well, 2015 certainly threw me some curveballs. my year did not quite turn out the way i thought it would, but i learned a lot from those setbacks and hope that i can use them to move forward. but before we head into 2016, i’d like to look back on the year that was and see how well i accomplished the goals i set for myself at the beginning of the year.

tiffin boxes lined up outside the classroom. hyderabad, india. january 2015.

my favourite room at the salar jung museum. hyderabad, india. january 2015.

my peanut was so excited to have me back. bangalore, india. january 2015.

beginning our tinfinity celebrations. bangalore, india. january 2015.

driving past the charminar. hyderabad, india. january 2015.

ringing in 2015 at janata. bombay, india. january 2015.

highlights:

ringing in the new year in bombay. moving back to bangalore and starting a new job. finding a house and slowly turning it into a home. visits from my father in march and from the entire family in august. two weeks in bombay for work and for play. a return to coorg. balaji got married. a weeklong holiday in sri lanka. a new friendsgiving tradition. priyanka and deboo got married. seeing the sights in calcutta. hosting a christmas potluck. returning home for the holidays.

lowlights:

the relationship that ended, once and for all. the weird virus i came down with in september that left me with severe joint pain for months and still has me walking funny.

my favourite school helpers. hyderabad, india. february 2015.

camels on the highway. hyderabad, india. february 2015.

chutneys’ masala dosa. hyderabad, india. february 2015.

hard at work. hyderabad, india. february 2015.

crossing off my goals:

establish a regular fitness routine. eh. i did pretty well with this for a few months, but it wasn’t consistent. in may and june i was pretty good about getting up early two or three days a week and either going for a short run or doing a workout at home, but once july rolled around and my hours changed, so did my workouts — getting home and having dinner at 9pm was not conducive to 6am wakeup calls. i tried to get back into it after balaji’s wedding in august, and then of course i managed to come down with whatever that virus was that prevented me from walking like a normal person and left me with pretty bad joint pain. i finally realized that getting up early and working out during the week is not an option, so i try to do something on the weekends — i don’t have to get up as early, and i always have the option of taking a nap in the afternoon. it’s going to be a long time before i’m back to where i was, but i’ll get there eventually.

wedding decorations in the process of going up. hyderabad, india. march 2015.

sunset as seen from om made cafe. bangalore, karnataka. march 2015.

loved getting to see these two lovelies. bangalore, india. march 2015.

discovering hidden gems while house hunting. bangalore, india. march 2015.

the wall of classic rock cassettes at pecos. bangalore, india. march 2015.

the entrance to my beautiful new house. bangalore, india. march 2015.

roadside flower stall. bangalore, india. april 2015.

send one handwritten note per week. i began the year by writing one postcard a week, but i never actually sent any of them. there wasn’t a convenient post office in hyderabad, and then i discovered touchnote, the app that allows me to send postcards using photos from the camera roll on my phone. i have always wanted to be able to do that, because i think it makes the postcards more unique, and it was so much more convenient to type a message and know the postcard would get printed, stamped, and mailed for me. so while i didn’t send any handwritten cards, i did send a lot of postcards. we’ll call this a draw.

laura was in town from calcutta this week, and we got to have a fun lady date on thursday night. bangalore, india. april 2015.

three of my favourites. bangalore, india. april 2015.

seriously cool night market in new thippasandra. bangalore, india. april 2015.

sunset over the lake on the drive to mandya. rural karnataka, india. april 2014.

my favourite little buddy in one of the summer camp centers. malavalli, india. april 2015.

the rogue elephant in the rain. bangalore, india. april 2015.

crazy april rains in the city. bangalore, india. april 2015.

visit somewhere new in india. i spent two months at the beginning of the year in hyderabad for work, marking my first visit to the city. i was busy with work while i was there, and it’s not the easiest city to get around, but i did manage a visit to the salar jung museum, which i highly recommend, along with the chowmahallah palace.

with anthony appa, kishore, and ajay in the hospitality suite at chinnaswamy. bangalore, india. may 2015.

with ashwini, my favourite friend from our summer camp at gurunanak school. bombay, india. may 2015.

the gateway of india. bombay, india. may 2015.

just looking at this makes me full all over again. bombay, india. may 2015.

tree at the top, because we all know i love pictures of trees. savandurga, india. may 2015.

loved getting to catch up with tugce while she was in town! bangalore, india. may 2015.

sometimes we dress alike. bangalore, india. may 2015.

everyone showed up to work on time, but no one had keys. bombay, india. may 2015.

veena-deboo bonding time at the studio. bombay, india. may 2015.

bombay’s oldest flower market. bombay, india. may 2015.

dinner with these two lovelies. bombay, india. may 2015.

our yellow submarine family. bombay, india. may 2015.

i love taking pictures with sneha because we somehow always make each other look amazing. bangalore, india. may 2015.

with super and samy at super’s birthday celebration. bangalore, india. may 2015.

do more for others. i realize i don’t really have a barometer for measuring this, so i don’t know how i did with it. i moved to hyderabad for two months because we needed another sim there, so i guess that counts. but then once i had my own house, i mostly hibernated on the weekends and kept to myself. note to self: make more concrete, measurable goals for next year.

these girls were on cheering-up duty on tuesday evening, and they performed their roles beautifully. bangalore, india. june 2015.

the main building at chingaara. coorg, india. june 2015.

all the nature. coorg, india. june 2015.

shelton and her husband came to bangalore, so we got to have a rhodent reunion after 8 years apart. and it was magical. bangalore, india. june 2015.

at the boss’ birthday party. bangalore, india. june 2015.

explore bangalore and be active in the city. i’d say i did fairly well with this. i certainly tried a lot of new restaurants and visited a number of new bars, but i didn’t get as culturally immersed in the city as i would have liked. once i’m back in january i want to do more museum and park visits and plays at ranga shankara in addition to the pubs and restaurants.

so much love for these adopted mothers of mine. bangalore, india. july 2015.

finally found proper mexican food in india! bangalore, india. july 2015.

seeing all these children piled into autos reminded me of watching this sight as a child on my masi’s balcony in surat. bangalore, india. july 2015.

enjoying all the yummy street food goodness during ramzan. bangalore, india. july 2015.

inside blossom, my favourite bookshop in all the land. bangalore, india. july 2015.

one of my centers got me a cake for my birthday with a pretty awesome candle. bangalore, india. july 2015.

with my pumpkin and my peanut. bangalore, india. july 2015.

exploring the pretty back lanes on my way home one evening. bangalore, india. july 2015.

church street social, my favourite place for a breakfast meeting. bangalore, india. july 2015.

save money. check. it helped that my mother took pity on me and bought me furniture when she visited in august, so that was an expense i didn’t have to bear, but otherwise i was still able to save a bit. i definitely spent more than i would have liked, but now that i have my bank accounts set up and have a better handle of how much i actually have, my savings will – hopefully – continue to grow.

commercial street on a saturday evening. bangalore, india. august 2015.

the view from the moodalpalya center. bangalore, india. august 2015.

delicious ragi mudde lunch. bangalore, india. august 2015.

amazing stationery shop on commercial street. bangalore, india. august 2015.

i might have an obsession with mehendi. coimbatore, india. august 2015.

loved having some good brother-time last month. coimbatore, india. august 2015.

coming in for a landing over my garden city. bangalore, india. august 2015.

evening commuters. bangalore, india. august 2015.

find a work-life balance. eh. i struggled a lot with this one. i had a pretty good balance for a few months, but after july my hours changed a lot which then effected this. i still try to maintain a policy of having “off duty” time, but it’s difficult, especially when you work for a startup. i’m hoping that the new year will bring a few changes so that i can continue working on this balance.

the awesome security guy at nagarjuna. bangalore, india. september 2015.

the state central library, one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. bangalore, india. september 2015.

the courtyard cafe at barefoot. colombo, sri lanka. september 2015.

the sunset on my first full day. colombo, sri lanka. september 2015.

colombo fort railway station. colombo, sri lanka. september 2015.

my favourite spot on the fort wall; i easily spent hours standing up here. galle, sri lanka. september 2015.

showing my grizz pride while waiting for the train. galle, sri lanka. october 2015.

street scene inside the fort. galle, sri lanka. september 2015.

outstanding galle sunset. galle, sri lanka. september 2015.

galle streets by night. galle, sri lanka. september 2015.

adorable train tickets. galle, sri lanka. october 2015.

church inside the fort. galle, sri lanka. september 2015.

walking up to the clock tower. galle, sri lanka. september 2015.

read 15 books for fun. done and done. in the end i clocked in 27 books for fun, which i am pretty proud of. long bus rides certainly helped my cause, as did my two months in hyderabad, a weekend getaway to coorg, and my week in sri lanka. i somehow still have a full shelf of books to be read, so i’ve got my work cut out for me. and another self-imposed ban on buying any new books.

i am slightly obsessed with bangles. bangalore, india. october 2015.

my lovely staycationing dates. bangalore, india. october 2015.

the heavenly pool at shangri-la hotel. bangalore, india. october 2015.

enjoying the sounds of aathma at tedx bangalore. bangalore, india. october 2015.

saree shopping is some serious business. bangalore, india. october 2015.

staycation sunset. bangalore, india. october 2015.

luxuriating in our super comfy robes. bangalore, india. october 2015.

celebrating our successful pub crawl. bangalore, india. october 2015.

learn a new skill. again, i think this is something i need to be a little more specific with, because i can’t think of any new skill i learned. i’m going to need to rethink this one.

malar, the sweet aunty who sells vegetables in front of my building. bangalore, india. november 2015.

strolling through cubbon park. bangalore, india. november 2015.

celebrating diwali with my crazies. bangalore, india. november 2015.

lovely bangalore rain. bangalore, india. november 2015.

rainy days + dug-up streets = a muddy mess on the way to work. bangalore, india. november 2015.

thanksgiving family. bangalore, india. november 2015.

hanging out at hard rock on a saturday afternoon. bangalore, india. november 2015.

diwali lights. bangalore, india. november 2015.

another stunning moodalpalya sunset. bangalore, india. november 2015.

buy a record player. i think we all know the answer to this one. i have started looking at a few on amazon, so i am looking to get this taken care of around february once i’ve got a little more money in the bank and have done a bit more research. i’ll keep you all posted.

nashville squad. nashville, tennessee. december 2015.

my favourite room at graceland. memphis, tennessee. december 2015.

maggie and i introduced lannon to graceland. memphis, tennessee. december 2015.

family lunch at the peabody. memphis, tennessee. december 2015.

mother-daughter date to the grizzlies game. memphis, tennessee. december 2015.

hanging out with walker and lena. memphis, tennessee. december 2015.

harish’s 30th birthday called for a festive terrace celebration. bangalore, india. december 2015.

showing my st jude love and my grizz pride in front of the lake. calcutta, india. december 2015.

hanging out with the bride while she got her mehendi. calcutta, india. december 2015.

nighttime party.

terrace at dusk.

with deboo.

bride and groom.

papa guruji. we’re best friends.

post-haldi. so much yellow.

entertaining ourselves before the others arrived. bangalore, india. december 2015.

with amai, nithya, and nilah. bangalore, india. december 2015.

christmas lights! bangalore, india. december 2015.

inside the palladian porch. calcutta, india. december 2015.

one last look. calcutta, india. december 2015.

delicious dub sarbat. calcutta, india. december 2015.

beautiful buildings next to college square. calcutta, india. december 2015.

dorothy is home! bangalore, india. december 2015.

overall i didn’t do as well with my goals in 2015 as i did the previous year, but i’m going to chalk that up to a lot of instability and feelings of being unsettled.

how was your year? anything particularly exciting or frustrating? tell me about it!

xx