and office. The sessions were fun and productive with everyone sharing our way of working and sharing learnings. We had been looking forward to such an in-person session for a long time and could pull it off. Towards the end, I felt relieved to see all points listed on a board with everyone on the team relating to those points! It was a good trip, and we look forward to more such sessions in the future 😀
How can I mark a Bengaluru trip as complete without a visit to Glen’s and Meghana Foods? Yeah, I had both, Glen’s cupcakes and Meghana’s Biryani during my stay at Bengaluru ♥️
Within four days of my trip to Bengaluru, I had to fly to Mumbai to attend AR Rahman’s Sufi concert. I booked the tickets the week they opened on Bookmyshow in October 2024 and was looking forward to it. Although the trip was short, for two days, I feel I made the most of it, thanks to my friends, Nishanth and Kavya. I stayed with them for those lovely two days, and was welcomed by this song in the morning hours ❤️
We met after a long time and had a lot to discuss! We had fun conversations and the following day, I was given a society tour of sorts, where we took a walk in their society and went to their clubhouse, only for me to learn how to play foosball and snooker. I learned the basics of these two games from the experts in each game! And yeah, what’s the purpose of life without good food? We went to a restaurant in Powai, and thankfully, everything we ordered was terrific. This is the place, check it out if you’re near Powai.
By the way, Kavya has an Instagram page where she posts cute and lovely reels about little things in life. Check it out here 😀
I met my college friends too! Met a few of them after almost five years. We met at Sandeep’s house which happened to be near Siddhivinayak Temple (Prabhadevi) and were welcomed by homemade Pav Bhaji! Lovely gesture from this man ❣️ We went to the temple followed by street shopping 😂
Now, the purpose of my Mumbai visit is AR Rahman’s concert. This time it was a lovely and peaceful concert. The organizers managed it well, the acoustics were good, and the crowd was sensible. I was looking forward to Kun Faya Kun, Aao Balma, and Khwaja Mere Khwaja, and was thoroughly surprised when the crew sang Noor Un Ala Noor from Meenaxi. This song is one of my favorites, and I think it is one of the lesser-appreciated songs of ARR. I was glad they picked this song for a live performance.
The concert started with Arziyan, and for the next two hours, it was a heavenly experience. The whole event was memorable, and I sang along to many songs (although with gibberish lyrics). It was a great scene ❤️
I was sitting beside a couple at the concert, and when this song was being performed, I asked them if they knew the song. They thought it was from Saathiya, to which I replied that the intensity of this song doesn’t seem like it belongs to the Saathiya album, and I was right. The lady searched for the song and mentioned it was from Raanjhanaa (I haven’t watched Raanjhanaa yet). It’s a new addition to my playlist!
I was having a casual conversation with my colleague Jishnav, where he mentioned he’s going for regular walks and to parks to ‘touch grass.’ I found this interesting, and lately, I feel more like walking than visiting a cult fit for workouts. This nudge helped me return to walking in parks, and I started walking every evening, blocking my calendar to walk. The park is small, but it is a lively environment with old-age people talking about their life experiences, kids playing random games, and banter, which seems funny. For half of my walking time, I remove my footwear and walk on the grass to feel more grounded while eavesdropping on those little kids’ arguments while playing games. This has been going well, and I feel refreshed every evening after that walking session. Try this out if you’re interested 🙂
And yeah, after that lovely Glen’s pastry in Bengaluru, I started ordering pastries every Monday as a token of self-gratitude and self-love (or I don’t know why! Or I just love eating them). I’ve been eating two pastries at the beginning of every week. Do I wish to continue this ritual? I don’t know. Let’s see how it goes!
And yeah, we celebrated Pongal at our friend’s place — Arhat’s Terrace, by flying kites with songs playing in the background and a group of kids trying (and eventually winning) to cut our kites! It was a fun evening, and I cherish that whole day — Tapasi, Arhat, Shreyas, Yohit, and Chandu ❣️
Now, onto the regular stuff — movies and books
Books
For my birthday and Christmas, I received more than 10 books, and the pressure to read them was slightly building up.
I started reading “Khaki Files.” This is an interesting book by a retired IPS officer who shares a few cases he/his team handled over a few decades. Each case is narrated with background information on the criminals, crime scene, SOPs of the teams, politics in the department, and country politics impacting the police operations. It’s a good one.
After this, I picked up a Telugu novel called “Kaalatheetha Vyaktulu.” I’m reading that book currently, and it is interesting and deep so far. It is taking more time than I expected to turn the pages. It has been a good experience so far.
Movies
I watched two movies at the cinemas this month — Daaku Maharaj and Satya.
Daaku Maharaj
I wanted to watch a Balakrishna movie in a local theatre for a long time, and as the promotional material looked promising, I booked my ticket at Mallikarjuna, Kukatpally. I was particularly interested in watching this movie in the theater for two reasons — cinematography and music. The film reminded me of Petta, Vikram, and Jailer owing to the cinematography, music, action sequences, and the interval episode. If I had watched this film in OTT, I’d have skipped a few scenes easily and watched only the action pieces. The theatre had a festive vibe, with people cheering on the energetic Balayya and thunderous background score by Thaman.
Overall, I liked the crew’s effort to provide us with a good cinematic experience, which was visible in every frame of the film.
Satya
My friend, Harish Parthu, often mentioned that Satya is one of the greatest movies ever made in India and I used to wonder whether he was exaggerating. I didn’t watch Ram Gopal Varma’s (RGV) movies, but I was aware of his influence on filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers. The movie had a re-release, and I couldn’t miss this opportunity to witness the prime RGV. Oh god, it is something else. The movie is impressive and realistic. I could easily recollect at least 3-tofour4 movies that seemed to be inspired by Satya, such was the influence. The unpredictable screenplay, beautiful wide shots with the beach in the background, intense close-ups, immersive camera movements, and brilliant performances — Satya has it all. I highly recommend this movie.
OTT
Paatal Lok Season 2
Paatal Lok is one of the few Indian web series I love for its gripping screenplay and intense performances. I was looking forward to the second season and was happy after watching it. The series is written so well, with equally good performances from the cast. The unpredictability and wow factor made it enjoyable. There were a few sad moments in the series that I couldn’t see coming my way. The shock factor was more than the emotion in that scene (I’m resisting myself hard not to give away that spoiler).
Injured Hathiram Chaudhary revealing the entire turn of events to the culprit in the last episode of Paatal Lok is ‘cinema’ to me!
The Lincoln Lawyer
While I was in Mumbai, Nishanth and I were discussing movies and he recommended that I watch The Lincoln Lawyer and Gone Baby Gone. I watched the first one, and the movie is good. This movie has a good plot and interesting characters that I feel would be a good remake in Indian languages. Whenever I watch an English movie, I appreciate their way of writing dialogue and jumping straight into the plot with the characters without dragging the setup. The dialogue is sharp in this movie too! Interesting movie.
Songs
I started by listening to “Roar of Kesari” from Bhagavanth Kesari. Strangely enough, after watching Daaku Maharaj, I kept listening to this song and have been vibing to it every day.
And I’ve been listening to this gem by Ilayaraja ❤
After ARR’s Sufi concert, I discovered Piya Milenge and have been listening to Raanjhanaa’s album on loop. Thank you, AR Rahman, for making me discover songs you composed more than a decade ago that still move me.
I realized while typing this on midnight of January 31st — the night is still young to write about one more event that happened this month, that too, today (okay technically yesterday as I’m typing these lines at 12:30 am on 1st Feb). One of my college friends and a close friend from more than a decade ago got engaged to the love of his life. It was a lovely event and yeah, another day full of life and memories for us to meet, celebrate, and see them happy ♥️
I met my childhood friend, Vaisali, and spent time with her discussing various things in our lives. I met my college friends, too — the ones with whom I don’t hesitate to discuss anything, the ones who remember my foolish incidents and never leave a chance to troll me 😄
I was thinking about the image that goes on the thumbnail of this blog post. Guess what? I found a bouquet of fresh flowers and couldn’t resist capturing them today! Recency bias contributed to me adding this image to the thumbnail 😛
And yeah, we are towards the end of the blog post. January was fun, had unplanned stuff that was exciting, met lovely people, and made me more hopeful about the months to come.
“Your free trial period of this year is completed. It’s time to start acting on the resolutions, boss,” I told myself before finishing up this blog post!
Until next time…
