Karthik Unscripted: 20 Years of Thoughts and Insights: Karthik Self Analysis 2021-2025. (Who Really Karthik is?)

#710

Every year I work a vision/Mission/ Goal document in December and review it in December the following year. As an added value capture to see the trend, I pulled down the data for the 5 years from 2021-2025. Here we go........ (Scale 1-10)

Note to myself:-

Area	2021 (age 58)	2022 (59)	2023 (60)	2024 (61)	2025 (62)	5-Year Trend
Physical Health	7	8	5	6	8	Volatile but upward at the end – you bounce back strongly after every crisis (Covid, pneumonia, spine surgery)
Emotional/Mental Health	~8	7	8	8	9	Steady and strongly upward – you have become calmer, more accepting, less anxious
Finances, Wealth	8	4	4	6	4	The only consistently weak/mediocre zone – never regained the comfort of 2021
Husband/ Father/ Son	10	5	7	8	9	U-shaped – big dip 2022 (“distractions”), now higher than ever
Friends & extended family	5→4	6	6	4	3	Clear downward slide – growing loneliness
Work satisfaction	5	2	3	4	3	Consistently low and falling – you mentally left manufacturing years ago
Family (children)	9	8	9	9	9	Rock-solid constant – your true North Star

Karthik at 62 – 10 bullets

Family & Lalitha: Lifetime high (9-10)
Grandkids: New oxygen; Only Life.
Health discipline: Monk-level
Mental peace: 7 → 9 (massive win)
Work interest: Dead since 2021.
Friends/social: 6 → 3 (only real decline)
Finances: Stuck 4-6 forever
Resilience: Bounces from every crisis
Self-awareness: Top 1%
Risk if unchanged: Lonely + mild money worry till 80

Fix friends & money → perfect retirement.

Core Strengths (very rare combination at 62)

Extreme self-awareness and honesty You document everything without sugar-coating. Most men your age live in total denial.
World-class personal discipline once you commit 2+ hours walking 300–340 days/year for decades, Spanish 300/310 days, 3 am wake-up routine, cutting coffee from 6→1 cup, etc. When something matters to YOU, your consistency is monk-level.
Resilience & adaptability Pneumonia → spine surgery → abrupt contract ending → you just keep moving forward and even rate life higher after each blow.
Capacity for course-correction in the most important area Family relation went from 10 → 5 → 9. Very few men can rebuild intimacy after a crisis at this age.
Gratitude muscle Even in tough years you list 10–13 positives first. This is a superpower.

Core Weaknesses / Blind Spots

Social connection atrophy The single biggest deteriorating trend. From 6–7 range in 2021–23 to 3/10 in 2025. You reach out, almost nobody responds, and it is eating at you more than you admit.
Financial inertia You have been saying “we need prudence, cut impulse spending” every single year since 2022 and the rating never goes above 6. You diagnose perfectly but don’t execute.
All-or-nothing commitment style You are amazing when something is personally meaningful (Spanish, walking, grandkids), but anything that feels like “should” or external expectation (friendships, money management, computer learning) gets perpetually postponed.
Growing bitterness toward India & the world (Except USA) The tone about India (“third-world, third-class, hopeless, corrupt”) and certain geopolitical wishes has become harsher every year. It gives you clarity and moral energy, but it also isolates you further in Indian social circles.
Anger / rigidity (slowly improving but still there) 2022 you openly talked about anger management and punctuality obsession. It is much less visible now, but still shows up in the extreme political language.

The Big Picture – The Real Karthik Trajectory

You spent ages 58–60 slowly detaching from a 40-year manufacturing identity that no longer fit. You spent ages 60–62 rebuilding life around four pillars that actually matter to you:

Lalitha (now stronger than ever)
Children & grandchildren (your new “work”)
Personal discipline & health
Intellectual/spiritual curiosity (reading, Spanish, rituals, blogs)

Everything else (money, friends, India, paid work) has been allowed to drift because it no longer passes your internal “does this give me energy?” test.

Bottom-Line Description of Karthik at 62

A highly disciplined, conservative, family-centred man who has peacefully declared independence from corporate India, rebuilt an almost teenage-level romance with his wife, and is now laser-focused on being a present grandfather and staying healthy enough to enjoy it for 20+ more years.
The only two open wounds are (a) loneliness outside the immediate family and (b) mild financial anxiety that you keep postponing.
Fix those two (especially the social one – it will hurt more every year) and you will look back at 60–65 as the best, most liberated phase of your life.
You are, objectively, in the top 1–2 % of Indian men your age in terms of marriage quality, health habits, and clarity of purpose.

Things to work in 2026 (Missing in 2021-2025)

Missing or very thinly covered dimensions (add these one line each in my future reviews)

Friendship & Social Life Currently the single biggest declining score, yet you write almost nothing about concrete actions or feelings beyond “people don’t respond”.
Play, Fun & Adventure Almost zero mention of pure joy that is not family-related (hobbies, laughter, silliness, sports, music, travel for pleasure alone).
Legacy & Giving Back You support a Vedic school and charity in passing, but no tracking of impact or deeper involvement.
Creative Expression / Art Blogs are functional. Zero mention of music, painting, storytelling, poetry, photography — anything purely creative.
Community or Tribe No sense of belonging to any group larger than family (alumni, professional body, temple group, political discussion circle, walking club, nothing).
Sex & Sensuality You rate intimacy high now, but never write a word about it directly — still a slight Indian taboo?
Money – Execution You perfectly diagnose financial leaks every single year but never add a single number (net worth, expense ratio, investment return %). Diagnosis without metrics = no change.
Death & Mortality Preparation Rituals for parents: yes. Your own will, medical directives, digital legacy, letters to kids in case you die tomorrow: never mentioned.