It's been months and years since I worked on this blog. I started this blog as my truly online diary that would contain bits and pieces of everything worth sharing with you, the reader. As I sit at my office desk in the new dawn of 2014, I can't but help reflect on the year gone by. Hence, an opportunity to revive the blog.
Here are my reflections, recollections and attributions on/to the year that just went by - 2013.
The year 2013 was very uniquely placed in history, in that it is the first year that humankind survived, post the failed 2012 apocalypse that doomsday sayers had so strongly predicted, taking some cue from what they called Mayan calendar. Common public obviously had no clue what this calendar was untill the hollywood flick stamped it's seal of approval on this far fetched idea. Now, don't get me wrong. Folks who studied Mayan culture and calendar, I am sure knew a great deal of it, but to publicly proclaim something like this with perfect accuracy : remember the dates were also predicted, made all this look very ridiculous in my opinion. In a way it reminded me of our met department's predictions which most of the times are missed by miles and yards. As humans, we love to speculate and predict future and go to great lengths to do that and I am sure this is not the last time we witnessed such misplaced forecast. So, overall Homo Sapiens survived 2013 and lived to greet each other on 1st Jan, 2014.
As each year draws to a close, more and more cyber junkies and SMS ustaads are getting busy in what's possibly the high point of their creativity through the year. To come up with the ultra creative messages, pictures, quotes that are full of great adjectives and phrases, that can easily put a Wren Martin to shame. All sorts of philosophies of life are shared over Facebook and Twitter, with most of them attributed to famous names, which obviously most of us cannot verify. Hence, believing everything prima facie is becoming order of the day. Over the last few years, since social media announced itself boldly and pervaded our minds and our relationships, it's been an exponential change in the way we connect with each other, remember each other or wish each other well. No wonder then that 2013 saw the most number of well meaning messages on Facebook, Twitter etc. etc. in human history. Future years, I am sure, will experience further explosion of such online social media bonhomie.
Here are my reflections, recollections and attributions on/to the year that just went by - 2013.
The year 2013 was very uniquely placed in history, in that it is the first year that humankind survived, post the failed 2012 apocalypse that doomsday sayers had so strongly predicted, taking some cue from what they called Mayan calendar. Common public obviously had no clue what this calendar was untill the hollywood flick stamped it's seal of approval on this far fetched idea. Now, don't get me wrong. Folks who studied Mayan culture and calendar, I am sure knew a great deal of it, but to publicly proclaim something like this with perfect accuracy : remember the dates were also predicted, made all this look very ridiculous in my opinion. In a way it reminded me of our met department's predictions which most of the times are missed by miles and yards. As humans, we love to speculate and predict future and go to great lengths to do that and I am sure this is not the last time we witnessed such misplaced forecast. So, overall Homo Sapiens survived 2013 and lived to greet each other on 1st Jan, 2014.
As each year draws to a close, more and more cyber junkies and SMS ustaads are getting busy in what's possibly the high point of their creativity through the year. To come up with the ultra creative messages, pictures, quotes that are full of great adjectives and phrases, that can easily put a Wren Martin to shame. All sorts of philosophies of life are shared over Facebook and Twitter, with most of them attributed to famous names, which obviously most of us cannot verify. Hence, believing everything prima facie is becoming order of the day. Over the last few years, since social media announced itself boldly and pervaded our minds and our relationships, it's been an exponential change in the way we connect with each other, remember each other or wish each other well. No wonder then that 2013 saw the most number of well meaning messages on Facebook, Twitter etc. etc. in human history. Future years, I am sure, will experience further explosion of such online social media bonhomie.
2013 saw my city "Gurgaon" explode as well. Now for those of you who don't know about this city, just google it and you'll know what I am talking about. More open spaces in the anyways congested city, vanished, giving way to concrete. Gurgaon city or New Gurgaon is curiously made up of many tiny hamlets surrounded on all sides by posh buildings. So while the buildings are all named as Plazas, Gallerias, Parks, Courts or Squares, the district administration decided to retain the Indianness and put up big blue signages in 2013. Now all roads have village names prominently mentioned. So, while I live in Malibu Towne, the big signage that I tell people to look for, is Tikri village, followed by small Malibu board. Dream of buying a house in Gurgaon moved away further by tens of lakhs of rupees for many genuine household buyers. More roads were dug up to widen them for ever increasing traffic and more traffic lights popped up through out the city in 2013. It's another matter, many of them don't work, but at least they are there and I hope one day all of them will work.
One other noticeable feature that marked it's ubiquitous presence all over the city in 2013 was local liqour shops. Never have I seen so many of them open in such short duration and within such small perimeter. One can almost walk on foot to reach from one shop to another and they are there at almost every busy traffic signal. I still don't know who feeds whom here. Anyways, they are all being designed by same arcthitect I think. All of them like to call themselves Winery instead of Thekka and all of them have glow lights dancing around their signboard. Around winery opened lot of restaurants catering to "you know who".
I also noticed the surge of capitalism in 2013. More and more people from middle and lower classes are sporting global brands. Whether they are authentic or imitations from Karol Bagh, is not easy to tell, unless you believe in judging people by their looks. It wasn't hard to find a Puma splashed across the jacket of a milk delivery guy and Adidas sporting Gardener. In fact it was harder to find people wearing home made clothes than ever. Our daily garbage collector took the cake when he landed up one day with headphones plugged in and a straw hat with a Red Rose on it. I am sure one of the expats living in the colony gifted him this as part of their house cleanup drive but he definitely looked curiously cute in it. He was oblivious to the fact that he was wearing a female party hat which even furthered his appeal on colony roads.
While I am on the topic of materialism, cars cannot escape attention. In my own city and NCR, which is the world I am maximum exposed to, 2013 marked the unabashed display of Jaguars, Audis and BMWs followed by innumerable SUVs/MUVs ranging from XUV, Fortuner, Eco Sport, Duster, Ertiga to Rexton from curiously named SsangYong. Words like Offroading and Adventure Sports entered the common man lingo. The upwardly mobile middle class became more aspirational as they many of them moved from hatchbacks to bigger vehicles. Now in 2014, ironically, we have more horsepower on road than ever before but more vacant car seats on road too. Car Pool unfortunately still remains a dream and so does road safety for cyclists/pedestrians.
Online shopping became big in 2013. Everything from kitchen to dining stuff to house furnishings to office supply to clothes to customised mugs to kids stuff to lingerie, vied for consumer's attention. And it vied for attention online via other sites. So, everytime I logged into Facebook, at least 5 different ads popped up on the sides along with sponsored ads sandwitched in between. But one shouldn't mind that, given it's still free. Not everyone can possibly be a Google which still has the subtlety intact.
Google remained creative with it's Doodle through 2013. I loved to experiment more with it's doodles and in the process, many times learnt a good deal about people who made important contributions in human history. I also read more online this year and discovered lot of good blogs and sites. Lot of treasured books dating as far back as early 19th century and even 18th, came online under archives. These are real treats and one could almost spend the whole day pouring through the dusty brown pages online. One such example is Birds of Asia by John Gould which I cannot take my eyes off, everytime I open it on my screen. More information than ever before, became available online. Trouble of sorting through it therefore increased further.
In one of the recent learning programs that I attended, I heard a very powerful statement and I quote it here "We live in exponential times". Nothing could be closer to truth.
On Personal front, we expanded our family with Alisha. Alisha is the first baby I have ever held so close. She is the most charming little girl with expressive eyes and infectious smile and she loves to play with Talking Tom. I am always amazed at how quickly kids take to technology. She can move her tiny lady fingers over Dad's smartphone and iPad and gets frustrated when my old Blackberry refuses to act at a mere touch. It still requires keyboard and she doesn't quite like to be patient. Our house transformed from a tidy household, with things in order, to one with toys littered around and cushions strewn about, Potty seat tucked in various corners of the house, depending on Alisha's ease of access and now with her reaching little over 2 ft, 2014 will force us to be creative with our desks and drawers. I learnt to feed, clean, pacify and act silly so she laughs. Sometimes I find myself mimicking her blabber and sometimes I find her mimicking me. Guess, it's a round trip here. We took baby steps as parents and though we faltered a couple of times, which is probably expected from a beginner, overall I think we did fine. At the end of 2013, both I and Ateesh can change diapers, can make milk, can change her clothes in flat 2 mins, brush her teeth, bathe her and play with her in the park. We are still learning.
Thanks to Alisha within the family, we enjoyed more time with parents and relatives this year. Family from all sides came in, pouring toys, clothes, love, affection and more toys, more clothes, more love etc. etc. From sharing her dad's wardrobe, Alisha finally moved into her own wardrobe, had a bed of her own and a Toy basket of her own. We are still counting gifts and this is one happy season I don't mind at all. I have never felt more content personally. Just yesterday, I sat in the dining area, alone, with a book in one hand, hot tea in another when I heard peals of laughter from one room with Alisha, her cousin and her maid, my mother-in-law on the phone, father-in-law resting in one room and Ateesh catching up on his sleep in his room. As I sat soaking in sounds from all sides, my phone rang. It's my sister and mom on the other side, wishing Happy New Year. I don't know any other supreme form of happiness and contentment. My dad would have probably smiled from heavens knowing all is well with his clan below.
2013 also saw me cooking more at home. We were definitely more creative this year in trying all kinds of cuisines and TV / Internet played a big role. We also went organic for most part of year, only to find it all too tiring to look for everything organic. Organic market is still maturing and I feel there's a long way to go before it becomes every home's reality. Until then, we buy organic wherever we can, out of convenience but don't starve ourselves if we can't find easily either.
One other minor but yet noteworthy remembrance for me this year is this. The year saw me wearing less of western and more of Indian. In last 10 years, I wore the maximum salwar suits in this year. Reason ? I grew from XS to L in a span of few odd months, for various reasons. And as I painfully learnt that it's easier to hide behind a Saree or a loose fitting Salwar Kurta than to revamp your western wardrobe altogether for several notches (stitches) larger size. So, now when I think I have stabilized at this larger self of mine, I am back to shopping for clothes and it's a richer feeling to know I am buying more at the same price as XS. This blog will serve as a reality check as I definitely don't want to visit this in few years looking at L - XXL.
Like many in this country, I started to take some interest in politics for the first time in 2013, since Aam Aadmi Party entered the political scene and won millions of hearts in their maiden electoral battle in Delhi. I started following AAP and feel hopeful that if not for this one group of passionate folks, lot of common man issues would have never figured in the other political parties' agenda. I hope AAP grows from strength to strength and may they always have the wisdom and courage that's needed to reduce the level of corrupt practices in this nation. May they lead the example and let everyone be inspired. I just hope they don't buckle under pressure or do unwise things in haste. That could spell doom for them. But for now, I am hopeful.
As I publish this blog, it's already 2014 and I am excited to welcome the New Year with a much more content and happy self that has no resolutions but only commitment to my work, my family and my friends.
Cheers and Happy 2014
