Sunday, January 4, 2009

2009 as we know it

Its Sunday, 4th January- 4 days since I puked 2008 out of my system (literally, after 9 shots) and said Hello to 2009, bravely wishing for this to be a good year. I say ‘bravely’ because it’s a lot to keep asking for good years.

I have a few resolutions this time, after many years. One of them is to keep this blog alive. I’ve been writing infrequently because a lot of what I write is very private, for me and for others involved. And I do want to be honest in my blog too. So the middle path is I’ll keep names anonymous, and although I won’t censor anything (censorship is prison!), I will be judicious in what I put up here.

Let me first do a quick re-cap of the last 4 days:

1st Jan:

We had a fabulous party at Sid’s farmhouse. BBF (That’s best boy friend) picked me up (as he does every New Year’s Eve) from my place and we saw surprisingly less traffic. I guess a lot of people decided to be low key this year. 2008 didn’t give people much of a reason to celebrate any way. (Pth: I feel patriotic when I realize the country’s dark year was mine too. But mine changed colours. It started dark, very dark. All wasn’t well. After August things looked up, in several ways. There was Goa, DC, London, FYI, winter….. OK, I’ll stop myself from digressing.) So there wasn’t much traffic. We reached the party by 10:30 and all my college friends were there. I’ve celebrated this day with them for nearly 8 years now. I can’t imagine NYE without them. There were a few other people who I was happy to meet again, after many years. The cool part about meeting people from college days is you realize none of us actually change much.

The party was great except that I haven’t been drinking at all for a long time now, and the shots my friends insisted on didn’t do me much good. My evening ended at 2 when I gave in to the push from inside and passed out in one of the rooms.

The entire gang slept in at the farmhouse that night. We woke up surprisingly early (like 9:00 am), and headed towards Delhi for Brunch. I was hanging around in Priya, looking for Joseph O’Neill’s latest book when I ran into Aseen, who had come down for a manicure-pedicure (I say it that way because that’s how I heard it). I saw her after 5 years. We, sort of, fell out in college. She would obsess about grades and had no love for people who managed just as well, or actually significantly better, without working even half as much. I didn’t regret not knowing her too long. And I knew why when, even though she met me after 5 years, she had an opinion on how I need to see a dermatologist. That’s when I wished myself a Happy New Year and thanked god for not making me the manicure-pedicure types (Don’t get me wrong! I stay well groomed, but without making a fuss about it).

I spent the evening with the folks, insisting on resolutions from everyone. Papa resolved to start writing this year. Mum promised to curb her sweet tooth. I resolved to stay as the doll I am. Ok Seriously, I resolved to keep writing, live stronger, love tighter and resuscitate the adventurous side in me, which hibernated through 2008. The last time I had an adrenalin rush was December 2007, when I flew solo. 2006 was full of scary things- water skiing, hiking and diving attempts.


2nd Jan:

This was my first day at work this year. All went well. I’m working on organizational restructuring for our client- picked that up from where I had left it on 31st Dec.

I did lunch with the ladies, at Barista. Their Barista Chicken Salad puts everything else in DLF Cyber City to shame. That evening, BB and I did chai again, catching up on everything- parties, people, weddings, relationships and work.

In other news, BA met me online and decided to blast me for not being able to help out with something he had earlier reached out to me for. I was disappointed as he did make me feel very selfish because of my inability to help this time, without turning back to think about when we have been around for each other. I wasn’t as angry as I was disappointed. I obviously won’t let this change how I feel about him, but it didn’t feel good.

You must be wondering why the first 2 days of the year brought in these unpleasant exchanges. I am too!


3rd Jan:

I promised Mum I’d spend the day to finalize my dresses for the sister’s wedding. This is no easy job!! I even went to Crescent, where all the designers’ stores are. After seeing the work of nearly 25 of India’s top designers, I can comfortably admit I have no love for them. Everything I saw was shiny and opulent- in Fuschia, Orange and Turquoise. I don’t think I own anything in any of these colours. And I have no intention to, either. From Crescent, we headed towards South Ext. Mum’s trips to South Ext have already reached double digits, while I was already in my 2nd trip. Again, nothing.

Mum didn’t take kindly to my desire to wear a Mango vest (a new one duh!!!) with tracks for the wedding. We turned back at 6:00 pm. No lehengas or sarees but I picked up Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland as well as Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City.

4th Jan:

Papa asked me to accompany him to South Ext to buy a birthday present for Mum. Since Papa asks me for something like this only once a year, I couldn’t say no and made one more trip. It was short and focused. I’m not seeing another store for a month now. Except I mean 2 weeks. It is my sister’s wedding, you know.

Now, I’m back to my room, finishing this post from where I left it. Piggy next to me; the blower making the cold bearable; Kaise Mujhe Tum Mile Gaye, playing in iTunes.

Shall we smile?

1 comment:

Mihir said...

Happy New year :) Any plans of coming down to blr ?