This year was a year full of new stuff. And it was a year that zoomed right by without letting me know how quick it went by! While I say goodbye to the year that was, let me start with the fact that:
1 – This year got me into a habit of saying “See you!” instead of “Bye!” when parting with people over phone or in person. Unless I never want to see you again, when you meet me, I am going to say, “See you!” to you!
2 – I started teaching people how to write stories and how to write poems. Honestly, I learned more than I taught anyone. That makes me want to teach more!
3 – I taught college kids about culture and psychology and writing exams and giving up on school habits and whatnot. I still am teaching them, but the only thing I worry about is whether I bore them or not.
4 – I corrected my first set of exam papers this year. Then I did it again. I now know why I got such nice marks in exams even though I hardly ever studied. It was because I wrote in my papers something that made ‘sense’.
5 – A lot of people around me got married this year. Two best friends got married (one in last December actually), one cousin got married, one got engaged and my folks are behind my head to get me married off as well.
6 – I realised, accepted and it is now part of my being – Neki kar, dariya mein daal. Because, what you do for someone else is never for the someone else. It is entirely for yourself. You do something for someone because you feel a certain way about that someone or because you are a certain kind of person. Nobody owes you anything because you did or thought well about him/her.
7 – In many ways, I let go of my past – my perceived personality flaws, the childhood that could have been better, the school that could have been better, the college experiences that could have been more. There is really really no point in dwelling over the past. At the same time, it is necessary to admit that the past made you who you are.
8 – A lot of us today are rootless. We don’t know who we are, where we came from, why are our families and their ideas shaped the way they are. I realised that we cannot forgo of our pasts and we can’t live in them either. The past is to be used to give you strength to live in the present to build a better future. The tree isn’t the roots, but the tree isn’t without the roots either.
9 – I learnt metaphor. I don’t know how, but I did.
10 – I went to a lot of places I had never been to as well as familiar places. Although, travel-wise it wasn’t a great year, I none-the-less managed to go to Surat twice, Silvassa twice, Pune, Mulshi, Igatpuri, Alibaugh, Parbhani, Nanded, Manori and even parts of Mumbai I had not been to earlier.
11 – I realised and now appreciate fully my love for food over other indulgences. Whether it is a phase or not remains to be seen.
12 – Regularity. Something I never had for the last so many years. Something I never had in fact, I got introduced to and took to it as well! This year I learnt to exercise regularly through gymming, running and boxing.
13 – I also learnt to write regularly. For all my skills as a writer that I had for the last so many years, for the first time in my life in 2013, I FELT like a writer and can now have some confidence on that one skill of mine. All because I simply decided to write regularly and then stick to it.
14 – This year, I watched live Stand-up Comedy in the city and outside, I star gazed with huge telescopes and astronomers, I watched Mixed Martial Arts Exhibition Fights, insane number of movies including a lot of 3D ones at IMAX screens, heard live music at good places, went to comic book conventions and ate loads of food!
15 – I went on bike rides during torrential rains across hundreds of kilometres, on car rides with good friends, to farewell parties at shady places, bachelor parties to adventure sports parks that tanned us and left us with shaking legs, to friends’ anniversary celebrations to amusement parks (even managing to sit in between the anniversary couple during a horror-house ride because I was scared to sit on the sides).
16 – I started performing for Stand-up Comedy open mics. Even this regularly. Eventually, with a good friend, started an open mic property where others can come and perform as well.
17 – I made some excellent friends during the year. It was a short-lived affair. I understood the omnipresence of impermanence. through this experience and others.
18 – I judged a lot of competitions this year. From school elocution to college limericks to general poetry.
19 – I gave lectures on evolution, entrepreneurship, writing for a living, self-confidence and communication skills, blogging, to different audiences, from college kids to adults, to business owners to once at a barcamp. I even attended a Senior Citizen Mahila Mandal to talk to them about men & women and psychology and bringing up grandkids & kids!
20 – I taught young kids how to write poems without making them think that there is only one way.
21 – I realised the enabler value of money. Now all that is left is for me to earn it.
22 – I realised I am surrounded by bankers, lawyers and advertisers. They seem to be my best friends!
23 – I met people who write, sing, paint, do comedy, practice sports, cook, travel, teach, dance, develop apps, build businesses, hold jobs, have families. I met amazing people who taught me there is so much to life than one way of living it!
This year went by in a whoosh. Over the next few days, there is more to do. But, this has been one of the best years of my life. I am going to say goodbye to it, but that is only because…
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Square And Fair 