Embarrassingly Rhymed

A moment, a day, a year

a cold evening and a hot tear

spent hoping against hope

that some day you will be near.

A Year of Lessons

I forgot to mention in the previous post that I also saw the full moon's light making the serene waters at Bhimtal glitter, bidding me the happiest good-bye.

And now for the Fuchsia (self-proclaimed) legend - my year wrap-up post.

# The year had begun with a spill-over from last year-end's awesome trip to the best of beaches

# I had also resolved to travel every month

# I watched my first 3D movie. And an animated one at that.

# Went through two longish phases of depression

# Went crazy over not taking up the job that I did not want

# Spent a lot of time with my first cousins

# In the Exploring Delhi chapter, I visited the phool mandi at CP and Ugrasen ki Baoli

# Went on a rural marketing trip to a village near Pune. Tasted anjeers off a farm in the middle of all brand-related matters

# Bhaiya got married

# Spent a lot of energy getting accustomed to the presence of a new member in the family

# Danced with a bartender at a party

# Drove to Panchgani with friends and sat in the dark for several hours just waiting to see a perfect sunrise

# Liked almost all new alcoholic drinks that I tried this year, and developed a dislike for the Old Monk that gave a lot of memories the previous year

# Just for the record, I love Jack Daniels. And I love green apple martinis. And an advice that you are free to take - please don't make LIITs if you don't know how to make them.

# I am still not over the tequila shots happiness :D

# I went tripling on a motorcycle

# I also rode pillion on a bike on two cold nights

# Totally fell in love with Marks & Spencer

# Made a road trip to Amritsar

# In my list of temples this year

- Golden Temple

- Dandeshwar

- Jageshwar

- Golu Devta Temple

- Sun Temple

# Got a root canal treatment and multiple cavities filled

# I still love meetha!

# I went back to driving. And again did not get my license. I think I should write 'went back to practicing driving'.

# Got involved in a project I liked in a way that could not have been more unorganised

# Ruined my knee

# Fractured a foot

# Still living with dysfunctional legs

# Got two worth-absolutely-every-penny-spent amazing hairdos

# Watched a lot of movies, ate at a lot of new places

# Experimented with food (in all caps).

# Had the coldest birthday ever

# Experienced the challenges of a job hunt

# Wrote the most desperate email of my life

# Went for a few events at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and felt supercool doing that :P

# Missed two close friends' weddings

# Saw first-hand what five stars are like and really did not get impressed. I appreciate the efficiency of smaller places a lot more.

# Had a friend bring me white roses during one of my many illnesses

# Started meeting directors and CEOs of organisations and also started finding the process quite hollow

# Went back to Pune and to that campus that I did not think I will ever turn back to.

# The feelings that ran through me during my last few hours on that campus will probably go with me to my pyre

# Bonded with a stranger through a night and felt like I could spend the rest of my life with him. I was drunk.

# People I sanely wanted to keep for life decided otherwise.

# Heard Jagjit Singh live

# Made my long trip to the Himalayas and did a year's worth of new things

# Had many degrees of strength derived from my immediate and extended family

# Realised for sure that I am a strong person in spite of the love for vulnerability.

The Winter Trip to Kumaon

Continuing from where I left, I was on a very tight seven-day road trip on the following route.

Delhi>Bilaspur>Rudrapur>Nainital>Sitla>Mukteshwar>Almora>Patal Devi>Kasar Devi>Chitai>Jageshwar>Almora>Kasar Devi>Kausani>Mohlidhar>Ranikhet>Kathgodam>Delhi

So while I was working, the little and the lot that I experienced and managed to absorb (cannot claim to explore at all) would be the following.

# Sitting in the front seat can help avoid a lot of winding-roads-motion-sickness.

# Sitting in the front can be very taxing for your otherwise overworked brain if the driver wants to talk non-stop in order to keep himself awake.

# I can love the smell of freshly sanitized hotel rooms. And then suddenly hate them.

# More cities growing the Rudrapur or Almora way will really ruin our country.

# I love the defence forces. I just do. And I love how they maintain the places they live in. Ranikhet being the case in point.

# Sitla is a cold place. Very very cold place.

# The 50 km aerial distance between Kausani and the Himalyan peaks does not feel good. The force wants you to be on the other side. But that is also a cold place. Very very cold place. Especially if you are doing sunrise/sunset photo shoots.

# I met at least 10 new people and covered the previous 11 months' deficit of that in my life.

# The new things I saw/did: eat methi ka laddoo, bhatt ke dubke, maduey ki roti, and bal mithai, have fresh cow's milk, stand in a smelly cold storage, live in a building built in 1880, get overwhelmed by the artificialness of floriculture, watch the process of flower tissue culture, trek an unbelievable amount with my half dysfunctional legs, visit the Sun Temple at Katarmal, the Golu Devta Temple at Chitai, get the stories of both, meet some people who are doing some absolutely brilliant work in the region, understand that the thousands of pine trees are just ruining the ecology of the region, that kiwis are now being grown indigenously, learn about the art called aipan, see-touch-step on-and-freeze thanks to frost, among many other things.

# Gods were nice enough to keep the weather sunny through our entire trip. But I still know now what a solar eclipse apparently feels like.

# I had a bold ice cream in Nainital. And I had a bolder ice cream in colder Ranikhet. :D

# I had more tea in those seven days than I had cumulatively had over the past 24 years. And the last one somehow knew that it was the last one. I could just not have taken any more of it.

# Like a cool dude I decided to not carry the extra weight of a hair brush. That made me realise that my hair isn't after all so short.

# After the first two days, my colleague and I had become completely oblivious of the way we looked. It felt less of an official trip and more of a backpacking tour across the region. The same shoes, socks, coat, cap, neck warmer, gloves, and the self... without any accessories, basic kajal, or any other form of formality, we just trudged along - town to town, hotel to hotel.

# I am not a heater/hot water bottle person. At all. I just need my multiple layers of blankets in place.

# The region offers very good food.

# Airtel acts very idiotic through most part of the region. I had to dial every number at least 4-5 times before connecting through.

# Most natives' looks were deceiving vis-a-vis their age. They all looked unbelievably younger than what they really were.

# I saw lemons that were 10 times the size of what we get in our cities.

# Got blessings I did not expect, got compliments I did not expect, and had a trip more awesome than I expected.

Four Years Later

After much contemplation, I went to Pune this past weekend for my convocation ceremony. And well, I did everything except get the degree. Don't ask why. It should suffice to know that systems fail in a lot of places.

I flew via Bombay and experienced the city at leisure for the first time. Had always rushed there - be it for flights or interviews. Robin took me to a place called Candies. A nice place, except that I could not help but notice the number of stairs I had to climb.

The evening in Pune was split between Sheesha and Stone Water Grill. Both these places are quite popular with the locals, but I could never get myself to like Sheesha. Starting with the name, it's all too ordinary and less. But Stone Water Grill I enjoyed. Did the much overdue tequila shots and danced till my foot could not handle more. The highlight was a routine with some Korean guys with a robot dance. You really had to be there to know how much fun that was because it was really really fun!! :D

Met a few people that I was looking forward to see, and looked through some whom I really do not give a damn about.

About the new hairdo, from rockstar to power corporate to school boy to downright uncool, I got all sorts of comments. Attention is always good. And you know which comment I loved the most. :D

And a stranger got curious about how I look with longer hair. ;-)

I was glad to half-strip at the Delhi airport security check because of the metal round my leg, and Mumbai airport security I wanted to slap someone for the non-sense they put me through. :-/

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I am now off to Uttarakhand for a week. Covering almost the entire Kumaon area for an official project. Super excited!

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Now I do not even care about getting pictures clicked with people who are important. Not sure if that is because they are not important enough any more or if it really does not affect me any more. But I have definitely come a long long way from the time when I obsessed about these things.

I will hopefully click some pictures over the next week though.

I'll do the new year post once I am back. Looking forward to the reflection hour. :-)

For now, ta!

Leave of Absence

For 18 hour work days

For a stay at the world's crappiest five star

For life's shortest hair crop

For the dive that feels like a whirlpool

For befriending cabbies

For planning a trip I didn't think I would

And for digging another grave for some more love.