Bibhas Debnath iambibhas

I flew back to Kolkata today. Ayanti and I came to Kolkata earlier this month because MIL suddenly fell ill. She had to be hospitalised. And we flew here in hours notice. Then last week i have to travel back to Bangalore for some work. And now I’m back to Kolkata again.

Too many thoughts are rushing through my mind and I am having trouble processing everything at the same time. So thought I’ll try writing things down.

What we did in 2022 -

2022 Wrap-up collages

5 new items added to shared album

Google Photos

1. Bought our first ever car in January - a Maruti Suzuki S-Presso top end automatic. We got a pretty good deal from Spinny and the car was in near mint condition. No regret. We’ve been using it to it’s limit. Drove about 6.5k kilometer this year. Which includes a 800km road trip. Very happy with the purchase. We named it Bilbo. Because it’s short and stacked, and loves adventure. 😊
2. Completed 6 years being married to A. And about 11 years since we met each other. We’re very proud of each other for where we are right now. And our life is just starting. Lot more to do and look forward to.
3. Visited Pyramid valley in February. Wanted to visit for a long time. The car kind of gave us wings.
4. Got my dad’s cataract surgeries done from Sankara Eye Hospital in Marathalli. Really good experience. Costed around 25k for each eyes. He can see lot better now, writing this on 1st January 2023. Mom also got an instant laser procedure done that improved her vision. We consulted Dr Meena. Recommend her and Sankara hospital for any glaucoma and eye related issues as well.
5. Had the first tyre puncture.
6. Bought a telephoto lens for my Fuji XT-100.
7. The lens purchase was in preparation for our first long road trip, just the 2 of us. We covered 800km. Bangalore - Srirangapatna - Gonikoppa - Kushalnagar - Hassan - Mysore - Bangalore. It was top notch fun and the car performed beautifully.
8. April is also the month when we got to know that we were expecting. Thus started our year long journey of anticipation and preparation.
9. Ayanti’s parents visited us in May. 4 of us siblings went and watched Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (MoM), which was also mostly about motherhood.
10. In June, we visited IKEA in Bangalore on it’s first day, Our first visit to a IKEA. We had fun. Nice road trip through NICE road. After this I visited IKEA 3 more times I think.
11. By June last week I got done with the visa application for my trip to Sweden in August.
12. Got my visa in July.
13. Attended India FOSS in July as well. Had fun. Met so many friends after so long.
14. 12-31st August was the Sweden trip. So much happened. Have about 1500+ photos of the whole trip. Need to print some and keep. Video of what we did - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0exy4SCBdI
15. In September, we made some big purchase in anticipation of the upcoming new person. A huge bed from Wakefit and a Samsung front load washing machine.
16. In September, I went for a photowalk after ages with Rustik Travel in KR Market, Bangalore.
17. Durga puja started in September. My parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece all came to Bangalore and we had a lovely time. Went to few pandals. Couldn’t go to too many of them because A wasn’t supposed to move around a lot.
18. 5th October we had the baby shower. My whole family and A’s whole family were in Bangalore. Sharath, Sneha, Sounava and Shreya also joined. We had great fun.
19. 5th November was Barcamp Bangalore. First time I helped organize BCB. Learned a lot. And also met a lot of friends.
20. By November, we started buying baby stuff. This was the last leg of the journey. So we became ultra cautious and started preparing for the new member’s arrival.
21. 30th November A’s mom cooked meals for A. Bidisha, Deep, Arna, Arpita, and Adhrit came to visit.
22. At last, 9th December early morning we left for the hospital. And soon after the admission, the delivery happened. And baby M arrived in our lives. This probably merits a completely separate post. About what we experienced in the whole journey and how we felt. Should write it down before we forget.

As I write this, baby M is 3 weeks old. Can’t believe it’s already been 3 weeks. But we’re still here and we’re thriving. In 2023, we have a ton of plans. Let’s hope for the best. If you’re reading this. send us all your best wishes. Hope that your year is awesome and full of new experiences as well. Enjoy.

Taking a leaf from Thej’s book, I’m gonna try posting weekly updates about what I’m doing, as a journal. I don’t do a lot of significant things. But this could be a good way to remember bits and pieces. Let’s go.

• This week was spent mostly recovering from last week. The week before brother in law got hospitalized for dengue. Parents were with us in Bangalore and my sister was alone with niece handling everything alone. So had to send parents home. Had to drive to the airport twice. It was exhausting.
• Cover photo is from last Friday when I went to the airport to drop dad. Went to the back side of the airport where the runway ends and flights take off from. Really nice spot to just sit and chill for a while. With flights taking off every 5 minutes or so.
• Did a lot of cooking this week. Ayanti can’t stand around for long time now. So it’s mostly on me to keep the house and food scene in order.
• We’ve entered the last month. So it’s getting a little tense. Spending a lot of energy to keep the peace of mind.
• Barcamp Bangalore is tomorrow. It was my responsibility to get the banners and sticklers etc printed. Gave for printing yesterday. Collected them today. They came out really well. I didn’t know that flex banners are banned now. They’ve substituted it with a cloth like material. Lightweight. Hopefully better for environment. Thinking about that is also a bit of a moot point. sigh.
• Didn’t get much sleep last night because upstair neighbours were playing loud music at 3AM. Have to drive to the RV University tomorrow early morning. Need to get some proper sleep tonight.
• Been a while since I helped organize an event. A bit nervous.
• Found a shop in HSR that sells refurbished laptops, macbooks, iPads etc. I need a personal laptop as I’ve been doing personal stuff on work laptop and I want to stop that. Asked them to let me know if they get a Thinkpad X1 Carbon. They called me after a day. But I couldn’t find time to go see it. Maybe next week. Also a bit cautious about spending that kind of money right now. Going to need cash next month.
• will update if I remember anything else.

Happy new year 2017! As we celebrate the beginning of this new year, I’d like to jot down what all I did in 2016.

January

Got married!

Everything was decided in the last quarter of 2015. And finally on 29th January, Ayanti and I got married on a not-so-cold winter evening. The journey that started 5 years ago at an Anime club meetup (Yeah!), evolved to it’s next stage. Got some photos on Flickr to share with you all. :)

Incident 1 (I’m in college, 1st year):

The head of the dept. walks into our class, and throws us a question, “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”. Honestly, I took that question a bit seriously, and that was the first time I realized that I didn’t know what I should be in future. I didn’t start as a developer then. Didn’t even know I’m going to be what I am today. I was asked “What is your aim in life?” several times in my college days, I remember clearly that I answered differently every single time.