It's that time of the year again...

It just seems like yesterday that we ushered in 2009. Though it was a quiet celebration, because I was still recovering from a relapse of malaria, it was all that a celebration looks like in my mind...friends, family (well, almost, it was T's family and her house, and that sort of qualifies), good food, a long adda session...all in all, a great time.

And zap, it's time to usher in 2010 already!

As I get into the festive mood, the kind of looked forward to, but not really eagerly anticipated, year end contemplation begins to make its presence felt. It is something that has become a sort of tradition in the past three Christmases that I have spent in the city...where I look back at the year gone by and thank the people who have made the year memorable. This ritual has great significance for me, because it is my way of creating a family out of friends in this city where I have no relatives and no family to fall back upon. Some of these people are friends from college, some others who I met here, but all of them are today an integral part of my life.

Festivals, for me, have always been associated with traditions. This ritual is also my attempt at creating traditions and establishing a familiar pattern in this phase of life on my own.

And then, of course, there's New Year's eve...unlike most people I know, I do not have any plans in place yet to bring in the New Year. So what does someone, who's not interested in braving maddening traffic after work on the last day of the year to squeeze into a smokey place filled with people packed like commuters in rush hour traffic in a Churchgate bound local from Virar, do? Dunno yet, but we'll discover the answer in the course of tomorrow :) Of course, Nuts has invited a bunch of us over to her place tomorrow for a house party with the promise of making waffles on New Year's morning, before I leave for the airport to get to Cochin for a dear friend's wedding. Yeah, I know, is she sweet or what!      

And of course, somewhere in between, there is packing to be done for the trip, work to be finished and resolutions are to be made (and hopefully, stuck to, this time around!) On that note, time for me to sign off now...wish you and yours a very happy new year!

PS. On that note, have often wondered, is there anyone out there, who's reading all that is the outcome of me pouring my heart out on (virtual) paper? Anyone at all? If so, it'd be nice if you gave me a holler, if only to return my sincere wish! :)

Until I am ready to pour my heart out again in the new year....

Toodles!