✍️ Posts

Postcards from India

March 24, 2024
Two weeks in India and what an incredible journey it turned out to be! Alex and I traveled there for a wedding celebration which was nothing short of the big, colorful and crazy Indian wedding experience. After the wedding whirlwind, we met up with my parents and sister who flew all the way from Indonesia and Canada respectively. This blog post is my personal scrapbook; a curated collection of snapshots, each a memory from our wonderful time in India.
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Learnings from "A Brief History of Indonesia"

January 31, 2024
Despite being an Indonesian citizen and living in Indonesia for 12 years, I often feel that I don’t know the history of my own people. This led to me and my friend Tiffany, both part of the Indonesian diaspora, to delve into ‘A Brief History of Indonesia’ by Tim Hannigan. The history classes I took as a kid often felt like a blur of dates and names, resulting in me not fully understanding the meaning behind them. However, it was through the pages of this book that the rich tapestry of Indonesian history finally started to “click” for me. It's a journey of discovery that I'm excited to share with you.
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My Top Books of 2022

January 08, 2023
Throughout my life, there haven’t been many identities I’ve embraced as much as I’ve embraced being a reader. It’s also one of the things which, amidst all the new experiences I went through in 2022, was a constant in my day-to-day life. I ended up exceeding my reading goal (I read 54 books, and my goal was 52), but most importantly, it was fun, and I learned so much. My reading journey of 2022 took me to colonization under the Dutch East Indies, a journey through eating disorders, a story of love, grief and heartbreak in modern Cyprus, and many more.
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How I budgeted for 23 weeks of travel in 2022

December 04, 2022
2022 has been an unusual year for me. I resigned from my last job in the spring, and during the past eight months, I’ve been lucky to spend more time with family, spend time on things I always wanted to do (e.g. take Spanish classes!), explore parts of the world I’ve never been to before, and most importantly, relax and recharge. It’s been a whirlwind of a year, and I have so many stories to share, from my 23 weeks of travel, how I’ve become conversational in Spanish, to finding a software engineering job in the ClimateTech space.
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My Top 5 Books of 2021

January 17, 2022
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved reading. One of my fondest memories growing up is the trips my family would take to Gramedia, an Indonesian bookstore chain, on the weekends. When I lived in Singapore as a teenager, going to the Popular bookstore at Toa Payoh Station after school almost became a daily routine. Reading has always been a big part of my childhood, and after taking a dip in reading activity during my university years, 2021 for me was a year in which I truly rediscovered my joy for reading.
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Camping in James Peak Wilderness, Colorado

July 24, 2021
If you're looking to reconnect with nature, look no further than Colorado's pristine backcountry. Growing up, my family didn't spend much time in the mountains, so if you were to ask me a few years ago whether I preferred the beaches or the mountains, I would have said the beaches in a heartbeat. But now, having spent a few weeks exploring the mountains of the Centennial State, I feel that I have a newfound appreciation for it.
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A Jolly Winter in Vancouver

January 11, 2018
The last nine days of 2017 for me was spent in Vancouver, a vibrant seaport located on the Western coast of Canada. I've actually visited Vancouver before, but the last visit was quite a short one and because we spent most of our time hiking in Whistler, I didn't actually get to see much of Vancouver. I've heard a lot of great things about Vancouver though, so I wanted to make another trip to the city whilst my sister, Nadia, is still living in Vanouver (she's a student at the University of British Columbia). It's always nice to have a local show you around, and I couldn't have been happier to spend the holiday season with family.
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November Resolutions

November 01, 2017
I’m always looking for ways to constantly challenge myself and keep learning, so I thought I’d set up some goals for the month of November, and hopefully every month onwards. Personally, I’ve found that month-long resolutions work better for me compared to year-long resolutions. Whenever I make new year resolutions, they always end up being too generic, broad, and I lose focus a few months in. On the other hand, month-long resolutions tend to be more specific and actionable, which lead to a higher rate of success at the end of the month. Higher success rate means more feelings of accomplishment, and more feelings of accomplishment leads to a happier Indira.
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