Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The Year That Was…

Where did the year go? Suddenly it is December......again - and we realize the giant strides with which we started in January to achieve something for the year, which has within a blink of an eye, come to an end, and we have not even begun.

This post is mostly self-indulgent. So, if you have nothing much to do other than read stupid meaningless stuff on the web that does not make an inkling of difference to you, then, you may might as well read this too.

· I moved from Bangalore to Pune. I never thought that I would be able to make this happen. Till the very last minute, I was unsure that this would work out, but eventually, it did. The moment I got settled at Pune; the thoughts of this being a mistake began to seep in. And to this day, I am unable to come to a conclusion on this.

· Settling down has been and is still the buzz word this year. I saw many of my friends and acquaintances either tying the knot, or, taking a learners’ course by getting engaged or simply testing the waters by having an affair. Family and relatives have been breathing down my neck to begin bride-searching for me, but have somehow managed to avoid it till now. I don’t know if I will be able to repeat this feat in the coming year.

· The Gods of Rock are still pissed off on me for listening to Himmesh Reshammiya. Every rock concert this year that was held in Mumbai fell on the weekends when I was stuck in Pune. I could not attend even a single one of them, and there is simply no one in Pune who shares the same affection for it as me. I have hence deleted every single Hindi track from my disk and loaded it with rock legends in the hope that next year goes fine.

· My family has started groom-hunting for my sister. At every meeting with any of the prospective groom’s family, I feel nothing but pity for the would-be-groom. I feel that the first meeting is nothing more than a sales meeting, where each side is trying to make a pitch for their product.

· I was quite unaware that there are so many institutes where you could get a MBA (Mane Badhu Aavade – in Gujarati), until ‘bio-data’ of prospects for my sister began trickling in. I literally needed to probe some of them to find out their actual education.

· My friends and I almost pulled off a filmy stunt. We were off to get one of our friends married in court just because the girl’s father did not approve of the boy and girl feeling otherwise; the boy being our friend. At the last minute, the girl got cold feet. I am sure this thing will be discussed in the future at every party.

· I consider Diwali as family time. Earlier, every Diwali, I used to take a whole week, sometimes two, off and visit home. I used to visit all of my relatives during the festival. This year, I was stuck in office of the entire duration and did not get to enjoy it for a single moment, even though I am just a couple of hours away from home.

· My birthdays usually fall in Diwali week, and have spent it with family, always. This year, I was stuck in the office, and spent a very boring birthday. I have had some really boring birthdays, but this year’s takes the top slot in the list of boring birthday. I pray that I am not subjected to any more of these.

· Spent a lot of time with family this year. This is one thing that I have begun to appreciate and cherish and respect.

· Last year, when I had some spare money, I could not decide on what gifts to buy for the family. I did some probing and when I could not decide on anything appealing enough, I went ahead and brought a home theatre system. This year too, I was in the same dilemma and this time I wanted to buy something for me too. I was stuck between portable music player, new bike and cell-phone for me. So, like last year, I went ahead and purchased an Aqua-Guard water purifier for home. This, once again, proves that I am not the man to consult when it comes to gifts.

· Took a couple of short out-station trips with family, which we had not done for a long long time. This is the only and the best thing that has happened after shifting to Pune, which was otherwise not feasible.

· Pune is a boring city. Everyone contradicts me on it, but on pondering on the arguments, I have come to realise that it is the people that make the place wonderful, and not the other way around.

· I have begun to appreciate a life without the television. I spend Monday to Friday without a television. Does not make any difference whether you have a television to return to or not.

· I have inspired a handful of people to blog. They too, like me, are in need of some fresh inspiration, and I have sworn to give it to them, or atleast arrange it for them.

· I managed to scrape through two more semesters of my MS program without much damage. I also survived three years in my current organisation, which I did not plan on when I first joined.

· I spent most of the year living out of a bag. If I wasn’t going somewhere, I was coming from somewhere. I used up two luggage bags in one year.

· This is the first year when I filed Income-Tax returns, and I now feel the pain that my brethren feels when the salary slip arrives with a substantial amount deducted for the government.

· I applied for a new passport because my old passport expired. This made me realise my age, and I hate it. I have been kicked-out of the youth phase of life, literally.

· I took up reading with a vengeance. Well, not actually vengeance, but simply out of boredom. But I did read up a lot this year.

· There are many levels to boredom. Whenever I got super-bored, I came to the conclusion that it was a new level of boredom and it cannot reach any higher (or lower) than this. I have been, contradicted on this, many times and have discovered many new levels.·

· This year, I neither have the inclination nor the inspiration to celebrate the New Year’s Eve.

· I remembered many birth-dates of friends this year, and also managed to wish most of them on the same day itself. This was possible only because of the efforts of a very close friend. This also reminds me that I have still to wish one friend whose birthday is today.

Well, these are the only things that are on top of my mind for this year. All in all, I neither have any regrets, nor do I have any complaints from this year. I hope that the next year being in with it lots of surprises, and pray that all of them are good.

Here’s wishing each and every one of you a very very Happy New Year, and may it bring with it all the happy-ness with it that you wish for.

3 comments:

Prasan Shanbhag said...

No blog since september.....and now this Mammoth!!!

Su kar che.....

Also, you've written about people whom you inspired to blog....what about people who inspired you to blog!!!!

And plzzz......the year has to end and begin with a quote from Rajni saar....

"yenna rascala....MIND IT!!!"

Unknown said...

Happy New year Motu...

Nice Blog I enjoyed reading it...
Come down to bangalore again you will never get bored:)

Rohan said...

Dude....can you keep writing. Your writing is the inspiration not your half a$$ comments to your couple of friends who your trying to inspire to blog.

So keep writing will you.