Another year, another decade!

Welcome 2010!

Year beginnings are special – you have the opportunity (supposedly) to turn over a new leaf, start new ventures, and ofcourse make the infamous New Year resolutions.

It is miraculous how we human beings attach momentous significance to what could have been “just-another-day”, and is nothing but a fleeting moment in time.

No cynicism on the first day of the year, I rebuke myself. Apologies.

I start again; year beginnings are special. They offer you the much needed solace that there will be sunshine and hope and love, and things will change for the better, and if nothing works, this year will thankfully end soon :). I am guilty as most others of making resolutions, and breaking them. This time around my list remains largely similar to last year’s, which is available here, so not repeating myself. Controlling the temptations of the palate and tucking the tummy in remain priority. I would add being more regular at sketching to the list as well…and I am done.

What is really special about 2010 is that it also marks the end of a decade, which has been interestingly called 00’s (pronounced as oh oh’s) by an illustrious tweeter. And since all print and television media are overdoing the movies of the decade, the celebrities of the decade and the other blah-blah nonsense, I thought I’d put together my own list of Top 10 events, trends, milestones that have affected and moulded the person that happens to be me!

I remember making a diary entry on the eve of Jan 1st 2000, when the world was obsessed over the start of the millennium - I wish I had a snapshot of that, but this post is an ode to that!

And here I go (not necessarily in chronological order, most overlap);

I I grew up!
I know 10 years is a long time and you might just say high time; But sweet 16 sounded so much better. School and college years were fun. I miss the endless rides on my white Kinetic Honda with a helmet on (back then not only was I the only girl but the only person to wear a helmet in NCR – it was so embarrassing – thanks dad!), the DTC bus rides to college and everywhere else in the sweltering heat and the freezing temperatures, the endless giggles, and most importantly the friendships that last you your lifetime!

II I realized the double X chromosome makes me a potential victim.

Growing up also meant understanding the fact that in a place like Delhi you will be molested on public transport, ogled at by men your dad’s age, offered shady lifts by shadier strangers and faced with wearied parents concerned at the daily harassment and rape cases in the newspapers.

Thankfully, I also understood the need to fight back, to raise your voice, to hit them where it hurts the most, to be independent and mentally strong, and finally the need to realize you belong to the fairer sex and not the weaker one!

III Terrorism was not at the border – it had reached home.

9/11, 26/11, and the many bombings in Delhi, Hyderabad, and other cities over the past 10 years made terrorism a frightening recognizable reality that was not somewhere out there at the border, but closer home. The urgency to reach home after college as the borders were sealed post the parliament attack, the frantic calls to parents out on festive shopping after watching news on bomb blasts in Delhi on diwali eve, the list goes on.

We will never know what it is to live without fear.

IV Anytime, anywhere availability: Hello Cell Phones!

I need not write much on this. What started as a luxury status symbol, is now an every person’s necessity. I wonder how parents managed in earlier years without the option of keeping a tab of their kids’ whereabouts, or how friends found each other in a crowded mall, how lovers lived without smsing each other on the free plan and the million dollar question what did the now-telemarketers do for a living?

V The Corporate whirligig beckoned.

Life institutionalizes each one of us. Mine is no different a story. Five and a half years and still going on – I don’t mind the green bucks after all!

VI My cutie younger brother grew up too!

The house was a sadder place, the TV remote the least attractive, the computer not half as inviting, and the phone chatter hardly exciting without the constant interruption– Priyank moved out of town to join a college, and I became a lonely sibling :(.

VII Love happened...and the big fat Indian wedding followed.

…and the rest, as they say is history :p. Love you, Vish!

VIII 25 year of togetherness…

Mom and dad make the most beautiful and ageless couple ever – many many more loving anniversaries to come, touch wood!

IX Of the travelling tales…

I really enjoy visiting new places and doing a lot of sightseeing (and shopping) – the last 10 years have seen me doing a lot of travels – the short family vacations at Goa, Mumbai, Bangalore, Mysore, Nainital, Almora; the loving getaways at Phuket, Bangkok, San Francisco, Michigan, Memphis; the long stints combining work and pleasure at LA and Chicago; it has undoubtedly been a wonderful decade and I hope to do a lot more travelling these coming years too!

X The Internet boom and Social Networking

My first email ID was iamyuvika@rediffmail.com (don’t ask me why), which I checked once a week at the local Internet café for 20 rupees an hour. Life’s changed since then. I check mail 150 times a day on broadband connection, I am on most social networking sites, I blog, and as Vish puts it “I have unnecessarily unleashed myself on the web.”

So be it, darling, I am loving it!