Hmmm....This could well be 'The Decade That Was'. However, that could run the danger of turning into a thesis coz ten years is a long long time and then there was also a Roger Federer and his 15!! Not that I’m not going to mention him at all in this ;P but let’s see where this goes…
One thing’s for sure…this year went by just soooooooooooooooooooooooo fast. So, the year that was…well just a few glimpses that come to mind with effortless ease…
I completed a year at work and three years of running after criminals! What fun ;P…it’s a blessing to be able to do what really appeals to you and what you strongly feel for. Yes, it’s big time serious work and the results take a real long time to show…gets pretty stressful at times…every day is a challenge and that’s what gets me going J Was such a crazy time when I opted out of the campus placements and decided to look on my own…it was a phase full of turmoil…but I'm glad I showed faith in myself and did what I did then…Prerana was certainly worth the wait!!
I also completed a year since I graduated J I guess almost all of us who have ever passed through those gates have a love and hate relationship with that place! I find it so amusing how places don’t feel the same when familiar people who shared that space with you are gone…but still there is this strange sense of comfort that you feel around such places even though the faces are all so strange and unfamiliar.
Travel, travel and more travel…work related but fun! This year I went to places I’ve never been to before…worked but also found time to explore the places a bit…Calcutta, Ranchi, Deoghar, Aurangabad, Akola and Kathmandu.
If you walk down the streets of Ranchi, honestly every 4th guy you’ll see will be sporting the Dhoni hairdo…long hair and all J
When I told people at home that I had to go to Deoghar, I was told to go visit this Shiv temple there…really famous and something and blah blah…so one morning we decided to go…before we had even entered the premises, we were attacked by a whole bunch of priests. Tourists in a famous temple town attract priests like honey bees on a revenge spree after you have destroyed their comb!! They’re just all over you! You can’t escape them…no chance…how come you even thought of that?! So finally one of them succeeded…and while he took all our details; in that short span of 10 minutes I realized what a solid documentation system these guys have…they could put even the biggest research and documentation organization to shame! Years from now if anyone from my family visits the same place, as a rule it will be this guy who will cater to them and no other priest will dare approach them (The locals confirmed this later. They said these guys are almost like a small mafia unit!!)…and then as we were leaving the premises all traumatized by the crowd and the priest, he pointed to the wall and said.., “…that’s my cell phone number. The next time you’re here, just call on that number.” All that we could do was smile. It was pretty comical…seriously.
The locals in Aurangabad think that the only difference between the sculptures at the Ajanta and Ellora caves is that of water colour!!! We just had a day to ourselves and so the locals suggested we shoudn’t really bother going to Ajanta if we have seen Ellora coz “…madam, the sculptures are all the same. Only the ones at Ajanta are coloured…water colour madam…that is the only difference. Don’t waste your time.” We smiled… I mean seriously man…Buddha and Shiv could get into a fight over this one!!
Dude, whoever was incharge of intelligence at the Daulatabad fort, I wish comes back to life and then trains the Indian police and the Indian intelligence agencies in well “intelligence” planning!! An architectural brilliance in the context of its intelligence planning…no wonder no one ever conquered that fort. What brains…waah!
For some real weird reason, people in Aurangabad and Akola thought that Iyer and I were firangs!! How…why…what….I dunno…they kept asking us, “madam…which country?”
While on chat a friend introduced me to Milan Kundera…I discovered Shye Ben Tzur on a flight back to Bombay…I’m in love with both those men!
One of my kids at work went on from being illiterate to acquiring basic literacy to having completed her vocational training…a living example of how the human will is even harder than a freakin’ diamond…sheer perseverance and determination…she’ll go a long way. I feel so proud every time I look at her.
Another one of my kids (5 year old nephew) finally figured out how old he had turned on his 5th birthday…sort of a “Eureka” moment. Last year he had no clue as to how old he had turned…this time he confidently stated that he had turned 5. However, after he confidently stated he had turned 5, I asked him about the number of candles on his cake…when he stated 2, I asked how come 2 candles when you turned 5? I confused him big timeJ. It’ll still take him some time before he understands that the number of candles on your cake equals to how old you’ve turned (atleast till you’re a kidzee ;P)…he’s a bright kid…I’m sure he’ll figure that one out soon.
On two separate occasions, Devaiah and I were told that we “…have a very good heart.” Like really? Why so? “Coz you are into social work.” Huh! Such people totally crack me up. It’s fun to see the expression on their faces when you tell them you get paid for it!! YES, I get paid for my work!!
I learnt one whole sentence of Marathi J Those who know me real well will know what an achievement that is!! Yes I’m linguistically challenged beyond Hindi and English!! Any way, the sentence… “nahi…mee nai karoo shakat.” (no, I can’t do it.) Helps when you’re an NGO person working with the Government…they have this lethal tendency to think that all NGOs are funding agencies!!
I finally travelled in the Delhi Metro…it’s super cool! Also I travelled in the Bombay-Delhi Rajdhani some 5 times this year and I did not get food poisoning!!
People kept getting married…left, right, and centre…my friends, my juniors, seniors, random people…just everybody…it was as if no one will be allowed to marry once 2009 ends…chalo marriage toh marriage, all the marriages that happened in the park near my house…I have to say, well, strange choice of song. I dunno why all the baraat bands played “emotional atyaachaar”!! I mean really man, have you ever heard the lyrics of that song…irrespective of the picturization in the movie, it’s NOT a wedding song… “bol bol why did you ditch me w@$%#”!! For that matter, I’ve never come to understand why baraat bands play “yeh desh hai veer jawaano ka”…but nevermind.
I went back to Lucknow after 7 long years…not on a particularly happy occasion…still, it felt good to be back…nostalgia. By the way all those memorials and parks built all over Lucknow by BMW (while she was CM – hint hint for decoding BMW)…well they kill me. Such a waste of real estate…and I’m really sorry about this but Jaipur my friend, is no longer the “pink city”! Yes, there is more pink stone in Lucknow than in Jaipur!! Courtesy parks and memorials by BMW…I prefer Jaipur to remain the “pink city”. There are certain other things playing on BMW’s mind that are giving me nightmares. Around the year 2003, when people in Bombay used to ask me where I’m from, I used to say that I am from Uttaranchal but have been born and brought up in Lucnkow. Then 2006 happened and I used to tell people that I belong to Uttarakhand but have been born and brought up in Lucknow. Then Telangana fuelled certain ideas in BMW’s head and God forbid all of that takes place, I will belong to Uttarakhand but born and brought up in the State of Harit Pradesh or Purvanchal or God alone knows what!!! And if BMW ends up inspiring more people, India could well beat the USA…yes we could have 52 States as compared to USA's 50 and we could call ourselves the United States of India!
They canned the Jazz Yatra yet again and I didn’t end up going for it L
Self discipline is soooooooooooooooo important…you have a bad cold and still you go ahead and eat ice cream…what do you get…LARYNGITIS! The people who’re a part of my world were at peace for a week…my throat couldn’t utter a sound…and I realised how empowering Gtalk was! ;P
They finally brought down the Annexe! All those who have studied in Jai Hind between 2000 – 2007 will know what I’m talking of. There was a time when they kept telling us that the Annexe will be brought down and they will build a 7 floor thing in it’s place…we had actually started to believe that years from now when our kids come and study here they would be saying the same thing to them. Well, we were wrong…they finally brought down the Annexe J
Ono and Shraddha…remember the cow who was suffering from AIDS? ;P …the one in that garden area outside Churchgate station? Well it finally succumbed to AIDS ;) or I think it might be the Swine flu…I mean it had AIDS which led to poor immunity and I’m sure Swine flu did the rest of it. Friends, the cow with AIDS in no more ;P
I discovered you can watch 2 films at Fame Andheri for the price of 1! Yes, they don’t check your tickets either outside or inside the theatre and they don’t care which screen you are entering either. Have fun!! I almost ended up watching 2. Just that I wasn’t so interested in the other one so decided to stick to the one that I had bought tickets for!
I fell in love with “Chaiyya Chaiyya” all over again!! :) Grooving to beautiful Urdu poetry on a moving train passing through the hills…sheer bliss J
Kids kept falling into pits and the media kept covering the news continuosly, live!! I mean what’s with kids falling into pits all over this country…every time the media covers such episodes…live mind you…no one learns a lesson…kids keep finding pits which they can fall into and no goddam person goes and covers up those pits!
It’s official…I’m losing my memory…thankfully it’s not a total loss…but I’ve had moments that made me feel like Jack (or whatever his name was) from '50 First Dates'! Remember that guy with a 10 odd seconds memory span…I went for a movie with a friend who introduced me to four other people there. By the time we reached the fourth person I realised I didn’t remember a single person’s name!! I have several other examples…but I won’t indulge. It’s just pretty embarrassing.
One morning I woke up to this sms – “MJ is dead.” I can’t tell with precision what emotion I felt when I read this. All I can say is that it was just so surreal…irrespective of all the controversies; no one can deny the sheer genius of that man…the passing away of a legend… ‘This Is It’ helped the fans relive the magic…what an absolute THRILLER!
Sachin completed 20 years of cricket and I lost all interest in the game. I have no clue why! I did not watch a single cricket match all year.
Beijing brought GOLD and the Indian janta realised that there are other sports in India besides cricket! (No, I have nothing against cricket even though I have lost all interest)
People thought Nadal was suffering from Tendonitis…the truth is…it wasn't Tendonitis; it was SODERLING ;P (I know I’m so mean when it comes to certain people)
CLIJSTERS J J
J J J Ahem Ahem… And then there was Roger Federer J J J He took Madrid from under Nadal’s nose and finally conquered the French crown and created a hole in my pocket! (My Fed Camp mates who watched the Garros finals with me at Sports Bar, Phoenix know what I’m talking ofJ). No I didn’t mind that hole in my pocket at all J
All throughout the year we had so much fun watching the Grand Slam Singles finals at the Sports Bar at Phoenix. First the French and then Wimby…we came to be known as the Federer Camp at the Bar and our customized Federer support t shirts were such a hit with the crowd J J some wine drinking and loads of table climbing J I so wish I had come up with this idea around 2003…could have celebrated all 15 with such elan :D…So LOVE FIFTEEN it was…of course some idiots still have their doubts, but that won’t change the truth…he still remains Numero Uno J (It’s an achievement I finished Roger Federer talk in only 8 lines! ;P)
Talking of customized t shirts, I will never forget the night we walked knee deep water, got drenched in rain…risked our lives to go collect our Federer support t shirts for the Wimbledon final which was due the next day! I mean if Federer saw us walking in that knee deep water, he would adopt all three of us! (Ok fine…it’s just 3 more lines J)
Ok…on a very serious note…the Tiger Woods Sex Scandal is NOT sports news…and then there was Agassi’s ‘Open’ and his crystal meth tales!! Who ever does those columns (and if you happen to read this by divine intervention) please shift that to the entertainment news section…at least for the sake of all those who are getting entertained by it..if not for the sake of sports!
During the State Assembly Elections, the poll booth officer didn’t know the difference between a driving license and an India issued passport! For some reason he thought my passport was my driving license. When I told him it really was the passport, his shock was apparent. He examined the document for a short while (though longer than what he should have). I feel good I contributed to his knowledge base. I’m sure he was trained for his poll duty…but they forgot to tell him what an Indian passport looked like!
I did a movie marathon with Devaiah before she left for Bangalore J Todaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I miss you loads L
During an absolutely fab Bombay Darshan outing with Iyer, we discovered aunties in sarees and Nikes at Marine Drive! Fun sight J
I went back to gradschool for a consultation meet…my research guide said someone wanted to meet me…a junior who’d opted for research and was being guided by my research guide…he said she had read my research dissertation some 10 times! She said it was so awesome that whenever she was confused about any aspect of her research, she would go to the library instead of the research guide and refer to my work…was super flattered…she made my day J Honestly, it just felt great to learn that your research is not just collecting dust in the library! Felt great to be acknowledged J
It’s just so amusing how the people you love the most have such immense capacity to hurt you…you give them so much power over yourself that they have the power to walk all over you! I sometimes detest this aspect of the human psyche…It’s also amusing how the most brash of statements are made without much thought and how those statements can totally crush you…Jnevermind…
The “Mango People” grooving to “Aahun Aahun”…what fun…COPENHAGEN…Shashi Tharoor and his Troubled Tweeting Tales, Chandrayaan, and OBAMA!!
The Bandra Worli Sea Link finally opened to the public…you can see it from my terrace…during the opening ceremony I went to my terrace to watch the laser show they had put up…I wasn’t alone…a mother was trying so hard to make her 5 year old son watch what she thought he might recall with pride all his life…poor thing was just so uninterested in the laser show!! Was hillarious to watch her convince him to stay and watch.
Also, I’ve been on Blogspot since June 2007…after 2 long years, I finally started publishing J J J
