Okay, back to renaming the letter in week#/YYYY format :)
Hope you had a good new year celebration! You made resolutions? People make a lot of fun about resolutions, but I think it’s okay. For some reason we humans have the skill to reflect, so why not use it.
The seconds did a loop
we wish, we hug, and
kiss dears
The minutes did a loop
we cut cake, and
clink glasses
The hours did a loop
we dance, we sing, and
fire crackers
The earth did a loop
we reflect back, and
dream forwards
Happy New Year :)I don’t have resolutions per se, but I wanted to challenge myself a bit on all the roles I play in life. This week went into that.
I joined a horse-riding class. I am revisiting my car phobia at another degree now. My trainer, Naveen, takes a raw approach at teaching horse-riding. He didn’t give a saddle. So, I have to sit on the bare back of horse, and it is testing my core and thighs a lot.
I thought I will learn some poetry to improve my writing. I found this amazing course on Coursera: Sharpened visions: A Poetry Workshop by Douglas Kearney. It helped me get started and I’ve been writing one poem every day over the week.
Started doing statistics on R now. Just to increase the toolkit size. R also some advanced stats applications.
I attended my friend Aditya’s PhD defense at CCMB(Dr. Aditya, now :)). It’s the first time I saw how a PhD viva voce happens. Heartwarming event :’) Felt happy to be there.
Also explored CCMB. Saw fruit flies from using a microscope, CCMB’s animal housing lab, etc. Lots of science.
I was reading up a few book recommendation blogs to find some interesting reads this year. See if you can find any good book for you.
Huge list of books on classics, economy, trade etc., by Shruti Rajagopalan
I asked my friends to suggest their best read of 2024. This is what they said: Zikora, Story of my life by Hellen Keller, Betty by Tiffany, Maybe you should talk to someone, Minor Detail, How to be a woman, Kite runner, To kill a mocking bird
Okay, I’ll end this letter with another poem
A Second Hand Book
Yellow, worn pages
with brittle, torn edges
Sing well still! When a master flips.
Underlines, notes and highlights
even doodles and stars
imprint minds of its masters.
Leaves, flowers and feathers
or a fold on the corners
"What did I last read?", the master remembers.
Tears, smiles and giggles
a second-hand book lay in my hands
hearts of its erstwhile masters.