the year that was...

The new years is usually an arbitrary milestone on the trip, albeit it does give some kind of a relative structure to our past and gives some kind of relative speed to certain parts of the trip. 2009 has been a happening year. To reflect upon the idea that only I could have sowed the seeds for the events that took shape for me in 2009, does seem a bit unbelievable, but of course it is true.

The most striking, conspicuous feature of 2009 and even 2008, which came before it, was the lack of a stable home arrangement. While in 2008, I moved houses at the average rate of one in 3 months; in 2009, I had housemates at the rate of one in 2 months. Needless to say, most of the 2008 and 2009 were spent in looking for houses and housemates, with other things being played out on that background. (And I can proudly claim that I have had housemates from nearly all the major human races, and a couple of canine races as well!)

I think I have flogged that dead horse for a while now. So, now I’m going to skip anything about moving houses and about housemates, and list all the other things that I did last year:

1. I got married
2. I bought my first apartment,
3. I struggled at being able to sleep at night,
4. I got a belt at taekwondo,
5. I re-joined university,
6. I underwent 2 surgeries,
7. I spent Diwali at home after nearly 7 years,
8. I travelled to Sri Lanka for the first time,
9. I swam with the fish,
10. I did not have a single boring old flight, in some 10 odd international flights that I took, including one where the travel agent hadn’t paid the airlines and another where i was booked onto a cancelled flight,
11. I met my year old niece, who is more amazing than I could have imagined,

I made some new friends, I lost touch with some old ones, I got in touch again with some old ones; I had some wonderful time at work, I desperately struggled and hated work; I read Nelson Mandela’s A Long Walk to Freedom, but gave up on Ram Chandra Guha’s India after Gandhi and on Wallace’s Infinite Jest mid-way. I watched fewer movies than in 2008, and learnt only one new recipe – Jack Fruit subzi.

its February now, and bits of life are still up in the air waiting to settle down, but it now just looks like a matter of time and I wait for July eagerly... work, study, home - it will all be in its place! celebrations in july!!