2022 - A lookback

2022, a middling year. Kind of like Class 8th in school. Just recovering from the vagaries of chaos and infancy, and yet pumped about the future. The year was still about shaking off the dread and trauma of the pandemic years, and yet heralded a newer and better time ahead for us collectively. We crossed the 8 billion mark as a unit, and lost millions of friends and family to war and disease. We were enthralled by ChatGPT and AI, and were hit with the double whammy of the Great Layoffs and Inflation. I guess dichotomies exist in every year, every timespan - but boy was 2022 a reminder of that.

I remarked last year that 2021 was a year of perseverance. I think 2022 was just a year of weariness. Everyone around me emerged battered and bruised, and did face more challenges. I guess as we’re getting older, life is getting less rosy. Which is helping us hold precious moments of happiness more tightly, and find every opportunity to indulge in them, given how few they are. This isn’t to say that the year has just been grimdark (coined by Brandon Sanderson of course), but that maybe we were exposed to a lot more reality this year. And yet, my life is an extremely privileged and top 0.0001% status life in this nation.

There’s SO MUCH I have to be grateful for in this hectic year - moving to a new city, living entirely alone, working (and surviving) at a turbulent startup and more. I’m grateful for the new friends I made this year. I’m grateful for the friends I already have - if anything this year has brought me closer to them all. I’m grateful for the roof on my head, the ability to still run in the park, easy access to books and sexbomb masala dosa, and bffs and family on speed dial. What else is life for?

The best books I read this year were:

1. The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
2. Death’s End by Cixin Liu
3. Stoner by John Williams
4. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
5. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

The entirety of the 3-body problem was a mindblasting, mindbending, out of body surreal experience. No book series has gripped me like this in the recent past (I miss being young and caring so intensely; as one gets older passions for anything get more blunt). But Cixin Liu’s ideas and philosophizing just melted my brains out and then some. I can’t stress how amazing these books are. People have very strong opinions on this series - they are either absolutely thunderstruck, or think its shit.

Favorite TV shows of the year:

1. The Bear
2. Only Murders in the Building S2
3. Barry

I watched very little TV this year - I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t even finish the House of the Dragon yet. But I will.

Favorite movies of the year:

1. RRR
2. Kantara
3. Everything Everywhere All At Once
4. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
5. Bullet Train

A very general male-oriented list, as is evident.

Other highlights of the year:

1. This episode, Among the Oak Trees, from This is Love
2. A beautiful trip to Kenya
3. Running the 10K twice!
4. Some amazing weddings.

2023, be kinder.