2013 was a very special year for me. It was a year of sticking to my resolve and taking some big leaps of faith. Most times I came off better for making tough choices but sometimes I had to settle for the lessons that came with bitter failure…

Before I plunge into looking back at 2013, I would like to repeat these words I wrote looking back at 2012. They seem to be very appropriate for all these year end life reports :P

How do you quantify a year? What made a set of 365 (or 366) consecutive days better than the previous set? Was it making more money? Was it increasing your count of material possessions? Was it traveling more? Was it being entertained more? Was it more drinks/dinners with friends/family? Was it finding/losing someone you care about?

I choose my benchmarks on what I put an effort on during the year, on the times I let the wave of events around me carry me, on when I resisted what I believed to be wrong and when I found something beautiful when I least expected to.

Let me start off with the one project that was with me right through the year: Project 365. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, you might be closely acquainted with this project of mine. It involved taking a picture for each day of the year… Most people use this project to improve their photography or stay more connected to the world but for me this was more like a picture diary of my year. Looking back at those picture I can tell you in detail where I was, what I was doing, Who I was with, why I took that picture and what happened before and after that picture, If it was a special day, I could probably even tell you why it was so special :)

So, in the end, my year end review actually came down to me looking through those pictures and remembering the year…

This year I did things that I always dreamed of doing but never really had the courage to take the chance with. I was put under unexpected circumstances and even though it took a lot out of me to get things right, I persisted and that helped me in a long way.

Work: for the first time in my life I took a major break between jobs. After working for 8 consecutive years it seemed like a good idea and looking back it was a perfect call. My only regret, maybe I should have taken a longer break :P I now travel longer than I ever did for work but it provides me some interesting opportunities to catch up on some long forgotten hobbies. I read more often now and catch up on stuff that I usually don’t have the time for.

Photography: 2013 was a great year for photography for me :) While Project 365 was not intended to be artistically special, there were some moments that I really enjoyed the kind of photographs I took. Also this was the year a lot of my photographs made it to the papers and a few to some popular magazines (Elle :) ), the main reason was that I got an opportunity to cover the Prasad Bidappa Fashion Week (which was super fun btw). I also took some lovely photos at the weddings of my friends… all in all a very ‘photogenic’ year :)

Writing/Directing/Hobbies: Directed my first scene for camera in 2013 :) I had to step in for the director who was acting in the scene, but it was an awesome experience. Wrote my first tv episode, which will be hopefully shot in 2014 :) Worked behind the scenes on a shoot and loved ever moment of it, hopefully there will be more such opportunities in the coming year. Directed two plays during the past year, ‘The Asimov Connection’ in feb was an experiment in science fiction story telling. My second play was the ‘Big Bang Theory’ on stage. Fortunately I was blessed with an incredible cast both the times I absolutely loved the whole experience :)

Travel: This year was again a bit disappointing for traveling, did a couple of trips but missed out on a lot of amazing opportunities. Hopefully next year I will be more out-going :P I think its about time I take that leap into traveling alone :D

Exercise: Last year was one of the best years wrt exercise, for most of the year I regularly worked out at the gym (twice a week atleast, 4 times/week most weeks). My overall fitness improved pretty well over the year. I didnt run any (10k) runs during the year, maybe I will do one in 2014, but frankly if I go to the gym regularly it will be a great year :)

That pretty much sums up my 2013. The year had its highs and lows, and along the way I learnt an awful lot about myself… An year I probably wouldn’t mind re-living again :)