I wanted to change society, but …… [2020]
Reflecting on 2020 has been such an arduous task. I can categorize this year as one of the messy years full of procrastination with almost no growth. Life has been quite slow because of the ongoing COVID pandemic and personally I am very tired of listing the discussion revolving around going back to normal or new normal.
Despite ups & downs, life goes on; sometimes the heart gets frozen and scattered as we hear the news of friends losing their family members due to COVID; and sometimes with a heavy heart, we try enjoying the festivals. Surficially, you feel happy because you get enough hours to spend quality time with family but deep down you also feel mentally broke as the carrier growth completely gets messed up. At some point, I felt that the modern society which we dream of doesn’t carry much value and not everything about the traditional & cultural society is bad. The changes that I wanted to make in society; it’s in a halt.
I was sad, broke, angry, and hopeful as I recheck my 2019 reflection and 2020 planning blog. It’s kinda funny to see how ambitious I was at the beginning of the year; making a promise to increase productivity & writing, committing to eat less meat & start running. Today, it all sounds funny because none-of those milestones were properly reached. But that doesn’t mean that the year 2020 was completely wasteful for me. In comparison, I was able to do very little stuff but very happy that I was able to take care of myself and my family in this difficult situation.
Reflecting on 2020 and stopping the dream of changing every aspect of society.
The project as usual: Lead the conceptualization of the two very important projects; Women Entrepreneurship Data (WEData) Nepal and WikiBoard. Glad that both projects are receiving very good responses. Very grateful to my co-leads Binita Shrestha and Nhasala Joshi of the WEData project; they are super awesome.
Brought a bike: Broke the promise of not buying carbon-emitting vehicles and brought a bike because I was too desperate to travel and using the public vehicles in Kathmandu is very risky. The reaction of my family members after listening to my decision of owning a bike was funny. Kudos to my cousin brothers Bikash Shrestha, Prakash Shrestha, and my friend Sagar Ghimire who worked quite hard to teach me how to ride.
Reading and writing: This year was productive in terms of continuous reading; I completed more books in terms of previous years and spent good money on buying it but the list of books which I want to read keeps on increasing. The Rudest Book Ever by Shwetabh Gangwar was one of the best reads.
In terms of writing, this year I published two op-eds. One about digital literacy at the Kathmandu Post and one about air pollution at the Rising Nepal. Lots of love to my friend Sijal Pokharel, who always helps in guiding and co-authoring wherever I try writing about air pollution. Also, I started a new Instagram page to publish my scribble.
Desperate travel: The restriction of travel was one of the biggest disadvantages of 2020 and despite everything, I was unable to control my desperation and went to explore a few places. Explored Tanahun, Janakpur, and Ramechhap. Went to Sailung which was on my travel bucket list.
Ending 2020 with big hopes of a better 2021. See you on the other side!
