Comma, not a full stop.
I have not forgotten this newsletter and birthday is an important occasion to share what I have been upto and what to expect next!
Hi friends!
I have always shared a hesitant relationship with birthdays. And I guess as you keep getting older this relationship keeps getting bitter-sweet.
For one, it is a reminder of decaying youth, of years rolling by, of age layering up. It is like a yearly reminder to do all the things that you need to do, that you want to do because you know time is ticking by. But again, it is also a yearly reminder of how much you have already done, all the things you have already achieved. Youth might be decaying but the experiences more than compensate for it. Let the age layer up after all it brings with it wisdom as well. And oh! let the years roll by, so much to be grateful for and so much to look up to.
Bitter-sweet. Told you.
For me, this birthday is more remarkable than usual. This birthday marks 2 years of Relatively Correct! I started RC during the lockdown, and you know as well as I do that these past 2 years were perhaps the most tumultuous 2 years for all of us collectively. And to realize that I nurtured a community of people during this period who read me every Sunday while trying to rebuild the world that was crumbling around them is so surreal. To think that I was not alone neither were you. And to register the fact that we made it through, the world has finally started recovering, we have reached the light at the end of the tunnel. And to appreciate the fact that this year there is no lockdown while I celebrate my birthday! It is all so surreal; so gratifying.
This year I also have many new milestones to celebrate.
I recently celebrated my one-year marriage anniversary! And marriage changes your relationship with work, with friends, with parents, and with life in general. And let me tell you it’s the most pleasant change. Evolution is the word. It evolves you as a person.
So last year has been a year of me superimposing my altered personal dimension to my professional dimension. Though the latter was fast-changing on its own already! The pepper team and consequently the work exploded, we were driven, jumping from one thing to another, aiming for one big thing after another.
I contracted Covid for the second time at the beginning of the year and had to do breathing exercises. And though fortunately, I recovered soon and well, I realized that my body was in shambles. I was somewhere aware of the deteriorating state of my body but I never took it seriously, January gave me the wake-up call I needed.
I picked up Yoga, my wife and father-in-law are both yoga teachers, and having heard enough and often about it, I wanted to give it a try myself. It was a slow start with wobbly positions and awkward movements but what did anyone ever get out of perfection? I continued, and thank god I did. 5 months down the line and I can vouch for its benefits to my life. I am still wobbly and awkward at it but it is no longer a habit or a fitness routine, it is my lifestyle now.
All those big words you hear - peace, calm, reflection, subconscious, well turns out they are not lying!
I also made minor modifications to my daily routine like cutting down my tea consumption and saying goodbye to packaged food.
Well, what is even the point if you are not celebrating your shift from tea to green tea on your 28th birthday?
Little joys, my friends, little joys.
I also learned to juggle across cities.
I learned to call Bombay home. I learned that home can be two different cities, two different houses, and many many people.
Home can be my phone for those 5 minutes when Bruce is on the screen. Home can be that barren highway in Ladakh where I stood sipping tea in the chilling cold with the closest people in my life.
And so stretching and sprawling, flipping through another calendar on my desk, I grew. A year older!
So pumped for the year that’s waiting on the edges for me. Hopefully, next year I will be in your inbox again, with greater enthusiasm and fuller joy. See you then?
jk, I will be back again next Tuesday!
I still don’t know how to respond to “Happy Birthday Pawan” texts, but I am getting better at it. Reply to this email or comment below to see my progress.
Thank you for reading till the need. For any suggestions, queries or advice reach out to me directly on my Instagram @pawan_rochwani