2011 : The year that was.

The year bygone,
Piled bricks on my wall.
The wall of life,
Remains stronger than ever.

Like a river,
Time flows unhindered.
Some drowned, and sank.
While others learnt to swim.

Battles were fought,
We were winners and losers, both.
Lessons to learn and teach,
So let’s turn a page,
Unlock the future.

  
     The year 2011 was one of the best cycle of 365 days that I went through for reasons more than one. In this post, I try to scribble in a few lessons that I learnt this year. A few experiences and milestones in brief with the sole intention of leaving it up to the reader to connect and relate the cited experiences with what they have undergone. For, my life is an open book.
In random order :

1. Loving silence and preferring to be lonely doesn’t always mean that you are depressed. You seek peace. It is one’s nature.
   
2. I left behind the times when poems used to flow only in times of sadness.
   
3. As the audience at a workshop, I realized that if a speaker goes on explaining his work undisturbed by the discomfort in the audience, he is in love with what work he does.
   
4. To do science, it is a pre-requisite to have an open mind and not a degree from college.
   
5. A story always has two sides. If not, then it isn’t a story! Always support the right side of it and not the one you can easily relate and sympathize with.
   
6. I learnt that one can be easily taken for a ride and then told that the friendship was mistaken for love.
   
7. While trying to estimate a person’s quality, don’t listen to your prejudice. Experience the person before passing a mental verdict.
   
8. I learnt that if you don’t find a reason to explain what you are doing, stop doing.
   
9. The best quotes strike you when you have a bath or answer nature’s long calls.
   
10. To swim against the tides, you have to be in the water. Can’t avoid getting wet and dirty.
    
11. People are waiting to be discovered. Places and things too. You have to make efforts to break the ice. You might just be shocked with what you find! I was.
    
12. Signalling to people to switch off their headlights during day-time is now as natural to me as breathing is.
    
13. I learnt that classical music and the oldies deserve as much respect, if not more than the new hits. Music is music, today or tomorrow.
    
14. Finally I drilled in myself the fact that if my fundamental thoughts and ideologies don’t match with a person, trying to maintain a relation beyond a greeting is like hunting for a living dinosaur.
    
15. I tried and tried, but still forgot that ‘i’ comes before ‘e’. Or is it the other way round??
    
16. I was exposed to philosophy, psychology and spirituality. They have revamped me and my thoughts.
    
17. Steve Job’s death, reading ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ and obsessive thinking brought me closer to death, but not dying.
    
18. I was saddened by the fact that I no longer was entitled to ‘return gifts’ at birthday parties but happy that I was exempt from those silly games. Yay!
    
19. I learnt how to shave on my own. YouTube helped me a lot!
    
20. I realised that science is closer to life than we think. It is life itself.
    
21. I ended up respecting all the ‘M’s in my life. Mom (Madhavi), Mushtifund, MIT and a Mystery.
    
22. No, I haven’t got into MIT as yet. But applying itself was worth it. Getting selected as I learnt, will be just an added bonus for being a good boy.
    
23. The lyrics don’t make you fall in love with a song. It is what meaning that you see in them that drive you gaga. (pun unintended)
    
24. I learnt from all my mistakes. I learnt so much that I don’t repent making the mistakes. My mistakes decide what person I end up being. Yet, they remain unintentional.
    
25. If you act like a bag full of agonies, people will stop lifting up you and your spirits soon.
    
26. I observed that it is no use cursing the place or perhaps the parents you were born to. It was not your choice. But what you end up doing in your life, what you make out of it is all in your hands.
    
27. Everyone has their own definition of ‘love’. I learnt that I can voice out mine, but no use preaching it. Others value their own opinions as much as you value yours. Respect, understanding and trust is all that is required.
    
28. I asked for it, and I got a Beatles song for my mood.
    
29. Blogs and friendships. I realized that not updating them despite valuing them is a sin. If you can’t find any value, free yourself of the burden!
    
30. I found a lot of other weirdoes like myself. Hence, I realised that I love being alone because I know I am not!
    
31. I tried and succeeded at making people who cry, laugh.
    
32. I decided to start questioning everything. Relating the behaviour of people to the sciences is fun!
    
33. I learnt to share, say a sorry and throw in a thank-you from the bottom of my heart.
    
34. I once told a person that I don’t want to keep the person forever with me, I just want to be with him/her.
    
35. I learnt how to turn teachers into friends and use my friends as teachers for life.
    
36. I learnt that symmetry is elegant and beautiful. Mathematics talks to us!! We all love it. Hence, I decided to end this list at item number 6². For now, that is!

Do let me know which one was your favourite or what is that we had in common for the last year! There is not going to be any apocalypse this year. If there is, sue me in heaven if it exists. With love, Thebiggerbang