10 things to do before the new year

“We all work hard today for a better tomorrow. Tomorrow, we will say the same thing to ourselves and this will go on. We will keep working hard, making our today difficult, for a better tomorrow which never comes.”

 

And I guess I’ve had enough of this. I wish I could leave everything, pack my bags, and travel all around the world seeing new places and meeting new people. I know I cannot do this now. But there is hardly anything I’m doing anyways. I work the whole day, go back home, meet few friends at times, go out on dates few times, go to parties on weekends, or just watch TV the whole day.

 

But I want to do new things now. There are so many options but I’m content with the life that I live. So, I’ve decided I’ll try and change few things. I’ll do new things and try and make my life more interesting.

 

So, I thought of few things that I would like to do in the near future (when tomorrow comes), and do these things now and not wait for the tomorrow which never comes. Hence, here are the few things that I’ll do before this year ends.

 

I’ll go out on a vacation of at least 15 days in December – and hence, I’ve set short term goals for myself so that I can complete them before I go out on a vacation. Though I don’t want to discuss my professional life, I’ve also included my short term professional goals in the list. These are the things I will do before I go out on my vacation –

 

Professional –

• I’ll set up a 40Mn/month channel from alternate sources (internet, mobile, etc)

• Set up an online budget tracker for my regional marketing spends.

• Start the Loyalty program for my 4000 DMAs in the country

 

Personal –

• Will give at least an hour to physical fitness everyday – already started – went for swimming this weekend

• Read at least 4 books – any four books to start with – started with “When a tree shook Delhi” on the weekend

• Make 10 new “good friends” – Men & women

• Learn a new language / any form of dance – this seems difficult because of lack of time – but I’ll try, I don’t promise

• Learn about new cuisines – am not a foodie – but I’ll develop taste for new cuisines

• Discover 5 new places in Mumbai – to eat and to party – though there is hardly anything left to “discover”

• Go for river rafting and / or para gliding

 

I also wanted to add few more things but I guess I shall start with these. These are very simple goals which are very much achievable till December. I might add few things in between but I’ll not remove anything from the agenda.

 

I’ll give the updates on the things and my progress at least twice a week. I shall complete all of these so that I can go on my vacation peacefully. Once, this is done, I already have things in mind – things I would do from January to April.

 

PROGRESS REPORT – 1

PROGRESS REPORT – II

PROGRESS REPORT – III

PROGRESS REPORT – IV 

FINAL REPORT

 

 

Birthday blues

People tell me that your birthday is one day when you should forget everything and enjoy. I, for some reason, never believed in “celebrating”. But then again, you should think about others also on your birthday (specially wen these “others” have been an importportant part of your life lately). This year, I had no plans of celebrating. I wanted it to be just another day in my life.

 

But then, I have some amazing people around me (thankfully) who were more excited about my birthday than I was. For almost two weeks, I was thinking of a valid reason (read excuse) to avoid partying that day.

 

But when I saw the enthusiasm on their face, I just couldn’t avoid it. So, I decided to have a blast on my birthday myself. And more then anything else, I decided to be happy myself and enjoy it for a change.

 

So, everything was decided – a rocking place to celebrate, call everyone I knew, and have a rocking time. And I had my own plans. I had decided what I wanted to do. I wanted to smoke up and get sloshed before midnight.

 

But before that, this lovely lady (who’s given new meanings to long drives in Mumbai traffic) picked me up from office in the afternoon and took me out for shopping. And trust me, she wanted to buy me everything. But finally, after around 2-3 hours of trying different things, she bought me something which I loved. And then, she dropped me home just in time to get ready for the evening bash.

 

Everything went according to the plan. Great people, great place and great music. A perfect birthday you would think, right? Wrong!

 

Everything seemed perfect, but somewhere inside I knew there was something missing (though I don’t know what). But would still like to list down few things which I noticed on my birthday.

 

People come and people go. Old memories will always make way for new ones. Over a period of time, you will notice that there are very few people who have been with you on your birthday everytime. I have always considered myself lucky when it comes to people around me. Apart from few people who have always been with me on my birthdays (though not physically present), I always find myself with amazing new people around me (and trust me, this year I decided to celebrate my birthday only because of these guys – they have been great – and thank god for that).

 

One very small thing which I noticed was that few calls came the next day and not exactly at midnight. People like Rasna, Niyati, Prashant, Atiya, Shilpa, kishore (my Wadia gang) have been competing with each other to be the first one to wish me for almost 10 years now. They all called me the next day. Though it was very sweet of Kishore to call me from Spain. And yeh, Niyati finally called me after almost a year (God only knows what happened between us – but I’m meeting her over the weekend – could never have afforded to lose a friend like her for silly reasons).

 

Gandhi didn’t wish me on my birthday (first time in over 15 years). Shlok has always called me at 12 and he’s been doing this for almost 17 – 18 years. Niki didn’t call or message me (though I was expecting this to happen). Ships is more of a family anyways.

 

And I’ve a feeling something strange and weird happened that night. Though I dont recollect everything (infact I hardly know what happened after midnight). But my messages and my call register (my phone) tells me a different story. Something tells me I did something I shouldn’t be doing. But I was too drunk and stoned to remember anything (and I’m not talking about the credit card which I lost).

 

Maybe I’ll never be able to know what exactly happened that night. And I’ll keep guessing my whole life. Same with the two bouquets that were delivered to me without the sender’s name. Both were big ones with lovely flowers. One had hundreds of red roses while the other was a mixture of red as well as pink roses. I can keep guessing who sent these bouquets my whole life. I think I know who sent the “red roses” bouquet, but I’m not sure who sent the other one.

 

Anyways, the most important thing I realized was that you cannot force yourself to be happy and enjoy. It has to come from within (the persuit of happiness). Without taking anything away from the wonderful wonderful people who made me feel so special on my birthday, I was missing something.

 

But yeh, these people are part of my life now. And I honestly think I’m lucky to have them around me.

 

And once more I would like to thank God for keeping me in company of such wonderful people. And I really wish them all a wonderful life. God bless everyone who was a part of my celebration, who wished me on my birthday. And yeh, God bless everyone who missed my birthday and didn’t call to wish me.

 

Pratyush