Journal 2021- July to December
Hobbies, activities, experiences, pandemic, lockdown, journaling, food. Online classes, exams, webinars, new city, wave, podcasting, books etc.
Hey everyone, as usual, this is part of my journal series. A very happy new year to all the readers, who frequently read my articles. This article is sharing my thoughts, ideas, my experiences and giving shoutouts to those who helped me and were part of my journey.
This article is especially for those who care about me and support me. I know that this article will be read by those who are close to me, care about me and are there for me without any second thought. I also give a recap of all the major articles I wrote, and exactly why I chose that topic.
My last journal stopped in June 2021, which is a special month for me. I had final semester exams of my bachelors in June and that was where I stopped. Please read the previous journal before proceeding with this for continuation.
I had four subjects in semester 8 and one extra subject for honours. By June 28,29,30, three subject exams had got over. My first subject was Data Mining and Warehousing (DMW), I didn’t enjoy the subject much, although it was relatable with Machine Learning. I had already told, why I hate ML too. The exam was moderately tough and most students didn’t get time to complete and submit the paper.
29th was my Embedded systems (ES )exam. The subject I expected to be interesting but turned out to be extremely and lot to mug up. The exam for this went okayish. I had bought TP which was helpful in both DMW and ES.
30th was the Cloud Computing exam, which went really easy. Pure theory and very easy to understand. Even a person with a non-technical background will understand it easily. In my opinion, everyone should be taught Cloud, let it be any degree or even any branch. All technologies we use today is cloud-based.
July
On the first day of the month, July 1st I purchased medium membership. I also enrolled myself in the clubhouse app which was trending in that period. I knew that it will be very much helpful for my content creation. I started a Club for my podcast and blog.
Now I had some breathing space, My next exam was a non-departmental elective, to be held on the 4th. I had chosen Linear Algebra a pure maths paper, thinking it would be easy. It was for the first time after two years, I was learning pure maths, that gap was evident, also the subject wasn't taught in the best way, an easy subject just became a bit challenging. I depended a lot on Youtube to crack it. On the 4th I published and shared my AI article.
As I discussed in my Future plans article, I had my interview for Manipal Geopolitics and Intl Relations Masters course. The interview was okay, it wasn’t good as I thought it to be but I got a mail saying I got admission. Similarly, on the next day, I had an interview for Christ, Bangalore. That interview was very good. The interviewer asked me about, states, nation-states, states, my background, cryptocurrencies, technology in IR etc. which I answered really well. I got selected for that too.
The confusion of selection was going to be hard for me. I also had two campus placement offers in my hand. I was sure I didn’t want to sign up for Infosys. I was determined to go ahead with Cavli Wireless in Content Marketing. They were slowly onboarding me and also, got me engaged. They really explained everything, especially their tools, company history, details etc.
My honours exam on 8th July was going to be my last exam in bachelors. It was also a subject I had no choice but to learn, it was Machine Learning. The sad news of the 7th is that my dearest brother was tested dengue positive. He was admitted to the hospital. I had to shuttle between home and there, carrying food and necessary items.
On 11 published my article on how MEC had changed my life for the past 4 years. I did this as part of my journal series but also because a lot of my friends had asked me about it. At least I should be thankful to my college, all clubs and activities I participated and what all shaped me as an individual. The first person to request this write-up was my buddy Kavith Viswanath.
My next interview was on the 13th, Saturday. It was for European Studies in Manipal. That interview also went very well, and I got admission as well. Now, I had more problems with three college admissions and one job offer. I had to make a decision soon and also sacrifice the rest. The hospital room was the centre of the conversation about my future plans.
A lot of talks, with alumni, one distant friend in JNU, people in the field, etc. It was finalised that I will join Christ, Bangalore. I was really sad for my European Studies interviewers, because of the rapport I had built with them and now I am not opting for their course. I have said in the article why I made up my mind on selecting this option and what happened to everything else.
I paid the fees for Christ and confirmed my admission. I informed Cavli that I would be discontinuing the work and instead opt for part-time freelance. Received an email stating that classes will start on August 1st. Which was painful, I expected to get at least one month buffer, but better. I didn’t want to stay idle for long.
On the 17th, I published the Ease of Doing Business Podcast based on the clubhouse discussion we had on the previous day. This was after there was a massive issue with the KiTeX company
I did Spotify and podcasting with Anchor course on Udemy. Along with that one course on the Clubhouse app. At the last weekend of July, my cousin came for visit. She was to leave for San Diego for her masters along with her husband. That week my boss at Cavli had called me for a meeting, I visited the office for the first time.
On the last day of the month, I got of my most sought after article on Disputed Regions of the World Published in History of Yesterday Publication.
August
My new college orientation was held on the first week online. The staff advisor sent a mail regarding the details for the class. The university had created us a g-suite account. This would be used throughout our course period and has a lot of features.
I had first class later that week. I met my class on the screen for the first time. I still don’t remember that day much, but yeah sounds weird when I think about it right now. I had to self-introduce myself in the class and explain why I joined the course. It was a new schedule and thus I had a very hard time adjusting to it.
After that, we had a very long orientation spanning a week or two. This included an introduction to clubs, activities, and ice-breaker sessions.
The classes appeared a bit hectic, as we had both synchronous and asynchronous hours, which means that we had small assignments every day. The subjects for semester one were Political Theory, World History, International Relations Theory, International Economics, Indian Foreign Policy and Foreign language, French. I will look into the contents of each course in a later article.
On 5th, I published my Newscapsule article on The History Magazine Publication. I decided to do that every month.
That week, my family went to the ancestral home for functions and religious rituals.
In the second week, I released a podcast episode on Contemporary Human Rights, which I recorded with Safal Tom and Nebu Titus Thomas. The episode was a great success.
On Independence Day, 15th, I got my first dose of vaccine. Had mild side effects for a day. At night, saw disheartening visuals of the Taliban taking over Afghanistan. I made a tiny article on posing several questions everyone to think about and answer, instead of reacting like a herd and thinking about it. The next day in class there were detailed discussions on the same.
I tried the Soya Fried Rice recipe, went on to be yummy. As part of the orientation, we had to write an article and present on a given topic. The topic for me was Perestroika and whether it led to the downfall of the USSR. Similarly, we had the Current Affairs country profile report submission and presentation. I had to select two countries from Eastern Europe, I chose the Czech Republic and Serbia.
The last week was Onam, an important festival in Kerala. Spent Onam at the ancestral home. Went on a beach drive in the evening with my brother that weekend. Next week, we ordered a Barbeque box, which is a home barbeque dinner takeaway from a famous Barbeque takeaway in India. It was great, although it was charged a bit high. They weren't allowing dine-in because of the covid crisis.
In the immediate week, I had the South Asian University (SAU) entrance exam for International Relations, which was actually about to be held in April. The exam was in Rajagiri college. The exam went fine. Met by classmate Vaighna there and that was totally a surprise.
At the last weekend of the month, my grandparents visited us. They visited us for the first time post-pandemic.
September
The first week of September was the week of the first Internal Assessment at the college called CIA. Except for the language, all were written assignments. Unexpected news came at home, my dad working at Thrissur will be transferred to Trivandrum which is the capital of Kerala. This was a big shock to us as I was moving to Bangalore while Dad was moving to Trivandrum.
The month of August rocked with the details of Pegasus Spyware, so I decided to write an article based on that. A perfect blend of Politics and Technology.
In the third week, I had the opportunity to participate in the EMF-RYB webinar series, conducted by the EMF club of MEC. Also attended three IRIS webinars held by IIT-Madras. That week I published the Campus Placements Guide. I am sure that this article will be very much helpful to a lot of juniors and college students out there.
Next weekend, had a family visit to Kadamakkudy which is a tourist spot on the outskirts of the city and after that went to Lulu Mall after a long time. Had a few snacks under Rs 50 ($0.67), from Burger King, those were really good, under Rs 50 ($0.67), I would suggest everyone try it out. Post the mall, we went to a Dosa special restaurant, Pai Dosa, where I met my MEC Principal dining in the same restaurant. (Dosa is a south Indian dish)
The last week of the month, I had a podcast recording on Polarised Indian Politics, I thank Rittu J Jacob and Nafih Shemeer KM, for their time and knowledge. I also completed a course on Udemy about OBS software.
October
Had to travel to my ancestral home multiple times due to various reasons. The drive was really fun though. One we when we coming back home, went toVrindavan Restaurant which was opened recently. I completed Quora and also a content writing course on Udemy. The content writing course was really long and comprehensive.
I supported Ansif T A on his podcast and allowed him to publish his guest article on my blog.
October second week was the time for my College level mid-semester Examinations. All the exams were open-book except for the French exam, which had to be written, scanned and uploaded. History and Political Theory were the hardest, followed by Economics, where there even out of the syllabus questions. Published an article on BTECH CS S7 for helping juniors.
After the exams, we had a small sem break along with the Dussera Festival. I watched the movie The Imitation Game, which was heart touching as well as an informative movie. I released the Politics of COVID-19 vaccines podcast episode based on the clubhouse discussion we had on the same topic. I thank all the speakers that day for making that a grand success.
After the small holidays, we had begun with hybrid classes. We were provided with a choice to attend offline classes, but I needed some time so decided to join later.
October last week is the anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis followed by the invasion of India by the PRC. So I gave a historical context of the same in my article for the History of Yesterday publication.
It was on the last weekend that I published the article where I announced my Future Plans. Please do read the article to find out more about me and my plans. In that article, I received a lot of support and views.
November
1st day of November is Kerala piravi, the day when my home state came into existence, Karnataka also came into existence on the same day, the state in which my college is located. So, that day we had a holiday.
On 3rd, my MEC classmates ASWIN SHANIL, Vivek R, and Karthik Suresh visited Aluva. We went to Periyar river bank and later went to the newly opened Lucamo Rustocafe for lunch. They had a lot of Lebanese and continental dishes.
4th was the day, I waited for a long time, it was the day of CNN Citizen Virtual. CNN is one of my favourite American and International News channels. For participating in their survey contest, I was lucky enough to qualify for special goodies box. They sent the box to my friends in California. I thank CNN for the opportunity as well as for the goodies.
Met Hisham Hashir for the first time, a vibrant junior at MEC. I drove him around Aluva and took him to the iconic book shop in Aluva and later to my house. Later I dropped him off at the metro train station. It was great meeting him, after getting in touch online.
On 7th, our MEC CS class 2021 had a farewell at Indriya Sands Resort, at Kuzhupilly Beach. It was great meeting a lot of classmates after a long time and also bidding farewell to a lot of them. B. Tech project is one of the most challenging parts of an engineering student’s life. This prompted me to prepare a comprehensive guide based on that.
11th was the 20th anniversary of 9/11. That day I completed a Coursera course on 9/11 and US policymaking with respect to the same.
13th was my father’s birthday, we went to his home and temple that day. The next day, I met Nafih Shemeer KM after two years. We went to Centre Square Mall and later to Pai Dosa, as per his request. He claims himself to be a Dosa fan. That shop sells over 200 varieties of Dosa. Parallelly, I was clicking a couple of photos that had an aspect of Post Colonialism in them for my history CIA.
Internal assessment CIA was here. History was collecting photos and explaining, rest of the subjects except language was written. French was dialogue. I completed a Stimsons Centre MOOC on Nuclear South Asia as part of the Indian Foreign Policy assignment.
As part of our History collaborative learning, I had the opportunity to interact with Basile Moyarets from KU College Belgium. We spoke on West, East, Colonisation, Post Colonialism and European Politics. This was indeed a rare opportunity and privileged to have participated in the same. That evening, I went to meet Salman K K who lives nearby and had Indian street snacks Bhaji.
Next week was my last week before going to Bangalore for my college classes after three months of Online classes. My parents booked tickets and they were to come along with me and drop me off. Roshan Antony, Sebastian James met me at Aluva Dominoes Pizza before I leave for Bangalore. They were one of my best Bus and college buddies.
On 21st Monday, I went to MEC college to get my college certificates and documents. That evening I stayed at my mother’s place in Ernakulam, Kochi. I had a long list of shopping to do before my trip. The city was the best place to do the same. Next Tuesday my mother’s colleague and our neighbour were getting married, so went on a drive from Kochi to Thalayolaparambu, which is located on the border of Ernakulam and Kottayam. We also had to return to Aluva by that night.
It was finally Wednesday, we were leaving for Thursday, this was going to be my first post-pandemic train journey as well as my first Inter-state travel. Packing went on till Thursday evening.
25th
That day was finally here, I was attending my final online class from home. It was time for me to leave for Bangalore. I finished packing, got into the station to board the train.
26th
Woke up only when we reached the Whitefield station. Then on saw different parts of Bangalore which we will never be able to while taking the road. The morning was slightly chilly but bearable. Got down in the crowded City station.
First impression city I came after two years was gone. The roads were a bit dusty and broken. The driving and traffic were a bit chaotic. Got into my relatives’ new house, and settled. I took out my laptop for an online class. Debate on what to do and where to go still went on. Finally made a random plan to go out in the afternoon.
Had lunch also and started out. I also wrapped up my online class. That day I also had Spotify Podcasters Day but couldn’t attend full, not only because of time but also lack of internet. On the metro, we left for Mantri mall. Direct entrance to the mall from metro station. Circled two floors before entering the food court.
Saw the Californian Burrito food chain as it was our first time there. Mushroom poppers were very good; the quantity was also great. We went out of the mall to the main road and cross Malleshwaram road. Then we walked to a shoe shop.
Then we circled and reached the mall again. From there we crossed on to Krishna Bhavan, a north and south Indian restaurant for dinner. Took the metro back to back home.
27th
Took an auto to Metro station. From there I purchased a metro card. First took the train to Majestic, got down there. The station was magnificent. It was an underground station, thus so well structured and maintained. From there we took the next train to Cubbon park.
We had finally reached Central Bangalore, which is so lush, green and has fairly good infrastructure. Felt like being in Central Delhi. Also, we can see this area being very much different from other parts of Bangalore. We walked one km to reach the Museum.
On the way, we saw Cubbon park, HAL, Chinnaswamy Stadium…One ticket costs only 75 Rs. The Museum was superb, four floors full of exhibits and experiments that we can try out on our own. Almost all topics in sci-tech were very well covered.
After wrapping up our visit, we hurriedly went to JN Planetarium. We entered the dome. The topic was celestial fireworks. Talking about meteors, asteroids, black holes, stars, nebula etc. After this, we crossed to the opposite lane, the Indira Gandhi Fountain show before heading back home.
28th
I woke up knowing that the day was here. I packed up everything. The mood was different. I was anxious about my stay and schedule. We finally bid goodbye and headed to the metro station with all the luggage.
Two friends who met near the College took us to a Pay Guest Hostel called Stanza living. The rooms were better, claimed to have better food and everything. Parents finalised this. We went to their main building with the luggage and booked the place. Took a lot of time.
From there we went to my mother’s cousin's house close by. They served us lunch and everything. After that, it was finally time to bid my parents goodbye. I booked an Ola auto and started walking to my PG. I got to understand the places and everything. I had my onboarding and some tense situations, even some basic anxiety about everything.
I got my id created, my profile for the app, Wi-Fi etc. At 8, I went for eating dinner. I called home and informed them about everything. Anxiety about the next day was always there. Then got a call from Vanshikasrivastava to come and get a photocopied book for me. That day was over and was prepared for my first day in the new college.
1984 is a revolutionary political book, today it has a lot of relevance in the political scenario. I read that book in 2021 when I was infected with COVID-19. Thus, this is an interesting and powerful book that every political enthusiast should be reading.
29th
This was really an important day for me, my first day at the new college. I had asked Abhinav to accompany me to the class. A lot of my friends and classmates came forward to meet me. A couple of them helped me during the current affairs section as well- Vaighna and Kriztina Treza. The entire day I was sleepy because of the new schedule.
December
My first semester classes were till 2nd only. So I had attended a lot of group study initiatives, especially for French. I was also in charge of the Economics Buddy Project, so I had to work for the same. My sem exams were starting from 6th. My old article on China’s record moon mission got published in Geek Culture.
Bangalore has one of the best street foods in India. You can get a lot of varieties of food at a cheap rate. Instead of going to fancy expensive places, you can try them out and experience them for yourself. This is one of the things which I like about the city. My friend Nandu and I explored a lot of things. Also, went to a newly opened waffle shop and tried their mind-blowing waffles.
Published an article on the Omicron variant and how India should be prepared for the third wave.
My Semester exams were to begin next week. My first exam was World History, the syllabus was vast, but yet wasn't fully taught. The exam was fairly hard. Two questions came out of the syllabus. The second Exam was International Relations Theory, my favourite subject of the sem. The exam went very good.
The third exam was French, it was one subject that made a lot of students panic a lot. The French buddy project saw a lot of people. Luckily the exam went okay. The fourth exam was Economics, one of the easiest exams.
The fifth exam was Indian Foreign Policy which was okayish and the last exam was on Monday, Political Theory which as expected was hard. That day night I had a train to catch back home, so I packed everything and left for the station. I boarded the train and my return journey started.
I reached home early in the morning, and my mother had a reunion. We went to Bolgatty Island, which is a beautiful place with an Island Resort. Took a lot of photos, had a buffet lunch and then went boating around the city. The boat took us around various places in and around the city’s waters. That was really an awesome experience.
I published my article on Indian Politics for 2022 and how Modi has reset India’s politics for next year.
On 23rd I went to my old college MEC as per the invitation of Roshan Antony. I also had to get a few procedures done at college. It was a Christmas celebration at college that day. The mood on the campus was really different. After that Alan Sebastian George had invited me to a Rotary Kochi event at Saravan Bhavan so I accepted his invite.
On Christmas day I took my brother and cousin out for a dinner from my favourite Vegetarian food outlet in Kochi, melty way. On 26th my family purchased a Netflix account and we watched Minnal Murali-India’s first superhero film. On 29th, my mom injured her finger while cutting vegetables. Now she is fine.
On the 30th, Roshan invited me for a Dosa feast at Shenoy’s restaurant nearby my home. It was superb and pocket-friendly. On the 31st the last day of the year, my family went to my maternal grandparents’ house for a special trip on new year day, which will be covered in the next journal article :)
Hope for a great year ahead and a happy new year to all the readers. 2021 was great. I was studying in two colleges and also freelancing at the same time, also handling podcasts and blogs :D.
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