Thursday, December 29, 2011

The Year That Went By (with pix)

One month ago? That was how long back it was that I wrote here. One month? Already? What happened to the last one month? Come to think of it, whatever happened to this year? I think I will turn this into a year end post. But then, 2011 was a year I am never going to remember for anything. Nothing much happened on the personal front.

Oh no wait, there were changes. Perhaps the highlight was my Varanasi trip. That was one place I still seem to pine for almost every day. Maybe there were some vibes, I have long given up trying to figure it out. I rest assured though that there are several who have remained similarly affected after visiting that oldest of cities.

Then there were minor this and thats, nothing I would write to anyone about. Some disappointments, some lessons, some revelations, some moving ons and giving ups, the usual humdrum, I would say. Yeah I did turn a year older (blah), turned wiser and more accepting of some things, developed a love for cooking and became addicted to yoga again. On the other hand, I did not get any writing done, I cringe at the thought of having wasted the year on that front. Oh yes, a major, major idea sprouted in my mind this May and has been gnawing away at all my daydreams, an idea that would lead to a totally turnabout in life. And no, I am not about to write about it here, not yet. One has to guard certain patented ideas, you see!!

December perhaps has been a little more exciting. I did make several trips home that only strengthened my resolve for a future plan and make me all the more fidgety about city life. The December event of Vasudha Prathistana went on extremely well. We had a workshop on nature for children. I got to show off my tattoo (oh yeah, I got another tattoo this year) and watch excellent Yakshagana and eat great food and be surrounded by everything and everyone I most hold dear. That was fun and I can’t wait for another edition of it next year.


Some small trips here and there happened. Pondicherry and Kanchipuram were trips that did not happen. There was Chennai and Goa and Shimoga. December was cold this year! Colder than I have ever felt in all these years in the city. It was cold even up along the coast, think that!!

This year also was watching the best sunset and best sunrise of my life. The former was at the beginning of the year, in a happy place in Kodagu with my parents and a 180 degree view of the mountains below us.

The latter was of course seeing the sun rise over the swollen Ganga at Varanasi.

A close second was the sunrise with friends Radhika and Mahesh at my favourite Elliot’s Beach in Chennai. This month was also being next to a forest in the Malnad and looking up at the winter sky and seeing stars and marveling at them, much like the many, many April evenings in Madikeri.


December was also a month of many books. I finished two books in two days!! Even without sitting up till an ungodly hour to do so, that was something I hadn’t accomplished in years. Those were The Pregnant King by Devdutt Pattanaik (the Chief Belief Officer at Futures Group—I love his designation!) and It Rained All Night by Buddhadeva Bose, the latter a book I know I will re-read several more times.
Then there was the discovery that working with the soil was incredibly gratifying to the soul, almost an anathema to a mind that had been ravaged by the drudgery and commonplaceness of living in a place that can never be home. It started with helping at home and has come to me planning some miniscule city farming here! Is this the me I used to know, I wonder more often than ever these days. I have a cut and cracked skin around my fingers, but I couldn’t be happier. I shall say that again, there is something about working in the soil and getting dirt under your fingers that does the soul much, much good. I said this to ma and she said huh, I had told you that long ago. Yes she had, but I suppose it takes that thing called maturity to accept ideas and interests that you dismissed in the foolhardy years of younger youth as not being up to your standards of likes and dislikes.


Anyway, this need to get my hands dirty is culminating in doing just that this New Year weekend at a farm outside the city. Without the crowds, the noise, being able to see the sky and the stars and to sleep almost beneath the open sky, now that’s the ideal way to spend any day. More so if it happens to be when a year changes numbers and forebodes, hopefully, new people, new ideas, new inspirations and new surprises.
As a rule I don’t make resolutions. But unlike all years, I do have some hopes this year for the next. To take an academic route. To move at least a step closer towards the aforementioned plan. To find a way to reconcile these two. To perfect Padmasana. To grow some of my own food, at the very least. To live a little healthier than this year. And then the usual, more writing, more books, much more travel….

Happy New Year, dear people. Hopefully, on the global level, 2012 will see a better economy, lesser wars, no more disasters and lesser violence. No, I don’t think the world will end. On a personal front, here is to love, luck, happiness and peace all year long.