Thank goodness I started preparing for this post ages back. Hence I am able to submit now. Read on. No, don't groan and roll your eyes... YES, it is another year-ending post and I HAVE to put this up now. I cannot promise for it to be hilariously entertaining, but I can definitely try. :-) And yes, it IS a long post. Hey, I don't torture (read: post entries) often so the least I can do is to make sure when I do post, I post something long and never-ending right?
Me ducks the barrage of chappals and tomatoes and dives behind curtain for cover....
P.S.: Notice how the length of narrative for each month shortens as it to get towards the end of the year? That's how much I've been getting these days to blog :-/ Sigh...
2009
A terrible year to begin with… my graph hit rock bottom during the beginning. And from then began the climb. Quite a few ups and downs… A quick overview given below:
January
Started the new year with a bang…quite literally. Was out on a date with one of my friends. Barely did we go out for a drive in his car after the clock struck 12 than he banged his car into a divider on the road and burst a tyre plus damage the shock absorber. Fortunately both of us were unharmed but the outing ended then and there with him dropping me off in an auto. Atleast I reached back home… he had to spend half the night at the police station, getting his car towed back! (Yes, you can see my usual pattern here as well!! :P ) What a way to star the new year!!
On a more sober note, one of my life’s most irreplaceable losses took place this month. I lost my maternal grandfather to a stroke on Jan 18. Fortunately I was able to be near him during his last few days, or rather months, so there are plenty of happy memories to cherish, plus he didn’t suffer before he went. May his soul RIP…amen!
February
I successfully completed my (elementary) Level 1 French course at Alliance Francaise and gave my exams. The lessons helped provide a distraction from my mourning/depressive phase.
Alternatively, I also started my blog this month. My first entry was posted on Feb 20. Aaaand I was back in business. Of writing, that is. After 6 long years :-) Landmark month alright!
March
My birthday month! Spent a whole month in Ottapalam, Kerala with relatives, chilling. My mind needed that time to heal alright. By the end of it, I was fresh and ready to face the world again. Had a wonderful birthday where my parents organised a little celebration at home with close relatives. It felt wonderful to feel special and loved.
On a more humourous note, certain four-legged creatures took a liking to me… I got followed by a curious ox all over the place during a rare temple visit!
April
Got proposed to by a li’l pipsqueak … and it lasted all of 10 seconds. No, don’t get me started on it LOL
I returned to Delhi, taking along with me my 87 year old grandmother, my father’s mother, who went on to stay with us for awhile.
Started attending the gym…in an effort to improve my fitness.
More importantly, another significant development in my life took place. They say running into your reflection is a very rare thing in life. I did, much to my delight and surprise. Little did I know that it would be the beginning of my journey into blogosphere, blog samaj and so many valuable friends!
May
Recession made the process of job hunting a cumbersome process. However, I did attend a few interviews though, and things did look hopeful; but in the end nothing moved forward. Efforts were on side-by-side, to apply for my 2 year work permit in UK. What a pain gathering all the documents… wondered if there’s no end to it?
My grandmother returned to her native place towards the end of this month…after a pleasant stay with us. I concluded without doubt that life without grandparents doesn’t really serve the purpose.
The gym and I had a love-hate relationship going on by then. I took a king-size fall right outside the gym one day on another day got stuck inside the lift. Both times, no major harm was done though. The fall didn’t leave me injured and the lift started working immediately as well. But realised I’d better keep an eye out for future disasters there.
On a more sober note, one of my close friends lost his father to pneumonia. Felt too shocked to respond initially… realised life is so fleeting. Swore to appreciate better all the good things in life that I had around me. Prayed that he (and his family) would have the strength to endure and make it through.
June
Lost the grandmother of one of my closest friends to a sudden stroke. What is with this year 2009??? I’ve been losing far too many people close to me. But I’ve gained the company of a lot of new people too. Life has its own balance I guess. But one can never make up for the ones that leave…forever.
Pop star and legend Michael Jackson passed away this month as well. 2009 seemed a nasty year as far as deaths are concerned.
Sat around idle for far too long…my dad saw red. He went beserk initiating matrimonial profiles online and trying to get me sort through them. Didn’t work. Temporarily managed to postpone it for awhile. In the meantime, it gave way to a hit series on marriages and disasters!!! :D
By this time, I’ve gained a lot of friends through blogging… and got thoroughly initiated into the blog samaj! Komalikkal cousins, - Al-valaathi & EOG, - hitchy, cunny sis, indy, sols, smithus, smita, kanagu, swaram, nautankey, ki, pinkorchid, mathew, chronicwriter, oorjas, amit, amal bose and later on to destination infinity, praveen, anish, anil sawan, doctoratlarge, roflindian, sujith, rakesh and so many more.... [phew, I'm exhausted! pls dont ask me to name the rest!]
Highlight of the month: Just 4 months into the creation of my blog, my post ‘My first marriage proposal from the UK’ picked by blogadda.com for ‘Saturday spicy picks’. Dhiren’s words: dhinchak dhinchak… or better yet, vimmuuu’s style: danganaaka danganaaka :D :D And yay! to indyeah for announcing it to me first! :D
July
With a beautiful (and very positive) start to the month, I got through my 2 year work permit in the UK . I knew not soon after, I would be getting employed as well. Wow, what a long wait!
August
A jam packed month. Met up with my reflection finally. Also took a two week vacation to Kerala, enjoyed myself with entire family who had come down for the wedding of two of my cousins. Finally got through my offer letter and started work on the last day of this month. A lovely month all in all. Man, wish all months were like this!
September
Started work in Gurgaon. It feels humbling to be a salaried person again… especially when I know that just a few months back I was nothing after all. The reality check is good, lest it all go to my head.
Work timing became hectic and ate a lot into blogging and spamming time.
October
Work ate into my time... blogging came down drastically. Least busy month with my blog.
November
First official travel to Mumbai took place. Didn't get around to meeting Crafty or Smita unfortunately. But I did meet up with a very dear friend :-) who showed me around, fed me the best pav bhaji I've had in my whole life and took me for my first ride in the Mumbai local. You know I'm coming back for all that and more right Ani?
Some breaking news! My first ever interview got published at speakbindaas.com. Woohoo! :D I'm in demand :P
December
Unfortunately a jam-packed month with work. Was able to take a quick vacation to Kerala, but that’s about it. Hope to ring in the new year with loved ones!
Of course, how can I forget? Realised I was blessed to have the friends I do, when I came to know a lot of my posts got nominated for the Avant Garde Blog Awards... without me ever having to lift a finger...or even coming to know about it! :-) Life has its own way of rewarding you... always!
Three things I am grateful for, that 2009 gave me:
1) Restarting writing. I got a part of myself back!
2) My blog and my blog friends. No replacing ANY of them :-) So glad I know all of you!
3) My job. And my new friends at work.
My wish-list for 2010? I am not sure I want to call them resolutions; that’s like kinda degrading them.
1) To be the person I used to be. The downs of 2009 really took me down with them… I need to concentrate on being the person I used to be, to take challenges head-on, to be confident and to have faith in myself and my own future
2) To consciously take an effort to be in the blog world more often… I am thankfully still in touch with most of my blog friends and manage to comment on your posts… but not as often as I’d like. I’d like to keep writing more regularly, it’s a gift I received this year
3) To pursue more interests and develop my life a bit more… and not just die over work and more work
Lessons learnt this year:
* Do not sacrifice anything for someone who is not willing to do the same for you
* Learn to put one’s foot down when one’s interests are being compromised… be it even with one’s own family.
* Sometimes all you need to do is ask, you shall be given. Sometimes when you want to collapse, help is sent to make sure you don’t. It need not come from the direction in which you expect, but it comes nevertheless.
* As always, the darkest hour of night is just before dawn. Sometimes the darkest hour happens so that you appreciate the light that comes after it.
* Whatever will be, will be. Worrying about it or not, doesn’t really make a difference in the outcome except killing one’s own peace of mind :P
* The happiest people (particularly the ones who laugh the most and make others laugh as well) don’t necessarily have the best of everything… they just make the most of everything that comes their way. I learnt to respect concealed vulnerability in people… and in myself.
Enough of boring you already! Wishing all of you a very wonderful 2010... may your dreams come true this year... sprinkled with joy, liveliness and peace of mind! God bless! :-)
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40 comments:
I must admit, this has been the best year in my 2 and a half years blogging ! So many new friends; and some of them turned out to be tooo special !
but apart from your granddads demise, the rest of the year has been a roller coaster ride for you.
and yes, 2009 year was a bad year for deaths. My best friends dad expired in the first month, which actually turned my life to a completely different direction. and we also lost a few eminent malayalam film personalities.
Aaaah ! one more year passed by ! Wish you the happiest year ahead !!
Wow - a lot of ups and downs! We lost a lot of people too - it was a sad year indeed!
When are you coming to the UK? Won't your application expire?
I would say that's an eventful year :)
Even I have found a couple of priceless frenz thru blogging this year :)
Wish you a Happy New Year :-)
This year I must say for me it was my blogger friends year... and I havent achieved anything else but loads and loads of love from fellow bloggers !!!!!! :D :D :D :D
finally i finshed the lists of avant garde and now I m back to comment spamming !!!!
I m sure the coming year is going to have you hoooked and in the league of vimmuu, and Indy !!!!
also looking forward to meeting you in 2010 !!!! and that in short means it will be a huge year for you meeting the blogging superstar himself !!!!!! :P :P :P
wow!! this post was really something
life is fun..is iit not?
__
Happy New Year!!!
have a fantastic New year
So many happening things huhh
anyways happy new year to you and your family.Don't worry 2010 will be better than this.May god bless you
@vimmuuu
roller coaster ride is a mild term! lol :P
yea u and me r similar in too many things.. we've had too many deaths surrounding us this year.
haha thanx da... wish u the same :-) let's hope 2010 turns out to be the best year yet!
@Emm
u still following my blog? nice to know :-)
sigh... wish i knew when i'm coming to the UK. actually no, my visa extends till mid-2011. but unfortunately now they've tightened the rules saying if i havent travelled in it atleast once within the first 6 months, the visa becomes null and void :-( so probably next time i want to come to the UK i'll have to either go for the visitor's visa or Tier 1-General visa for 3 yrs. sigh....
@Smita
wish u a wonderful 2010 Smita! :-)
@hitchwriter
dont know abt the 'hooked' bit... i'm in no hurry!
but yes definitely looking forward to meeting the BoD :D :D surely!!!
@Sorcerer
life is madness!!! :D truly!
thanx wish u a great new year too!
@anish
thank you :-) i hope ur words come true!
Oh no! That must be stressful for you! Hope it works out one day.
I dont know how you Have remembered happenings of all the month... I tried but now i doubt whether the remembrance part is working well in my brain... Lol...
Read the post... Will put proper comment tomo... My bestest wishes for the bestest year 2010 :) keep rocking :)
I assume you write diary... Or else how in the world would someone keep track of month by month activities so well? Kudos, great job.. great writing...
It was only now I read your '10 second relationship' post.. Well, I was looking at the fag end of your post (this one) to see if there were any lessons learnt from that incident ;)
Yeah I can understand how it feels to lose so many people so very frequently in the same year. Let's hope this doesnt repeat...
As I read through the names of your new blogging friends, I was reading through keeping my fingers crossed finally to find my name there too... Yeppieeeee :D :D You could have given a hyperlink there which would have helped me get some additional traffic ;) ;)
Finally, my hearty New Year wishes... Hope this time you find your special person (if not found already) and a knot is tied :D
Happy New year to you as well!
@Emm
:-) Amen to that!
@Kanagu
dude!! didnt u read the disclaimer??? i started preparing for this post since ages now... April to be precise. so basically i added the happenings of each month as and when they happened... and kept them apart! :D
notice how the amt of info gets less as i got to the latter months? i didnt time to record each month's happenings as i was busy with work!
r u mad? obviously i wont be able to remember all that at one go. my memory is good, but it isnt THAAAT good!! :D
@Suji
I DO write a diary separately, but this post was done separately (read above).
oh, there arent that many lessons to be learnt from that incident... except to expect proposals from all corners irrespective of age, and to keep one's mouth shut when not knowing what to respond :D :D
Yes...I certainly hope the losing part that happened this year doesnt repeat :-|
Arre wah!! be grateful i actually mentioned u!! and now u want hyperlink also!! :P :P LOL i knew somebody was gonna mention that!
go read my friendship post (august)... it has ONLY hyperlinks lol. i hadnt met u then, if not i wud have included u also there! got exhausted after doing it tho!
why does everyone want to marry me off??? what harm have i done to u??? njanokke manasamadhaanamayi jeevikkunnathu sahikkunnilla le? LOL
anyway thanks :-) let's see. no hurry. special someone okke varendappo vannolum. paavam avante thalayil ezhuthu! lol
@Scorpiogenius
thanks :-) wish u the same. been awhile since i saw u around. not been much in the blogging world?
Kanni Sistah!!! quite an account..... i can;t remember what i ate for lunch today
*vayasai pengale*
*ash rolling eyes at Crafty's daily dose of drama*
tee heeeee!!
Here's looking forward to a SOOPER YEAR Ash!
and this year..... Kanni-Cunny shall meet!!! YAYIE!!
hugsssssssssssssssss!!!!!!
Wish u and ur family a very Happy New Year!! hugs and muahs! love u loads!! :D
@Crafty
me frowns at cunny sis
if u think YOU'RE old, then what do u think that makes ME? :-/ sheesh!
hehe
yesssssssssss this year the twain shall meet!! :D :D
hope u had a great new year sis!!
As said pretty long post,dont know which part to comment on :).
Overall a a good year,not too bad i suppose.Hope u have a better 2010 with more ups and less downs...cheers
The philosophy expressed in the "Lessons learnt this year" section was awesome! :D :D And so was your style of expressing them :)
Destination Infinity
@Nautankey
hehe its ok... u dont have to comment abt every month or something!
yes hopefully 2010 is a better year... fingers crossed.
@Destination Infinity
fancy u noticing that!! :D better read that than each of the 12 months eh? haha anyway thanks! :-)
That was some year, Ash! And you have rounded it up so well!
Blog friends- I would definitely second you on that - so many precious people! I am so thankful for our blog samaj :)
Happy New Year - hope you have a wonderful 2010 and all the happiness in the world!
This ws the bestest yr when it comes to friendship - it ws so nice meeting u all over the virtual world, pulling each other's legs, the love we hv for spamming :)
May u find the person u used to be soon :) And hope u get some more time for blogging :)
A very happy new yr to all ur loved ones Ash :)
Loved the lessons learnt ..esp. 3rd and the last :)
Cheers to the blog samaj :)
@Smitha
wish u the same sweetheart :-) (((hugs)))
@Swaram
yes definitely blog friends ki jai ho! :-)
i love the fact that u try n see something positive in everything.
and yes i completely agree with ur last sentence... hip hip hurray! :D
yeah this year has been bad for deaths :( Lot of people I knew have died all of a sudden. More downs this year for me too than ups. Wish you a happy year ahead :)
Thats a wonderful collection of thoughts and happenings. Your resolutions and lessons learnt are just too gud. Would love to follow them, if I remember !!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, Ash !!! Have a great year, this year too !!!!
Do we get to see u in WP, this year ?????
It wasn't boring at all! It was like a special window into ashwathy's soul :)
I'm sorry about all the loved ones you lost in 2009. May 2010 bring only happy things your way. Money, interviews and unforgettable moments with family and friends :D
and oh, I'm glad you blog. Otherwise I would never have found you. :)
Memories are too precious to let go...
Wish I maintained a diary or something sigh!!!
What a great post!Personal and insightful as a good blog post should be.
Here's hoping that you have many more years of blogging ahead of you. And count me amongst your enduring fans.
@ evanescentthoughts
wishing BOTH of us more ups than downs this year :-)
umsreflections
I always keep at the back of my mind, the lessons I learnt. Now how much I follow them is a different thing :D
WP!! thats turned into a joke now! :D lol... let's see... if i have time in 2010, yes definitely...
but am comfy in blogspot as of now...
@Ki
thanks for the wishes babe :-) oh can we substitute interviews (since i already have a job) with love of my life? :D :D let's hope ur wishes work for me!
and yes i m truly glad i know u :-) u're really spirited... never change that attitude.. that's what keeps u, you!
@Jon
u dont have to ever let go of memories...thats the best part. u only have to make sure its in an easily retrievable format, what be it :D
@doctorlarge
thank you :-) i'm glad i came across ur blog in 2009... its one of the best ROTFL blogs ever i've known! :D
I did comment? right? At least a "dot"? (or didn't I?)
Vannoo, kandu, haajar vechu ennathinte thelivalle athu?
athu moderation-l kalanjo!? :(
wow...thats a long post..but i really enjoyed reading it..like reading a diary!! sorry for being late here...wishing you a wonderful 2010!! :)
I'm alive n kicking Ash! To be honest I've been on an overdrive on blogosphere! :)
See ye :)
oh hello that was not the best pav bhaji :P its not even close..the best pav bhaji is served at a different place..and of course its available at the roadside only :D..yummy..btw mumbai's best vada pav and dosa is also pending..lots of best actually still pending for you :P
I know you'll definitely see this comment here so : Yes I know exactly what you mean about enjoying the 'last year of singledom'. ;) I'm thinking belly dancing, lots of time out with my friends and family... lots of stuff in and around Delhi. I'm gonna miss all this. :)
this year was neither good nor bad for me (but might be the time for me categorize an year good or bad hasn't come yet)...
may u have a more wonderful year!
@Sands
dunno!!! I didnt delete any comments thru moderation... thats for sure. moderation starts only some 7-10 days after the post is put!!
@mathew
diary reading can also be boring! lol..nvm..
wish u a wonderful 2010 too! :-)
@scorpiogenius
I've been on an underdrive I guess :P i dont post as often...
lemme blogroll you so that keeping track of ur posts isnt so difficult! bas! :P
@Ani
for me that would remain the best pav bhaji :-) no matter what!
but yes thats why you're around na.. to fill up all those pending bests ;-)
@ki
smart idea to put that here! :D
i'm not sure i wud have been able to catch this comment as a response to ur post... i'm not too regular in blogging myself these days!
may 2010 be ur best year yet :-) its a new phase of life for u. i'm sure u'll love it... may u have every reason to!
@sp.ajay
maybe its best to take the year as it is and not categories it at all - good or bad :-)
hope u have a wonderful 2010!
hey ashwathy...must say you have had some year! phew!!
Though late in wihsin...bt still...wishin you a fabulous 2010...amen!
A very happy 2010 to you Ashwathy. I started blogging like you did... and it helps much more than we expect... Blogging friends are a blessing!!!
@Sandeep Balan
It's never too late :-)
thanks wish u the same Sandeep!
@indianhomemaker
where WERE you??? :D
'blogging friends are a blessings'... amen to that :-)
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