Year End Post

A fabulous year just ended. I can’t really believe that 2014 is over already;  it just zoomed past.. didn’t it? I was reading Amu’s year end post recently and Since it’s been ages that I put up anything on this little place of mine, this is the perfect time to break the prolonged absence  and what better than a year-end post.. So, without any further ado, here’s the report card for 2014..

-          The year started with preparation of my sister Chinki’s wedding. She got married to her college sweetheart Vishal in March – it was the usual big fat Indian ‘marwaari’ wedding with loads of dancing, music, bright clothes & jewelries, lots of traditional wedding rituals, delectable food and what not. This time the Sangeet was even more fun as apart from my usual solo number (hehehehe), I & M did a dance together as well.. on the song ‘billo rani’.. ;-).... it was good and considering M and I got just 1 day to prepare for it, I think we rocked! Both she & Vishal are great together and I am sure they will have a beautiful life!

-          2014 also marked the beginning of Shaurya’s school days. He started Playgroup in Jan and moved to Nursery in June. He likes school and he is learning many new things each day; many that we also don’t know. I remember the statement made by his Pre-School Principal during the Induction Program – ‘Kids are like sponge at this age so our effort should be to provide as much information to them as we can; we are not expecting the kids to remember anything or learn everything but just that they are exposed to new and varied things.  This will aid in more neural connections to form and help in overall development’.  I am very impressed with the way his pre-school teachers handle the class as well as the curriculum and it reflects in the kind of things Shaurya is aware of. I remember once they were being told about inventors and their inventions and Shaurya would come home and tell us about the different inventors like Edison, Graham Bell, etc; One day when he was watching Dinosaur Train, he told that Robert Fulton made Submarine which was showing on TV. Of course, we had never heard about Robert Fulton so we were not sure what he was talking about :-D.. We were not sure if he even got the name right .. so we googled on who was the inventor of Submarine. We did not get any name similar to Robert Fulton or Robert anything. So next we thought of googling with the name directly; and we found that Robert Fulton indeed built the first working Submarine ‘Nautilus’.  It’s rightly said that you also learn many new things along with your kid and both I & M are learning.

-          I changed my job! This has been the biggest change for me in 2014. I had joined my previous company straight out of Campus and have been working there for last 10 years. I had never thought that I would be leaving it ever.. My friends used to joke that I will retire from the board one day; one of my friend actually believes (and I am writing this with all the seriousness that he also means it with) I will be the CEO of that company one day.. (he was pretty disappointed that I left it.. ;-p ). Anyways lately I had come to realize that my company/job profile was not adding any value to me.. neither in terms of learning or experience or growth or compensation..  It was taking me for granted and maybe I was taking it for granted too.. It was time to ‘rock’ the boat a little and though I was not actively looking out, I got a call from a very good MNC. I cleared the interview (my first J) and got an offer I couldn’t refuse. And so I took the plunge. It’s been a month since I joined this new place.. so far so good.. I miss my friends in my previous company (but of course we are and we will be in touch.. ) and I also miss the familiarity of the old place, people and culture (this I will have to get used to.. ). But overall a long overdue change has been made; let’s see what the future holds!

-          M got promotion.. yeaaaaaaaa.. See how things play out.. I have been crying to get the designation of a manager (AM / PM whatever) behind my role but to no avail.. :-( and he got it just like that.. without even asking for it.. :-) So towards the end of the year, he got promoted to an AM position in his company. M is very clear headed and logical in all his dealings; I am sure he will be an excellent manager. Hmm… writing this just reminded me that his treat is still due..

-          I have blogged the most in 2014.. all thanks to the A-Z blogging challenge.. my run rate before and after that challenge has been pretty lousy.. ;-p But hey I did take up that challenge and completed it successfully.. an accomplishment which is even more commendable if you take my past record into consideration. It was fun and thanks to it, I was able to go past the 100^th post milestone.

-          I always wanted to create a small garden in my balcony. However I have never had a ‘green thumb’; on the contrary I think I have the most non-greenest of thumbs possible.. a good reason for that could be that I always wanted to have a good garden but never really tried my hands in gardening or actually growing anything yet. The little that I tried, I didn’t succeed. We have a few pots here in Pune but whenever we go out of station, the plants wilt due to lack of water and too much of sunshine / wind (our balcony faces the west and is on the 6^th floor). Anyways I thought of trying my hands at growing something so that Shaurya also learns a little about it. I took out the seeds of a ripe tomato and put it in a pot.. it was fun to watch it grow and especially after the first flowers came in, Shaurya got excited too. He even plucked the first ripe tomato.. :-) We got about half a dozen tomatoes.. they were small ones and I was pretty sad on learning that the plants flower once only. :-(  I guess I need to get proper seeds, compost and all to get big round tomatoes. Not a gardener yet but this little experiment has made me want to try some more. Let’s see if I am able to take this forward.

-          After delegating for about a year and rescheduling it once, I finally took my PMP exam and cleared it. With the amount of money involved in this certification, I was so damn relieved once the results were displayed. I hadn’t been able to study much.. with a little kid at home, a job change in between and my true-lazy self to deal with, I was really worried that I was not giving the examination the time and effort that it demands. Happy to say that from the last week of 2014, I am PMP-certified. Added it in my official signature as soon as it was done.. ;-p

-          The only dark patch in 2014 has been Papaji’s health. Around Aug last year, he started bending forward involuntarily from his stomach area. After visits to many hospitals in Orissa, Vizag & Pune, doctors were finally able to diagnose that it’s a neurological disorder called Dystonia – a disease which cannot be cured but only controlled. :-( A trip to Nimhans, Bangalore was also made but it turned out to be very futile- the strong medications there had severe side effect on Papaji. The Doctor here in Pune has stabilized the dose now and the side effects have thankfully all gone. Papaji is much better; though the bending still persists. Slowly and steadily Papaji is moving back to his former schedule. Medications continue and we hope that the bending reduces as time progresses. Hopefully 2015 will bring things to cheer and Papaji’s Dystonia will be under control.

-          This was also the year that I stayed alone in Pune when M was in Bangalore for 3 weeks with Papaji. Post our marriage, we were in different cities for about 3 months and later moved to Pune and created a base here. After that the only time that we had stayed separate was when I went home after my delivery. With an infant to tend to and also being at home, I was occupied though I did feel the distance. This time though I missed him way too much. With nuclear families even if one person is not there, you feel a huge emptiness. Both I and Shaurya missed M a lot. Those days, Shaurya would sleep early.. by 8-8.30pm. After Shaurya slept, there would be too much silence in the house. And if possible, I would miss M even more. On weekends, I used to take Shaurya out to Parks/Dinners and it felt different to eat out in restaurants with just the 2 of us. Though one good thing was Shaurya was a super goodie good boy during all that time – he would get up on time, have his meals properly, listen to us..

All in all 2014 was a good year. Among my friends and acquaintances, some got new jobs & some promotions,  some got married, some had their first kid & some second ;-), some bought new cars/home, etc. There were a few lean and a few darkish clouds and I just wish that they also go away in this new year or at least have a silver lining in each of them giving cause for some rocking celebrations in 2015.  

Happy New Year!