Ramblings in a new year

"Its a new world,
Its a new plan....
And I'm waiting for you...
Here I Am" - Bryan Adams, "Here I Am".

Well, so here we are!!! Brand new year, new clothes, newly expanded stomach caused by oodles of good food, new shoes, new "resolutions"(what shit) etc. etc.
...but a much older person.

19 years have flown by, and I guess its time to look back.

This holiday has been a mixed bag of sorts, a sort of compendium of joy and boredom. The 'joy' part was primarily in Kolkata, where all of us brothers ans sisters met up. First we saw two really amazing movies...."Kailashe Kelenkari" was special 'cuz for us Bengalis, Felu-da is as much a part of the Bengali sentient as is the taste of ilish or the sound of the Durga Puja dhaak. "Taare Zameen Par" is better, though.
Kolkata is one amazing city. It can fill you up with its sights and sounds.....and I love everything about it, from the rundown tramlines at Behala, the magnificent view of the river Hooghly, with its launch-boats, washermen at the banks, and the grey, dull fog that sets over it in winter, the old-house charm of New Market, to the swank malls at City Centre, Kolkata is one kaleidoscope of humanity, and I was lucky that, since I was mainly more with my brothers and sisters, all of us had a lot of fun. The fun, though, didn't only comprise tours and the like....there were also the winter evenings spent at our Deshapriya Park home, with us playing cricket, scrabble, or some other invented-on-the-spot game.

So.....if that's all the happiness, where did the boredom comes from? It just that I'm bored big-time from parental shackles.....if that's putting it a bit too harshly, I'm sorry, 'cuz my parents really are the world's best. Point is, I am seriously beginning to detest parental care and protection, and I don't know why.

I broke off from the typical I-personify-acads image after Class 8, when I'd been averaging about 95% in my finals for 3 years, and inwardly hating myself for it. I found something I could really put my soul into in the form of debating, where all my prizes and awards helped me believe I was NOT a nerd. Then vice-captainship came calling. The day that Shamik and I lifted the Best House trophy before the whole of St. Pats on Sports Day frankly ranks as the proudest in my life.

Then, again, parents took a real backseat I was packed off to RKM Vidyapith for my +2, a place with no TV or net. We were bound completely within its walls, no outside food, no clothes except the 4 uniforms provided, no musical programs except devotional songs, no other books or magazines than what the school gave us. And loads to study.

But rules are always meant to be broken, and the joy of doing so was beyond description. Feasts with "illegally" bought food (pre-ordered samosas and the like, lobbed over the school walls at an appropriate time and place), the regular 20-minute addas (9:30 to 9:50) every night in Room 5, stashing cheap porn magazines for later perusal in dormitory ventilators, occasionally being middlemen between our Arif-da and his lady love D______, et al. They were magical times.

And.....so......where does it all end up now?? In BITS, where there really aren't anymore rules to break. Where good jobs are just waiting to be taken. just being at BITS is more fun than I can ever imagine, and I'm really happy God has given me so much.

So, self-introspection complete, I find that I'm really happy. Of course, a lot is left to do....my grades aren't good.....and I would like to find a few girlfriends, but that's about it.

Besides, happy birthday to me! I'm 19 now. The number makes me feel all grown-up and shit, though I know that I'm not really as grown-up as I should be!!!

So here's to another great year!!!

Cheers,
SS