The Athul of 2021

There was a christmas celebration in college and I was among the group of students along with my classmates to help organize the event. It went fairly well and since it was my last year in college and I enjoyed it a lot. This was also a time I though about my next 6-7 months of my life. The pace of time to engluf the future in a matter of 30 weeks away seems a bit daunting, but I can’t possibly do anything about it so I felt like savouring those moments with my friends.

As a person who just believes in the Absurdist philosophy put forward by Albert Camus, these maybe the last few moments I get to spend with my friends while I’m in college. These maybe the some of the few things that can give some meaning to life. It’s something that I feel after being at home for more than a year.

After the events, I looked at the pictures. Everyone seemed so content. I didn’t pose for much pictures since my mind was trying to come at terms with the above said problem. Yeah to start Athul of 2021, he overthinks a lot, a lot!

2021 was another year partially sitting at home and looking at stars and the rest some of it going to college and meeting my classmates. It started with the first day when my mom gave a lecture on the placements in college and why I should sit in it and get a job. Sadly, I didn’t sit for placements. I haven’t had a chance to regret that decisions yet and I hope I don’t get a chance for that.

The First 3 months of 2021 was interesting as well as less interesting. Went to an in-person hackathon after a year and best part was going to Munnar for the same. The mist there, the cold sunrises and sunsets there and the hot sip of tea from any shop/tea stall and the cold breeze that embraced you with the plant-ish aroma of the tea leaves it had been friends with. The walk along those paths isn’t like any other. Just you, your gang, the cold sun, the colder yet gentle breeze and the smell of soil which has been made moist by the coldness of the place.

The rest of the year was just a wait to go there once again to vibe out. A longing to be with the clouded sky and winter feel of Munnar once again. It didn’t work out though in the rest of 2021 and I hope to tally that out in 2022. This was the time when I found that I loved travelling. I’m asthmatic so I’m supposed to not like it much but anyways here I am still waiting to travel once more there.

I bought a cycle by March and went on for rides everyday at a minimum of 10km everyday. I listened to a few audiobooks while I went for cycling. This was the time I finally got the time to complete The God of Small Things. Being close to the river mentioned in the Book, it is really a book close to my heart. I had bought the book in May 2020, I regret not reading it sooner.

Summer was around the corner as well as Easter. I joined Frappe for my Internship and for the next 3 months. I read a ton of code to understand how a method works and had to improvise at time to get the required results. It was fun. I invested a lot in books at that time. I drove to places. I cycled a lot. Learned a lot more about life philosophies.

Star watching was my main hobby after going for cycling. Learned a lot more constellations. Saw the Milky Way 🌌 for the first time in my life. And just like last year a ton of deep existential thoughts while watching the stars. Favorite constellations coming at Scorpius with Antares the Red giant at it’s head.

Post Internship was tough. I had nothing to do for the day other than cycling in the evening, plus there were heavy rains. Getting a Netflix subscription paid off nicely. Watched a shit ton of movies and tv shows and a lot more thanks to other streaming websites.

July was a tumultous month. Went through something I thought that would come later in life. Should’ve prepared better for that and no it’s not any death just something more crippling atleast when at that time but looking back from the time I am writing this, that feels like a healable wound. And it was the time for breakup songs. Heard a lot of new music which is still tops my chart of music(Oh Wonder, SYML).

July was the starting point of listening to Rock Music. Especially Pink Floyd. I wrote 2 different posts about Pink Floyd, you can find it 1, 2. Other than Pink Floyd, I listened to a lot of Porcupine Tree, Tame Impala, Foo Fighters to name a few. Also learned to play the guitar. I can play a few of my favorite songs on the guitar(Wish you were Here(Pink Floyd), Locket(Crumb)).

Watching Ted Lasso made everything great again. Season 2 aired in September which made everything better too.

One of my Major achievements this year was building a Mechanical Keyboard. I learned to solder, learned about Keyboard matrices and for the first time tinkered with a microcontroller(The Raspberry Pi Pico with an RP2040) and contributed a keyboard firmware in Python. I wrote about my Macropad here and wrote about my new keyboard here.

Meeting and mingling with my friends were a boon in October. This is being continued till date and it is going pretty well.

Yeah that’s pretty much it about Athul in 2021. I have read a few books this year and read Dune before the movie. This feels like a big monologue on how privileged I am but I have lost my flair in storytelling in 2021 and that kinda hurts. I have to find a way around this in the future but I’m stuck with this as of now.

• Favorite song I found in 2021 is Hey Moon
• Favorite series in 2021 were Ted Lasso and Normal People
• Books were Dune and The God of Small Things
• Movies were Dune and Joji

Athul in 2021 is pretty much a year older shittier version of Athul 2020. Just a few less people skills and communication skills than 2021 version.