These are notes on how my year has been so far. Not as highlights, but as a record of what stayed with me.

  • The year began with a lot of quiet momentum. Travel was minimal or zero in personal sense. Only visited Chennai / Coimbatore for family and nowhere else.
  • Built a personal Homebot setup using a Raspberry Pi. Set it up as a home server to store and manage personal data and memories instead of relying on subscriptions. Used it to host sketches and photos.
  • Attended a stage play after many years. The experience stood out because it slowed things down and brought back the feeling of shared, offline presence.
  • Met Kaushik after almost one and a half years and Rohan after nearly three years. Reconnected after long gaps.
  • Started attending IndieWebClub meetups and began visiting Underline Center regularly to meet a new set of developers and thinkers.
  • Built a Telegram bot as part of a larger personal system. Used it to interact with tools like Slack status updates and experimented with syncing personal information. Built it for myself, not as a product.
  • Sketched consistently as a way of thinking. Explored the idea of zero maintenance with RK through drawings and visual metaphors.
  • Participated fully in Inktober and completed all thirty days of sketches.
  • Visited a hilltop temple and attended the Chiguru foraging event.
  • Received unusually costly generous gifts. A Green Soul chair and Apple Watch from Hemanth, and Apple AirPods from Ram.
  • Built Inkhouse as a calm writing and reading space as a hobby project. Focused on no ads, no noise, and long-form writing.
  • Tars underwent surgery and recovery took time and attention. Days were structured around care, routines, and presence, which slowed everything else down but also grounded the year in a very real way.

Overall, surprisingly I leaned heavily into visual thinking. Sketches, rough diagrams, handwritten notes and LCARS blues. Looking back, this year wasn’t about doing more but enough. I'm grateful for the people who showed up, checked in, gifted generously, shared time, and made this year feel lighter than it could have been.