Time and again you hear stories or watch movies where some major incident happens to someone, in total randomness, and somehow changes that person's life.
It's been six months in Mumbai now, and looking back at 2011, the contrast between the first and second half of the year has been stupendous for me.
While there wasn't a single person to talk to in the first, I've been surrounded by so many ever since Mumbai happened. Heck, I was meeting five different people everyday for the first couple of weeks.
If I could, I'd place a ruler on the screen, draw a vertical line and state the differences like a question for five marks. But I won't go into details here as I'm pretty sure people know what living in Mumbai means. It's different for me since I jumped so suddenly from Baroda to Bombay, much like an atom from the innermost shell to the outermost one. (I thought I should include atleast one geeky joke to remind myself that I'm actually an engineer)
This is a city of a wonderful plethora of people, and I have really enjoyed being a part of the lives of some very special people.
For many a year now, I've been constantly told that I think too much. These people I'm talking about have carried on that tradition as well.
Some of us just can't help it. We just have the tendency to overthink every little thing. You hear words like 'Just Chill', 'Abe senti kyun ho raha hai', 'Dude just relax..', and it can be really irritating. But after yesterday, I simply have to accept that those words make sense.
It was a typical Friday evening. The five of us hadn't had a fun friday together for a while, what with people going home or elsewhere for Christmas and New year's eve. We were going in groups of two and three, me being one of the two.
Time and traffic were in plenty, and random trains of thought led the two of us to talk about career, what we're doing, what we want... you know the story. The auto driver pulled the brakes awkwardly in the middle of a highway, since a Santro was standing as well.
Moments later, we heard a loud screech of brakes, then crash. Before we could figure out why exactly the car was stopped there, another rammed into the rear of our vehicle, knocking us halfway off our seats. And as we were spontaneously figuring out how to react, there was another series of screech, crash and jerk.
Since this isn't a movie, I don't have to explain and describe the shouting and arguing that ensued, so I'll get straight to the point: There wasn't much damage done to the vehicles, and everyone escaped unscathed.
Okay, I didn't exactly escape impending death here. But I don't want to wait for an actual fatal incident and other drama to come walking by and change my life. I'd rather make the best of what's already happened.
What it did was bring out a simple and obvious truth: You may think you're the most normal person in the world, reading weird scary stuff in the papers everyday, thinking surely that's never gonna happen to me. You might have planned every second of your life for the next ten years.
But the fact is, all that can be obliterated in a millisecond, without you sensing it coming at all.
All week I've been depressed because everyone seems to know what they're doing, and I don't even know what I want. Yesterday was definitely a hint.
Before anything else, I want to live.
And when I say this, I don't mean that every single minute I'm thinking, 'OMG I could die anytime. I'll just do/say what I want today!'
What I mean is, one needs to draw a line. Sometimes we forget this and overthink.
But from now on, I'll make a conscious effort to just relax. I never made any new year resolutions before, this looks like a good one to start with.
Happy New Year everyone! :)
It's been six months in Mumbai now, and looking back at 2011, the contrast between the first and second half of the year has been stupendous for me.
While there wasn't a single person to talk to in the first, I've been surrounded by so many ever since Mumbai happened. Heck, I was meeting five different people everyday for the first couple of weeks.
If I could, I'd place a ruler on the screen, draw a vertical line and state the differences like a question for five marks. But I won't go into details here as I'm pretty sure people know what living in Mumbai means. It's different for me since I jumped so suddenly from Baroda to Bombay, much like an atom from the innermost shell to the outermost one. (I thought I should include atleast one geeky joke to remind myself that I'm actually an engineer)
This is a city of a wonderful plethora of people, and I have really enjoyed being a part of the lives of some very special people.
For many a year now, I've been constantly told that I think too much. These people I'm talking about have carried on that tradition as well.
Some of us just can't help it. We just have the tendency to overthink every little thing. You hear words like 'Just Chill', 'Abe senti kyun ho raha hai', 'Dude just relax..', and it can be really irritating. But after yesterday, I simply have to accept that those words make sense.
It was a typical Friday evening. The five of us hadn't had a fun friday together for a while, what with people going home or elsewhere for Christmas and New year's eve. We were going in groups of two and three, me being one of the two.
Time and traffic were in plenty, and random trains of thought led the two of us to talk about career, what we're doing, what we want... you know the story. The auto driver pulled the brakes awkwardly in the middle of a highway, since a Santro was standing as well.
Moments later, we heard a loud screech of brakes, then crash. Before we could figure out why exactly the car was stopped there, another rammed into the rear of our vehicle, knocking us halfway off our seats. And as we were spontaneously figuring out how to react, there was another series of screech, crash and jerk.
Since this isn't a movie, I don't have to explain and describe the shouting and arguing that ensued, so I'll get straight to the point: There wasn't much damage done to the vehicles, and everyone escaped unscathed.
Okay, I didn't exactly escape impending death here. But I don't want to wait for an actual fatal incident and other drama to come walking by and change my life. I'd rather make the best of what's already happened.
What it did was bring out a simple and obvious truth: You may think you're the most normal person in the world, reading weird scary stuff in the papers everyday, thinking surely that's never gonna happen to me. You might have planned every second of your life for the next ten years.
But the fact is, all that can be obliterated in a millisecond, without you sensing it coming at all.
All week I've been depressed because everyone seems to know what they're doing, and I don't even know what I want. Yesterday was definitely a hint.
Before anything else, I want to live.
And when I say this, I don't mean that every single minute I'm thinking, 'OMG I could die anytime. I'll just do/say what I want today!'
What I mean is, one needs to draw a line. Sometimes we forget this and overthink.
But from now on, I'll make a conscious effort to just relax. I never made any new year resolutions before, this looks like a good one to start with.
Happy New Year everyone! :)
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| 2012: The first of hopefully many fridays :) |
