Dezine Zync

2026 Q1: Recap

nikhil@dezinezync.com (Nikhil) — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 02:30:00 +0000

Back to journaling on my blog, but this time doing it quarterly, i.e. a total of four posts for the year, looking back at each quarter. If you see my previous posts, they were all weekly, and I helped me write better, and most importantly, reflect better and be more grateful for the day!

Professional Life

I have failed, really bad, to find a new job, and that’s still the situation at the time of writing this 😄

I don’t blame the rise of LLM Models (AKA “AI”), but the people who are severely overestimating its usefulness in their present form. This post perfectly summarizes my thoughts, although I have more polarized thoughts than just that, perhaps better for a separate post.

But not all is lost, I decided to start working on a B2B/B2B2C macOS only app, with a target of mid-year set for creating an MVP, and then try it out with a few customers, and then bring in some people to take it to the 100% mark for public release. This is the first time I’m doing something like this, and I’m excited for all the new challenges this brings.

We hosted another wildly successfully meet-up for Swift Pune on International Women’s Day with a wholly women-led speakers panel. As the coordinator, it was so much fun rehearsing with all the speakers, especially Garima whose subtle humor in her presentation inspired me to do something similar for my future presentations.

Our venue host and sponsor, Xplor Technologies, was also overwhelmed by the response they received during the event, bringing greater visibility for their global partners post.

Personal Life

The biggest thing that happened this quarter, is we’ve been figuring out getting our son into pre-nursery (playgroup) school. He was barely 2 then, and this terrifies me as a father 😄 I still haven’t processed this fully, that my lil’dude will be going to school soon. My wife’s been dealing with the same emotions. But we’ve managed to enroll him, and they’ll be soon going in for a few orientation classes where he can get acquainted with a classroom environment.

The next one was my short trip to Bengaluru, specifically Apple’s Developer Center center, speaking on behalf all the Swift Communities in India, presenting to Apple’s Developer Relations team in India, as well as, some individuals from the global marketing team. The whole thing was put together in just two weeks, leaving me very little time to prepare, but my peer and friend, Ratnesh (of Swift Ahmedabad), came in clutch with helping me spruce up the presentation.

This was followed up by celebrating the second anniversary of Apple’s Developer Center in Bengaluru, and followed up by a massive event at Swift Chennai over the weekend.

However, the highlight of this trip, for me, was watching the kiddo’s reaction to his first flight and first long trip! Lil’dude was so nonchalant about the whole thing, as-if he’s been flying all his life. He loves airplanes, so obviously we had a toy plane while we proceeded to board the airplane 🤩

Explorations

This was the first time I got to visit Cubbon Park (finally!) and it’s really as good as people say it is!

This quarter is ending hopeful, and today we also celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday! Good timing, eh!

2025 W52: Recap

nikhil@dezinezync.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 02:30:00 +0000

FIFTY-TWO WEEKS of journaling! A task I had set out for myself at the end of 2024, a challenge really, to see if I am able to start something new. Another challenge was to listen to more audio books but I failed at that within the first two months itself. I’m not too disappointed by that, as I’ve found I really like journaling. So I’ll be continuing with this.

It puts me in a certain headspace that I’ve come to like, and even enjoy the process. I’ve quickly become fond of sharing photos here, and while the interaction is lesser than I had hoped, it doesn’t bother me. I’m doing this for me, and whatever engagement I’ve received was purely organic since I never shared links to these posts anywhere.

My in-laws took us out for a nice Christmas dinner, followed by a weekend trip to their farmhouse! I’ve managed to capture amazing drone footage there, and I’m looking forward to editing and posting these soon to Youtube and Instagram next week!

Happy Holidays, and have a fantastic 2026!

2025 W51: Recap

nikhil@dezinezync.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 02:30:00 +0000

To our genuine surprise, the kiddo’s Aadhaar number was generated and ready by Monday itself. It took the system just under 48 hours to assess information and assign an ID to him. I still stand by what I wrote in my last week’s post, and now I can continue to complete the enrollment process for my child.

If you have ideas on how we can collectively work to simplify this for underprivileged families or families with little to no technology education, I’m happy to hear! Drop me an email.

With this process completed, I can finally get back to finishing the alpha release of my app, and bringing it closer to the beta phase. It’s nearly done, and I don’t trust I’ll be getting any or much work next week, so it’s full steam ahead!

My family is away on a trip this week, so I have more time by myself, letting me completely focus on getting this done, or enjoying more DotA2. We’ll see which one it ends up being 😜

2025 W50: Recap

nikhil@dezinezync.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 02:30:00 +0000

During the week, my brother happened to be around the school we are looking to get the kiddo admitted to sometime in 2027. To our surprise, he’s actually eligible already, and the admission process will be beginning shortly.

So as soon the admissions were open on Wednesday, I quickly rushed to fill up his form. This is my Alma mater, and my brother’s admission (back in 2003) was the first time the school moved to online only admissions.

However, one thing stood out like a sore thumb: The admission form required an Aadhaar number for the child as well! This is ridiculous!

Children should not have to enroll into this bogus system just to get their right to education. And no, this isn’t about my child, but the welfare of all children in the country. MAjority of the population still does not have equitable access to these systems, so expecting them to enroll and posses one is simply infringing on their right to education.

Oh well, I must submit to their rules for now, so on Friday, we headed out to get him enrolled and let’s see how long this takes, hopefully it’s quick and without any hurdles.

2025 W49: Recap

nikhil@dezinezync.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 02:30:00 +0000

Ah! The final month of the year, the weather is finally cooling down, the humidity has gone off to hibernation, there is a crispness in the air. Everything is good!

I’ve been slowly and surely making my way to creating a new iOS app, ready for alpha testing in January of 2026. Really looking forward to the initial reactions from people. It’s an app designed for India, and will be released only in India.

But most importantly, yesterday, the wife and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. Six years, three of which we spent in lockdowns. We remarked how some of our best travel years were spent locked up in our home, but to no regret! Our best travel years are now ahead of us, as we eagerly look forward to traveling with our son.

He’s definitely taken a liking to traveling and exploring new places already, loves hotel rooms of all kinds, cabins, lakes, mountains, the calm wind and the blistering monsoons!

This was also the first time he tried fish and prawns, and he enjoyed both. I like where this is going!

2025 W48: Recap

nikhil@dezinezync.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 02:30:00 +0000

Now that the first Swift Pune Meetup was behind me, I decided to take a much needed break, winding down on Monday and Tuesday, and eventually going out with the family into the Sahyadri hills for the next few days. This was a fantastic break, and we stayed at the Unwynd property’s Unbound cabin. The sunset and sunrise, chill in the wind, dinner by a bon fire, and discovering new things with the kiddo was of the utmost fun!

I got a decent few shots, at night, with the iPhone as well, and continue to be impressed by its long exposure capabilities. I wish I had a tripod to take 30 second exposures, but that was have been more work than it was worth.

I made a video about it all, which you can watch here:

2025 W47: Recap

nikhil@dezinezync.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 23 Nov 2025 02:30:00 +0000

Today was the Swift Pune inagural meetup, and it was a successful event!

During the event, I unveiled a new logo for the community, leaving behind geographical constraints from the previous logo, and embracing vibrant colours, just like all the people who attended the event from across the state.

Swift Pune Logo by Nikhil Nigade

I also composed the logo into wallpapers for Apple Devices which can be downloaded from here.

I’m so happy to have been part of this event, coordinating, and helping the core members best achieve their tasks!

2025 W46: Recap

nikhil@dezinezync.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 02:30:00 +0000

Absolutely nothing worth writing down this week. Still busy with preparing for the upcoming Swift Pune meetup.

But at least now, we have a venue sponsor and an actual date!

2025 W45: Recap

nikhil@dezinezync.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 02:30:00 +0000

After a very long week of planning, work, and discussions, we finalised a format, schedule, and are now looking for a venue for our first meetup of Swift Pune.

I’ve also been working on something for the event, which will surprise everyone!

But to finally mark the end of the week, I made my way through the Ritz spa for a relaxing evening, eventually settling down with the family for a cozy dinner! What a wonderful evening this was.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nikhil Nigade (@dezinezync)

2025 W44: Recap

nikhil@dezinezync.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 02:30:00 +0000

Today, I met a group of strangers whom I was connected to online and through Developer Relations at Apple.

We met for breakfast, and discussed plans to start Swift Pune, Pune’s first and only meetup group focused around Apple Platforms engineering, mentoring, and focusing on knowledge sharing.

We were able to quickly identify our personal strengths, and take up responsibilities for ourselves, and start planning our first event.