2025 - what a year it was !

2025 was a wonderful year, primarily for only one reason - Nina's selection for PhD at Tezpur University (also MA in Performing Arts) and the huge change that came in my usually quiet Shillong life. The first half of the year was spent in applying and strategising for her PhD admission; the second half was spent in running between Shillong and Tezpur, with 15-day stint in Pune as well. The later part was crazy with Rodali getting issues in adjustment with new environment, Nina going haywire with multiple assignments and I am almost on the road, forgetting the money part. Without looking at my diary, I really can't think of any other significant event of the last year. Getting adjusted to this primary event took so much time and effort that I could manage to write only 2 posts in this blog last year. What a shame!

My professional life also had a smooth sailing. In fact, I was never been so satisfied about my professional life ever. Financially, the hike I got on birthday, the approval of hardship allowance, occasional sessions at MATI/IIM and the savings from the official tours have been fantastic. Contribution wise I feel happy to host the Regional AI Impact Summit, ET and Bhashini workshop, giving two awards to the state - one from DigiLocker and another from E-Gov summit thing. I also think I have received the respect as well from the state officials. Even though SDC chapter was tough, I learnt a lot about handling technical tender (and how politicians make extra money)

On the negative side, the PhD progress is not good at all. The first four months witnessed lot of painful efforts going in completing the SOAS. However, that momentum was lost soon after SOAS, as I had to complete 3.0 of A2O. After A2O finished, none of the two progressed. Also, as I vacated the MSH room, there is less incentive now to visit IITG. In fact, after the hike in fee by more than 500%, I, at times think of quitting the PhD. Until now, I have been able to convince myself not to do that. 

I am trying to think is there any big takeaway of 2025. Nina resuming study and we started living separately show I am still not 'settled'. Is this a typical middle class thing? I think No. So, I should feel good then. The more I am becoming 'family' oriented, I keep questioning myself - Am I compromising something? Should I have been in some Public Policy director role in an MNC or in a Sr Public Sector Specialist role in the World Bank? My happiness framework says -No, I am doing good. Maybe coming out of 'growth mentality', restlessness, 'slowing down' are signs of ageing, but for the betterment of living. On a superficial level, it looks like something is missing. But when I question point/framework wise, I find everything is fine. This is a bug shift in realisation that I started feeling in 2025. 

Regular Sections:

A) High's

1) Completing 3.0 of A2O, 2) The sessions at MATI and Skill India Hackathon, 3) My growing connections with IIM Shillong, 4) Conducting the ET workshop successfully after getting funding from NeGD, 5) Contributing an article for Governance Now and to UJAAN via Sushanta Kar Da, 6) Getting used to the train route to travel to Ghy, 7) Swlisunthar progressing well with new teachers recruitment. 

B) Low's

1) Stupidity- losing the power bank gifted by NeGD, Electricity bill issue with neighbour at Bishnupur rented house.

2) Others: The international tour did not materialise even after much planning,  The two abortions and the guilt both of us carried for a long time, The Mirza land fiasco continued, Being away from Majoni.

C) People

1) New: Welcoming SeMT Meghalaya people, Manas (Gyanmalini's husband), Pranil (Rumpee's husband), Rupankar, IESA (Debamalya Sen, Bindu Madhavi and Sameer), Prod Basav and Prof Parijat.

2) Connecting back: Omi bai, Pranjal coming to Shillong, Anup spending night in Shillong, with Dwipen and Basanta to attend Samiran's place at Tihu, with Taslima, with Pankaj Da at TU, Ajeet (NeGD), Nilutpal Baruah, Dr. Amiyo Kr Das (Tezpur University)

3) Losing Zubeen Da, Patgiri Sir, Dibyo Sir, Kaushik Da's father, Bah Nongbri's aunt and mother, Samiran's wife.

4) Strengthening friendship with Shelter(his openness), Kaushik Da(his depth of delivery and reliability), Mridul (financial transactions), Nischal (things to learn)

D) Travels

1) Trip to Ahmedabad and staying at Hotel Leela, visiting Gandhi Kutir, AI-CoE and shopping, 2) The SeMT orientation trip to Delhi was an amazing experience, 3) The Jaintia hill trip and climbing up with Rodali on lap, 4) Amar Da's fishing pond, 5) Trip to Bhubaneswar with Jasper, 6) Vizag trip and meeting Nitu Da, 7) IMC Yoshabhoomi visit, 8) Visit to Mawkarwat for MeghDEE prog, 

E) Family

1) Fixing the Xonchapori land was a big achievement of the last year, 2) Taking Nina to Bamunkura Sakhati mela, 3) Publishing Maa's third book and applying for award (unsuccessful though), 4) Moina and Tapan buying their flat, 5) Bou's transfer out of Nagarbera, 6) Deepshikha Bhanti getting PGT job.

F) Important Days

23 Feb (Nina clearing NET),  26 Feb (Attending Advantage Assam 2.0),  8 May (SOAS), 9 May (twice Shillong trip day), 13 May (Nina's first TU visit and enthusiastic replies),  15 June (worst day at Hiranyav hospital), 23 June (IIM Shillong MDP lecture), 23 July ( heavy travel day), 11 October (super busy day).

G) Unique things

1) Monthly storytelling sessions at office, 2) Watching India vs Bangladesh football match at Polo stadium, 3) Inauguration of Grantha-Katha, 4) HBS declaring medical college at Balijana, 5) Experience of handling SDC RFP and the CM interventions, 6) Some heavy busy days with travel-Tezpur- Delhi-BBSR- Tezpur-Shillong uhh!! 7) Getting involved in two Bhaonas. 

H) Good pages of diary

21 May (eventful day in diary), 30 June (my future), 28 July(life's learning), 15 Sept(revisiting NIT days), 1 Dec (am I middle class?)

A new start 'again' on the birthday

I am in the middle of a huge transition. Fortunately, coincidently and strategically, the final leap to the new chapter is happening today on the 41st birthday. Amazing!

It is not a new thing for me to start a new chapter of life on birthday or in and around this date. The trend started long back in 2000 when I left home for the very first time and started Cotton life. Recently, the IITG PhD student life started on this very day. I love starting something new on birthday.

While starting the Shillong chapter, I was certain that the immediate change, if any, has to be initiated by Nina since I had no plan until Assam's next assembly election. The first signal came when Nina cleared UGC-NET on 23 February 2025. Things have really taken a different route since then. Although we aimed at a few universities, sincere efforts were made only to Tezpur and Gauhati university. And, guess what, Nina got into both the universities. Finally we selected Tezpur based on a broad range of matrices. Obstacles did came in terms two abortion decisions, fitment of Nina's diversified profile into a PhD focusing on performing Art, Nina's simultaneous pursuance of the Masters degree from Bharati Vidyapith, closing down the Bapupara school, delayed result of TU which costed us money and trust to take admission in GU as well, unavailability of essential childcare person etc. All obstacles were removed slowly. The final good news came in terms of getting Omi bai to stay with Nina at Tezpur and allotment of Scholars' Home inside the TU campus. I can't thank God enough for all these. He has been extraordinarily kind in this chapter. Since I am not used to such kindness, I often become suspicious of some imminent danger. But let's keep that aside today. 

Today, we (I, Nina, Rodali and Omi bai) started from Wahhe at 6-30 AM. The mini carrier which was loaded yesterday also started by 7 AM. I attended a SDC call at 10-00 am while doing breakfast at Nagaon. The initial procedures at TU were impressively quicker. However, the condition of the room was pathetic, particularly the toilet and the walls. We went to the Engineering cell and glad to find the executive engineer a 'Nath', a passionate nath from Tezpur. He asked the subordinates to extend all possible help. Still lot to be done. However, I made a point to cook and stay the night at the room105 only. Nina was hesitant, but she won't understand the theory of doing this. Now it is 9-03 PM, had dinner among pile of household cartons, finishing the post from cellphone and would go to sleep. This is the birthday in a nutshell. 

Life beyond this point - I am sanguine. Personally, my PhD and A2O will be accelerated- I promise this to myself today. For Nina, this is like a dream coming true. The only exception here is Rodali, who will miss the warmth of both the parents. She has to sacrifice her happiness for the career of her parent. I am going to miss her terribly. I am sure I will make some arrangements to mitigate this, at least during the weekends. Or, who knows, maybe more that that. But more than that, I am worried about Rodali's transition into crèche and with Omi bai. I pray to God to please help us in this segment as well. The Agia and IITG visits will be reduced from now on. The expenses will go up, but not substantially as I moved to a smaller house in Shillong and Nina will get a women researcher fellowship. 

Oh, another important event of the day- finally NeGD appraisal letters came. most people got 11-12% hike. I got around 5.5%, considering I stayed only 7 months. It is good only. I haven't been able to talk to many people, hence not much information. 

I will cherish this birthday in my entire life on a good note. I sincerely hope that good things have just started!

First post of 2025 with FY review

We are already into the fifth month of 2025 and this is my first post of this year, that too a compulsory post. The work, study and family have taken over completely, leaving me with little time for my 'want' things. 

Income from knowledge that I wanna more

From the last FY, I started dividing my expenses into three categories - need, want and investment. Now, if I do a calculation for the year, my expenses on 'needs' are around 52% of my total yearly income, want - 5% and investment is around 66% of my total yearly income. Of course, as you might have guessed, my total outflow is 116% of my total inflow. However, there is no drastic change in this pattern of overly spending. In coming years,  I would expect the Need percentage to come down once more salary components are added, which was a major hurdle of the last FY. 

Getting a job was the priority when this FY started. Finally I joined one on 5 Sept. This had multiple implications on my finances of last year, most of them are negative.

1) No salary input drastically reduced my total earning of last FY. I earned ~24.4 Lakh (under all heads) which is around 12 lakh less than that of previous FY. 

2) Income from knowledge or business was a disappointment. Although I was completely free to attend any kind of seminar/workshop, I believe, nobody calls an unemployed person. Majority of earning under this head (say, MATI) happened only after I joined in Shillong. The summary is - if I have to plan a regular income from knowledge, this has to be planned out, it won't happen just like that. 

3) There is no real increment in my salary post joining as SeMT Head. In fact, it got reduced a little. Also, the monthly expenses skyrocketed as I moved out of house. That's on a financial standpoint. From all other angles, moving out of Agia was a good decision. Summary- never evaluate only the financial angle in any decision making. Life is beautiful because it is complex with multiple dimensions. 

4) The hacking of WazirX put a dead end to my Crypto currency experiment. After Trump became president again, I tried to buy some more currencies, but WazirX is not allowing. I also don't have knowledge and confidence to try out again in different platforms. 

However, let me look at the positive sides now, at least that are promising at present.

1) The earning from dividend (including SGB interests) touched around 62K in the last FY. My target should be to touch 1L per annum only from dividend, excluding the stock sell. Of course it is dependent on the market performance and dividend decisions. But, I should set a target.

2) The creation of recurring income flow from Mridul and Maa is another welcome step. The amount crossed 1 Lakh in the last FY. With Mridul, the invested amount is 3L now, and will be increased to 4L from May'25 onwards. For Maa, I can't be that strict; for example, she didn't pay two instalments in last FY, and I don't want to remind her formally.

3) I am also happy that my interest from PPF account finally crossed 1 lakh in the last FY. In fact, the total interest from savings and emergency FDs itself touched 90K around. This can be another target for next year to cross 1 L. Plan out. 

4) My total equity investment (includes Zerodha, MFs and SIPs) for the last FY is 10.81 Lakh - almost double than that of my non-equity investment such as PPF, SSY, NPS etc. With the target to have 1 Cr equity portfolio, I must invest around 6 Lakh per year (with some weird and questionable assumptions). By far, I believe, this FY witnessed my highest annual equity investment. Market was also down, and I am glad to invest the amount.

5) I tried new financial instruments such as NPS Vatsalya for Rodali and RBI treasury bills via Nina. Both are experiments only and I need to gain further knowledge.

Some realisation and thoughts:

1) For immovable asset, I am in no mood to invest further in land, at least by putting own efforts. The first priority is to set the boundary and other things straight for the already acquired land spots in Mirza, Dudhnoi and also at Dalok, Agia College, Samaguri and Boragaon (for family). Many things are in hanging state in these plots. Karuna Da offered me some land near the plot he bought; I am a bit reluctant. 

2) I no longer want to learn about futures and options after the volatility shown by the market and the statistics of the retail traders as displayed by SEBI. However, I need to formulate the strategy for selling.

3) Investing in self and Nina's career is something I am very convinced. Nina's ambition for doing PhD and the related expenses are huge forthcoming liabilities, which, I am simply writing as investment. I am also not much worried about the course fee increase at IITG for part time students and the monthly rent I am paying for the MSH. I am thankful that I have developed this mindset of 'investing in yourself'. 

4) Although I am still not at that financial position to 'leave job anytime', but I am at a certain comfort level w.r.t. my financial health. This gives me immense pleasure and confidence. I am so grateful (to myself?) for taking certain decisions such as not taking house-loan, not buying expensive vehicle, not marrying an expensive wife, not borrowing and lending from people etc. 

Inflow Table: 

	Salary(rmbsmnt, bonus)	Market (selling of equity, Dividend, settlement, SGB Interest etc)	Loan Repay(includes EMI interest)	Bank Interest (Savings, FD)	Income-one time (knowledge/ business )	Others	Secondary recurrimg Income	Total
April		1815	30000				11500	₹ 43,315
May				9083		444	9000	₹ 18,527
June		5399	12680	14769	1000		9000	₹ 42,848
July		3619				47510	11000	₹ 62,129
August		7925			54099		11000	₹ 73,024
Sept	244872	8963		39591		11111	11000	₹ 315,537
Oct	282544	3364					11000	₹ 296,908
Nov	262456	8763			3000	100	13000	₹ 287,319
Dec	246394	2342		11892			11000	₹ 271,628
Jan	245422	1832			9900	54488	4000	₹ 315,642
Feb	332616	6798				1000	7000	₹ 347,414
Mar	230906	11327		118159			10000	₹ 370,392
Total	1845210	62147	42680	193494	67999	114653	118500	₹ 2,444,683
% of total income	75.48%	2.54%	1.75%	7.91%	2.78%	4.69%	4.85%

Outflow table:

	Regular	Food	Personal	Childcare	Transport	Tax-Debt	Social Obligation	Gift-Donate	Recreation	First-Unique	Equity	Other Invt	Total
April	8600	6959	5873	489	4175	0	2000	6750	416	0	28272	125630	189164
May	8825	5223	4360	1670	9044	12620	1084	2671	28186	315	54500	35630	164128
June	5367	8169	910	450	8213	0	4605	2435	50	23160	129500	2130	184989
July	5105	3784	12967	1410	2300	2510	0	7254	2148	0	101283	205730	344491
August	4900	10528	6195	1311	5331	0	0	1356	939	0	63110	30630	124300
Sept	132858	9320	11953	290	5751	0	28013	4674	3166	1300	78100	28457	303882
Oct	22645	5113	3285	0	5411	0	11256	4109	1309	0	146480	15430	215038
Nov	27831	5144	11756	1413	5991	41198	13892	3840	4259	0	98700	15430	229454
Dec	23200	6059	77662	3481	7605	65489	12754	4642	100	0	55000	15430	271422
Jan	39719	8276	210828	1875	8790	41198	14456	3455	1930	0	130230	15430	330527
Feb	31705	6108	16472	0	2560	51636	12000	1070	1862	0	128868	15430	267711
Mar	23444	4826	25142	2098	6466	51960	12782	4119	3746	640	67000	15430	217653
	334,199	79,509	387,403	14,487	71,637	266,611	112,842	46,375	48,111	25,415	1,081,043	520,787	2,842,759
% wrt total income	13.67%	3.25%	15.85%	0.59%	2.93%	10.91%	4.62%	1.90%	1.97%	1.04%	44.22%	21.30%	116.28%