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TLC - Travel and Leisure Check

I had put up Travel in my 2025 manifestation list. The most I have travelled is my commute to office. A couple of work trips to Hyderabad. 2 cancelled trips to Mumbai and Kolkata due to different reasons. The other travel was to and from hospital, which I do not want to recollect or count in either actually. I did have a lot of leisure. So when I do get time like that, I like to do something. I know it defeats the purpose of calling it a leisure, but well, that is how I am. I like to DO. So the leisurely activities include a spectrum of non-related themes of activities - from cleaning shelves, painting, colouring, journaling, writing, watching a movie or series, reading something new or making a new craft to playing around with Generative AI, image editing and video editing normally and also with GenAI. This year, I have reached a milestone of 600 posts till date on my instagram. I have posted almost every weekend. The art there is also extremely varied in formats. These days, I have resorted to using GenAI to help with ideas on writing and also for images for my blog posts. I was talking to a friend on mid-life crisis driving folks to take up new hobbies to keep them away from boredom. I started my hobbies even before I hit mid-life, so I am ahead of track with that. Also these hobbies have given me so much peace and relaxation. Such a contrast to my day job where I am dealing with tons of escalations, pressure of timelines and people problems. I love my job and I love everything I do to make money, but I also love the different perspective that art and creativity brings into my world. I take all of my paintings and artforms and display it in my office cabin. I am not technically allowed to take photos there, so I cannot share them here, but think of it as my personal art gallery which changes every week. Art gets archived and new art gets the spotlight. There is always room for new art in my OR. Anyone who walks in to meet me, first notices the art. Initially folks asked if it was art made by my son, but then I put up a poster saying "I am the Kid". I still wonder if my art is a 11-year old level art or people assume I am not artistic and I am just displaying my kid's art at work. I will never know that, but I do know that I love that space and the mood uplift that it automatically brings when I enter and also when others enter my room. So the two worlds meet and I am enthusiastically part of both those worlds and gain tremendous happiness and joy from both. Have I mentioned that I was keen on taking up drawing as an art subject, but was pushed into music because I was a girl. A girl who had no inclination towards music, no sense of rythm and absolutely no interest to sing. I still managed to score 90% while doing lip sync during classes, lest my off-tune voice reaches my teacher's ears ! Eventually I submitted to not doing any drawing at all. Over Covid, I developed inclination towards art by taking up online workshops and classes and discovered the fun again. I am learning like a school kid and enjoying everything that I create. I do criticise my work and then remember, it doesnt matter. Perfect is what i define for myself in my original art. So, as I gear up for this weekend in 2 days, I am searching for my next project. So until next time, Happy Reading!

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