Rest assured, it only takes like 15 minutes to READ...
It's 911 pm on the last day of 2010. Home for the Holidays has been our policy this season and in line with that, we decided we were going to stay home this New Year's eve too. We just ate a wonderful home cooked dinner and are watching some TV (the Holiday Edition of the game show Minute to Win It on NBC!) and I was beginning to wonder what was the right way to ring in the New Year.
On another day, we would have watched a film and ended it that way, but my son is keen on watching this show (it's actually good, I have to say!) and my wife has declared it's going to be NBC all the way tonight as she wants to watch live coverage from Times Square starting 10 PM which will go on until the ball drops at midnight.
With not even a millimeter of the 32 inch Samsung left for myself, I had to decide what to do. The choice was instant and obvious. The only thing that is going to keep me alive at this time (when I'm suffering from a headache) is writing. And given that I've really gone the whole nine yeards (or should I say eleven) with this 11 days to 2011 blogging spree, I decided that I would close this year with the final piece of this tribute.
If I'm writing this for the next 3 hours, it means you're likely reading this in the New Year, so first of all LET ME WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011.
The Holiday season really begins with Thanksgiving and then comes Christmas and ends with the New Year. So I'm going to start this piece by talking about all the great things in 2010 I'm grateful for.
Let me do this right. First things first, let me thank my wife for all the NEW TREATS she made me to eat in 2010. Thank you Kannamma, for the Biriyani, Bhel Puri, Bruschetta, the Chocolate Cake (on my birthday), Chocolate Chip Cookies, Tomato+Onion+Chilli+Panneer Dosa, Kalakand and I'm sure there's plenty more that I can't remember at this moment when I am stuffed with a pile of her special New Year's eve Adai Aviyal. And I hear there is some special lemon rice coming up tomorrow morning. Thank you Pondatti.
Next I have to thank my son, MY FAVORITE PERSON IN THE WHOLE WORLD! For being a nine year old, he brings a lot to the table (like food, crayons, socks, hat, karate weapons to name only a few). Seriously, he is AWESOME. He made my chest swell with pride this year by creating his own website (www.tejaskaushik.com), becoming a serious cricket fan (thank you IPL 2010), formally accepting Sachin Tendulkar as God, wearing a batsman's costume to his school Halloween party, readily accepting not to have a lavish Birthday party, creating all those mind blowing LEGO models that adorn our fireplace and finally by starting his own blog. In fact, he started writing his own pieces when I started this one today and is now on his 3rd piece (http://tejaslkaushik.blogspot.com). 2010 was the year I first heard my wife complain why she wished for a son like me!!!
Now on to other but not insignificant things. God knows how tough it is to build a credit history in the USA as an immigrant. It's also a crazy conundrum. You can't get credit without a history and you can't make a history if you don't have credit. Excuse me!@#$%^&? 2010 was the year when both the credit and the history magically happened for me and I'm thankful for that.
Everyone knows I completed a 15 year MBA dream this year and that too from Columbia Business School. But what was really special in 2010 was that in the 2 semesters I had in this year, I scored Honors (highest grade) in 6 of the 8 classes I took and made it to the Dean's list based on my GPA in both semesters. I have to thank all the wonderful professors and my fabulous classmates who made this possible for me. I am especially proud of my performance in the Systematic Creativity in Business class which was the very final exam of my course and let me walk out of school with my head held high.
2010 was the year I got Windows 7 on my computer, an SD card for my Blackberry (on which I now hold 273 of my favorite songs and am able to click endless photos), a GPS for my car and an IP phone for my home office. For a man who whose first article as the Editor of a company newsletter in 1998 was about why he hated technology and computers, so many gadgets in the same year was one too many. I am thankful I figured out how to use all of them well and glad that I am actually fond of them now.
I went places in 2010. I have already talked about my Silver Elite status on Continental but more than that, I am thankful for the places I went with family and friends for fun and frolic. Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Hartford, Long Beach Island, Jamestowne & Williamsburg and memorable visits to New York city and India. I also savored a lone trip to the Canadian capital of Ottawa. Though I only went there alone to get my VISA renewed and ended up working from the hotel most of the time, I enjoyed the 8 hour car drive up North and across the border.
A quick timecheck shows me I am at the halfway mark, it's 1032 PM. I'm thankful I have to only shift my gaze to the bottom right hand corner of my computer versus having to crank my neck and look up left at the clock to know the time is so. And I'm truly thankful to my wife who turned the TV off a little while ago so she could read her Bible (the Sai Satcharitra). It is so peaceful at home and my headache has started clearing up.
Maybe the right time for me to move on from my thank you mode to other things, but not before I thank life for the one thing I enjoyed this year more than anything else. SPRING. I am certainly a Sun & Warm person than the Snow & Cold types. What else can one expect from someone who played 8 hours of cricket on a day that had the mercury at 42 degrees celsius in the tropical town of Chennai in South India?
That said the months of April, May and June this year were absolutely wonderful. The sun shined all the while and I was smiling every minute. I was working long hours and working very hard but still, I always spent quality time with my family and friends. I was on the phone every waking minute of the day, but every single conversation added cheer to my life. My energy was limitless and my confidence was boundless. I felt a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment like never before. I don't know what it was, but I have heard my wife say, "I've never seen you happier than this in the last 12 years I've known you". May be it was the fact that my company had agreed to extend my stay in the US (as of March), may be it was the expectation that I was about to graduate in Summer or may be it was the people I was with in the places I was, but if I God ever gave me the chance to have something back from my life, I would ask for those 3 months again. Thank you God, once again...
11 PM sharp, now down to the very last hour of this wonderful year that has been 2010. I am so THANKFUL TO LIFE for what I am doing this very moment. I could be a million places right now, singing, dancing, playing or simply enjoying. Or so I would believe. Nothing has given me more pleasure than "Writing" in this year and I am especially proud of what I have done in the last 11 days. I truly think I've found something that will be my own for the rest of my life, that will never leave me, never judge me, never ask anything from me but always be there for me whenever I choose it. Truly, THERE'S NO PLACE I'D RATHER BE...
The trouble with writing a 3 hour blog is that at some point, you don't know how it started and where you are. Honestly, I don't know where I want to go either!!! So I just took a few minutes and read this from top to bottom. And I also wanted to make sure this 3 hour marathon does not become unreadable ardor. Which is why I went back to line 1 and inserted the time it would perhaps take you to read this. And it's also how I brought the clock to 1130, just 30 minutes from touchdown!!!
I'm not running out of ideas. I could go on and on about 2010 but that would take me several years to write and still only a few days to read. But I think I have said what I wanted to say. I have also done everything I should have done in 2010. So let me take the next few minutes and talk about the year that's about to begin.
I'm not making any resolutions. THAT'S SO LAST YEAR (it's also one of the best things I heard my son say this year, by the way). But there certainly are a few things I want to see happen in 2011. I want to say less and LISTEN more for starts. I want to say it like it is and never say 2 words where there is a need for only one.
I want to work harder in my one job and not need an MBA or another vocation to keep me motivated. I want to pick up at least one new skill in this new year, be it photography or playing the piano or plain simple cooking. I want to travel the world, to Canada & Mexico, Bulgaria & London, India & the Philippines, Columbia and Egypt and every other location that my wonderful company will put its footprint on.
I want to talk to my Grandma every week of this year, no matter what's going on in my life. I want to spend more time with my son and learn from him the amazing things he knows at 9. I want to do whatever I have to do for people around me but I want to do that one thing that I feel I want to do from the bottom of my gut. I don't want to sound rhetorical, but I want to write a lot more than I ever wrote before. I want to make sure I hurt no one wilfully. I want to make this year, not about myself, but about YOU.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 TO ONE AND ALL (and thank you for your patience reading this...)
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