The Year that was 2021

by Thejesh GN · December 31, 2021

It was not better or worse than 2020. Well, it was worse than 2020. In 2020 we saw a mismanaged lock-down. In 2021 we saw thousands of deaths due to a mismanaged pandemic. It was disconcerting. Even the discussions around it were disturbing. At this point, even 2022 doesn't look that great. Hopefully, it won't be as bad as 2021. 🤞.

Personally, it was a mixed bag. The first half was terrible. I saw and heard so many bad things happening around me. In the second half, I fully submerged myself in work. It allowed me to isolate myself. It's a privilege, I know.

Here are some of the things that happened in 2021, both highs and lows.

We have done a lot of good work at Peppo. It's looking good. Hopefully, we will do more in 2022. I think it's going to be a milestone year.
After a lot of delays, we did announce the NMG 2021. It's called NMG+GSUS 2021 this year. That's because Gangadhar Sulkunte pitched in this year. GSUS denotes his parents. The total amount was 2.5 lakh this year.
I did collect a lot of data on COVID-19 in India this year. Specially Oxygen shortage-related deaths. It's available on the DataMeet project website. I continue collecting and publishing other COVID19/India datasets like cases, tests, vaccinations, etc. We also got to publish - Of Denial and Data in Economic and Political Weekly. It covers our work around lockdown related-deaths data in 2020.
I wanted to write about 100 blog posts. I thought it would be possible. But I could do only 60. It's not bad.
This year, I taught a course called Modern Application Development -1 as part of IITM - BSc Online Degree. I enjoyed it. I will continue to engage. I recorded videos (mostly screencasts) of about 600 minutes for it. It's a big deal for me. It took more time than I thought.
I did some more videos, small under five minutes. Some of them are on data and a series on Web/HTML. They are all under creative commons. I plan to do more screencasts.
I wrote a series on the tools and internet things I love called LinkedList. The series has had 15 posts since Feb. I cover all kinds of things. I love it. I will do more.
Thanks to a friend, I started donating blood again. I am pleased about it. I will continue.
I continued to contribute to DataCommons.org data project. Quite a few India-related datasets were added. There is more to come.
I spent a lot of time on Github and Gitlab. I started to contribute to OSM and iNaturalist again. Hopefully, I get to go out and contribute more.
Echo and Pathu have settled very well. They have become such a big part of our life. I can't imagine a life without them. It's also the year some friendships have become strong, and some have fallen apart.
I am officially in the fourth decade now.
I have not read enough books this year. That's something I would like to fix