Musings

  It has been a long and stressful 1 ½ years since the start of covid pandemic. Losing a dear friend and colleague to the pandemic in the early days made it even more difficult. It took 6 months to build up the courage to go out, for anything other than essentials, to meet friends, to go for outdoor breakfast picnics and to visit outdoor cafes & restaurants.   I recently went to Hampi for a 3-day trip with friends, my first trip in 1 ½ years. One friend was moving to a new job and wanted to wind down and relax before joining the new company, another friend wanted to see if it was possible to do some landscape and historic sights photography, another wanted to get away from the brutal work schedule and I was just happy to take a break from the daily work and home routine after a very long time.   I usually do very high-level planning - how many days to stay, what are those 1-2 things that I really want to do there. For the rest, I am happy to go with what m