Here I am, once again, writing my annual blog where I recollect some good, bad, and ugly memories from the past year. As I write this blog, we are already in the second month of the year 2024. 2023 has been a year that is going to remain unforgettable in my life for various reasons.
This year, I developed an interest in philosophy. Getting a PhD has been on my wish list from a long time. I used to think it was a degree similar to a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, where one would have to attend a lot of lectures, and there would be continuous exams to evaluate the progress. I realized whatever Idea I had about PhD was wrong. As the full form of PhD is a Doctorate in Philosophy, I thought I needed to understand philosophy. So, I started reading philosophical books. Quite literally, the term “philosophy” means, “love of wisdom.” In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. That’s why starting from the Department of Mathematics to Theology provides a Doctorate in Philosophy. So, with the desire to understand the reason for the adoption of technology in modern society, I hope that I’ll be able to start my Ph.D. journey in 2024.
In 2023, I got the opportunity to read seven books.
Books:-
- The War on Lanka by Amish Tripathi
- The Precipice by Toby Ord
- Ikigai by ken Mogi
- How is a man Reborn by a saint of Ramkrishna order
- The God Equation by Michio Kaku
- Buddha and his Dhamma by B.R. Ambedkar
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
As evident in the list, the reading last year was discovering philosophies. I must say, after reading, watching lots of YouTube videos, and exploring philosophy, I have found a new meaning in life. This year I wrote my first blog on philosophy, exploring the importance of spaces. I have also tweaked the website a bit, changed the theme, and rearranged the articles a bit. I have made a new category called Exploring the Ultimate to write philosophy. In 2024, I want to give more attention to this blog. I also want to start a new book review series. Let’s see how it goes.
Professional
Professionally, it was an exciting year with a lot of things happening. It was a productive year for CCASS at Hochschule Darmstadt. we co-published a paper titled Flood Prediction using High-Precision GNSS at the Sensor and Measurement Science Internation Conference 2023. Furthermore, The Intra Chain project, which integrates blockchain with the Internet of Things, ended in 2023. We managed to get two new projects, and the transition was smooth. We also managed to bring some synergy with eRay; writing the paper together was a part of it.
With eRay, I completed five years last September. I wrote about my experience in a separate post. You can read the piece Five years at eRay, where I recollect my experience. The five years has been an exciting journey with many ups and downs. eRay has been gathering momentum for some time now. That’s why getting an ESA contract was very important for the next phase of the push. 2023 saw water-related disasters around the globe. In order to prevent these disasters, it is very important to develop water management strategies. At eRay, it’s our firm belief you cannot manage what you can’t monitor. This motivation is going to be our driver for development in 2024. The goal is not to make the system smart, but the person who is using the system smarter. Hopefully, we will be able to collaborate with municipalities and local heroes to develop climate adaptation strategies.
With MooFind, we finally managed to come out of the project phase. After struggling with German bureaucracy for so long, we finally managed to register our company. So MooFind, which was just a project, got a legal identity. Since 2023 its identity is Moofind UG (haftungsbeschränkt). 2024 is going to be the year when we use the full potential of the ESA Business Incubation Program and, in the process, develop some IoT tools.
The most interesting development was with Harit Vikas. In December 2022, we inaugurated our grandma’s garage office. Although we knew “what” we wanted to do, the “how” was what was not clear. We spent 2023 discovering that, and finally, on 2nd October, we made the “how” public to the world. In this era of rapid development, we often tend to forget that our strength lies in unity and interdependence. And that is going to be our mantra for Harit Vikas, where we aim at the collective development of all the stakeholders. We plan to identify and engage with stakeholders at various levels to develop solutions that bring collective progress to society.
Personal
On a personal level, the year 2023 was a year of undulating feelings. For the past few years, travelling from Kolkata to Frankfurt on 31st Dec has become a new normal for me. Getting energized after an eventful December, the flight journey involves deep introspection and new hope for the new year. This year, it was different as, on one side, we had weddings to plan, and on the other side, we were anxious about my uncle. Soon, the anxiety was transformed into reality when tests confirmed that my Uncle had been diagnosed with cancer. As time passed, my uncle was responding to treatment. April was a mixed month, where, on one side, we were preparing for my cousin’s wedding, and on the other side, my uncle was in the hospital for treatment. A good response to the medicine ensured that the wedding could be completed in a good mood.
But The happiness was short-lived. Post-surgery complications resulted in the painful death of my uncle. Followed by months of grief. Now that I look back, although the wound has healed, there’s a void that cannot be filled. We will always remember him as a joyful man, who held the family together. While this was happening in Dumdum, miles away in Darmstadt, Ankita and I were going through a phase of transformation.
The transformation began in 2022 when Ankita and I turned 30 and decided to take health seriously. In 2023, we made running and physical activities a part of our routine lifestyle. We started with hikes, then moved to short runs of around 1 km and yoga. Now, on a regular basis, we run long distances of 5-7 km. We have also started 20 hours of fasting. When we do long intermittent fasting, our body and mind go through a transformation. It helps you handle both physical stress and mental stress. For me, it has helped me control my anger and respond to stressful situations differently. It has also helped me during the preparation for my brother’s as well as my own wedding.
I always questioned the existence of god but was always fascinated by the various rituals involved in religion or cults. The physical and mental transformation that I went through in the past year also helped me realize the importance of the events and rituals of my wedding. The fire ceremony and the recitation of mantras had a psychosomatic effect on me, and I feel like a changed person.
I realized that when the right moment arrives, it feels as if you have waited thousands of years for it. Life is a collection of moments. But can we just say that it’s only about the moments? In Buddhism, they say only the process is real. Maybe we can embrace both the process and the moments as real; only then can we find the true meaning of existence. I would like to end this piece with a quote from my new collaborator, Chat-GPT.
“In the tapestry of life, every thread contributes to the beauty of the whole. Embrace the richness of your experiences, for they weave the story of who you are.”
Jeet Biswas 