2008 As It Was

Hmmm… I have to say 2008 was one of the most bittersweet years if not the most. It started looking like its going to be a downhill ride but ended on a real high! There were enough tragedies, joys, disappointments and satisfaction to make up for the past 22 years of my life. The ride was shorter than I would I have liked. It’s one of those years, that by the end of it, I wished never ever ended and it was 2008 forever.

January. The cold bleak month. The cheer that New Year brings with it gets shattered when you come back to reality and realise life is not what you knew of it. January saw the death of two of my favourite stars, Heath Ledger and Brad Renfro. This may not seem as important and significant, but when I put myself into my 14 year old’s shoes and imagine the loss she would have felt losing her “biggest crush” , that “perfect face Renfro” who had been the main subject of many long phone calls and emails and internet surfing time, my heart winces in grief. Ledger’s loss is tragic for the cinematic world, but Renfro’s loss crushes my teeny weeny heart.

We also lost Mickey this year. It’s like losing the baby boy in the family who’s spunk and smiling face can never be replaced by anything. It’s the kind of tragedy that just makes you realise how fragile and unfair life is, how temporary the whole concept of happiness is, what a large deep void feels like, how you just cannot turn back time no matter how tightly you close your eyes and wish and pray as hard as you can. What’s gone is gone. And that’s it.

I spent three months at home and going to office everyday. What a horrible and scary concept. Something only grownups and other people do. I liked working for the Coca-Cola brand but I cursed everyday first thing in the morning for having to wake up early and not being able to bunk. Starting my day with a frown is not exactly the way I’d like to spend the rest of my life. But it was an experience. Sitting isolated in a empty area of the office with people giving you weird stares, talking to people from all corners of the country, knowing what a good boss is like, drinking all the free drinks my stomach could hold, eating all the yummy lunches, making friends.

Spending time home during those months. Late night conversations and sleeping on comfortable beds. Warm under your own thick quilt in the cold weather to warm under your own thick quilt in the cold of the AC. Nothing can substitute using your own bathroom and having food served to you whenever you want. Laying awake in the dark, laptop in hand, having serious conversations, funny conversations. Using landlines. Making sure you get a scolding every month for the high phone bill. Home. I miss home too much.

The great Rajasthan trip. The one which saw the coming to together of us five and making words like fugly, plethora, saunain, pantain everyday common words and make us giggle every time we used it. It was nice to know that the bitchiness, useless advice, constant teasing, disecting each others life, endless laughing fits and all that makes us “us” is still the way it is. 1100 mails later, the Saunain life is still the best life. Saunain mein no Pantain, Haaaaw!

Even though our Darjeeling plans never worked out, coming back to Kolkata was a pleasure after such a long break. The state of perputual boredom itself turns into so much fun and sitting around with everyone and doing the lighter and more peasurable things in life and knowing that this is the last year you can just be. Lemon cha, dosa, maggi will never taste the same. Finally we had a nightout place to stay! That means, we were able to do whatever we want. Though we were banned from CL-230 for a few months. There were enough birthday “celebrations” and random occassions to keep us satiated. College became more of a meeting place than classrooms and lectures. All the seriousness about education was drained out knowing that this would be the last year we’d be living the student life.  Liquid was consumed faster than ever, bank accounts were empited out faster than ever before. The “Kolkata Trio” became  my backbone and lifeline. There has been so much warmth and comfort and happiness and sunshine. So many fights and arguments and misunderstandings and gloominess. Everything has been worth it. My student life has been lived to the fullest. No regrets. I made up for everything this year.

On to less personal matters, there was enough this year to make a word like “blast” and “terrorisism” a part of daily usage. Every major city was attacked. It became like, where next? I don’t think our generation has been witness to so much carnage in such a short span of time. It’s been like a scripted movie and something that’s happening but still not really happening. You believe it but wished you didn’t have to.

My Hanson were active this year. ‘Walk’ing. They’ve been into the whole “charity” and ‘doing their bit for Africa thing‘ lately. Their Walk Around the World is almost 70% done! Each member had a new baby this year, bringing the total to… uhh… 7 kids between the three.

The Mayer man released the best live album I’ve (probably) ever heard, kicking his way into grabbing Hanson’s spot of being my favourites and almost being successful. His blog has also started being updated again and there is nothing like reading his random posts.

I can’t really remember anything other of great significance that has happened this year apart from what I have already mentioned in this post (and the last). I’m sure there have been more which shall come to me later. It’s been a year that will be etched clearly in my memory, for the good, for the bad, for what it really was. Here’s to a better 2009 and many more great memories and an actually happy ‘New Year’. It’ll only be New for a little while longer though.

It was the year of love, of loss, of joys, of pains, of enlightenment, of understanding, of accepting and mostly, of living life as it should be.