Goodbye 2025

Well, it’s been over a month since the world said Goodbye to 2025. This post has been sitting in my drafts in a half written form since December. Friday evenings are my favorite, I feel things slow down on a Friday. There. is calm around me. Usually VT is out playing and I wind up my work-week. So I thought even if it’s about 40 days since we bid our byes to 2025, there is merit in sharing some lessons and moments from the year.

We started 2025 with a little worry about health of VT’s parents and when things got in control, we stepped out and rang in 2025 with friends. The year was truly about that celebrating when we could. Making the most of whatever the situation we were in. And I am grateful for that thought. As we are aging, things are never going to be perfect and we are trying to do what we can in our power to smile and move ahead.

I completed two decades of being an engineer in 2025 and moving to Bangalore. Twenty years is twenty years. Feels like went by in a blink with many good memories and a good life that I made for myself since I finished college. I wanted to meet my engineering buddies but it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe some day I will get to meet my friends and be on the campus again.

2025 was also an year of loss. VT and I lost a dear friend and I also lost my Mausa ji. Our friend’s loss was sudden and unexpected. He left for work and never came back. We had celebrated Diwali together just a week back and the memories of that day are still vivid in my mind. His loss has left me thinking of the people we bond with and then we lose them. The person goes but the attachment stays.

VT and I went on a road trip to Gujarat after 6 years towards the end of the year and this trip was our longest. I am still smiling that we made the time and effort. We had fun, explored a new state that we had never before and made memories.

I walked in 2025. A lot. There was a lot of work and I couldn’t go out for a swim or a strength training so I walked. And that kept me good. I averaged 10,000 steps every day and I sure want to top that in 2026. My buddies UM and NS were in it with me on most of the days. I also ran 5kms in a saree and that was fun.

Tennis is our sport for the last five years. VT plays and I watch Grand Slams and coach VT as if I have coached Sinner and Alcaraz. In 2025, VT and I went to watch our second Bangalore Open and it’s an annual ritual we have started to look forward to. As I type this, I will be heading for the Davis cup qualifiers soon.

I spotted Sunflower fields, many new trees and kept going back to my favorite Big Banyan tree. I love newness and I love familiarity. Trees give me both.

Crochet has given me a lot of joy. Over the last five years, I have made so many new things that I want to keep trying more and explore my creative side. I wish I had more time to crochet, sew and have a small shop of my own. If there was an alternate reality, this would be my thing. Add to the shop, a small library kind of set up where chai and coffee is always hot and available.

Every year when I start to look back, I am reminded that life is what it is because of the people we have around us. Friends, family and more.

2025 tested me tons. I had to find my own grounding. I accepted things that I can’t control and started to believe in the power of manifesting and dreaming again. I gave myself what I needed to and I am in the process of finding my peace and solace.

I am striving for a 2026 that is forward looking from the year gone by. The one that’s built on positivity, hope and continued contentment.