This is the first time I’m writing a review of how the year 2024 went by.
2024 started on an interesting note with driving to Bandhavgarh for sighting wildlife followed by pilgrimage at Prayagraj and Varanasi in January. Drove on Samruddhi Mahamarg Expressway.
Got an interesting Rails project to work on at a client of One2N Consulting.
Attended PGConf India 2024 in Bengaluru, learned about vectors and AI in Postgres. Discovered FerretDB at PGConf, a MongoDB alternative but Postgres actually under the hood. Met past colleagues from CoLearn and an old friend.
Cousin got engaged in April. I finally understood the game of waitlist in Indian Railways and the certainty of ticket confirmation, depending on the travel points. This is necessary for me because I do prefer to travel by train (second preferrence after driving myself) due to cost & comfort.
Gave my first Harmonium performance on stage in August.
Had been suffering with lower back pain for a while and it worsened, despite my roughly a decade long of Iyengar yoga practice, so I joined a gym which opened near my home and hired a personal trainer in September for strength training. Enjoying the process, and due to my knowledge of my body due to yoga, I figured leg press will relieve my back pain, and it did.
I am fitter than most people who start gym, I can comfortably do handstand, headstand, and reach my feet while sitting on the floor, can fold my hands in prayer mode behind my back (पश्चिम नमस्कारासन), etc. but still lower back pain. Perhaps the continuous sitting of software work. Did try standing while working, but didn’t solve much.
One of the days at the gym, I did single dumbbell overhead tricep extension standing on one leg (वृक्षासन), the trainer was amazed. And on another day, did rack pull of 100 kg. The trainer’s no less fit though, has lot of knowledge and himself is an award winning bodybuilder.
This combination of gym + personal trainer, although ideal and improves my health significantly, I somehow feel it’s expensive. In my opinion, being healthy shouldn’t be so expensive. But as long as my work in software keeps pouring money in the bank, not much of a concern.
Trekked to Raireshwar with my better half in October, which I had earlier visited in 2019 with friends.
Took my parents to Bhimashankar pilgrimage in November 2024, they visited for the first time despite living in Pune for more than three decades.
Travelled to Jaipur in November for attending Rubyconf India 2024, met some old friends, made some new ones. In one of the most unusual occurrences in my travels, fell sick with some kind of food poisoning. Suffered for three days.
It was fortunate that this time travel was by train, it wouldn’t have been possible to drive in that condition.
Except for that suffering, the journey went well, toured Jaipur for the second time, my first visit was in 2018 by self drive covering many other places, visited Amer fort which I missed in my previous trip and Ranthambore.
Spotted the much elusive tiger at Ranthambore. And yet another rare sighting at Palighat boat safari – The Bengal Roof turtle in addition to Ghadiyal alligators.
Gave my third stage performance of Tabla at the institute’s annual event. Met the famous Sarangi player Dilshad Khan at the event and enjoyed his mesmerizing performance!
With that, the year ends. Looking forward to 2025. Hope it’s kind, rewarding and interesting. Planning to complete some of the pending tech courses to update my skills before grinding on work again, make some good progress in music, try to blog more frequently and restart the habit of reading.
Wishing everyone a happy new and prosperous new year 2025.
