Mandatory year end post

This year has been a whirlwind of sorts with the previous December seeing a meltdown of sorts on the official front reaching a calm state in the middle, seeing off further turmoil and finally accepting the reality and somewhat trying to settle down. On personal front it couldn’t have been a faster year with robotic monotony and assembly line precision with which the days whizzed past. It would’ve put Groundhog day to shame with the kind of repetitive days that went through this year. I had fewer movie review posts even though I saw quite a lot of movies and posted fewer book reviews despite count wise it being the same as any other year. I want to branch out and try different authors in the same genre and with the attention span getting reduced much quicker than sands in any riverbed of TN, I am finding it increasingly difficult to read anything worthwhile or new. I am looking for some new course or alternate branch of study that would keep me more engaged in coming year(s). Learning a new language has always been a pet wish that I had never invested myself enough even though I always visualize myself as a fluent speaker of a foreign tongue in future. Being patient and learning to be calmer seems to be an inevitable characteristic that I need to cultivate for the sake of survival at least. 2022 has been a year that has seen me hardly moving away from bed to the extent that I risk being deficient in vitamin D. I had successfully created a shell where I felt self-sustained and possibly a template of how I may spend the last part of my life. I have never felt more older and conventionally with each passing year even though it becomes more truer but somehow felt the burdening accumulation of number this year. On the technology front I encountered something similar when I was having a conversation with one colleague on a database that he was using, expressing interest in learning it as that was the first ever time I had even heard of that tech, only to understand that it was already being phased out and that person was learning a newer and upgraded version of the database being offered by the same provider. AWS seems have conquered every sphere possible and whatever skills that were considered niche or learnt in the past decade has become obsolete and obliterated. It makes zero sense to see job profiles calling for resources who are less than 10 years experienced for program management!! It took me that much time to even become a proper project manager. Either the role of senior management has undergone super change, or it has become something that I am not able to relate.

I realized that I am so far off and cut off from popular tastes as well, be it in music or on social platforms that it makes one feel even more aged. I couldn’t recollect one good song from any movie launched this year that was decent enough and I find myself relating more and more to the tastes of my dad. He used to call Ilayaraja’s songs as dapaanguthu and much to the chagrin of Rockstar Anirudhh and social music star Santhosh Narayanan’s followers, I find their songs detestable at best. The more I try to get myself affiliated to the trends the quicker I find them slipping away morphing into something new. Viral is the best way to describe them as the speed with which they spread, morph, mutate into something else is bewildering!!

I am in no hurry to change myself or not even willing to change drastically in upcoming year. But wouldn’t be surprised if next December see something being posted on same lines. As always, have a great year, filled with health, happiness and content.