Curtains 2011.. !!

Its a strange feeling, and certainly one that is difficult to describe, that one gets on the morning of the 31st of December and on the day after that. There is, of course, nothing different in the way nature treats both these days. The sun rises and sets at approximately the same time and the weather remains generally the same. Yet, as far as the human mind is concerned, these two days are as different as chalk and cheese. On the 31st December, most of us, I suspect, have this feeling of relief and of a burden being removed from our shoulders. For those of us (and I guess that is a majority) for whom the year has not really gone the way it should have, 31st December finally seems to be end of it all. We think to ourselves, let this one day go and from tommorow, I will behave myself and the world will be alright. But before that we allow ourselves one 'final' chance at doing things we want to avoid henceforth. So a final day of no-holds-barred boozing before we start moderating ourselves. One final binge on our favourite food before we embark on the diet. One final day of sleeping late before we hit the gym from tommorow morning. And this repeats every year on 31st December, no matter if the year has been good or bad.

But 2011 has been a different year in many senses. Here I will not dwell on the many events, good or bad, that have taken place around us this year. Of course, some stand out : the Lokpal saga, India's World Cup win, the many gems that death took away from us etc. But remembering those is best left to the media. From a personal viewpoint, the year was somewhat a mixed bag. As always, it started off well as far as my new year resolutions were concerned. Was very regular in the gym  in January and to add to that, had a personal best finish in the Mumbai Marathon. In fact, the gym is the one place with which I have kept my date throughout the year. Cannot say for sure it has made me stronger or fitter, but still, feels good to see one major resolution being achieved in the year. But for the other ones, the less said the better. Finished 2011 without still getting a car, a decision that I somehow seem to always push. Plans of learning a new language started of well but then had to stall that since 'Ich war sehr beschäftigt'. Financially, it was a nightmare year. The sensex dropping off by 25% this year meant that some of my stocks were reduced to pulp. Thank God for the good ol fixed deposits !!. The political and social environment around us did little to spark encouragement. In fact, politics kept touching new lows during the year, finally culminating in the midnight farce at the Rajya Sabha a few days ago. Surely we cannot go any lower than this, or can we ?? The government was in a virtual coma throughout the year. Thus, in 2011, it was left to the individual to make the year special for himself/herself. The world certainly did not help ! :(

But all these negatives were washed away by that one moment !. When at half-an-hour past midnight on the 29th of March, I held a tiny human life for the first time, the world changed forever. And, of course, me as a person too. And for that moment itself, 2011 would be a year to remember !!. After that day, life was thrown out of gear. I have hardly had a six-hour sleep at a stretch since, but all this minor discomforts pale when I see the smile on her face when I return back from work !! (speaking of which, work-wise it was a decently good year, hoping for different things in 2012). So I thank the Almighty for giving this precious gift to me in 2011 !!. In fact, if I were to describe this year in three words (as is trending today on Twitter) it would be 'Me Daddy Cool' !!!.. :-)

And so on to 2012 !! I will talk more about it in a subsequent post. But one of my 2011 resolutions was to keep blogging regularly. And with a grand total of less than 10 posts on both my regular and cricket blog combined, this has been a most spectacular failure. And I carry forward this resolution for 2012. And just to spur myself on, I have decided to move the blog to a new place. Henceforth, I would be blogging on 'Thoughts Along the way.. ' (http://conversewithamit.blogspot.com/). Let us see if the change of name and address improves things as far as the updation of the blog. I have done a similar thing with my cricket blog as well, which is now at http://amitoncricket.blogspot.com/.

So with this, I sign off and bring down the curtains on 2011 as well as on this blog !!

Hope to see you all at my new blogspace. Keep following there !!!

Cheers

Amit