Exhausted. Excited. Exhausted is how I felt as 2024 crept towards its end. And excited is the feeling that slowly took over me as we crossed over from December to January. But it would be safe to say that these two emotions alternated all through 2024 for me. And if I had to pick a few other words to define this year, they would undoubtedly be ‘Change’ and ‘New.’
SO – 2024: A whirlwind year, in a good way, where it often felt like there was no time to pause and catch my breath—even during my holiday! The year began with cautious excitement as I had been informed about my relocation from Almaty to Istanbul. Cautious because it was still not on paper. But within a couple of months, the arrangement was formalized, kicking off the relentless cycle of packing, moving, shifting, unpacking, and settling.
As if that was not enough, Kapil and I also decided to move into our larger house back home in India. So, while we were relocating internationally, we were simultaneously moving houses within India—and to top it off, there was some house renovation thrown into the mix! (Anyone who’s been through renovations knows how exhausting they are, and those who’ve done it in India can attest to the extra layer of craziness our vendors and laborers bring to the process!)
Not to mention change on the work front where I was beginning to work on some new projects on new themes (completely new themes let us say) – so along with getting to know new colleagues, I was also busy learning new concepts from scratch! (This is what I really love about my workplace – the ability to keep learning!)
Anyhow, I think this gives you the broad picture of the year – so let us dive in!!
It All Began with an Earthquake!!
Funny as it sounds, the year began with an earthquake—a real one! After years in Almaty with barely any tremor, this one shook me awake in the middle of a freezing January night. The chandelier swayed, and we scrambled to the door, bracing for more. The tremor lasted long enough to leave me queasy, and it seemed like half of Almaty spilled out onto the streets, driving around for hours in the cold until they felt safe enough to return home. Why mention this? Well, it kind of set the tone for the seismic shifts that followed in my life throughout the year!
Packing up five years
It is incredible how much we can collect (amass) in just 5 years! And this, when the house we rented was already furnished! And it is not the big stuff, it is the endless little things that are really hard to sort, pack and or/throw away. The big stuff was packed in under two hours by a team of super-efficient movers who wrapped and ripped (scotch tape) and magically made all my stuff disappear into boxes in a jiffy, leaving me breathless!
But the little stuff – that is something else! There, is a memory attached to almost everything. And then of course sentimental people like me get completely distracted while sorting, drifting away into memories!
Kids’ stuff is a category of its own! Oh my god, the TOYS! Of course, every forgotten toy and broken toy is suddenly a favourite and essential and cannot be given away. I was still sorting through the chaos on the LAST day and eventually surrendered, leaving a pile behind with a sheepish plea to my very kind landlord to handle it.
By the end, I was packing until the night before my flight, with only a couple of hours of sleep before dragging 4 suitcases and 2 bulging hand bags to the airport. All the family had already left and thank god for my loyal help Shireen who helped with the last bit of packing – cramming every last bit possible into my suitcases!
Finally, it was bliss when I got into the plane – and passed out. Literally had to be shaken awake when I landed 6 hours later in Istanbul!
But the marathon doesn’t end!!
I stayed in Istanbul for a day – left my stuff and promptly left for India for my summer vacation. But no, this vacation was not a ‘vacation’ – this was hard work. Because this time I landed bang in the middle of a massive home renovation that was running behind schedule. And because I had just one month of leave, there was no way we could afford a delay because we had to move in before we left! So my days started with getting dressed up and going to our new house, sitting all day, heckling all the contractors (painters, civil work, plumbers, electricians and so on) and trying to get the work done. Poor Kapil had done all the heavy lifting till now – designing the renovations, finding the right people, products, wall papers and his mum had been overseeing the work, so now it was my turn 😊
Luckily the work that people predicted will take months did finish on time and we were able to do our pooja and invite family over. And I got a couple of nights of sleep in our house 😊. Broke my heart as I left for Istanbul early August – but such is the life we have chosen for ourselves – pieces of our hearts scattered across multiple countries! Now I am looking forward to spending summer of 2025 in the new house!
And then Istanbul!
And here begins the second half of the year – a new city, new colleagues, new friends, new projects and lots of travel. It was both thrilling and exhausting to start from scratch in a new city — especially since I had moved alone and had to get everything in place before my family arrived in the next couple of weeks.
BUT, nothing really turned out as expected and let me leave it here …. Because that warrants a blog post of its own! Suffice to say that by the end of the year, things were much more in control, and I feel fairly settled now!
Credit: Getty Images
Family time!
This year scored high on family time. Like previous years, my sister and her family visited Almaty in early summer, but this time felt extra special as we prepared to say our goodbyes. (Of course, it’s a completely different story that we all found ourselves back in Almaty again by early December—because, clearly, we weren’t done with the city and just had to see it one last time!) We also reunited later when we moved into our new house, which made it all the more memorable! But they were sorely missed on New Year’s though we look forward to hosting them in Istanbul in the next couple of moths!!
Beyond that, 2024 saw us reuniting with Kapil’s brother and family who moved back to India and it was great meeting them after many years! Abeer met his same aged cousin for the first time (meeting as babies does not count) and it was delightful to see them bond immediately. We also attended a big fat Indian wedding that connected us with a lot of extended relatives – meeting some people for the first time. It was great to see our kids find and connect with new cousins.
And finally, Me time!!
2024 was busy, but I did manage to take time out for myself, continue doing what I love, added new interests and focused a bit more on health. Of course some things didn’t go as planned, and I slipped up on some others but on the whole, the year ended on a happy and hopeful note.
I had started the year determined to focus on my health – lose a couple of KGs and improve some parameters (in 2023 my results weren’t great). By making some small changes I was indeed able to lose some weight, but more importantly my health check up came much better than before and that left me with some good cheer. Despite slipping up completely on my yoga, I was happy that I was more or less able to maintain the lower weight.
I also managed to blog more, as I was hoping at the beginning of 2024 and managed to host the 3rd edition of the IDPD disability inclusion blog hop. I was joined by 30+ writers and the output was simply wonderful. One of the participants suggested collating it all in a book – so who knows this is something that I might take up this year! Which brings me to the other book I had started writing in 2023 – unfortunately, that is still cold – hopefully I will be able to pick up on that too soon.
Finally work has been rewarding – I love to explore new themes and this year has been just that. Learning some completely new concepts and hoping to implement them this year have given me a great high – so yes 2025 seems VERY exciting!!
Let me just end with the two words that I am hoping will define 2025 for me – growth and progress – of ‘self’ and professionally.
Wishing you a great 2025!!
“This post is a part of ‘Celebrate and Reflect Blog Hop’ hosted by Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed under #EveryConversationMatters”
This post was created for the Blogaberry Creative January Challenge with theme word NEW.
This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’
hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.
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Regards, Sakshi aka tripleamommy
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