From staring at the clock and wondering why the time is moving so slow to looking in hurry questioning where are the minutes rushing, it has been a year of gratification. Moving from yearly resolutions to half yearly and then to monthly, the transitions and methods have benefitted me – with a change and with a upbeat to keep up. I was able to see all the possible variants and witness the benefits of each type. This year, I am sticking to monthly resolutions.
Continuing the tradition of monthly theme based resolutions, here is what I have for January. My January theme is “Identity”. It was also inspired by the month that I am already living by. I want to have an identity for each week of January.
Week 01: I was part of conference that we hosted in our campus (technical member secretary) and identity here was to define and establish collaborations. It was a fruitful one week on several fronts and was a technical celebration.
Week 02: While living the tiredness of week 1, week 02 was majorly about academic closures. I had to mark an identity for several closures and new beginnings. This was professional identity. Leave a sprinkle of good-dust (does that exist? a good dust?).
Week 03: Week 03 will be travels. Explore new place, food, culture, and live by. I am also attending a workshop. I am sure I will be carrying a lot of things back home. Plus being far far away from home for a week.
Week 04: Last week will be research identity. I have several research presentations and need to give a well-defined pathline to my six month research journey ahead.
I look forward for all four identities to have a common collaboration point and merge into single identity. They are of course one knit bundle. Now all of this is timelined to happen with other professional and personal goals. Well, needless I say, I want to read more this month and push quantifiable things to next month. My last year felt like I was blogging to set my goals and sum up my month. I want to write more. This year, hopefully. Most people start new year with exercises and fitness, but me, I am eating and sleeping more this month. All that fitness, they can wait till February.
2021 has been a satisfying year. While the beginning seemed a little blurry as 2020 had its flavors sprinkled all over, 2021 was way better. Here are the key highlights of the year:
Key Highlights
The Travel Stats
My travel times have definitely reduced this year, but not disappointing as well. The stats are as of November 2021.
I was part of an Anthology and it was literally sent to the moon! I was on cloud nine! It’s called – Chandrayarn.
ebook – available on amazon
I managed to complete reading 5 books and really hope to improve it in 2022.
Goodreads – books read
I as well did the August Movie challenge and here is the list:
Set – 01
Set – 02
Set – 03
Set – 04
I did host 10 audio sessions, later half of the year, 1 hour each, fridays, on the ClubHouse App. The talk was themed on Live It Out. It was a good experience to talk for an hour on life and whereabouts. The sessions usually had around 20 to 30 listening.
A session poster
There have been few others as well, like officially starting my research journey, workshops, etc. I will keep them in summary points.
Task Set 01: Writing
1.1 Write at least 100 blog posts (around 8 per month) on itsphblog – I managed to write 62 1.2 Post 50 technical blog posts on itsphbytes – the count is 0 1.3 Take up A to Z Challenge in April with a theme – completed with happiness and two themes 1.4 Participate in NaNo-Camps in April and July – check 1.5 Continue working as ML for NaNoWriMo 2021 – done 1.6 Post 35 short poems on Instagram – did 59
Task Set 02: Reading
2.1 Take up Goodreads challenge and read 20 novels – managed to complete 5 2.2 Read 60 articles on web – I lost track this. I need to be organized
Task Set 03: Publishing
3.1 Publish the novel – The Art of Ageing Gracefully – yet in editing 3.2 Publish the ebook – Between Blue and Blue – could not touch 3.3 Near publish edit the book – Things in Nothing – could not touch 3.4 Publish at least five ebooks through Smashwords – managed to publish 1
Task Set 04: Research
4.1 Read atleast 50 meaningful research papers and log the summary – Was not organized in keeping count. my guess is I did around 30 4.2 Publish 6 research papers from various domains (conference + Journal) – published 4.3 Build 6 new models for Knit Algorithm – 3 are in better status
Task Set 05: Profession (Academics)
5.1 Look out for a new/similar career on high priority basis – 2021 was sure not favourbale in this regard 5.2 Improve coding profile – had minimal, nothing qunatifiable 5.3 Take up and complete 6 courses online (MOOC) – completed 1 5.4 Design and propose a new elective – proposed and rejected 5.5 Build a training module – could not 5.6 Work and aim to complete the textbook – NIL works
Task Set 06: Profession (Industry)
6.1 Provide 30 meaningful internships fromKnit Arena – there were 7, but was not complete because of pandemic 6.2 Host 2 events from the company – hosted 0 6.3 Grow technically for industry (Transil and Knit) – growth was negligible 6.4 Have the first release of Knit – No release was made and I cry for this
Task Set 07: New
7.1 Conduct 3 workshops on various topics – conducted 1 7.2 Travel to two new places – Did and happy 7.3 Complete at least 3 new series/soaps – was more than 3 (Vampire Diaries, Originals, Flash, Young Sheldon, Kota Factory). 7.4 Do 31 days movies challenge – completed 7.5 Exercise and continue to stay fit and get better – happy for this 7.6 Symphony of words – NIL 7.7 Write one amazing article/post that I will be ever proud of – could not 7.8 Do 10 new things – one was session in ClubHouse. I dont have track of others. So, I consider this to be 1 only
I know I am late for the resolutions party and I want to rationalize by saying “better a little late than too late.” 355 days is definitely a good number and so what if I haven’t announced yet, the plan of action was in go from day 1 of the year. This year, I wanted to be a little more careful while I chalk out my plan. Off-course to be more ambitious and push through limits is the Plan A. My everyday planner has already been colorful for the first ten days and both of my Sundays, including today, have been working and the weekdays appropriately have been enough refreshing to move ahead. So, I hereby finally announce my list to keep up for the year, to make every day count, hopefully.
A note!
By the way, I started having resolutions, in a proper format and monitoring since 2017 and it has worked for me positively. Here is what happened in 2018 and then here is how I wrapped up 2019. 2020 has been nothing less and here is how it went: 2020 Highlights. All that said, here is a list for 2021:
Task Set 01: Writing
1.1 Write at least 100 blog posts (around 8 per month) on itsphblog 1.2 Post 50 technical blog posts on itsphbytes 1.3 Take up A to Z Challenge in April with a theme 1.4 Participate in NaNo-Camps in April and July 1.5 Continue working as ML for NaNoWriMo 2021 1.6 Post 35 short poems on Instagram
Task Set 02: Reading
2.1 Take up Goodreads challenge and read 20 novels 2.2 Read 60 articles on web
Task Set 03: Publishing
3.1 Publish the novel – The Art of Ageing Gracefully 3.2 Publish the ebook – Between Blue and Blue 3.3 Near publish edit the book – Things in Nothing 3.4 Publish at least five ebooks through Smashwords
Task Set 04: Research
4.1 Read atleast 50 meaningful research papers and log the summary 4.2 Publish 6 research papers from various domains (conference + Journal) 4.3 Build 6 new models for Knit Algorithm
Task Set 05: Profession (Academics)
5.1 Look out for a new/similar career on high priority basis 5.2 Improve coding profile 5.3 Take up and complete 6 courses online (MOOC) 5.4 Design and propose a new elective 5.5 Build a training module 5.6 Work and aim to complete the textbook
Task Set 06: Profession (Industry)
6.1 Provide 30 meaningful internships fromKnit Arena 6.2 Host 2 events from the company 6.3 Grow technically for industry (Transil and Knit) 6.4 Have the first release of Knit
Task Set 07: New
7.1 Conduct 3 workshops on various topics 7.2 Travel to two new places 7.3 Complete at least 3 new series/soaps 7.4 Do 31 days movies challenge 7.5 Exercise and continue to stay fit and get better 7.6 Symphony of words 7.7 Write one amazing article/post that I will be ever proud of 7.8 Do 10 new things
Well, That is me. More or less. What resolutions do you have for yourself?
What makes year end special, most probably, is that it is a representative day for what we were last year and the changes we want to see in the upcoming year. For some, it is a reason to party, for some an opportunity to resolute and start afresh with new beginnings, and some-some so on for the remaining rest. It’s a birthday of ‘hope’ and gives all the reasons to celebrate. I guess it won’t be wrong to say 2020 was the most unexpected year of all. Since March, we all have been hoping that things would be back to normal next month, but then, its’ December already, and the hope continues to January of 2021. We have been living amidst uncertainties.
Resolutions have been working great with me. They keep me on track and remind me of the things I have on plate. Here is a quick evaluation of 2020. I am sure that it is going to be a long post and for the year that passed by, I think it is well justified. I want to start with worthy mentions from the year first. If you want to read my resolutions that I made for 2020, you can read the post here: Going Through 2020.
The Glows and Glitters
My new year started with travels. I was at IIM Bangalore for a conference and then from there to Hyderabad for another. In February I was at Punjab for another conference. In December to Kerala for a wedding. This is what Google maps have to say. I think I did good for a Corona year.
2020 Travel Summary
The workshops I conducted, one on poetry writing and another on computational thinking, both being from diverse domains, gave me a pathway to lead and follow. Also, to build a community. I was extremely delighted to see a banner of the workshop with my photograph in the university campus and the audience that turned out for the workshop were enthralling.
poeTRY-101 Workshop
Computational Thinking workshop was part of a conference at Chitkara University, Punjab. I as well won the best paper award (IEEE) for one of the papers. I am not sure why, I was more happy with the workshop than the award.
Computational Thinking Workshop
I released out my much awaited NaNoWriMo 2016 Novel ‘i 4 you’ as a free ebook through smashwords. The ebook is available here for download i 4 you and has gathered pretty good reviews so far. Here is one:
i 4 you – review on Goodreads
My year had THE best project teams. We did a research school together. We published two papers in a conference and two in journal (the processing of journal is in progress). I could not have asked for a better one.
In the pic: Vibha, Sourabh, Tejaswini, Usman, Srushti, Vijeth, Nikhil, Rajaram and Me (left to right).
Coursera offering free courses was the best thing that happened this pandemic. Yes, I did manage to complete 103 courses and as an individual, I have grown with learning from around the world. I cannot thank enough for this.
Thank you Note
Here are the books I managed to read this year:
Year on Goodreads
This year’s NaNoWriMo was warming and soothing. I did win for the 5th time with 50K words and the ML experience this year will stay for long. It was the most satisfying season ever. There were many such appreciation comments like the one below.
Feedback from WRIMO India Group
Highlights
Delivered 3 guest talks at colleges from Pune(2) and Chennai(1), online
Attended 4 Faculty Development Programs
Attended 23 Webinars (with certificates)
Attended 1 Winter School from IIIT-Bangalore
I did do a 31 Days 31 Movies Challenge in August and the detailed post can be found here: 31 Days 31 Movies.
Following up next is the summary of the year as against the set goals.
Task Set 01: Writing
1.1. Write at least 100 blog posts on itsphblog : This is my 42nd post. I could have done better. 1.2. Post 50 technical blog posts on itsphbytes : I did end up writing 11. I Seriously need to work on technical posts 2021. 1.3. Take up A to Z Challenge in April : Done. Did two. One on blog and another on Instagram (you can reach me on Instagram at prakash.hegade). 1.4. Participate in NaNo-Camps in April and July : completed both the camps successfully. 1.5. Continue working as ML for NaNoWriMo 2020 : It was an amazing year and had the best wrimo’s ever. 1.6. Post 30 short poems on Instagram : I did make 46 posts, and I am happy about that.
Task Set 02: Publishing
2.1. Give final edits and get NaNoWriMo 2016 novel titled i 4 you published : published. Link shared above. 2.2. Revise, edit, revise, edit and NaNoWriMo 2019 novel titled – The Art of Ageing Gracefully published : I still need to work on this. 2.3. Publish at least five ebooks through Smashwords : did 4. You have to check out: I Fell in Love with an Asshole and I Fell in Love with a Geek.
Task Set 03: Reading
3.1. Take up Goodreads challenge and read 20 novels : I could complete 9. 3.2. Read and explore two new domains in-depth (Life Sciences and Digital Society) – Attended winter school and nothing much on life science.
Task Set 04: Research
4.1. Read 50 or more research papers : read only 12. 4.2. Publish 5 research papers (academic, research, management) : yes. 6. 4.3. Build four new models related to research area : the same were published as papers. 4.4. Implement 5 workable components for Knit Algorithm : not one was in releasable format.
Task Set 05: Profession (Academics)
5.1. Design and deliver two new courses (Semantic Web and Functional Programming) : Semantic web was successfully delivered and Functional Programming was proposed and was not delivered because of pandemic situation. 5.2. Improve Coding profile (complete Basic CodeChef DSA certification) : could not reattempt the certification. But did manage to complete basic problem solving certification on HackerRank. 5.3. Take up and complete 5 courses online (MOOC) : this is where a significant difference happened. University got free access to coursera and I managed to complete 103 courses. 5.4. Design and deliver courses in unique environment (DSA, MT, APS) : with corona, this did happen in unexpected way.
Task Set 06: Profession (Industry)
6.1. Provide 30 meaningful internships from Knit Arena : we did have 32 interns 6.2. Host Knit School 2020 : this did get cancelled because of we all know why. 6.3. Host 2 events from the company : we did host one competition. 6.4. Grow as Technical Lead at Transil (Internships, design, research, consultant, technology etc. ) – I credit the fall here to corona.
Task Set 07: New
7.1. Conduct 3 workshops on various topics : did 2. 7.2. Travel to two new places : Punjab and Kasargod (Kerala). 7.3. Cook 5 new dishes : done and dusted. 7.4. Work on building meaningful components for kids growth and development (dedicating to my kids) : started home schooling. 7.5. Start and complete at least 3 new series/soaps – Dark (All 3 Seasons), Mirzapur (2 Seasons) and Money Heist (Season 01).
What makes December 31 special, most probably, is that it is a representative day for what we were last year and the changes we want to see in the upcoming year. While for some, it is a reason to party, for some an opportunity to resolute and start afresh with new beginnings, and some-some so on for the remaining rest. It’s a birthday of ‘hope’ and gives all the reasons to celebrate. The celebration takes its form and favor.
Some dance, fireworks, Some read, social networks, Some family, blog, sleep, Some something else, beep, A cake, a celebration, a peace.
I am a person who always needs a metric and check. It has worked with me well, for earlier, I used to organize with a periodic task list and now I align them all with my year resolutions. The resolution plan also has contributed to the effectiveness and satisfaction factor. Oh, I so much have fallen in love with January 01 for it brings the passion, love towards commitments, and new beginnings. I started having resolutions since 2017 and it has worked for me most amazingly. Here is what happened in 2018 and then here is how I wrapped up 2019. Below are the works I would want to work on for 2020 with my utmost commitment (And of course, I really want to improve with my blogging commitments, like I used to do two years ago).
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Task Set 01: Writing
1.1. Write at least 100 blog posts on itsphblog 1.2. Post 50 technical blog posts on itsphbytes 1.3. Take up A to Z Challenge in April 1.4. Participate in NaNo-Camps in April and July 1.5. Continue working as ML for NaNoWriMo 2020 1.6. Post 30 short poems on Instagram
Task Set 02: Publishing
2.1. Give final edits and get NaNoWriMo 2016 novel titled – i 4 you published 2.2. Revise, edit, revise, edit and NaNoWriMo 2019 novel titled – The Art of Ageing Gracefully published 2.3. Publish at least five ebooks through Smashwords
Task Set 03: Reading
3.1. Take up Goodreads challenge and read 20 novels 3.2. Read and explore two new domains in depth (Life Sciences and Digital Society)
Task Set 04: Research
4.1. Read 50 or more research papers 4.2. Publish 5 research papers (academic, research, management) 4.3. Build four new models related to research area 4.4. Implement 5 workable components for Knit Algorithm
Task Set 05: Profession (Academics)
5.1. Design and deliver two new courses (Semantic Web and Functional Programming) 5.2. Improve Coding profile (complete Basic CodeChef DSA certification) 5.3. Take up and complete 5 courses online (MOOC) 5.4. Design and deliver courses in unique environment (DSA, MT, APS)
Task Set 06: Profession (Industry)
6.1. Provide 30 meaningful internships from Knit Arena 6.2. Host Knit School 2020 6.3. Host 2 events from the company 6.4. Grow as Technical Lead at Transil (Internships, design, research, consultant, technology etc. )
Task Set 07: New
7.1. Conduct 3 workshops on various topics 7.2. Travel to two new places 7.3. Cook 5 new dishes 7.4. Work on building meaningful components for kids growth and development (dedicating to my kids) 7.5. Start and complete at least 3 new series/soaps
You can follow me on Instagram at: prakash.hegade
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What are your resolutions for new year? (if you already have made one, if not I would recommend to do one, or more).
Ten simple rules for the better world. Ten simple rules to make ten more. 2020 could be it all if 2019 wasn’t. While some are living in memes, some have been one.
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1-10 in 365
1. Get Physical. Run, exercise, and stretch. Exhaust yourself with physical tasks at least three days a week. The jobs of sitting in front of wired screens are slowly killing us.
2. Degree and Education are Different. Anyone can get a degree. Not everyone is educated. Next time you voice out for something, make sure you have read and understood it in holistic. Be an educated literate.
3. Time is Sexy. Don’t make people wait. Whatever end you are in. It’s funny how people can sit at home and do nothing for hours but cringe to wait for two minutes in a queue.
4. Seasons are Fucked Up. Nothing will change by posting and talking about it. Awareness campaigns are equally shitty useless. Everyone now knows.
5. Do What Educated do. Read and Write. Period.
6. Communicate and Commute. Write meaningful emails and talk sense. Know and use the etiquette’s. Cut the slang usage. Use cars wisely.
7. Social Media. It’s not everything. It’s nothing. Don’t just start living there. Not everyone needs to know every single thing you do.
8. Happy and Myth. There is a gigantic difference between you being happy and others thinking you are happy. There are people for whom cooking is the happiest thing to do and they do it every day.
9. Make New Resolutions. Often. Create a year bucket list and work towards checking all of those and ten more. Break it down to monthly and work seriously towards them. Be careful about distracting glitters.
10. Dream and Aim Big. ‘Big’ don’t need motivation or any inspiration.
There is something distinctive about this day – December 31. Though it’s yet another day, okay, it’s sure not ‘yet another day’. Like we all celebrate our birthdays, individually, this day is like a birthday which everyone wants to celebrate and that is what makes it special. The whole world as a crowd becomes part of it. It’s not about whom we want to dedicate this day. A calendar or earth or goals or life or something that can make to the list, but it’s about the aspirations this day brings.
The celebration takes its ways.
Some dance, fireworks, Some read, social networks, Some family, blog, sleep, Some something else, beep, A cake, a celebration, a peace.
It does not matter how we welcome. We have our ways and our ways are always the better ones (of-course to us). What possibly and probably really matters is how we wish to see ourselves for future 365 days and how we evaluated ourselves for the past 365 days. We all need metrics. We all need evaluation. Not to rank or measure but to increase the happiness and satisfaction factor. Time will always bring the new but how good was the old to cherish?
Apart from those greetings, wishes and forwards, most of us try to bring out a new version of ourselves and that is what matters. I started having resolutions since 2017 and it has worked for me in most amazing way. Here is what happened in 2018.
New Year is always a happy one to the near, dear and beer ones.
Image Credits: Swati Bhagwat
It might look like yet another routine day but it isn’t. It’s the day where the inner self has agreed to change for the healthier good and give a renewed start. It’s the belief that “Whatever sucked yesterday, might not suck tomorrow and today needs that something to be done.” It’s time to get bigger milestones.
Announcing the goals is the first step of making sure that you are going to stick to it. Here is for the better and grand start. Cheers!
Goals for 2018:
Make atleast 150 general blog posts
Post 120 technical blog posts
Read a minimum of 150 research papers and document them
Read 40 novels
Participate in Camps and NaNoWriMo
Take A-Z blogging challenge in April
Write 10 ebooks
Finish 10 new courses
Get published
Progress with research work, measurably.
Make and keep a strong step in establishing own firm
Always try something new, often and more
I started my new year by taking the Goodreads challenge of 40 books. Off to pick and start my first book!
Let me assure that it’s not a regular ‘new year new me crap’! Its 2017, so it’s advanced ‘new year new me shit!’ It already made my day when my partying not so sober friend wished me “Happy Nude Rear ” and all I could do was to laugh, convey thanks and wish him the same.
I like this day as it puts everyone together. Those who want to welcome it with party, with a cake cut, with family, with books, with sleep or whatever to rest the case. Most importantly, it is like that much needed energy drink which can boost the energy levels. Apart from those regular wishes and forwards, most of us try to bring out a new version of our self atleast for the first few days, which is definitely substantial.
Reboot, Restart, Resume. Its 2017!
I know the thoughts are old and though it is yet another regular day, a new year kind of refreshes it. It’s like crossing a larger milestone and evaluating on what really needs a flush (reboot), what needs to be given a fresh start (restart) and what needs to be continued (resume). It’s the happy hope of leaving behind one year, only to welcome a much better one ahead. It’s about taking time and syncing our mentality to something new and fresh.
I am not a person who generally believes in resolutions. But this year I want to have them. They are not resolutions per say, rather more like aspirations. And I believe that making an announcement always helps in sticking to it.
I am going to follow this unless there is an extreme condition that flags okay to miss and most importantly, all this along with personal commitments!
At least 10 blog posts per month on this blog
Exactly 10 blog posts per month on my technical blog: PH Bytes
Read atleast 10 research papers per month
Complete reading atleast one novel per month (started with The Great Gatsby for this month)
Write and publish one ebook per month (technical or non technical. Many to join this list: EBOOKS)
Complete the text book I am writing on data structures (It is 200+ pages for now)
Finish 10 more courses on coursera (I have 28 completed so far)
Make a significant progress in research (Its 30% completed now)
Try to work on technology to bring the actual social life in society order
Be open to do something new and interesting
Yes, we are getting older and that only means that it’s high time to dream and realize all that makes this living meaningful.
Let us tune into the beats of 2017. It’s new! Greetings!
Its PH 