12th May to 18th May 2025 (Monday to Sunday)

This week was Happy Week. I tried enjoying each and every day as it came. Not getting time to write my weekly note on Sunday and finishing it on Monday is getting difficult. I want to write in detail but I’m not getting the mental space.

I got a new laptop from the office - a ThinkPad E16. It is heavy, runs Windows, has a big screen, and battery backup is good.

The first few days I was not ready to leave my Carbon and shift to this because of my set workflow. But according to office policy, I needed to, so finally I moved.

My Carbon is giving me little problems nowadays. The venting system in X series is not that great. In Ahmedabad’s heat, the fan of my machine is going mad. On the other side, the E16 is working smoothly.

I asked a few friends - they said there must be dust in the fan which needs to be cleaned, and I should avoid tasks with high CPU usage. I will clean it and see.

From Monday to Wednesday, we had a storytelling workshop by Vikram Sridhar at our office. On Tuesday, we went to The Calico Museum of Textiles as part of the workshop.

Ahmedabad is called a ‘World Heritage City’ and it has 30+ museums. I never saw this city through a heritage lens.But now both Nidhi and I have decided to see this city through this lens. We want to start by going on heritage walks, visiting museums, and being part of the theater culture here.

Tuesday we watched a film called ‘Bangalore Days.’ It’s a nice, fun film in Malayalam. We watched it with subtitles. Nidhi recommended this film; she watched it a few years ago and she really liked it.

We also finished the film ‘Angoor,’ which we had started watching earlier.

It’s summer break at school, so our canteen is closed. That means I need to prepare food at home and take a lunch box. For me, waking up early and making food is difficult. Same with Nidhi. I can do reading, writing, and other kinds of work in the morning, but not cooking. Nidhi is helping so much with cooking lunch and breakfast. Slowly, I have also started making breakfast. So now in the morning, we both are stretching ourselves and preparing food.

Nidhi is also experimenting with dinner and snacks. She loves cooking and experimenting with food. She’s basically a foodie. I am cognitively very interested in food but slowly getting interested in the hands-on part of it - I mean cooking. For me, it’s a long way to go. I know basic cooking like making khichadi, sabji, dal-chawal… I need to learn roti. Most importantly, I need to learn how to use the kitchen neatly.

Apart from this, we both want to constantly work on our diet because of our sensitive stomachs. Especially my stomach, which is very sensitive. The doctor told me that it’s like the stomach of a 6-year-old. So we both need to remind ourselves to eat at home and eat millets, fruits,things with less masala.

Saturday, we started watching a web series called ‘Very Parivarik’ by TVF. It is a very relatable show.

On the same day, we had a long conversation about spending quality time with each other. For both of us, quality time means different things. Example : For Nidhi, it’s cooking together, and for me, it’s discussing ideas/brainstorming together. So we made a list of things and shared with each other. We also made a kind of timetable to fit everyone’s needs.

We went to Aarambh Cafe on Saturday evening. I was craving good sambar. Actually, Kamla Cafe, Aarambh Cafe, Kasturba Cafe, Atithi Restaurant, and Thepla Sabji from Gajanand - these are places that serve food which we can eat without worrying about our stomachs.

We discussed Khojbeen Mandali activities. Some updates:

• One of our friends from Eklavya Foundation, Melody, wrote an article on ‘Development of Aesthetic Sense in Primary Grades Through Nature-Based Activities’ which got published in a journal by Azim Premji University. I was part of this project, creating activities and mentoring the facilitator. Now we are planning to publish this work in other magazines like Sandarbh, Vikalp Sangam, and Nature Classrooms blog.
• For the Nature Classrooms book ‘There Is Nothing There,’ which Nidhi translated into Hindi, we are collaborating with Eklavya Foundation to print it in Hindi.
• We are inviting Tanaya from Nature Classrooms to come to Ahmedabad. She will be observing pilots about nature education assessment tools.
• We are conducting a local Khoji film-making camp this coming weekend (23rd to 25th May).

Sunday we went to Vikram Sridhar’s storytelling performance at Scrap Yard. We enjoyed driving the Activa at night on surprisingly less trafficked roads.

I spent time coordinating with the team for the local Khoji camp.

I started reading again but am not getting uninterrupted time.

Overall, it was a good week.

Photos