Cafes, Curries and Other Adulting Adventures

It’s been a good while since I’ve come back to this blog. It’s something I always think I should do, but I just never get around to doing it. I can’t seem to shake the feeling that I will come back here in ten years and look to this blog in nostalgia. So, I figure it’s good to document what this point in my life was like. Why that has to be on a public blog on the Internet, I cannot explain.

From the looks of things, this blog has ceased to be a technical blog and become more of a public journal for me. I do hope to come back and write more technical stuff in here, but as mentioned, the “never get around to it” curse has its clutches firmly on me. Eitherway, if you’re still here expecting a technical write-up (I wonder what brought you here), feel free to dip .

At this moment, I’m just chilling at a random cafe, enjoying the overwhelming smell of soy sauce(completely my fault), over-writing some sombre adulting blog post I started writing who knows when (aside from my filesystem, of course). I’m just going to jot out the stuff I’ve been up to over the past year.

One of the most significant changes to my life since the last blog past would be that I’ve “moved out”, started working and paying my own bills. Finding an apartment, sorting out endless issues, figuring out adulting and just waking up every day completely independent has been quite an adventure.

One day, I find myself in a position to order out whenever I want, whatever I want, and somehow, I don’t want to? My childhood self would be so confused. Is this what growing up is? Of course, I cannot hide the first few weeks of binge-eating from every place that caught my fancy. I suppose it just grows old at some point. Has McDonald’s at home been the best option all along?

let him cook

Cooking has definitely been one of my main side-quests these past months. I’ve always told my mom I’d learn cooking when the time came, and now, the time has finally come. And I am glad to report I lived up to my word. Just today, I managed to make myself some chicken curry, and not to toot my own horn, but it was some really good food. This has obviously been a trial and error journey, starting with ultra-precise recipe measurement adherence all the way to randomly eye-balling ingredients on some authority I absolutely lack. After a fair share of watery curries, burnt pancakes and over-salted chicken, the food I make has gained one essential trait: edibility (There’s always barbeque sauce to save the day if not).

rituals

Rest assured, this section is not about my picking up Satanism (though, Dinkoism maybe). I just figured I should note down some of those things that have become a core part of my routine.

☕ cafe-hopping

The first place in this list absolutely has to go to Saturday brunch with the gang; definitely one of the iconic memories of our time in Hyderabad. For the past half-year or so, every Saturday, we wake up and go grab brunch at a new cafe. The surpring thing is, we still haven’t ran out of cafes. Somehow, our cafe discovery rate has always stayed steady at greater than 1 per week (maybe the simulation has dedicated resources to generating new cafes).

jim

I’ve been watching a lot of Office lately, and obviously, I devote an hour of each day to looking straight at the camera. ✌JK✌.(another dated reference). What I am actually referring to, is the gym. I’ve managed to somehow incorporate going to the gym into my daily routine (wonder what could’ve started that?) and I am so glad for it. Don’t think I have much else to say about that; just figured it was worth mentioning. Maybe I’ll come back someday and post a before-after pic.

trippin'

One of my goals as a newly minted “earning member of society”¹ is to travel every other month at the very least. Moderate success on that front, but it is an empowering feeling being able to book travels with no one else’s input, but mine. I don’t intend for this blog to become some travelogue (not yet, at least), but I’ve been able to cross out a bunch of places in India I’ve forever wanted to visit. Plus, meeting childhood friends from ages ago in a place you’ve never been is a joy.

the hunt

The first step of “moving out” definitely has to be finding someplace else to “move in”. And oh, what a journey it was. I’ve got so many stories (not for this blog unfortunately) from just this one event serialized as

• walking through the city looking for vacant signs
• going to the shadiest buildings sitting behind random brokers
• internally dying hearing the rent for some of these places
• a roller-coaster of a lease-agreement signing
• home-repairs: from death-trap to cozy vibes
• (some other shady stuff that cannot not be mentioned)

If you ever want me to see me go into a rant, a brief mention of any of the topics above is all it’d take. All that being said, it has got to be one of the simplest joys of life to walk into a home that is “mine”. I really think we’ve made this place into a cozy little reprieve from the other happenings of life and I know I’m going to miss this place when my time here ends.

misc

Some other stuff that might not deserve a “##” heading, but had to go in here with a “###” heading.

the setup

While my dream of building my own PC remains indefinitely postponed, I do have myself a nice little setup at the moment; complete with a mechanical keyboard, random IKEA plushie and a “gamer chair”. I seemingly haven’t flexed this enough, so here it is again.

reading

I’ve slowly been working my way out of an ages-long reading slump, with all this newly found free time. (). Some credit for that must be attributed to Hyderabad Reads, which is just a bunch of people that show up every week to sit and read under the trees in KBR park. Sitting in the shade, listening to birds, peacocks walking amidst you definitely feels a bit magical (if only the weather was always cold and pleasant!).

the downsides?

All the above being said, it’s not like my life currently is all rainbows and sunshine. The changing priorities have definitely impacted how I choose to spend my time. Turns out spending all day coding really dampens the amount of excess time you want to spend in front of the screen doing hobbyist coding. I’m not so sure if that’s really a bad thing though; I do enjoy the work and the challenges; it’s just an interesting observation in myself. Perhaps it’s something for me to pick back up in the future.

I, however, do like the place where I’m at in my life right now. I always think of this quote from The Office.

I wish there was a way to know that you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.

And I wonder; are these the “good old days”? Certainly feels like some of them.