In March 2012, I started this habit of writing a journal every night before I went to sleep. Since then, it's been 13 years, and I've not missed a day.
I remember being out in the markets of Chawri Bazaar, looking for paper distributors for our college newspaper, when I found that little diary at the top left of the stack in picture. Ever since, I've written about every day of my life in a bullet journal way. These diaries have the journeys of my experiencing every book I've ever read, every movie I've watched, every song I've written, every product I've created...and so on. I can literally re-live every day since then in full graphic detail, if and when I want. And whenever I do, it's a beautiful feeling.
This system, more than anything, helps me be honest with myself. I know what I've been doing, how hard I've actually worked. How many times I won (and deserved it). How many times I lost (and deserved it, too).
Like this year, I worked on many things.
1. Seneca (the distraction free smartphone project) crossed 1100 paid customers who pre-ordered the phone, thus crossing over ₹1.5 Cr in booked revenues. While the fundraising effort for Seneca is its own journey, it's been an exhilarating ride which took amazing turns in 2024.
2. Virtual Voter (the social network focused on polls) started this year, crossed over 50,000 users within a month, and predicted the results of 2024 Lok Sabha elections better than all the exit polls of the country put together (by a mile, and at a tiny fraction of the budget of those guys). The product is just next level and I'm very lucky to have found Shankar Sir as a partner to build it with.
3. As a musician, I released three songs which I wrote, composed, and played all instruments on. One of the them now gets regular airplay on National TV channels, Radio stations, and even major retail chains of the country. While I hoped to launch 5 this year, I guess we'll have to wait a little for the remaining 2. I tried my best, but art is hard. Very, very hard.
Interestingly, I had a proper ticketed live show after a very long time. 4 years, 10 months, and 7 days, to be precise. I noticed that the last one had happened on 20th Feb, 2020. Then came Covid, and my personal injury. How time flies!
Then, I also went on a 1600 Km bike trip to a place 14,000 ft above the sea level. It took 8 days, and was quite something. And thereafter, a 10 day Vipassana "trip" was also pretty solid stuff.
Every year, I begin writing the journal hoping that I'll have a lot of good moments to fill it up with. A lot of hope, a lot of good wishes. The years pass, sometimes with a lot of good things. Sometimes none at all. But no matter how the year goes, after all those days, the dairy inevitably comes to an end. And then a new one comes along. With 365 empty pages waiting to get filled.
Here's wishing you a lot of good things to write about in 2025. The pages are empty. That's the only truth. All the best. :)
As I learnt in Vipassana: न राग, न द्वेष। अनित्य है।
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