25 things I did before turning 25!

2019 | Trondhiem Norway

I had my quarantine birthday very recently, the big “quarter”- 25 years of living. Typing that down feels super awesome. Haha, I am one of those who are actually really happy to be in this age, happy that some of my hair is greying, my thoughts and reflections are more in tune with who I am. I finally have an insane support system that I’ve created around me. I am super grateful for all my experiences to this point, the goods, the greats, the bads and the uglies.

So, on the very next day of my whirlwind birthday which involved filling myself up with copious amounts of Bengali delicacies, I sat down to write this list. Surprisingly, 25 year old me had a constant childlike smile throughout while notching this down. Anyhoo, now my list is out on the domains of my adult blog (TEHEEE XD).

In no particular order, here goes:

1. Figured out my own personal fashion style and have started to like it.
2. Did a road trip across South Africa with my best friends from college. 20 days of travel with my #dreamteam (Don’t care if the name is cringe max :P) was one of the best impromptu decisions of college life!
3. Ran for 2 months and enjoyed running quite a bit- Did a 10k one fine day. Spent the quarantine trying to do Yoga on a daily basis. Funnily realized for the first time I’m not bored of it and look forward to spending an hour with my mat.
4. Sky diving and cliff jumping- A little closer to not fearing heights and realizing the kind of adrenaline rush that comes with jumping off cliffs or planes. So damn exhilarating.
5. Got out of shitty relationships in a cordial fashion(mostly) and learnt from them. Kept hoping to find the right partner though. Relentless. :P
6. Ran a detergents factory for a year in Sumerpur and led a team of 300 shop-floor operators who became a family that took time to bond and love but we left with the most bittersweet goodbyes. Learnt so much of real life engineering through frequent breakdowns, kaizens, studying machines, playing around workshops!
7. Traveled to Goa way too many times, with friends, boyfriends and the best girl friends ever. Fell in love deeply with the place, the culture, the food and the susegad life.
8. Formed an online cover band called “The KGP Link” with my friends in college and made a bunch of cool videos.
9. Wrote poems, blogs, captions and expressed in various forms. Wrote a blog called Somewhere over the rainbow, Sam B lies (http://samrandomrants.blogspot.com/) and ranted about my teenage life for three straight years! Also wrote a lot of heartbroken poetry. XD
10. Learnt Bharatnatyam for 12 long years and Hindustani classical music for a few years. Enjoyed singing thumris in uninhibited ways without any accompaniment from a very charming, out of the box music teacher.
11. Fell in love with music, joined the western music society (WTMS) in college, met some of my closest friends through WTMS, realized the kind of music I like and finally started doing online western contemporary vocals classes from one of my favorite indie vocalists, Kamakshi Khanna. Fan girling my way through this one.
12. Made the best of girlfriends in college and got inspired by them constantly and continue to do so. They are my safe space and have always been there for every high point to every low one.
13. Had life altering (at least in my state of consciousness) psychedelic trips where I’ve seen constellations in a room, have had bouts of intense love for my best friend Brahmarshi, have seen colors in shades I had never seen before and also painted the connection of a tree to its roots and traced all its leaves.
14. Traveled with my family to Norway on a semi backpacking trip and realized how effin cool my parents are and how much I’m grateful for their reproductive cells to have fused to make me!
15. Quit two jobs and spent two “few months long” gaps in between in the quest of finding out more interesting work or problems that made me try to understand the world better. Kept trying out different things, some worked, some crashed but the enthusiasm to get up and learn and build thankfully did not wear too much.
16. Anchored an whole event- Unilever’s Supply Chain conference for South Asia. Had to dance and be funny on stage in front of 500 guests. Absolutely outside my comfort zone but didn’t mess up as much. Whoosh!
17. Joined art lessons with my mom and learnt how to water color and sketch with her. Got so inspired from her amazing enthusiasm to pick up a hobby so late in life and crush it \m/
18. Read a whole lot of cool books, from the days of Malory towers to reading a ton of Murakami to now reading entrepreneurial books. Interesting mix of books that have taught me so much, absorbing information quietly time to time.
19. Spent some time during the school days teaching tribal kids in my mom’s school in Balarampur. Made great friends, realized there is so much to do and so many people to share knowledge and learn from. Understood helping people is one of my absolute favorite forms of living.
20. Traveled to my heart’s content. Spent a week and a half in Varanasi, capturing the life on the ghats and documenting the same. This trip in my first year probably made me realize exploring new places and cultures is my form endorphins. Summited two Himalayan tops- Chandrashila-Deoriatal and Brahmatal. Both absolutely life changing experiences. Traveling makes me happy and enriched coupled with a lot more things.
21. Finally made a travel podcast with a dear friend documenting some of this crazy love for travelling like a local. Named it Li Li A Lo which tries to capture the same thought! (https://lilialotravel.podbean.com/)
22. Adopted a pet dog for a month while in Sumerpur and finally realized what a relationship with an animal actually means.
23. Played tennis for my college and figured how fun it is to challenge myself in a sport I’m not necessarily good at. Realized solo sports are an epic way to test your mind!
24. Footie. The footie days. Football continues to be my absolute favorite sport. School days are engulfed with so many memories of playing literally 4 hours each day. Super thankful for those muddy messy sessions, defending the shit out of my teams!
25. Spent a lot of time living alone in many rooms across the country and the world: From my college dorm to living in Texas to living in numerous places with Unilever, super isolated in Sumerpur, to setting up a house in Kolkata and living there to finally heading to Bangalore to start a new life. Every room has been my haven and has taught me so much. I now realize I seem to humanize the four walls in every place I stay and bid them an earnest goodbye every-time I keep moving.

That’s pretty much it. Iz harris (https://bit.ly/2FbejjF) — a travel vlogger you for sure need to follow, made a similar video called “30 before 30” and that inspired me to reflect and pen this down. In no way is this to show off my life and how amaze-balls is it because frankly it’s not- but generally to actually be proud of myself and appreciate all the amazing experiences that have made me who I am. I have been too self critical recently and sometimes you need to tell yourself to friggin shove all of that down the drain and be proud and own every part of who you are. So, this is a gift to myself in some sorts.

Anyhoo, if you’ve been here till this point, thank you for being here.

Tada from a freshly brewed 25 year old ready to do so much more!❤