All about 2021: Existentialism, Realizations & future plans

6 min readDec 31, 2021

It is that time of the year again, where most of us are heard saying, “This year went too fast, no?”

It is also when many of us reflect on how this year went by, the good and the bad.

So, here is me again with a year in review. If you are interested in my previous year’s posts, here are for 2020, 2019, and 2018.

A quick recap on why I do this every year?

Helps me gather and reflect on what all happened this year. Sets up a tone for the following year.
Works as a log/documentation to look back and see where I have come from.

So, yeah, let’s start with the vanity metrics.

Social Media, Blogs & Projects:

Mindfulness

Highlights

When I reflect, it feels like not a lot happened in growth, but I guess it’s okay. My previous year was high, and thinking that it might have resulted in a low this year.

I just realized that it was mostly like I let it flow this year. Trying not to control things, I am unsure if it’s good or bad. Anyway, continuing…

Work

All Design events completed one year

The project completed one year, and here is the blog on reflection for the same.

I can definitely say that I couldn’t scale it as I thought I could but glad that it did not remain as an idea & saw the light of the day.

I’ll take a call if I would continue this in the coming year or not but let’s see.

Completed two years at udaan

My first design job and I completed two years at udaan. I remember that I desperately wanted to enter the design field two years back, and udaan took a chance on me. These two years have been eventful.

The thing that I am content about is that never ever have I got this question in my mind that this field is not for me, and that’s a significant win cause I get bored out of things pretty quickly.

However, these two years had a fair share of highs and lows. Self-doubt has crept in quite a few times, burnouts, learning, unlearning. The curve has seen it all.

One other thing that I realized is that I need to up my game. There is an immense need to upskill and bring great things to the table.

Now that we also have a new head of design, It has evoked a renewed sense of enthusiasm in the team. So, looking forward to more learnings in the coming year.

Social

Breathing design conference

This year, I got to be a part of a conference where all the proceeds went to financially support the NGOs working for the recovery.

Indeed a great work by Rohan Mishra and the team. Amazing fun.

Personal

Dating life continues

Somethings should remain private so, I’ll let it be here.

Shivaay 👶🏻

In the last quarter of 2020, my sister got blessed with a baby boy, and gosh, how pretty he is. IT WAS A HEAVENLY FEELING when I first held him in my arms. I am out of words, so I’ll let pictures do the talking.

And the best part was that I was there when he was born. Goosebumps.

Organizing my life [Reflection]

In the second half of this year, I started organizing my life and tried giving structure to things. I have been moderately successful in doing so.

Here is a glimpse of how it looks in a Notion doc? I would like to call out that I now have better visibility of my finances and have been able to track and manage them well.

Moving back to Bangalore

After a long 1 year of staying at home with my family, I decided to move back to Bangalore. While living with parents is excellent, I was missing the independence and the energy that Bangalore offers.

Have been great so far.

Health taking a back seat

In December this month, I got my whole body checkup and found out that my cholesterol + Uric acid had gone way up, which is not a good sign. Also, I gained 2 more kgs ever since I moved back.

Some Impulse/notable purchases of the year

I usually don’t make many materialistic purchases, but I did some this year. Some are impulse purchases; none of them are thought through, though. 😂

What I consumed:

I recently got hooked to this podcast by Prakhar — PG Radio. Amazing stuff. Wondering how all of it is free.
Read a couple of books midway — Namely: Mental Models [60%], The Mom Test [23%], The Almanack of Naval Ravikant [14%]
There are random vlogs of so many people that I watch[Flying Beast, Saurav Joshi, Gaurav Kapoor, etc.]

Top Realizations of the year

The goals that I had set for myself, I didn’t completed those which didn’t had a definitive plan of action.
The way you do small things is the way you do big things in life. Lately, I have started being mindful of the smallest things I do.
Not being a reflective practitioner.

What’s Next?

A lot of Experiments

Shubham 2.0

This idea originated from the book I read this year called “Attention Factory”; Details are on this thread. It’s an experiment where I am going to upgrade myself in a newer version.

A new idea

We are researching this new idea that we are trying to validate as of now.

I will also reveal one stealth mode quest later once I am successful in that.

Yes, cheers to new learnings, and I am dedicating this coming year to continuous learning and upskilling. Yes, that’s the theme of the year.

Bye. See you next year.

P.S: I am always up for meeting new people, if you want to chat about something, I can be reached out via Twitter. Coffee/Ice Tea on me.