It’s that time of the year…, when the cone of time tilts suddenly from super busy to relatively free, when I sit and tilt back on the same chair from my student life to reflect upon the calendar year that just flew in front of my eyes. What purpose these posts serve is a long blogpost in itself. For the sake of brevity, lets call it out of scope.
Like the one’s preceding it, this year; too has been interesting, albeit a lot more and amazingly more eventful. Some events were positive and some negative but that is life! the ever increasing entropy process. Some of the good things include me getting promoted to a Manager and that too a role that I always yearned for (will talk about that later).
One one hand I learnt immensely at work. Work and work converged finally after long and the convergence degenerated to coincidence. Honestly there was more on the platter than I could have chewed but then this time I was not alone. Thankfully, I had company. In addition to great increase in quality and quantity of work it was great enhancement of role, I lead(and not manage) many highly capable people. All this brings me back to square one where “I face myself again” and start from grassroots again. I no longer do what I wanted to do CRU ratings, but today I don’t miss that. The best thing about all this that it is just the beginning of another phase, it’s not over yet. The journey is long and i have just started. “You have no idea what I am talking about, but don’t worry someday you will”. The convergence is so big that I have neither the time, nor the energy to pursue anything such as an year end project. A project that I used to undertake on my own, simply because everything that I do is my own. As I often talk to myself quite often while returning late “I MARRIED THE OTHER WOMAN IN MY LIFE AND HERE I AM “.
The new role allowed me to meet and know so many new people. Smart people, nice people. Many of them had names beginning with alphabets W,X, Y, Z. Interestingly, I interact with four people with their names starting with W, 1 with X. Chinese, Armenian, Russian, Italian and Pakistani in addition to American are the people I work with. With some I made good friends with and in the race to catch up with new people, lost touch with some good and …people. That’s way of life, old leaves make way for new in a spring and this cycle is not over yet. New people are there in pipeline too, just like prized trophies in the shelf of at least my life they will rightfully adorn their well deserved places. People like Rose, Cynthia, Misha and Amber have definitely led me to think differently and importantly better. Special thanks to Cyndee and Rose for celebrating my bday(not sure which one was that, the one that passed or the one that is yet to come but doesnt matter)
Talking of places, this year I had to visit NYC twice after long. The visits had been refreshing breaks but the jet lag afterward was certainly painful. I need to get over that pretty quickly. This time there were long trips, going forward, I will try to keep short trips. Needless to mention I have started developing a liking for the city. NYC is a great city where you get bored only if you are bore. Over there too, I meet many people. In fact over there I become more social than I am back here in India. Whatever the reasons may be it’s a fact. On a different note these visits coupled with different nationality team mates have made me more open to other cuisines. I visited Bathinda(Punjab), many times to maharaj’s wedding. It was a very pleasant experience, especially to travel by train and that too so frequently.
Consolidation and retreat phase: The realizaiton dawned upon me that more is not always more. Sometimes you have to step back and consolidate. It might be a temporary blip, but given many other things will assume increasing importance in life, but this year I will maintain current levels and try not to eat take more than i can assimilate. Afterall there are other things in life too.
Year of Indian cricket: Yes that is important. It was my dream to see India win ODI WC and voila we did. Wish you were here never sounded so better esp when India won the world cup match. We won at many other places too and against many good teams. Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli made the few matches I watched memorable. I will always remember the six that Dhoni hit to make India the ODI champs. Yes they are aided by declining Australian side too, but yes seeing your team winning is always good. Ain’t it so??The only thing left for the year is super century. Yes this is the last or may be second last year that we see of Sachin.
Look beyond: One interesting thing was that I ventured out from my already fixed set of financial and technical readings. The most important was the book on China which seems like to be going on and on …forever. Hopefully it will get along with the year. Few other books that I read were, Mahabharata, Surely You are Joking Mr Feynmann and partially read Andy Carnegie’s history. Yes the books I read are becoming fewer and thicker in general and more diverse. Another thing that is catching up fast is the reading I make on millitary and geopolitical matters. “You’ve come a long way baby” seems right phrase to describe the feelings I have for history. Reading foreign affairs and buying that on kindle is another thing that caught up. May be after a few years I would have caught up with the Middle east problem. A strong sense of discipline and focus is required. Another interesting thought was to set a target of 10/100. Next ten years and 100 books seems a bit challenging but lets see how much I can. The key is to go on and keep working towards it.
What could have been and what had been: हुई मुद्दत के ‘ग़ालिब’ मर गया, पर याद आता है, वो हर इक बात पर कहना, कि यूं होता तो क्या होता?(It has been long since Ghalib passed away, but it still echoes, when he used to say on everything what if that would have happened(I know I have killed it badly)) This is a very apt line for this year. Not to say this year was not a great one, in fact it was fabulous. It had all the flavors of life that I wanted and a lot more, but yes there could have ended completely differently. Many things could have happened but then मैं फिक्र को धुऐं मैं उड़ाता चला गया. This ad is very interesting and repeatedly strikes me. Most of the things are not happy feelings but that’s fine.
Fitness! It might not look so but I am fitter than what I was last year but there are miles to go
Marriages: Many of my very good friends got married. In fact the only holidays I took are for marriages. Really enjoyed in Sumeet’s and Vandana’s wedding.
Movies:Although not on theaters, but watched many movies this year. It was a good and much needed break that came at no better time. Watched movies like Die Hard (1-4), Transporter(1-3), Godfather1, Bourne Trilogy, Never Back Down 2, Fire in Babylon, Wall Street( 1,2). Will complete Godfather trilogy pretty soon. Harry Potter and Order of Pheonix. New York trips were great helper in this too.
So that’s what the year was full of work, actions, concussions and emotions what’s the plan ahead??? Well this year I don’t have a plan. No point in making resolutions that I can’t keep. This year just like Joker of The Dark Knight, I will play without a plan. Nothing specific, but focus is something that I have to work on try to reduce the time I waste on social networking sites. Lastly I wish everyone around me a happy and peaceful life. I will end this post by saying “Let there be knowledge, Let there be peace and Let there be light”. Amen