That Was The Week That Was: 1st to 7th March 2023

I've been writing weekly reflections on and off since childhood but usually in journals that I seldom go back to. Last year, I started writing my reflections in my notes app (~~Bear~~ Obsidian) to make them searchable and include them in my knowledge base. I'm now looking to take that a step further by publishing polished versions of those notes here.

I was inspired quite heavily by Ankur Sethi's weeknotes. I enjoy his commentary and have often found deeply interesting references in them. The title is also not original. That Was The Week That Was (or TW3) was a 1960s British TV show that was presented by David Frost (yes, that Frost/Nixon guy). I had come across this name while doing some quiz prep in college and it's been stuck in my head since then.

I hope I'm able to post updates every week and this TW3 series doesn't just fizzle out like many of my other ideas. One more thing—I operate in Wednesday - Tuesday cycles, so what I call a week is slightly different from a standard calendar week.

Almost all of my time and effort this year has gone into getting repairs done at my mother's house. I had to shoulder extra responsibilities ever since my father passed away in 2019 and constantly found myself reacting to some or the other situation that had become urgent. That resulted in the house getting completely neglected. Last year's rains brought all this neglect to the fore. Water started seeping in from the roof in multiple places and by the end of the year, repairs had become urgent.

All of 2023 so far has gone into this. The roof's flooring was taken apart and then reconstructed. Major portions of the walls in every room were re-plastered. The entire building's pipes that passed through our roof (which had rusted and were leaking) were relaid. The plants that my mom had kept on the roof were sorted through and most of them were given away. Metal structures were repaired. A lot of work was done. And I think I have seen enough Dr. Fixit for a lifetime.

This work has kept me away from experiencing deep work. For the last two months, I've been stuck in a cycle of attempting to work a little during the day, trudging along with distractions, overseeing repair work till 6 pm (when the workers left) and then doing real work from 7 pm till whenever I crashed out.

I also had to attend a lot of weddings across multiple cities in Jan and Feb. I am really happy for my friends and cousins who got married recently and I wish them a wonderful life ahead, but I cannot understand why so many people around me decided to get married this year. It was insane. It took a difficult schedule and made it impossible.

To make matters worse, the winters were exceptionally harsh this year and Chelsea just could not find a way to win. Ab kahin se toh khushi milni chaahiye na?

Unsurprisingly, I started sensing burnout creeping in lately. So last week I decided to slow down, start getting back into a routine and chill a little. I did pretty much nothing for two days, met a few close friends, went out on a dinner date and started reading again after a long time.

Thankfully, other things are also falling into place gradually. Welding and carpentry work got done last week. Most of the paint work was also completed. It was the first week this year where I was not attending a wedding or fretting over logistics to attend a wedding. And the unthinkable happened—Chelsea finally won a match! 💙

Other Notable Stuff

Spring is here and I am really enjoying the sun. ☀️
I played badminton twice in a week after a really long time. My body's sore but it felt great.
I had dinner at a lovely Asian/Japanese food place called You Mee in GK-II M-Block Market.
I attended an event in Sunder Nursery where I heard interesting perspectives about India's food supply and agricultural policies. I also got my copy of Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight signed by Rujuta Diwekar. ✌️
After the event, I went out with a few friends to have dinner at Karim's in Nizammuddin. The mutton seekh kebabs were wonderful (but not as good at Al-Kauser). At the cost of looking foolish, I'd also recommend having the Shahi Paneer with some tandoori parathas there.
I renewed the health insurance for my mother and me. Boring stuff, but I cannot overstate how much peace of mind this brings.
I started the process to port my mobile number into Jio. I hate everything Reliance but Airtel's network is just not good enough in Delhi anymore. 🙁
I updated all the pieces of software that this website depends on.

Content Consumed

TV show: Farzi
My mom and I watch something while having dinner every night. We finished watching Farzi early last week. I liked the blend of comedy and stupidity in an otherwise serious show. Most importantly, I loved that the theme revolved around art and design. The intro sequence is just brilliant.
Film: Gulmohar
A beautiful family drama film. I liked how Sharmila Tagore's character could say important things with calm and poise (I can't do that). I really felt for Manoj Bajpayee's character and couldn't help but fall a little in love with his on-screen wife (yes, I see how this can sound weird—lekin hum toh aise hain bhaiya).
TV show: Scam 1992
We started watching Scam 1992 last week. I'll write more about it my thoughts on in this week's post.
Podcast episode: The Loneliness of the Indian Man on The Seen and the Unseen podcast
I've been listening to podcasts since around 2013 but no other episode has resonated with me as much as this one has. It was like someone took my thoughts, connected them together and shared a better version of them with me. This one felt personal. I will probably create a separate post on my notes from this episode and link it here later.
Book: The Course of Love by Alain de Botton
I committed to a goal of reading at least five pages of a story-based book every night before bed. This one is probably going to feature in many TW3 posts.
Video: How to Change by Kurzgesagt
Article: Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price

Problems I'm Thinking About

The MCD has installed outdoor public washrooms in the market complex behind our building. The problem is that no one ever cleans them and they stink up the entire area. I'm wondering what can be done to either get them cleaned regularly or get them relocated to a different side of the market that is not adjacent to residential buildings.
I need to start working out regularly again, but cannot bring myself to go to a gym. Physical sports (Badminton, Football and Cricket in particular) are what excite me but no one in my network seems to be interested or available. How can I find decent people to play sports with in South or East Delhi?

That was the week that was. I'll be back with this week's updates soon.
Happy Holi.