The year that was - Part II

It's only the 3rd month of the new year and I miss good-ol' 2009 already. And that does not mean I'm a pessismist. (And even if it does - "The good thing about being a pessimist is that you're constantly either proven right or pleasantly surprised") I think it's finally time to quit-being-lazy-to-type,and puke part 2 all over the blogpost,before it fades out of grandma's memory(I'm going to be old(-er than this person in Ahmedabad,like she very smartly phrased it,when she was here in Pune) in 3 days from today). Now this is going to probably be a very messy sequence of events and also, a very confusing way to put it, but I think I'm going to write a little about Jan 2010 and Feb 2010 and most of March 2010,before I flash back into July-December '09. A very wise man once said - There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past. And because I detest Divination,I'm not even going to attempt to crystal ball into the future....I'll just start with the recent past, and then move over to the less recent,yet past. Also,there's going to be some considerable amount of quoting.


January 2010 has not been so good. I don't remember interacting with my friends as much as I used to. None of them. Not because I was into work and had no time and all that...it was just because definitions had been shattered/proven null...void. I'm not here to force myself on anyone.I'll just be where people want me to be. I would not want to be around some place where I can actually sense my presence not being appreciated for whatever reason. Why would I want to be someplace where I know I'm going to get bored because people are uncomfortable being whoever they are. Basically, I didn't enjoy January 2010.So there, nothing much to write about....'coz it was just an extension of Dec 2009,mostly. Except for the SKNCOE Alumni Meet in college(23rd) and yea,(31st)Absinthe! (Eerie slytherin green/kryptonite coloured liquid saunf). Feb 2010 has just been like a super-extension of Jan 2010 with the 2 good days being the 13th (thanks to RC and SB) and the 14th (Gudiya & Bhaiyya - The most adorable kyooties I've ever had the pleasure to meet...muaah!). Hey,wait...Feb beats Jan. It has another day I can mention - 26th - Holi at work. Never done that before :D.


And yet,predominantly,I've never hated any word in English as much as I hated the word - 'Change' - starting sometime around Dec 2009(when I happened to be at the receiving end of gyaan like being apathetic and indifferent and being more cold = becoming older and wiser!! nonsense! what about staying 'young at heart',dude?!). Change isn't always good,but then again,it isn't always bad either. How ever that's supposed to work,I've only just learnt to accept it, 'coz fighting it,is probably not worth all the trouble....specially when you don't know what you're taking all the trouble for in the first place! [ WARNING: CONFUSION LEVEL INDICATOR:RED ...level rising...* beeping getting louder *.....writing and trying to actually explain any further is not advisable.]
(I'd like to mention a line from my School(fyi: anything to do with my school calms me down a great deal) song here - As times may change,we'll be the same..and never forget it's honoured name. :).) ...which is probably why I detest the change word so much, especially when it's affecting me in a very un-express-able way :-. Correction: I'm the one letting it affect me. I've got to learn to help myself! uff!


Moving on to March 2010, a great start to the month (Holi with a b(h)ang! - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/notes/meenakshi-sridhar/the-festival-of-colours-1st-march-2010/363097405934). And then 6th of March was a blah-but-worth-a-mention-day. Just the evening. And then.....just when I start thinking...chalo,I think March is going to be good...at least better than the January and the February of 2010...poof!..the reverie just bursts into a cloud of (in slightly exaggerated terminology)the-universe-totally-adjusting-itself-to-conspire-against-me cloud of smoke! Courtesy: That weird ridiculous situation when parents tell you that they "would like to talk to you" in a very evidently-not-very-well-rehearsed fashion,in chorus and trying to complete each other's sentences before the other finishes their own and trying to sound extremely unnaturally casual,all at the same time! Super-duper-ultra-insanely-ridiculous! And all this was last week. I'd like to give a bada sa hug and a thank you to this friend of mine whom I bakofied the finer details to(and broke down a little,even). I had a terrible headache the next day,but I still manged to pull myself together. I owe you. Also, a prediction he made way back in October...or was it September 09, has actually come true - Manchester United rule! It's the end of March and they're right on top of the EPL! This Sunday(yesterday) I ended up having coffee with a total stranger who has come down from Manchester, dislikes people who litter the road and public places, who also happens to be big time ManU fan, who has watched 2-3 games at Old Trafford, who is a Harry Potter Fan,annnnd who also thinks that the McD's situation last Sunday was as awkward as I thought it was! And so March....my birthday month...(it's supposed to be a happy month OKAY! x-( ) happens to unfold in this...why-am-I-at-a-total-loss-of-the-right-words manner...


And nowww...back to where I'd left off in "The Year that was - Part I" :


A quick recap: The 1st half of 2009 was superb,right from the Mumbai trip to the birthday surprise to the bevda-panti to the month of June,where I happened to bump into a college pal at the lounge by my place. I'd like to highlight the end of the first half,just because that was the time I rememeber being happy...like...every synonym happy has - happy :). Quoting Barney Stintson (of HIMYM fame): It was AWESOME. And LEGENDARY even. Probably the craziest thing I've ever done :D


July 2009 - 5th: The day the-friends-from-surat moved from an apartment on the the first floor to the apartment on the ground floor in the same building(They were supposed to invite us over for lunch(that they were supposed to cook) and a party that they were supposed to host in their cool backyard...but that never actually materialized :p) It was the day I just sat around doing nothing significant,while they moved the heavier stuff around ,but I do remember helping with the curtains and chota-mota stuff...so I wasn't completely useless.They let me keep a sheep/some animal stuffed toy that they were going to throw away anyway :).We even hung out at Apache later that evening....I think that's when Apache became THE place to go,when we had no where else or better we could go. 9th: The day My first nephew was born :). Again, a good month.


August 2009 - Friendship day (2nd),the day we went to Little Italy. Jiggy's I'm-off-to-the-UK party :). And the bong's birthday at Bavdhan...with someone(I think it was the 'use-my-name-as-a-synonym-for-'fair' friend) wondering out loud ,what it would have been like if the 6 of us lived together - Jiggy(Ross),Fair guy(Chandler),Paaji(Joey),Bong(Phoebe),Chotu(Monica) and me(Rachel). The 2nd half of August had Ganpati celebrations...a time when I always get to meet up with the bachcha-log gang with whom I used to play hide-n-seek and seven-stones and baida and Dumb Charades...especially the airforce station kids :)


September 2009 - The bevda-ful month. Should i just go right ahead and call it the best month of the year for Apache,Mirchi Kola,Apache and Apache Nxt every weekend of the month? :D
As of 15th September 2009, 3 of us DELL people (A,A and M),were officialy Project Engineers,for WIPRO technologies :). I'd like to mention PDA as well,for reasons best known only to me,'cozI'm not sure the other concerned person would remember. Awesome month,September! :)


October 2009 - The month when I realised that I'm so wrong about people and defending them for who I think they are. I'm bad at psychology. A shocking revelation about Ms.Marathi ('coz I can't think of a better pronoun abhi...and I don't want to call her 'pinks'). That was the day we walked down from Bavdhan to garden Court and back....aise hi...in darkness. Then,there was a day when Ms. Marathi and I went to buy Mr.Tide-safedi a gift for his birthday,wearing the exact same colour combination of clothes like cartoons! Blue jeans+pink top. Her dad even clicked a pic. of us looking like clowns! Also the month we went to Mumbai,the 3 of us,played fooz-ball,bowling,that-table-hockey and Dance dance revolution. I had to limp all the way to the railway station from the mall,with my stupid broken chappal and I had the rudest thing anyone has ever said to me - "Your birth is a mistake,you'll spend the rest of your life correcting! :D" All in good humour though...well said!


November 2009 - This particular month seems to have blanked out of my mind. Strange. All I can remember is work at WIPRO-Phase1-MSB. New colleagues. New manager. New job role -Network Administration. As cool as that may sound,it isn't really....not so much anyway. Annnnd...was this the month I interacted(met her before) with Baiju's friend PriyanCa with a 'C' ? More like, she jabbered away and I listened :)


Dec 2009 - There was this sudden ,not gradual, SUDDEN "CHANGE" factor that happened to take over...as I watched helplessly...so probably I let it take over or whatever. The point being,it felt like I was starting to lose touch with my friends(however cheesy that might sound)...it was creepy! A couple of them faded out ...around August I suppose,and the ones that were left...they seemed to become distant too. Or was I the one starting to drift away? I dunno...but that's how the entire month of December turned out to be. It upset me so bad,it made me write shitty-senti stuff(and address it to a friend)...yuck! * hypothetical puking *. But I'm glad that I got that off my chest,'coz just NOT saying anything about something that semed to be bothering me(I don't know what :-| ) was finally starting to irritate the hell out of me.
I even had THIS said to me,well not all of it,just the part in quotes - "Haven't you done anything in the past to cement a place for yourself" anywhere...I guess I haven't.But hey, I'm not here to force myself on anyone,thank you. (see what I've written for Jan 2010) I was starting, to be percieved, as a person who is bent on proving how superior I am,and how I'm above all the mere mortals...but,if I were to ask myself...then that's who I've always been....haven't I? And I haven't,don't and never will make choices based on what other people are saying...no matter what.I mean,too bad people can't see my part of the reasoning involved. It's not my problem that they want to believe that I depend on other people's judgement. And too bad,that they don't understand,that sometimes,banking on a friend's opinion,is NOT the same thing. But then,that last line makes no sense at all...because I can't define 'friend' anymore. Turns out, I had a very childish,'too specific',definition. (In my head I hear - "Mira,you silly silly girl!" in Chota saarukh-as-saif-ali-khan voice. :) )
And then New year's eve arrived (I dare not say) like any other last day of any other year,except (yeah... except and but, two awesome conjunctions that allow you to play with the meaning of the entire sentence!) for the fact that,this time had one person I'd spent one new year's eve with and 2 people I hadn't spent any new year's eve with. Naah! Who am I kidding? It was different,in a very strange way that I can't express...in words,expressions,sign language - nothing. All in my head but can't express.Period.


It's been a nice year...2009 :)


Oh, when I look back now,
That summer seemed to last forever.
And if I had the choice,
Yeah, I'd always wanna be there.
Those were the best days of my life...


Ohhh, yeah, the summer of 2009.

Man we were killin' time,
((We were young and reckless.))
((We needed to unwind.))
I guess nothin' can last forever, forever, no...

Yay!

And now the times are changin',
((Look at everything that's come and gone.))
Sometimes when I play that old six-string,
((I think about you, wonder what went wrong.)...


Those were the best days of my life.

Oh, yeah.
Back in the summer of 2009.
It was the summer, the summer of 2009.




(wow...that's a lot of blogging in just 2 months....) So there I have it, the year 2009. A wild crazy year.....most of it I liked,some of it I didn't :)