this week has been one of those where everything that happened the previous day or the same morning felt like it happened many weeks ago. Time, in general, has been feeling mushy lately. It slides along, treacle-like, until I sit up with a jolt remembering that an event I thought was two months away is actually next week. I wonder if there’s a word for these kinds of weeks — I think there should be.

I’ve been trying to do more activities and get more hobbies (or, like I said to M the other day, “add a new dimension to my personality). I want things that I can do with friends or on my own and are unconventional or slightly out of the left field for me. So far, my list of interesting potential hobbies includes things I’ve seen other people do and found interesting: pottery, DJing, playing board games and watching sports that isn’t cricket. Apart from DJing, I’ve dabbled in most of these in the past few weeks:

• watched the SAFF Championship final between India and Kuwait live in Kanteerava Stadium and it was amazing!

• did a month-long pottery course that’s made me feel somewhat competent with clay, enough to build a few sweet mugs and trinket trays for myself

• went to a board game cafe with M and played Stratego, because he wanted to play Risk and this was the next best thing for two people. (side note, I was completely floored by the number of games they had and the complete mastery the Game Master had over the rules of every game)

  
  

For work, I just started reading Julie Zhuo’s The Making of a Manager because it’s been on my list for a while. I find her deeply interesting and generally try to keep up with her newsletter because they’re short, insightful and to the point. The book feels especially relevant to me right now because I’ve been thinking about growth and wondering if a managerial role is for me. IC → Manager is the typical up-the-ladder move, but I believe and have seen that not every good IC makes for a good manager, not every manager makes for a good leader, and not every good leader (or hard-worker, in general) needs to be a manager. So far, this book’s confirming that.

In home news: I’ve settled in nicely and have been eating a lot of nice things at home and outside: avocado toast, miso soup, Japanese curry, smoothie bowls, lots and lots of pasta and noodle soup. I bought a few plants from the giant Indo-American nursery nearby: bougainvillea, rosemary, thyme, and an oxygen plant. I also brought the jade plant my friend N gave me for my housewarming, and a fiddle leaf fig from home. The balcony now looks like an actual balcony, but I’ll wait for summer to come around before I invest in balcony chairs and a table. It’s too cold, wet and/or windy right now.

Over the last weekend, I met Derek Sivers again, this time over a beer (that turned into many beers) at Brahma Brews. I wanted to introduce him to the pineapple beer, specifically, but it turned out that was his first craft beer in Bangalore ever. We ended up spending all of Saturday there after a few more people rolled up to join us. I’ll admit I don’t remember much after a point in the evening but I’m so glad it happened.