Welcome 2009!!!

The year 2008 was great!!! I completed 1 year of my first job and had lots of fun with my family and friends. I saw some beautiful places (Dalhousie, DharamShala, and Khajjiar) during the summer vacation with my family. I participated in the annual function of my company (I was part of the office rock band and sang a song). I reached the semi-finals of the badminton tournament held in the office. As the year faded away there was a pleasant surprise in store for me. While returning home from office one evening, I met one of my friends from school. It felt so good…. The next day we had a chat through e-mails and refreshed all the wonderful memories of our school days! The year thus ended on a happy note….

Recently I read an article about the ‘90/10 principle of life’. It said that “10% of what happens in our life is destiny and cannot be controlled. But rest of the 90% depends on how we react to the day-to-day situations we face. If we change our approach towards the things which angers us, we’ll definitely get better results.”

This made me think…Is it so easy to ignore the things someone said to you which you didn’t like???? Some say just forget about the episode and move ahead. Ok….agreed, but, if the same mistake gets repeated again and again, is one expected to overlook them??? It’s not that I am the ‘victim’ all the time….. Because of my irrational temper, even I do things which may hurt other people. Also, I just cannot ignore these incidents. Due to this I have a gloomy mask over my face for quite a lot of time. All this affects nobody but me.

It’s the New Year and a thought cropped up my mind, “Let me make a resolution this year to implement the 90/10 principle in my daily routine”… I usually don’t make such resolutions, but I guess I seriously need to have a control over my temper…..

As it is said, the whole year ahead will depend on how you spend the first day i.e. 1^st January. If the first day is full of joy then the whole year will be joyful. Keeping this in mind, I woke up in the morning on 1^st (with all my effort and against the wishes of my droopy eyes) and went to the gym. (Hope I stay fit and gain a ‘little’ weight this year..!!) Earlier I had some apprehensions regarding joining the gym, but sitting continuously in front of the computer for the whole day was causing some ‘chemical locha’ in my brain….. (And gym’s cool!!!! It feels so refreshing!!)

To celebrate the New Year, I went to Mulshi Dam (30 – 35km from Pune) with Vivek, Deborshi and Deborshi’s family. We finally decided to go there on our bikes (after much persuasion by Debo, his mom and me agreed on not hiring a car, which by the way was a little too expensive). After about a drive of 45 – 50 minutes, I was waiting behind a S.T. bus at a crossroad. While trying to overtake the bus when I saw a car coming from the opposite direction so I stopped where I was. But the car driver didn’t seem to have seen me or rather where my foot was and the car went over my right foot. Fortunately the car was slow and I just got some minor scratches….

We reached our destination in about one and a half hours. And what a beautiful sight it was…..! The Mulshi Lake with the hills in the backdrop was awesome!!! For the lunch we went to a resort nearby. At the resort, Debo and Vivek played TT (the TT table seemed to have been kept there since the British era…). Also, a large Chess set was kept there. All of us posed around the set for photographs…. After having our lunch, we sat by the lakeside. The air was so fresh, peaceful and relaxing ... away from the hustle-bustle of the city. Throwing stones in the lake was so much fun!!!! Vivek didn’t seem to like stones, so he threw small pieces of glass (and also got a cut on his finger..). Debo and his brother went in the lake…. All in all, along with the pranks played by Debo and some great photography by Vivek, I had a lot of fun.

But the celebrations did not end here…. On 3^rd January, Rudy, Harshad, Vivek, Debo and I, went to Lonavala by train. On reaching there we went to the MTDC Resort. We all had come prepared for a one night stay in Lonavala , but after a lot of discussions we thought of returning back on the same day. So, we hired a Tavera and went to Bhushi Dam, Lion’s Point and Duke’s Nose. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip (including the part when all the 5 of us travelled in a single auto rickshaw!!! J). Throughout the trip, Rudy was the clown of the group. Vivek, with his new found passion for photography, captured the picturesque view.. The trip was…as we say…Short and Sweet!! We were back in Pune by 9 p.m.

So….. a good start to the year 2009!!!! Hoping that the year ahead will be an interesting one.... I wish this year brings some positive changes in my life… both professional and personal….

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!