Looking back at 2025

Earlier versions: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019

Frohes Neues Jahr Leute.

Most reflections this year involve a special milestone for Adi and me, our 10 year anniversary. The milestone shaped this year in two big ways

1. All our vacations apart from our 3 week anniversary trip were long weekends. Partly also forced by the unpredictable nature of my startup(s).
2. We spent a lot of time talking about things that make us happy, that we want to do more of or less of.

10 year anniversary chilling around Koh Lipe, Thailand

Adi introduced me to hiking on a trail northeast of Goa. We were so lost, alone and tired trudging along a train track that a surprised train driver stopped an entire cargo train to give us a lift. I still can’t believe that happened 😂

It was also on this hike that a bulb went on in both our heads that this person is fun to hang out with and getting married may not be a bad idea.

Still going strong with our hiking and levelled up the difficulty significantly this year at Saxon Switzerland National park. It was also the first time I found myself scared of heights and froze completely on a cliff.

Hiking around Saxon Switzerland National Park, Germany

Once you tell yourself you might be a bit scared of heights, it is very odd to find yourself gladly stepping off a cliff on a parasail. It is even more odd to realize it is the most zen you’ve felt in years. The Alps around Lauterbrunnen are sprouting with flowers everywhere in May and gently gliding around those peaks is an experience we’re likely to repeat often in the coming few years.

Hiking and parasailing around Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

The tricky thing about rock climbing is that the mountain looks manageable from the bottom. That is, if like me, you’ve never done it before and you’re in the best shape of your life. When you’re up there, how do you pull back enough to see the right spot to place your feet or fingers? How do you hang on for life with one arm? How do you know if the toe shaking is the tight shoe, adrenaline or fear?

Professionally, most of 2025 was like this climbing gig. Went up mountains multiple times, sprained my shoulder a bit and managed to come out alive with a couple of bruises. Charged up to go at it yet again in 2026.

Rock Climbing on Railay beach @ Krabi, Thailand

The thing I enjoy most about hanging out with Adi is that our tastes are polar opposites and when we do things together, we both end up learning loads of shit.

For me this year, it was making espadrille shoes in Valencia. It’s not a functional shoe at all and that is coming from someone who walks barefoot nearly 95% of the time but it was a lot of fun :D

I think if I forced her to pick, it’ll be my tens of book recommendations or essay-length rants about random stuff like Polymarket or eInk screens but I might edit this after she reads this post.

Making Espadrilles @ Valencia, Spain

Making an eInk wall clock for Aditi

2025 was also an year my elder brother and I traveled together after more than a decade. We chilled and ate and chilled some more in Goa and discovered that people think we look similar and have similar voice intonations. I deny all such accusations vehemently.

Travelling with big bro @ Goa, India

Also met close friends after a while and plan to do way more of this. In smaller and bigger ways.

Rohit @ Berlin and Priyanka @ Goa

Another thing I’d love to do more of next year is to immerse myself in art. The lovely textures of Van Gogh inspired me to read about his art and how he described it to the tiny set of people who believed in him. I’d like to repeat this with all the classics.

Van Gogh Museum @ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

To round off the year, my quick soapbox recos.

Book recommendations:

1. 40 rules of love, Elif Shafak. Hands down the best book I read this year. I am a bit biased because it was about Shams and Rumi but her tapestry of words is unmatched.
2. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. The tome is huge and masterful. Moses is a force of nature who got shit done despite being ethically challenged. Caro is a lunatic researcher, the very best. I can’t believe someone found $100M funding for a bridge from 25 places and the story was reconstructed after 40 yrs with evidence

Podcasts:

I didn’t listen to a lot or watched anything apart from news this year. Have only one recommendation

1. EconTalk with David Bessis about Mathematica. I am looking forward to reading the book after the brilliant example of how a straight line can intersect a circle in two points. It is an image everyone forms in their heads instantly and it’s a different image for everyone.

Hope you and your loved ones have a fantastic 2026.