Hobbies

Apart from research, my hobbies include hiking, learning new languages, watching as many good movies as I can, reading history, learning to cook new cuisines, playing badminton, etc. In particular:

• Movies. I am a huge movie fanatic. To the extent that I try to read and remember the Wikipedia-IMDB trivia for all the movies I watch. Though it takes up a decent amount of time, I really enjoy doing it. Especially the joy of using movie references during conversations and talking in movies is unparalleled. In addition, I am also very interested in the art of film-making and I try to learn about various movie-making techniques whenever time permits. Here is a list of my movie recommendations (need to update) across Farsi, French, German, English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Turkish, and Italian, etc.

• Hiking. While I was in the US, I wasn't that much into hiking. But Switzerland woke up a hiking junkie inside me. Given the reliability of trains and accessibility of many jaw-dropping Alpine hikes here, I must admit I have been spoiled by choices. So much so that at this point I go hiking every weekend. Currently at number 22, my goal is to finish atleast 50 hikes by next year and to cover each and every Swiss canton.

• Learning languages. As I started watching more and more movies, I began to like and appreciate a variety of cultures and languages. This in turn led me towards learning new languages. Especially I have always been enamored by French because of its mellifluence. Currently I am at a B1-B2 level and comfortable holding real-life conversations with native speakers. Planning to be fully fluent in the next year and to turn my attention to Farsi and Italian next.

• History. Just like movies, I am a big sucker for history. Why? As one famous quote goes, maybe its because things at a global level always keep repeating every now and then and knowing those fundamental roots getting to the heart of several topics sort of feels like discovering a treasure. Sorry if I sound like a hopeless romantic, which I am. In the past couple of years, I was engrossed in Middle East and American politics but I am currently bit by the Roman bug. Reading these for the next few months: SQPR, Life of a Colossus https:www.goodreads.combookshow/60432.Caesar, and Rubicon.

• Other. While I regularly cook Indian dishes, I have been trying my luck with Italian and Persian cuisines recently. To compensate for my over-eating propensity of these delicious dishes, I also play badminton and volleyball. While I am a huge tennis fan (yup, Federer), I suck at it. Same goes for football.