2010 Review and 2011 Plan

Only a few earth hours are left for our planet to complete its 2010th revolution around its sun, since the great lord was crucified. Celestially opportune moment for me to sit back and retrospect.

The year 2010 has been very positive in all departments. This blog has faithfully mirrored most of the important happenings in the year bygone. Just reading through the posts, I am reminded of the higher highs and odd lows of the year. Here are the highlights classified into The Peaks - moments of high achievement which brought great pleasure; The Plateaus - moments of no achievement no failure; The Troughs - moments of distress, pain and failure.

The Peaks
1. Travelled to two new international destinations - China & Hong Kong
2. My birthday gift to myself
3. Rejuvenation and intensification of the lost F1 fanhood
4. Good investment in real estate
5. Travelled to two new domestic locations - Pondicherry & Wayanad
6. Professional stability
7. Skilled driver in all conditions now with over 4000 kms of driving experience
8. Insured my life

The Plateaus
1. Underperformance in the stock market
2. Financial crunch
3. Poor social life

The Troughs
1. Tragic demise of my childhood friend
2. Only 2 stories completed

All in all, since the peaks are more than the plateaus and troughs combined, I would shut the 2010 chapter happily. It was a great year. But now, its history and a new year stands at the altar. I do have a couple of resolutions, which I would love to revist after one year. They are...
1. Learn Kannada. I believe there are four steps of learning a new language. These are speaking, understanding, reading and writing. My goal is to learn reading written Kannada.
2. Complete 5 stories. This area has been my nemesis, just cant write. The ideas are there, the plots are ready, the time is there, the urge is there, but the invisible force which creates words in a writers mind has gone missing. I hope to trace it inside me in 2011
3. Trading success. I have laid a annual target of earning Rs 72,000 on a float capital commitment of Rs 1,00,000.
4. See the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in Delhi.

So we shall see. All those blessed and cursed souls who often wander over to these parts of the cyber universe, me and my beloved blog wish you a happy, disease free, tragedy free and exceedingly enriching 2011. In the closing moments of 2010, I will leave you all with my dead friend's signature which he used to write in his emails.

"Life Is A Smile Of Tragedies.. Enjoy It"

The Year That Was

Hmm.. one of my very good friends recently put up a post on all his achievements in 2008. Thats a good idea actually. A new year (better than a birthday or anniversary) serves as a peg in our life from which we can measure our journey ahead. So I reasoned it to be prudent enlisting down my hits and misses in the year that was..

My successes
1. Travelled to Egypt
2. Changed job
3. Changed country
4. Started investing and managing my portfolio
5. Attented live concert of Iron Maiden
6. Saved lives
7. No major illness

My failures
1. Whatever... you know what I am talking about
2. Collossal financial losses (unavoidable, unfortunate)
3. My current work profile vis a vis previous
4. My current remuneration vis a vis previous
5. Deplorable lifestyle

Summary: I would be dishonest to myself if I say 2008 was a great year. It was outright disaster, yet again continuing from 2007,2006,2005 ..zzzz. However, steps like 2,3,4 from the success list have begun bearing fruit now and 2009 holds promise. Let us see if history really repeats itself!

New Year Wishes

Dear Friends
Wishing you and your families (or surrogates of importance) a healthy and prosperous 2009

My Dear Country
Wishing you a stable central government in the 15th Lok Sabha General Elections. Wishing you a terror-free environment. Wishing you a speedy and resilient economic recovery. Wishing you more FII inflows.

Dear Me
Stay Alive!

Dearest Blog
Thank you for being there :-) Your allegiance to me is the stuff legends are made of.