It kinda feels a bit cringy writing a serious quote as the blog’s subtitle, but I read an amazing book this week! Unsurprisingly, my reading backlog only knows how to grow and not shrink but I maintain a separate list, something I call the “Practical TBR (to be read)”, which I have been able to contain quite well. You can guess which list this book was in. The passion with which Arjun recommended When Breath Becomes Air left quite an impression on me and I knew I had to check this one out. After some voracious night reading, I finished this one in a couple days and will now go gaga over it, recommending it to each and everybody I talk to. Sarang has already finished half of it, btw 🔥

The quote is a play on one of Socrates’ most famous quotes — The unexamined life is not worth living (the quote has its own wikipedia page wtf). While Socrates believes that a life without introspection and self-reflection is meaningless, the author’s quote questions the value of this reflection if it doesn’t come from a rich variety of lived experiences. It highlights the value of fostering deep human relationships and the importance of constantly exploring our depths by stretching the limits of our mind and body. There are many nuggets of wisdom in the book, but I think this line struck me the most. Plus, its always great when the wisdom is delivered by a person who actually strived to live the kind of life they preached.

As for my week, I had a decent start before I slipped into laziness again. I was feeling really energized after having completed a bunch of work from my backlog, which also included improving this website. One feature I’m particularly proud of is the note preview, which allows you to hover and see the contents of another note without actually clicking on the link! Perhaps I should showcase this feature by telling you that I wrote a poem this week!

I still have a troubled sleep cycle, and I have now missed workout for a second week in succession, but what worries me more is that the coughing hasn’t stopped completely, and it has now been more than a week and a half that a simple illness has ended up limiting my activity. The long walks continue though, and I’ve enjoyed the Delhi weather lately. I listened to more of Keane this week, and spent most of my time discovering their second album Under The Iron Sea, which is basically a continuation of Hopes and Fears.

This is also the first month where I’ve actually made some money from work, so it definitely feels good knowing that my savings will not be sponsoring my liabilities for the first time since my break started. A month back, I had also rekindled a couple of close friendships from my past, and finally got to spend some time with old friends. It almost felt good getting hammered in Teen Patti as Saturday night gave way to Sunday morning.

As it looks like, life is about to get a lot busier, but I’m ready to embrace the challenge. It’s been a while since I’ve allowed myself to escape my comfort zone. My college research leads me to the conclusion that EU’s Erasmus Mundus scholarship programme is worth studying for, and a strong application will open the doors to many great universities in Europe.

Overall, a mixed week, but I start a new one with fresh hope and a lot of plans. Let’s see how many I’m able to make progress on. I am Raspreet, and this was the second edition of Perfectly Imperfect.

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