100-day Countdown to 2019

Day 2 (30th December) With just 2 days left in the year, it is a good time for some introspection. Taught 2 full fledged courses this year, in 2 different colleges for one semester each. Not my first teaching experience, but doing a full course with responsibilities of assessment was new. Some lectures were 2 hours long and holding the attention of students was a challenge. I didn't use PowerPoint much, relying on chalk and board more often. About 70 hours of lectures in the year. My rough estimate is 8 hours of preparation for every hour of lecture. I had to learn what I taught. This was both enjoyable and stressful. I taught by telling stories and using analogies. I didn't rely as much on standard text books as on the Internet and my own experience. There were some troubling moments when I felt like throwing in the towel. I always put ethics before knowledge and minced no words about it. For 2019, I have already backed out from one of the courses and remain undecided

Day 3 (29th December) 2 more days to shut down this blog. This 100-day blog has been an experiment. It was not meant to be a daily journal because I already have one. It was intended to be reflective, a stream-of-consciousness narrative and I am not sure if I succeeded in that objective. Looking back, I find some of the entries mirroring my diary. When I started this blog, I was sceptical about daily updates. But they have happened almost everyday and I am quite pleased with my discipline. Now only if this can spill over into 2019.  Research for the February column began today. Next year I will be writing 2 monthly columns. Will that leave me time for my book? If I don't write the book in 2019, it would most probably never happen. Columns work because of external deadline. Who will push the book? 

Day 4 (28th December) Informal meeting over lunch to plan for an event in February. The restaurant is part of a little known local club and we ate a typical Gujarati Thali. Let me take this opportunity to make a list of restaurants where I ate in 2018. 1) Hakkasan 2) Burma Burma 3) British Brewing Company 4) Chulha Chauki ka Dhaba 5) MTR 6) Kamat Lokaruchi 7) Cafe Mondegar 8) Cafe Royal 9) Pancham Puriwala 10) Basil n' Spice 11) Ph se Food 12) The Daily Bean 13) Pot Pourri 14) The Hut If you would like to know more about any of the above, leave a comment here and I will get back to you.

Day 5 (27th December) A weird thing happened today. My iPad lost its sound. After trying this and that in vain, I turned to the Internet for help. It was reassuring to know that it isn't such an uncommon problem and many users have experienced it. The most ridiculous explanation was "stuck in the headphone" mode, in which the iPad thinks that headphone jack is still stuck into it. The solution for this is equally ridiculous. To cut a long story short, after trying various suggested solutions, I finally soft reset the iPad and the sound magically came back. Jobs and Apple are clearly as overrated as rest of the tech world. If computers can be revived by turning off and on, then we surely can hope for something after death. On an impulse I went to Bhau Daji Lad Museum in the evening for Alain Jaubert's Palette series in which he clinically dissects famous paintings. Today's painters included Ruben, who celebrates female flesh like no other painter has. La To

Day 6 (26th December) Got up at 5, just in time to watch the first ball of the Boxing Day test match at Melbourne. And there was another in the afternoon at Pretoria. More than 12 hours of test cricket today. Everything else revolved around it. 

Day 7 (25th December) The last week of 2018 has arrived. I am completely at peace with myself, because 2018 has been so kind to me. But one thing didn't happen this year - an annual event that I had initiated in 2006. After 12 editions, it didn't take place this year despite my best efforts to push people. A legacy that I wanted to remember fondly died suddenly. But now there is a move to revive it early next year. Today I wrote the operative part of the brochure for the event.  And there was one necessary but tiresome chore which I had been procrastinating. I managed to get it done while listening to Naushad's compositions endlessly on Carvaan. So life can't be better on Christmas Day. And yes, looking forward to wake up early tomorrow for the Boxing Day cricket.