Week 35/2025
25th to 31st Aug 2025 (Monday to Sunday)
Last time I gave the text of weekly note to AI to make it spell and grammar mistake free, improve sentence structure while maintaining the tone and put it in good markdown format. But I felt it gave too many inputs. I was feeling that it is not my writing now.
This time I will try to make it more authentic, I just want spell check and grammar check - I am ok with basic sentence structure. From first grade to 12th grade I have studied in Gujarati medium and studied English as third language, there was no reading culture in the home.
I was living in small town called Padra - near Vadodara which does not offer very nice exposure on this front. So the point is my English is very basic, I mostly read Gujarati books, only read English books / blogs / research papers for work purpose, same with speaking English if needed for work otherwise I feel comfortable expressing myself in Gujarati and Hindi.
Having this type of background has pros and cons both. I have somewhat good - actually rich vocabulary of Gujarati. Good vocabulary in Hindi also because of my work period in Madhya Pradesh / Bhopal. I have my cultural rootedness in Gujarati. Gujarati folk songs, music, literature and more. I worked in different parts of Gujarat for example Valsad, Kutch, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Vadodara… this gave me exposure of Gujarat from pretty much every direction.
Now the cons.. I have very basic vocabulary in English, I feel difficulty in expressing complex ideas in English. Nowadays it’s easy because of AI tools to write and express yourself in written format but it is difficult if you are in front of someone.
I feel very embarrassed when I play any vocabulary games. With vocabulary comes culture which I am totally unaware of. But it’s ok. I am not feeling FOMO. I am happy where I am. I know basic communicative English and I am reading as much as I need for my work and exposure. I am happy about my grounding and rootedness, I know many people who know better English but they don’t have roots from where they belong to. Which is dangerous in my opinion.
Anyway let’s come back to weekly note:
As usual office. This week I have attended morning (8.30am) yoga session regularly. Except Saturday. This was good start for me. I am really enjoying yoga. But I feel 45 min session is not enough for me. I want longer in person session. Let’s see.. but I am enjoying what I am doing right now. I will stick to this schedule. Nidhi will also join whenever possible.
At work also I am trying to incorporate yoga in children’s learning experience. So exploring it deeply is my work interest also.
Wednesday was Ganesh Chaturthi holiday. We started counseling session with dear friend N. She is most sensitive and qualified person in this field, who knows me and Nidhi so we thought let’s give it a try. It is new beginning. We did first session on Wednesday and in the first session only I got to know about myself something new. This is the beauty of openness.. when you are open you will get to know about yourself..
This week at office was good. I have facilitated closing circle on Friday. We had team meeting to discuss Indian Knowledge System. Which I enjoyed the most. I look forward to mainly two things - session with children and team discussion meetings.
Saturday we went to Naturopathy check up and treatment. Except two days I followed the diet in this week. Which is a good start in this overly stimulating and tempting world. But I need to be more careful.
My obsession with Notebooks:
I love writing in notebooks, be it work ideas or writing poems. Preparing for presentation or blog post or weekly note..or just scribbling.. doodling.. I love my notebooks.
I was never into fancy handmade notebooks. It was not affordable and honestly I like notebook which is portable. Which I can carry everywhere and write in different positions. Till now I used to stock my A5 notebooks from Eklavya Foundation. Whenever I go for workshop I take few notebooks (mostly plantable paper notebook, off-white color papers from Pepaa.co). When I was in BLR, I tried using recycled paper notebooks from Rescript. It was nice. I also tried handmade paper - cloth cover notebook from one small shop near my house in BLR called Nammaangadi. It was in reasonable price around 100 - 150. Once I got very nice off white paper notebooks from Tiru in just 80rs. Now it is not available.
I have two notebooks in place for everyday work.
- A7 pocket size notebook which goes everywhere I go in my pocket.
- One A5 size notebook which will be in my bag.
Nowadays I am using Beena Antic ink pen. So now I need to use ink pen friendly notebooks.
Recently I got urge to buy new notebooks so I checked what I have there in my stock. I got 4 A5, 4 A6 and 7 A7 notebooks. All the notebooks gifted by Nidhi + friends. Two I bought myself.
But I cannot use all of these. Pocket notebooks are ok, ready to go. But A6 is not useful at all for me. In A5 I need to find out ink pen friendly one. So cotton papers / low GSM handmade paper will not work. I have eliminated and selected 3 A5 notebooks for daily use.
I have also eliminated classmate unruled notebook, which I tried using for few days. I don’t like cheap - shiny white paper. I like nice thick off-white paper.
In future I want to use Rescript notebooks again. Which is off-white, 70/80 GSM, recycled paper - available on Blinkit :)
I couldn’t resist myself so me and Nidhi went to Kalamkhush Handmade Paper Unit on Saturday afternoon. It was long due wish to visit handmade paper unit. My intention was to get some notebooks for gifting and if I get something which is cheap and ink pen friendly, I will stock it. I bought 3 notebooks. They are reasonable in price but paper quality is not ink pen friendly. But it is ok for normal pen user.
Nidhi went to Hoshangabad for workshop, I sent two notebooks with her for dear friends at Eklavya Foundation. Remaining one I will make music notebook or will gift someone .. don’t know. Nidhi will come back after one week. Coming week will be tough for me as our cook didi is not well.. so I need to make arrangement for breakfast, lunch and dinner according to my diet + taking care of small small things at house. My morning schedule is little tight as I want to do yoga + making breakfast + some other small small rituals… but I will manage…
How is life?
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Health: it is better, mental and physical both. Naturopathy and yoga se hi hoga..
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Finance: This month was overspending month because of festivals and other stuff. But overall everything is under control. I am continuously adding amount in MF portfolio. Next month I will be more conscious while spending.
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Work: Work is going well, soon our intervention will start with children. I am also enjoying IKS course.
Khojbeen mandali work is kind of on pause. Nidhi didn’t find time to go for the sessions this week. Because of various reasons - rain, periods, at Mitali ben’s school suddenly exam schedule got changed so that visit also got cancelled. It is ok.. I am trying if Nidhi gets internship at my office so she gets some regular time to interact with children and adults.
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Home: at home things are settled it seems. Still I feel anxious sometimes just thinking about home gives me fear.. but I am learning to be calm at this point..
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With Nidhi: Our relationship is growing, it is going into new phase. More mature and deeper phase.. everyday I am praying to universe.
- Book Reading is on pause. But I read weekly notes from Tanvi, Haripriya, Divya, Seema, Shared by seema : Namrata, Navya
Regular one : Thej, Shrayas, Adhavan. Sometimes I also use thej’s blogring or weekly notes planet
I spent time on Inked Happiness Blog reading about fountain pens, ink and paper.
Some videos I liked:
This is it for this week..