Reflection: As the year tends to end....

As another year winds down, its the time to retrospect.......things achieved, things that could not be...

Disappointments..........

Personally, many of my expectations, in fact most of them, could not be fulfilled...study, job, family front, relocating to a better place....all remains incomplete....but, hope is there and it is for sure the driving force of life...

I have a rather good health, which this year taught me to not take granted for....prolonged allergy (household cockroach allergen) significantly compromised my quality of life...to the extent of affecting my mood, emotion, not to speak of the physical discomforts...after rigorous precautions, things are better now, but it opened up my eyes towards a whole new aspect....that a chain of disasters can be triggered by a trivial-looking bug...

With much excitement, I started a balcony garden and hoped to have a lush foliage, flowers, even edible things....things did not go as planned....may be due to lack of sunlight or wrong soil composition or water drainage or bug menace or combination of them all, the dream lush garden barely survives....

Joys and Achievements..........

Well, many spoilers degraded quality of life...but its not all discouraging..in fact, many interesting things happened......

The year started with my first published book and a cash reaching my door step...soon the second arrived....I had set the goal of reaching at least 50 publications by the year end...it's almost 60 now...

Got a job in the research laboratory over the summer months....how empowering it is to see hard-earned money in the back a/c....it was temporary....for a long-term job, my search continues...have got calls from promising places, but things are not yet settled....

Over the Spring break, we visited Zion and Bryce National Park, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State park, Lake Powell, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, en route Sonoran desert....

And in early October, we had a multi-day visit to the Eastern Sierra....a trip made memorable with dozens of alpine lakes, fresh-snow-capped peaks, scenic drives, autumnal aspen and ash..not to forget, the iconic long-living Bristle cones in their high altitude habitat....

Inspired from my own agony over the allergies and fair understanding of immunology, I wrote a few papers, which either got accepted or in the process of getting accepted...I hope, these publications can make people with similar issues aware of the risks and mitigation strategies...

Perhaps, most important achievement was my grasp over computer programming...Being from a Biology/biotechnology field, I was kind of fearful of coding...but the requirement of a data analyst-in-the-making demands mastery over multiple languages...I decided to brave the odds...and what a pleasant surprise!!I felt comfortable with Linux system, wrote many Shell/Bash-based bioinformatics scripts and continue to do so... learning many languages... the passion to understand more about the exciting field of computation has been kindled...the vision led me to start  a coding blog....

Reflections....

Who knows what's in store? I am not even convinced of each year beings as discrete..life's a continuum..

Most of the times the future outcomes are the result of one's actions....sometimes, nature, destiny, serendipity play role.....

Unfortunately, in a world increasingly getting chaotic, polluted, crowded, intolerant...the latter factors are emerging to be more critical...

It's time to rise above just calculating personal achievements/failures...but thinking of a bigger picture...global peace...harmony...wildlife....clean air and water....freedom from ailments....a wholesome and sustainable planet...