Weekly Notes 2024 W10

I haven’t updated this blog since Week 7 of 2024.
A lot has happened since. That’s how time works.

I turned 29 last Sunday.
I spent my birthday eve doing something I enjoy but hadn’t been able to do for a while: developing the roll of negatives I had previously shot.
I should write about the process here someday. It is magical to see physics and chemistry come together to make images appear on physical medium.

I met my sister and Orpa for lunch at Kebapci.
The food here was oily, but I enjoyed it. And so much so that I want to replicate their Turkish tea and Mandi rice at home someday.

Orpa gifted me “Understanding Street Photography” by Bryan Peterson ❤️
And my sister decided that I needed a new wallet, even though the one I use now is perfectly fine.

Earlier, I also met Nikita, Orpa’s childhood friend. We have been talking and following each other on Instagram for a while now but have never met. We had dinner at Mahesh Lunch home. Tuluva and Malayali cuisine FTW.

On the work front, my struggle continues.
Burnout is a weird thing. The more you try to power through it, the more it beats you down.
But also the realities of being a cofounder of a small software consultancy/collective mean that you cannot drop everything in a jiffy.
I’m working with my team to make it manageable and maybe even get some time off for an extended period.

I set up and configured WordPress for the first time. I was experimenting with it and was able to get it working quickly with AWS Lightsail. Quite smooth!
I did have issues working with templates, etc., but got a grip on that quickly.

Also, since my last post, I have been regular at workouts.

This week my cohort at the gym completed the first cycle of 8 weeks during which we focused mainly on weight and resistance training.
I missed four weeks of them, mainly because I was down.
I really started to enjoy it in the last 2-3 weeks.

We train for 3 alternate days during the week - and on off days, I do Cardio on the Assault bike. This too is something I am enjoying.

It is also almost a month since I stopped using Swiggy or any food delivery apps - and have been cooking all of my meals.
It takes significant time, but I enjoy it. I keep my menu simple and mostly the same for most of the week.

I also have been enjoying Krish Ashok’s content on YouTube on cooking, and I also have a copy of his book - Masala Lab.

I have been speaking with my mother more than usual and pestering her for recipes and measurements.

I followed Haripriya’s blog feed quite some time back because of a post from Thejesh and was enjoying her weekly reporting on the little guest - the neighborhood squirrel.

I was surprised to read her mention of my blog in one of her weekly notes.

I thought, honestly, I was shouting into the abyss with these updates (Earlier I used to do that on Twitter (I refuse to call it X. Maybe I’ll call it Yucksss)) - but good to know that there is reception by a sentient being and not just the search engine bots :)

To quote from that blog post by Haripriya -

During breaks, I also sat through to read many blogs. I find joy in these unexpected connections especially sneaking through their weekly notes. It’s like a chat with an unseen friend

Hard relate! I follow many weekly note-takers on my RSS feed reader (If you don’t use an RSS feed reader, highly recommend getting one - I use Miniflux and self-host it), and each week I look forward to updates from folks I have never met and many of whom I’ll probably never meet.

This week, I started the Taraqqi, a Weekly progress-level Urdu course designed and taught by Akshita.
Last year, I completed her Shuruaat-e-Urdu, a Beginners' Urdu Literacy course. I highly recommend it if you want to learn how to read and write Perso-Arabic script in a few weeks and improve your Urdu Talaffuz, pronunciation.

Akshita uses Bollywood and other pop culture references to teach Urdu. She is a dedicated teacher who takes extra steps to ensure that we grasp the concepts and to create a safe learning environment in the class.

Since I completed Shuruaat - I try to read anything I can find in Perso-Arabic, mostly name boards, and instagram reels and posts. Deciphering it always makes me do a little dance.

In Taraqqi, the aim is to revise the basics and learn how to read paragraphs and longer works in the language. I was excited to see the other participants in this course. It has people from all walks of life, ages, countries, and ethnicities. I am looking forward to this.

I developed 2 rolls of film negatives that I had shot earlier, mostly during 2024W05-10.

I was gloomy a few weeks back, and I hit the streets on one Sunday with my Camera.
Shooting on the streets cheers me up.

Because of Photography, I find myself talking to people I wouldn’t have otherwise met.
Some of them request images to be taken of them, or with their friends - which I really like doing.
After developing the photos, I send them on WhatsApp.

Click to view Images made during 2024W05-07 on Eastman5222/Kodak Double X film

Few scenes from the street. Some street portraits and of friends.

Click to view Images made during 2024W07-10 on Fomapan 400 film

Mostly from my photo walks. Some experiments with flash.

Till next week -