What did I do last week/ 2025 summarized ?

Well I have been in India currently for a month to spend time with my family and friends. On a personal note, this was a difficult year due to health. I was in isolation for almost 21 days in July and took a few months to get back to my previous health status. This taught me a lot about taking health seriously and staying fit. I am glad I found this new found love for CrossFit 2 years back and have been consistent. It was the consistency that I was able to get through the illness.

To everyone out there, I would like to encourage you to take up some kind of activity you love and be consistent. If not now you’ll thank yourself later. It’s moments like a small sickness or a health issue when you start appreciating things. 

A bit about research

This is the first time I have taken a break after 11 months in 2025, where I am not actively doing research and just trying to relax. We are so used to working 24/7 that taking a pause and moving slow feels scary and wrong (I felt it). 

I am thankful to my advisor and my lab mates for pushing me to take a break and travel. It is so worth it, I can feel my social battery being recharged for the upcoming year HAHA. 

Interesting things this week

Meeting childhood friends

Every year I get to meet and reconnect with a few childhood friends of mine, but this year (2025) it hit differently because of the  emotional rollercoaster most people went through. 

I met these five friends who I maybe talk to three to four times a year on call and we discuss our quarterly life updates or crisis (HAHAH)

One thing these five friends have always taught me is to be grounded. We always call each other out when any of us is being even slightly complacent and keep each other in check. The surprising part, we all are in different domains like an accountant, a clinical trial researcher, a lawyer, an auditor and a software engineer. Still somehow we connect !!!

We all treat each other the same way like we used to 15-20 yrs back and we always pick up our conversations from where we left off a few weeks/months back. 

This is what makes me come back to my home every year and gives me clarity to work more the following year and stay grounded. The Bollywood fan in me goes Everything feels lighter around the right people - Ye Jawaani Hai Deewani

E-ink readers

I usually watch videos by the channel Snazzy Labs a.k.a Quinn Nelson on Youtube to stay up to date about some rare tech finds. I was highly anticipating Quinn’s year end video to find something interesting in the reading space. VOILA !! Quinn recommended the xteink x3 reader. 

The one thing which I liked about it was its form factor and pocket friendly design. Additionally, it’s not like other e-ink readers out there which are subscription based, here you need to feed in your own e-pub files in order to read books. The tech nerd in me loved this (of course) and I ordered it right away. 

There is a very active community on reddit where people have been producing their own firmwares for this small little device. Since there is a one month timeline for it to get delivered, I am waiting for it eagerly. HOPE IT ARRIVES SOONN!!

Pictures

I and my childhood friend Manali have decided to keep each other in check for weekly 2026 newsletters. (Vadapav ki kasam, there’ll be another newsletter next week)