A Tale of Two Years (in One)
My 2014 was a mixed bag. One that contained oil and water, but also one that was translucent, allowing a few people to get peeks, but not enough to fully understand what was going on. I don't think I've had such a roller coaster year in a while, and when I think back to the last time I did, I quietly smile, remembering how proud I was of myself at the end of the endeavour, having waded through all the crap and emerged alive and kicking and stronger than ever, much like Andy Dufresne did on a rainy night twenty years ago.
I say oil and water because, this year, was, essentially two mini-years for me which could not have been more different from each other. The first half of the year was pretty bad, thanks to the dead-end project I was stuck in, the complete lack of friends outside of work, the absence of a work-life balance, and zero enthusiasm to do the things I once loved - football, quizzing, reading and so on. There were occasional respites, but they were often short-lived. I am usually one that makes the best of the situation, but I started complaining and looking for ways out. Along the way, a few things happened which shaped the first half of 2014..
I set a couple of quizzes for a proper crowd in February, then marketed it by being a touch creative, and managed to pull off the event without any major glitches. I found myself missing college (and the people, and the way of life) way too often, and attending Saarang and KS didn't help one bit. I took up CAT classes to escape the drudgery that was work, and tried investing my energy in it, and that was going pretty okay, since Verbal classes let me catch up on sleep, and I had great company. In April, I watched Two States, which was perhaps the worst thing to do. I loved the movie, but it brought back too many memories that I'd carefully been hiding away in some dark recess of my mind. I also attended an interview for a job in Chennai, and ended up getting the job, which is when everything took a turn for the better.
A year after I started work, I quit my first job, moved to a city I never thought I would, started living alone, maintained a very very careful eye on expenses, cooked for myself, was social, made new friends, spoke to old ones, learnt to drive a two wheeler (highlight of the year), and spent more time with friends than I'd spent all of the previous year. I also got to read more thanks to work being chill (there are yet miles to go...), won a nice award at work (that's two for the year, one at each job), set a decent QFI Quiz (which I spectacularly missed), travelled with family (Thailand is perfect for a break), did pretty well in the CAT for not having put too much effort (nope, nothing in the parenthesis this time) and had an eventful New Year's Day (something that's never happened before).Â
Somethings did not change, however. I was still pretty damn lazy, so I started cycling, then stopped cycling, started playing football, then missed a tournament and gave up, started playing badminton and abandoned that too. Heck, I started reading non-fiction, but haven't been able to finish one particular book for more than three months now. Attempted playing Scrabble, got to be pretty decent at it, and then forgot about it. Was enthusiastic about chess for a while, what with the World Championship and all, but that's stagnated too. I wrote a bit, the occasional post here, the occasional post there and so on, but I'm still unable to consistently write. Â Â
Overall, I think there are a few things I need to buckle down and do (reading, writing for sure) to make 2015 far far better. But 2014 was a mixed bag that I'll gladly reminisce someday about.
Here's how Charles Dickens would have summarized my 2014 - Â Â
It was the worst of years, it was the best of years, it was the year of lethargy, it was the year of productivity, it was the epoch of forgetting, it was the epoch of learning, it was the weather of Bangalore, it was the weather of Chennai, it was the spring of no hope, it was the winter of eternal hope, I had nothing before me, I had everything before me...
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