Happy New Year 2025!

Alhamdhlillaahi! What a year has 2024 been! As you keep getting older and older, time keeps moving faster.

It’s the end of another year and time to reflect back. Before I started writing this article I’ve finally updated the hosting server for this blog after several years. Anyway, without further ado, let’s dive into my 2024. This year had been the year of AI for us, and fittingly I had become lazy and asked Claude to write most of the rest of what you are about to read.

Driving

After our move to Hulhumale’ last year, my Dad decided we needed a family car to make travel between Male’ and Hulhumale’ easier. In January, after browsing various options on iBay and Facebook Marketplace, Dad purchased a 2022 Toyota Aqua from a seller in Addu. Even though the car would be registered in my name, Dad took care of the entire purchase.

The car’s journey to us was an adventure in itself – shipped on a supply dhoni from Addu, arriving at Hulhumale’ harbour within days. Watching our new family car being lifted off the boat at the harbour was a nerve-wracking experience. Despite having a driving license, my years without practice left me rusty enough to need assistance from my uncle and father-in-law just to drive the car from the harbour to our place.

The registration process turned out to be quite an ordeal, highlighting the unique challenges of car ownership in Male’. Since none of us own land in the Male’ area, registering a car in the Male’ zone proved complicated – you need proof of having a garage, something few vehicles (even government ones) actually have. Most people resort to paying landowners for letters claiming garage space. While our original seller offered to help with registration, their proposed solution involved temporarily registering the car in Addu zone with a fake Male’ zone board – a risky proposition we weren’t comfortable with. Instead, through one of Dad’s friends, we found another registration agent who, despite warning about delays due to stricter regulations, helped us get the car properly registered in my name after about 3-4 weeks of waiting.

Alhamdhlillaahi, once registered, I gradually regained my confidence behind the wheel. My uncle chaperoned my first drive, but after a few trips between Male’ and Hulhumale’, my nervousness faded. Hulhumale’s wider, less congested roads made driving and parking relatively easy, though Male’s narrow inner roads and scarce parking remain challenging. Since I was the most available family member to drive, I became our family’s designated driver, regularly taking everyone for shopping trips and driving my sister to work.

Javaabu

2024 was a year of mixed fortunes for Javaabu. This year we faced a lot of cashflow challenges because of huge delays in the government paying us for their projects resulting from the Maldivian economic crisis. Despite this, me and Jailam managed to pay all the team’s salaries and bills on time, keeping the business afloat.

This year we successfully delivered numerous significant projects. These included the Muiz and Co website, Environment Ministry website upgrade, JobPair.ca, DMADD website, LGA website, and Agriculture Ministry website. We also completed major systems like the Maritime Licensing System for the Transport Ministry and the Waste Management System and mobile app for the Environment Ministry. Throughout the year, we continued to upgrade existing platforms including eTukuri, MEES portal, Maldive Gas app, and the Maldives Protected Areas Website.

A significant technical challenge we faced was our aging codebase. Our Laravel starter template was stuck in version 9, while Laravel 11 was on the horizon. The monolithic nature of our template made upgrades particularly challenging. To address this, Athfan and I undertook a major initiative to modularize our code into open source packages. This led to the establishment of docs.javaabu.com, providing proper documentation for our systems for the first time. We published numerous packages on github.com/Javaabu, Packagist, and NPM with valuable contributions from Afeef and other team members.

While this modernization effort consumed much of the first quarter, it resulted in more maintainable and testable codebases. We implemented CI workflows for automated testing on GitHub and reinvigorated our commitment to unit testing for improved code quality. The year ended with some team changes as two members departed – one for studies abroad and another to explore new opportunities – but we successfully hired two new members to maintain our momentum.

DhivehiGPT and AI

2024 marked our decisive pivot toward AI technologies. Recognizing that we couldn’t solely rely on government projects, Jailam and I agreed to increase our focus on AI development. Our initial attempt to hire a ML Research Engineer faced some challenges, with the first hire not working out. However, we eventually found success with Yameen, whose enthusiasm for the field, despite lacking formal training, led to the establishment of Training Thursdays – a weekly knowledge-sharing session where he and other team members present on various ML topics and ongoing work.

A major technical achievement came with Yameen’s development of a highly optimized Dhivehi TTS model capable of real-time operation on mobile phones, with a remarkably small 10MB model file size. This TTS app was specifically designed to assist blind and visually impaired users with mobile screen reading.

June brought a significant milestone with Jailam’s major update to DhivehiGPT, leveraging the native Dhivehi language support in Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The impact was immediate and dramatic – our user base exploded from 4,000 to over 40,000 users by the end of the year. Alhamdhlillaahi, with this increased popularity, DhivehiGPT had become profitable. The proliferation of DhivehiGPT had increased the awareness of  AI among the Maldivian population, leading to increased demand for AI-related lectures and training sessions from various organizations. While Jailam handled most of these events, I also contributed by speaking at Maldives IGF 2024, Maldives AI Forum 2024 and the Al-Asr youth event.

Our success drew significant media attention, with multiple appearances on national TV, radio, and online news outlets. This visibility also attracted new competitors to the market, pushing us to innovate further. In November, I implemented a major overhaul of the DhivehiGPT site, introducing team plans and a credit-based subscription system that enabled us to easily roll out new features like Speech to Text and Text to Speech. Our participation in the CyberExpo organized by Maldives Police helped us to reach out to the public more and provided valuable insights into similar technologies being developed by other market players. In Sha Allah, we have even more exciting developments planned for DhivehiGPT in the coming year.

Gym

One of the major changes in my life this year was starting my fitness journey after Ramadan. The last time I had gone to gym was all the way back in 2021. I had promised my wife I’d resume gym after we marry, but had never gotten around to it. Since I was now living in Hulhumale’, I wanted to find a good personal trainer in Hulhumale’. This turned out to be a little bit of a challenge, but eventually, one of my friend’s previous trainer recommended one of his mentees to me at a new gym opening in Hulhumale’ Phase 1. My trainer turned out to be pretty good and helped guide me through proper workout routines. The gym sessions not only improved my fitness but also helped establish a better daily routine by getting me to wake up early. While I didn’t see dramatic changes on the scale, I definitely became noticeably fitter and stronger. A memorable highlight was being featured on my PT’s Instagram – a small moment of fame in my fitness journey!

Travel

2024 was filled with diverse travel experiences, starting with a peaceful family getaway to Makunudu resort in January. Despite being a tiny resort with limited facilities, it offered a beautiful glimpse of Maldivian natural beauty with its pristine beaches, crystal-clear waters, and diverse sea birds.

February took me to Bangladesh to visit my wife in Chittagong. My friend Ratul joined us for 2 days, and we made the most of it by visiting the local zoo where we saw magnificent Bengal tigers. What started as a week-long trip extended to two weeks, giving us more precious time together.

For Alhaa Eid, we enjoyed a family trip to Thulusdhoo, where we had the unique experience of touring the Coca Cola factory. Our stay at the Season Paradise guest house was highlighted by their exceptional food service, making the two-day trip even more memorable.

However, the most dramatic travel experience of the year came during my July visit to Bangladesh. The trip, initially planned for earlier in the month, had to be delayed by a week due to student-led quota protests and internet blackouts that made it difficult to contact my wife. When things seemed to calm down, I made the journey to Chittagong for what was planned as a two-week stay at a hotel. But the situation took an unexpected turn as protests intensified and the internet was cut off again. As one of the few remaining guests in the hotel, we watched as people gathered around Chittagong and the political situation reached its climax with the fall of Hasina’s government.

The night the government fell became particularly tense when the hotel staff informed us that our safety might be compromised since the hotel belonged to a ruling party MP and protesters were targeting ruling party-related businesses. In the middle of the night, we were evacuated to the Radisson Hotel, which was run by the Bangladesh Army. The hotel staff showed remarkable dedication to our safety during this tumultuous time. After returning to Maldives, we learned that our original hotel had indeed been attacked with rocks, damaging its glass facade.

September brought a delightful day trip to K. Huraa, where I was able to capture some stunning drone shots of the mangrove. In November, we celebrated my wife’s return to Maldives after completing her internship, and shortly after, we embarked on a two-week Malaysian adventure.

Our Malaysian journey began with over a week in KL before heading to Langkawi, where we experienced many firsts together. The trip was packed with exciting activities: riding the Skycab cable car, braving the glass-bottom Eagle’s Nest Skywalk platform (where a kind elderly gentleman taught us to look up while walking to overcome our fear), exploring the 3D art museum, and going island hopping. We kayaked in the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden, watched a mesmerizing fire show at Cenang Beach, and pushed our comfort zones with parasailing – which was terrifying but offered breathtaking views. I discovered a natural talent for jet skiing, according to my wife, and we ventured on an ATV ride among rice paddies and hills, which we later realized was actually more dangerous than the parasailing! Our stay at the Aloft hotel concluded perfectly with their weekly BBQ buffet on the final night, where we indulged in an impressive spread of meats including smoked brisket, chicken, sausage, and lamb.

The year’s travels concluded with an impromptu but meaningful weekend trip to my island in December. While the rest of my family had planned to go, we initially hadn’t intended to join them. However, knowing that my father had spent the past year renovating our house there, and me having bought furniture for our room, I decided it would be special to show my wife my island home for the first time. It was also my first visit since before leaving for the UK in 2022.

The two days were packed with activities: kayaking, enjoying evening tea on the beach, and exploring the many new developments on the island. We went island hopping to Hathifushi – a fascinating ghost town abandoned after the 2004 Tsunami and now reclaimed by nature – and Innafinolhu, a beautiful uninhabited island that had been split by a storm. The crystal-clear waters and pristine beaches were even more spectacular than what we’d seen in Langkawi, helping me understand why the Maldives holds such appeal for visitors worldwide. It was particularly rewarding to see how much my wife enjoyed the experience.

New Year’s Photo

This year’s New Year’s photo came with its own unique story. The evening began with my wife wanting to cook me a special meal – delicious burgers that left her quite tired from battling with a messy frying pan. Our photo plans had to work around dropping my sister off at work in Male’, so we packed the camera equipment in the car. By the time we returned to Hulhumale’, it was already past 11:30 PM and pouring rain. Working quickly, we improvised a roadside photo shoot, setting up the tripod just in time for midnight. My wife took charge of the camera while I painted the numbers, with spontaneous fireworks creating a spectacular backdrop. While perhaps not the perfect shot we’d planned, it was definitely cool and incredibly memorable. We concluded our New Year’s celebration with a fitting late-night chai at Marry Brown. You can download the full resolution image from my Flickr.

Hope you like my photo, and wish your 2025 would bring you many blessings and happiness! Cheers.