Sunday, January 30, 2011

Goals...Then, now and for times ahead!

This one is a really long one...Read at your own risk...
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On the outer, I looked very ambitious to all. Had to put up a brave and smart front to everyone, after all. But on the inner, I always was the timid 'small town girl' with a smartish head but few ideas of my own. So while I had heard of the word goals, I never had a clear opinion on them.

At a time when people were thinking of becoming Doctors, Engineers et al, I was still having fun writing articles. While everyone stepped on the entrance exams bandwagon, I crossed the dirty, cob-webbed, old newspaper stacked aisle of the Ludhiana office of Indian Express. Everyone else thought that their teens were the stepping stones to a career, I thought I already had one. Proud and happy to be getting a Rs.5k pay check per month after working college hours as a journalist writing sports stories, I never paid heed to anything that my friends mentioned about CAT prep and SATS. I thought this was my true calling and writing was my sole goal. All deadlines crossed and there I was with my pocket money and a stressed out face saying my goodbyes to friends departing for higher studies to Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, some even London.

That is when my Mom took charge of my life and told me to set my goals. I thought I couldn't be left behind alone in Ludhiana, again forgetting the goals and looked for courses in Delhi. Found one that suited both my parents and my interest (atleast for the time being, my intt was not staying back in the rat race to go out of Ludhiana) and off I was to FORE School of Management. Half way into the course, I was pretty sure this was my calling and soon getting a good job and settling down in Delhi seemed to be the goal. In the top 10 of my college course and a recommendation from the Dissertation prof later, I landed a job in Samsung earning Rs.10k. WOW! I had doubled my pocket money within an year. Though my parents had spent 3 years worth of this salary to get me there.

Friday, January 28, 2011

The year of the babies-2010

It is a tested fact in life that when you are going through a new phase then you feel the same is happening to the whole world. So it was pretty obvious that when we were having a baby, we thought the whole world was having one as well. Or maybe it was that time that we noticed that loads of others were making babies too....

While there were many on the baby bandwagon already, it seemed the whole lot of Mohit's friends were delivering babies in 2010. Almost all of those married for sometime had a baby in this year and after counting one or two couples here and there everyone had a baby now. 2010 saw seven babies besides Navya happening in the friend circle and two in the family which makes one wonder if it truly was the year of the babies.

Babies, babies everywhere and many to-be-parents. All of a sudden, we had all become from the usual culprits in the drinking crime to parents discussing breastfeeding and nappy changing.  The sweety-pie messages declaring the birth of the babies to long phone conversations, every little thing pointed to the arrival of a little one in someone's life.

Now I stood and took notice every time I heard the wail of little babies. The world had changed around us. So maybe it wasn't hallucination that everyone seemed to be in the same activity as us. The reality of the babies coming into our lives was true. There was hope, love and warmth in our life now. All brought upon by the birth of a little baby made entirely out of our tissues and cells and love and heart. So many of us had leapt upon the newer and better things in life. Graduation year for many of us. Cheers to 2010- the year that was for the babies...

Monday, January 24, 2011

This year I have to...

Each year, all of us form an endless list of resolutions and decide we will do them dutifully. For some it might be starting a new hobby, for others it would be to quit smoking or drinking while for most people(like me) year after year the resolution is the same. Yes, you guessed it right. Losing weight. And invariably it goes ignored by the end of January. And I speak for the collective voice of most of the weight watchers who forget their vows in the heavenly abode of a Ferrero Rocher.

So I decided to cut the Resolutions list this year at the start of the year. What is the point of making a list that can never be followed. And anyhow each year it is more or less the same list, give or take a few things. After dumping the list, I felt pretty good till I read people declaring their special to-be-done-things for 2011 on Facebook and started having second thoughts about my Jan 1st decision.

So here I am at the threshold of February 2011 with 1 month almost complete and only 11 to go to fulfill the vows. Rather to think of them first and then go about fulfilling them as well. Another thought(I am so full of them) later, I figured that each year, there was a list of things that started with "This year I will...." etc and by mid year, it was always "This year I couldn't but next year I will....".

So 2011 has begun(and also reached feb) and I am taking a harsh stand on myself. From 'This year I will' it is 'This year I have to'...And what is it that I have to do you ask?

This year I have to be happy and keep people happy...
That's it. Plain Vanilla as all of us like it.
See I started my making you happy didn't I?