..so what's your Resolution?
Guess, with New Year's comes this constant need to change- almost every conversation begins or ends with, “so what’s your resolution for the coming year?” Almost always, I smile sheepishly and have nothing to say – And at times when I feel like acting smart, I retort with the clichéd “resolutions are for those with low levels of self control, not me!” or something cheekier.. But that hasn’t reduced my quest of why thousands, rather millions of people spend time pondering over new year resolutions to simply break them even before the 1st week of the new year ends!
Thinking hard about it, I guess it's people’s way of resolving to change for the ‘good’- a willingness to be open to change – something that the future holds for each one of us.. whatever the reason might be, am surely not falling for this trap as of now.. In fact, I am one of those that introspect on the past year and think about what s/he could change about her/himself this coming year- If that too falls into the same group, then I take back all that I’ve said above....
About the year that went by- while quite a few incidents top the list of being worthy enough to narrate, the most startling of them remain my indirect experience of the Ghastly attack on the city of Bombay....
It began with a phone call from my brother at 11:40 p.m. the night of November 26 asking me to switch on the television. Had been fast-asleep, and almost hung up on him for having woken me up when he clearly knew I am a morning person. But the persistence in his voice forced me to walk to the television and switch on the channel he was indicating.. and what followed was three days of absolute psychotic dependence on the television, weeks of recurring ghastly nightmares- of being shot at, being in a facility that was bombed and being one of the sole survivors, losing my arm in a grenade attack and what not (admit am a little too sensitive).
Though these three days of televised violence may not amount to even a millionth of what the people who faced terror in the face went through, it will surely stand out as days where I questioned quite a few realities of life. In fact when NDTV drew parallel between this attack and the 9-11 attack on the US, I quite agreed with it.
I was an 18-year old fresh off-the-boat student in Georgia- our 8 a.m. class had just gotten over and we were waiting for the professor of the 9 a.m. class to walk in! This was one of the few classrooms that had a provision for watching videos – had a television with cable. Suddenly scores of people started entering the classroom to watch what had happened to the twin towers and just while we were watching what had happened to the 1st tower – we literally watched the second tower being attacked- I still remember people’s reactions to say the least. And what followed were weeks and months of tension on campus.
While I may not be able to change anything to counter terrorism, it truly tops the list of things that I truly hope do not repeat in the coming year (what a lofty resolution). And while I write this blog, the latest obsession that the media has created happens to be a corporate scam of unmatched proportions. Takes me back to the belief that resolutions are made only to be broken ;)
In any case, one of my resolutions is to blog a lot more than I did in 2008 ;) Have a great year ahead. Ciao...
Thinking hard about it, I guess it's people’s way of resolving to change for the ‘good’- a willingness to be open to change – something that the future holds for each one of us.. whatever the reason might be, am surely not falling for this trap as of now.. In fact, I am one of those that introspect on the past year and think about what s/he could change about her/himself this coming year- If that too falls into the same group, then I take back all that I’ve said above....
About the year that went by- while quite a few incidents top the list of being worthy enough to narrate, the most startling of them remain my indirect experience of the Ghastly attack on the city of Bombay....
It began with a phone call from my brother at 11:40 p.m. the night of November 26 asking me to switch on the television. Had been fast-asleep, and almost hung up on him for having woken me up when he clearly knew I am a morning person. But the persistence in his voice forced me to walk to the television and switch on the channel he was indicating.. and what followed was three days of absolute psychotic dependence on the television, weeks of recurring ghastly nightmares- of being shot at, being in a facility that was bombed and being one of the sole survivors, losing my arm in a grenade attack and what not (admit am a little too sensitive).
Though these three days of televised violence may not amount to even a millionth of what the people who faced terror in the face went through, it will surely stand out as days where I questioned quite a few realities of life. In fact when NDTV drew parallel between this attack and the 9-11 attack on the US, I quite agreed with it.
I was an 18-year old fresh off-the-boat student in Georgia- our 8 a.m. class had just gotten over and we were waiting for the professor of the 9 a.m. class to walk in! This was one of the few classrooms that had a provision for watching videos – had a television with cable. Suddenly scores of people started entering the classroom to watch what had happened to the twin towers and just while we were watching what had happened to the 1st tower – we literally watched the second tower being attacked- I still remember people’s reactions to say the least. And what followed were weeks and months of tension on campus.
While I may not be able to change anything to counter terrorism, it truly tops the list of things that I truly hope do not repeat in the coming year (what a lofty resolution). And while I write this blog, the latest obsession that the media has created happens to be a corporate scam of unmatched proportions. Takes me back to the belief that resolutions are made only to be broken ;)
In any case, one of my resolutions is to blog a lot more than I did in 2008 ;) Have a great year ahead. Ciao...
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