My First Annual End-of-the-Year Awards

LFG!

In My “Nostalgia” Era

Hi guys :)

I’m going to try something a little different this week to keep you guys on your toes. Since 2023 has wrapped up, I thought we’d tie up the memories with a little bow and sprinkle some glitter on it by giving out some (virtual) year-end awards so I can hold onto them forever. Some sappy, some silly, some just because.

Best moment: Watching Taylor Swift perform live in Atlanta, as she stands up in the middle of the dining table on stage in her marigold dress during my favorite song “tolerate it” and belts out the lyrics “Break free and leave us in ruin/ Took this dagger in me and removed it/ Gain the weight of you then lose it/ Believe me I could do it” with Ruchi by my side and Setu, Alka and Krishna just a few miles away.

Best trip: NJ/NY for Thanksgiving - this might be recency bias but getting to see a majority of my extended family, eat delicious food and pizza and bagels and cookies, spend quality time with my cousins in BK and getting to spend Thanksgiving with the people I’m most grateful for was just *chef’s kiss* perfection. It was a short trip so it felt like each moment was just soaked in love. The weather, however…oof.

Most hilarious/awkward experience: When the tall, drunk guy was trying to (maybe) hit on me (which hasn’t happened in 15 years) on the dance floor at my cousin’s wedding and I couldn’t, for the life of me, keep a straight face and just ended up crumpled forward laughing hysterically which just encouraged him to keep stepping up his game while Puja took pictures. I’m clearly not ready for the dating world 😂

MVP: my dog, Duke, especially when he cuddles up beside me at night when he somehow knows my thoughts are racing around in my mind, sprinting backwards into my haunted past and stumbling forward into my unpredictable future, but his touch from his cute, little head resting on my thigh keeps me tethered to the present.

Best TV show: The Bear on Hulu, especially the “Forks” episode. TS + Coach K + a beautiful character arc = just magical.

Best movie: Oppenheimer, it was basically a Marvel movie for science nerds 🤓

Best book(s): 5. The Heart’s Invisible Furies 4. There, There 3. As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow 2. Demon Copperhead 1. Homegoing

Person of the Year: Ady Barkan (1983 - 2023) - Ady was a massive health care activist with ALS who fought loudly, fiercely and unapologetically for Medicare for All until his last breath. What a force he was.

Song of the Year: Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift - it’s so catchy and has been literally everywhere all year. And if you don’t know the lyrics to the bridge by now, how are we still friends?! ;)

Best cookie: Chocolate chip cookie from Twisted Sugar (Charlotte) - not too many chocolate chips and slightly underbaked but somehow still firm 💯

Best espresso martini: The Office (Charlotte) - ok this might not be the best but it was definitely the most frequently consumed and was extra special the time it was paired with a peanut butter chocolate chip pie with my wonderful brother on my left and my 22-year-old twin Swiftie sister, Mira, on my right.

*This picture also contains my Favorite purchase of the year which is that Java sweatshirt from lululemon, chosen by the one and only, Prem and Rekha Rajani (my parents 😊)

I could go on forever, but I’ll stop while you still think this is a cute idea :)

Advocacy Updates

Check out my latest article on HuffPost about online dating for people with disabilities! Shoutout to the queen Raj Punjabi ❤️

Quote of the Moment

“He was still too young to know that the heart's memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.”

― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

Book Talk

It was a rough reading month. I struggled finishing a lot of these books until my friend Chaya was like, “There are a LOT of books out there to read. If you’re not enjoying it, just move on to the next.” (Could be a metaphor for a lot of things in life…) But finally, I actually stopped reading the last book on this list 75% through because it was boring and moved on to the next, which is fantastic so far. So simple but so freeing lol. Normally, I would force myself to keep reading, hoping it would get better. Lesson learned: cut your losses.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Ghasi - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - a story about a PhD student studying neuroscience at Stanford and trying to find explanations to her brother’s fatal drug addiction and mother’s paralyzing depression in her research about reward-seeking behavior in mice. Fascinating premise, right? But as I started to write this, I had to look up a summary because I couldn’t remember what it was about 🤦‍♀️ so it was an interesting story but not as impactful as her debut Homegoing.

The People We Keep by Allison Larkin - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - a “found family” story about a teenage singer/songwriter who runs away from her broken home and tries to establish a new life and career on her own. I love this trope and this book pulled it off beautifully. I never knew where the plot was headed but was definitely sobbing into my book by the end.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - a newlywed couple’s marriage is tested when the husband gets wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to 12 years in prison in another state. I didn’t enjoy this at the time but in retrospect, it was real and raw and stays with you.

Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan - ⭐️⭐️ - a small town romance between a 20–something escaping her tragic family drama and a mute guy with his own personal tragedy. Extra star for the disability representation but otherwise, kind of cringe 🥴

Okay that’s it for now! Hope everyone had a happy new year and wish you all the best in the year to come! If you want to share the high and the low of your 2023, I would love to hear it ❤️

I’ll be seeing some of you at our first book club meeting on January 15th with THE Chitra Divakaruni!! So excited eeeeeeeee!! In the meantime, I’ll be enjoying my boy Rafa Nadal playing tennis again after a year off due to injury. That tenacity at 38 🤯

See ya’ll next month! ✌🏽

Yours,

Harshada