YEAR OF SLOW CHOICES

By the 52nd week of the year, stock taking and retrospection is on everyone's minds, and even on their social feeds.

- Chandreyi Bandyopadhyay

2025 is no different, and from where I stand, I am looking back very fondly at a year of many new experiences, professional successes and a profound year of useful learning.

This year sort of lingered, despite passing through rapidly it felt like a year full of interesting shifts, asking modern humans to live more deliberately. I travelled nonstop this year, but instead of ticking off cities, staying put in one place, letting it reveal slowly worked immensely better. This rhythm originally felt somewhat unfamiliar. Travel had always been about momentum, about what came next. But 2025 nudged me, and seemingly a lot of others to strive for quieter holidays, intentional destination choices and experiences that leave lasting impressions on the soul. Few friends took a hill town ‘workcation’ to the next level by renting a home and bringing their dog along to stay for two months. Another had taken a six-week sabbatical just to “wake up without alarms,” a friend in Mumbai downsized her social calendar, swapping nightout plans for Sunday lunches lasting all afternoon. An acquaintance, who was once obsessed with productivity apps, deleted them all and learned pottery instead in 2025. A shift is afoot with more and more people choosing to live slowly, and more deliberately.