Some Years Come with Answers to the Questions We Have Been Asking For a Long Time.

A 2022 Retrospective

I entered 2022 without employment — not full-time, not part-time, no contracts, and nothing on the horizon.

In November, we heard the news that the project and grant proposal I wrote for VOICE Trust (VT), a Trichy-based NGO, was successful. My voluntary work with them had come to a close.

I had to painfully exit my gym business around the same time.

The year ended with a trip down South with the usual suspects.

And now what?

It bothered me not to have a fallback. There is a certain comfort in knowing what lies ahead to plan your time and priorities. But we only have to look back at the previous two years to understand how shallow that comfort is.

It was time to recycle, reinvent, and re-learn — just like everyone in the world had done.

Some years come with answers. To the questions we have been asking ourselves for a long time.

For want of anything better to do than idle away, I decided to seek out people to have conversations with. Perhaps something would shake loose.

If not, worst case, I’d learn new things. It is not my strength or preference to network or reach out, not even when I need help. Yet, I started putting myself out there cautiously, testing, hesitating.

The more folks I sought, the more enriched my library of interesting people became. At most times, we did not have anything in common — neither our professions, qualifications, or even our interests. So what brought us together and kept us in touch?

I was throwing some ideas around in my head when my friend asked me to join her in the handmade clothing accessories business.

She has been single-handedly managing it for the last 17 years under the Sakuraa Handmades brand. I had been helping her for the previous five years anyway, and we just made it formal.

It was the lifeline I needed and the best start I could have.

The first thing to do was start a website and create an inventory system. In the course of getting these functions up, I met a lot of interesting folks — accountants, website developers, and marketers.

The person I found most interesting was someone who has a similar business. She has founded and managed it for the last seven years. What amazed me was her openness to help and share — tips, failures, and what works and what does not.

She inspired me to start a monthly series to share learning with our peers. You can read the series here.

During my trip down South in December 2021, I made a pit stop to meet the good folks at Trichy and to celebrate winning the grant. Meeting the grant beneficiaries left a deep impression. I wanted to do something more, but what?

The area where our Studio is located has quiet bylanes. We both go on short walks there when our work is done, or we need a break from the Studio. I have loved walking ever since my Gobi Desert adventure in 2011.

I had recently been introduced to someone who has built a community for people who love to take long walks in the night. Their standard route is Pune to Sinhagad base on every full moon night. They start at midnight and end in the early hours with a good breakfast.What a fun and unique way to build camaraderie and fitness! To speak, nothing of experiencing an unfamiliar side of your city at such a late hour.

On one such night walk, I got the answer to my question — what more could I do?

My mother’s birthday is in May, and each year I attempt a physical challenge to celebrate her life.

2022 would be the year of a 63 km walk. 

And I announced a fundraiser to go with it. The funds would be used to buy Chithra, a confident entrepreneur I had met in Trichy, a desktop and a printer.

My practice in earnest began in February. Between that month and my walk, I logged close to 700 km. Through the practice period, I met interesting folks on the road. Some helped me when I ran out of water; others asked me for directions at 3 AM!

It was a lonely but fulfilling activity. I listened to songs, podcasts and worked through some personal challenges. My fundraiser was over-supported by folks far and wide, to whom I shall remain grateful. One of my friends and my sister sacrificed their sleep to support me on the walk.

It was a reassuring experience. When you work towards something larger than yourself for a greater purpose, there is no shortage of helping hands.

Something as simple as walking can be a tool for empowerment, as one man demonstrated in 1930.

Fresh off my walk experience, and the reach social media had given me to amplify my fundraiser message, I looked at my dormant Twitter account again. No more politics, I decided, and purged my account of all profiles that triggered anguish about where we are headed. If we are doomed, I don’t have to follow right away.

I chose to follow creators instead, only to discover a whole new world. Writers, copywriters, bloggers, podcasters, feature writers, and my favourite type — adventurists! There was so much learning from what was shared every single day.

I discovered interesting people, had long conversations, and made new online friends. It paved the way for revamping my work profile. I wanted to use my strengths as a writer and share insights from my adventures around the world.

As soon as I made the profile changes across all my accounts, opportunities started coming in. I started losing my long-held reticence and unhesitatingly put myself out there. I had all the help I needed from these experienced writers — for free.

It was all about pulling up others and giving them space to thrive.

A unique assignment came my way from someone who used only Twitter to launch her campaign to provide nutritious food to stranded relatives of Covid patients during the pandemic years.

Every day she shared details of how her meals helped the destitute, ambulance drivers, and policemen on duty. Her target was the countless relatives on footpaths outside hospitals waiting for news about their patients inside.

Donations poured in enough to make 2000 such meal boxes every day, buy the cookware, help, and the gas to make them. Another tweet appealed to people who could ferry the meals to their destinations. Again people volunteered wholeheartedly.

My assignment was to help with content for her next venture — a Chamber for Social Business to unite Social Entrepreneurs globally. I was so glad to get to know her through her work.

As I spoke repeatedly to more people, a pattern began to emerge.

Meanwhile, on another social platform, I gathered the courage to reach out to an author whose posts I am in awe of. I told her how her writing guided my creative journey and how her words seemed to come alive. It was a surprise to get a response directly from her, and we have remained in touch.

I will continue to enjoy her play with words and imagination for many years.

By June, I turned my attention to prep for the upcoming trek season in the Swiss Alps. We had 8–10 days of climbing planned in one of my favourite mountains. I have some unfinished business there, and I keep going back. After having shed some weight as a part of my walk, it felt good to climb again.

This year’s plan included peak bagging and glacier walks — something I had never attempted outside India before. And every one of my fellow climbers fell in with the plan just so I could understand what I was up against for a tougher climb later. I knew it was hard on them.

How they dealt with their fears and challenges only strengthened my resolve.

Fresh off the climbing trip, I left for the North East of India with my father, who had long wanted to visit the Seven Sisters. I had entrusted our trip organization to an agency located in Guwahati. Opting for local businesses is a boon when working around what you want to see versus ticking items off.

Jyoti is the manager at NE Guide. I have never met her in person, and she put together an excellent itinerary for us. She called me every day of the trip to ask how our day was and how she could make it even better.

Are you kidding me? Who does that? She had done everything from arranging permits to snagging rooms in our choice of hotels. 

And then gone beyond to ensure we left with the best memories.

While writing assignments were trickling in, I got a call from ABBF, my former employer, to see if I could take on a four-month project — Putting together the ABBF experience at the Tata Mumbai Marathon 2023. I orchestrated our successful outing in the 2019 edition as the CEO of ABBF.

To repeat that feat would be both a privilege and a fulfilling activity. This time it was a whole new set of Persons with Disabilities and the CXOs of Mumbai’s top-tier companies.

New people to meet, learn from, and exchange stories with.

2022 was a gift that kept on giving.

This year was not yet done with it’s task of filling my library of interesting folks.

I got a message out of the blue from a distant cousin. She was in town, and could we meet? I faintly remembered complimenting her on a well-written article describing her Bharat Jodo Yatra experience in early 2022.

Our families had not been in touch for decades, and this was the opportunity to re-establish it. We met at about 4:30 PM for a coffee and realized only by 8:00 PM that time had flown by. With her background in economics, her Fulbright Scholarship-funded work in public policy, and her research assignments with Sattva, there was a lot to hear and digest.

Two evenings later, while playing with Myra, the dog, on our apartment complex’s top terrace, I saw some weeds laid out to dry. Myra immediately set to investigate and tried to chew on some. After we rescued them from her jaws, I dropped a message on the resident’s group to ask if they belonged to someone.

Yes, said a young girl who stays in one of the apartments. They are hyacinth stems I use in my work. Hyacinth? Work? This piqued my curiosity even more. An inquiring conversation later, I got to know about her background in product design and her company, Witchcraft, through which she is launching several hyacinth-based lifestyle products.

And I snagged a new writing assignment for her website. Not all leads are generated online!

We were six days away from the new year when a message popped up in my Twitter inbox.

Someone was intrigued by my service as an adventure consultant. Would I be interested in helping plan their overland walking expedition from the Lesser Sunda Islands to Papua New Guinea, a distance of 4500?

Hell yes! A more fascinating conversation followed, and as I write this retrospective, Adam is on his way.

When it was time for curtains for the year 2022, I could not have been more satisfied with where I reached at the end of it.

I no longer fit the mold I was made from.

It was a very different journey than I would have planned for myself, given the circumstances in which it began.

The rich tapestry that time wove in 2022 defined this pattern — the more you seek, the more courage you show — the more opportunities to interact come your way.

It has changed me, changed the narrative of what I want my life to be like, what I want from it, and who I want in it.

I want my intent and actions to be grounded in giving help. It is the most courageous I have ever been.

It has been a year full of answers. To questions I had asked, and to questions I did not know I had to ask.

Now I am ready to rip that band-aid and for more questions.

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