2024, Year in review

I rode about 100 km on the last day of this year, heading towards Chikka Tirupathi. The roads were dusty and crowded, but it felt nice. I wanted to spend the last day doing everything I enjoy—some coding, a ride, and lots of sleep. This is my fourth year reflecting on a piece from the past year. It feels like a chore now, but it keeps me grounded and honest.

This might get a bit long, but overall, it was a “normal” year. TLDR: I bought a bike, went on a few trips with friends, attended a family function after a long time, and had a lot of fun. I shipped a feature at work mostly on my own. Managed to visit both the East and West Coasts in the same year. Rode about 7K km across southern India. The second half of the year was tough—I felt conflicted and struggled to focus on meaningful work. Some unexpected personal events left me angry and irritated. I started streaming again, this time learning a new programming language called Gleam. My LG Gram from 2021 finally gave up, and after countless failed repair attempts, I switched to a Mac. Ended the year with plenty of sleep, a small trip, and some personal projects.

The year began with a couple of personal issues. I was dealing with them and couldn’t quite get a grip on things. One key takeaway from that time: “There’s always a second chance, and things eventually come to a proper end. It’s okay to suffer for a while.” It may sound cliché, but each time things went south, being stuck in the same situation pushed me to accept that change was inevitable.

I learned how to ride a bike last year, and since then, I’ve done a bunch of road trips with Shivanna. Neither of us owned a bike initially, so we did most trips on borrowed ones. After he got his bike, I figured it was time for me to get mine too. Finally, I went ahead and bought a Suzuki V-Strom 250SX. I’d been eyeing this bike for quite a while, and I’m glad it’s finally mine. Japanese bikes rock 🚲 🗾.

We did a ride through the Western Ghats to Udupi. The roads through the ghats were surreal—I can’t even describe how stunning they were. Everyone should experience riding through the Western Ghats at least once. You can check out our trail here.

Right after that, my sister got married. It was a lovely ceremony, and seeing her find happiness made me really happy too. We’ve grown up together, and I feel like sibling bonds just get stronger with age. Everything went smoothly, and we had a blast.

The next few months were mostly busy with work. We were working on several new projects, and since the company has grown quite a bit, things were pretty intense. We started running into “big company” problems (which is a good sign, I guess), and I often had to switch contexts quickly. This year was packed with code commits and contributions. Looking back, I can barely remember what I worked on or got involved with. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not, LOL.

We also did an unplanned trip through Tamil Nadu, visiting several big temples. Unlike the winding roads of the Western Ghats, the highways in Tamil Nadu were mostly empty and smooth. Honestly, Tamil Nadu has the best roads in India. We cruised at 100-110 km/h for most of the trip. Seeing the beautiful temples of Tamil Nadu was a dream come true. We almost made it to the southern tip of India at Dhanuskodi. Here’s how the ride went.

That’s about it. The rest of the year was mostly work, with a few short rides thrown in. Here are some lessons I picked up along the way:

• It’s never too late to start asking questions. Stand up for what feels right. It’s okay if my intuition isn’t perfect—gather confidence and speak up.
• Keep following rules, like I’ve always done.
• Don’t panic about mistakes—everything is fixable. Don’t be too harsh on myself. Most people don’t take things too seriously, so it’s not worth stressing over.
• Learn to take criticism better. Let go of useless pride—it adds no real value.
• It’s okay not to be the best. We all have a role to play. I don’t have to fix everything—trust others and let them handle things.
• Don’t cling to negative thoughts. We never truly know what’s going on in someone else’s mind.

My honest review of the year: I did okay. During my leave in the last week, I kept thinking I wasted the year and should have navigated it better. But I’ve decided to let go of those thoughts and aim to be a better person this year. I hope you had a good year too. All the best for the coming year, and thanks for reading…