A Decade in US.

It's been 10 years...and I still so vividly remember that day, when I landed at JFK, spend night stranded in LaGuardia airport and right before catching connecting flight to Boston, saw a glimpse of Newyork Times headlines - "George Bush wins GOP primary". Now when we are in 2nd yr of Barack Obama's presidency & MMS has ended 6yrs plus of my ordeal of dealing with "are you related to Mr Vajpayee ?" it feels amazing to think..Its been 10years.

Even though its been so long, it sure doesn't feel so. All 10yrs, flashback in front of my eyes & yet it seems almost nothing has changed, or should I say..the more things change, they tend to stay the same. When we landed, Tampa seemed dreamland...a big new start, a new life & a chance to start things on a blank slate. Blank slate it sure was - everything like new car smell. Between 14hrs work days, tons of paperwork & trying to settle in - there was that list of Top 200 movies from IMDB. Still remember those evenings, strolling along Blockbuster's VHS aisle (yep..this was time before DVD's even hit movie stores) & picking up movies from that top 200 list. Shawshank Redemption, 12 Angry Men, 3 Godfathers, Being John Malcovich, Reservoir Dogs...the list goes on and on, but it was just beautiful simple time. Being happy and having fun was so easy !!

Midway (exactly on 5/5/5), I had someone join me in my journey. The lonesome one bedroom dweller, suddenly became - two is party - single family unit seeker. Coupling came with its shares of ups and down - but the journey sure became lot interesting. Change was stark - as suddenly from "living out of a gas station grocery", I now knew places like "Bed Bath & Beyond" and understood concepts well documented in "Everybody Loves Raymonds". Its funny, how suddenly your "Seinfield" loving evening become ones laughing with Ray, Marie and Debra. But to say the least - I'm loving it !

So whats ahead ! 20 something me from naughties, definitely laughs and ridicules a slightly plumber 30 something of this decade - but this new me knows, twenties will bring a more older & even more ridiculous 40 something...and hence understands lets live this moment. As they say in cheesy movie lingo - past is past, future is unknown...but that's why present is a "present".

As 2010 ends...

As the year comes to ends, I am sitting here wondering - why do things don't excite us anymore. I remember, as a kid - I used to look forward to so many things....diwali crackers, holi colour guns (pichkari's), summer vacation (even if we ended up staying home and doing nothing) or for that matter - a new years eve. 31st night was television night - no one asking us to sleep in time. A wrap of year's events on "World this week" with Prannoy Roy, some cheasy comedy and song events on DD's new year programming and the quintessential 10,9....3,2,1..Happy New Year countdown. It was simple, nothing fancy - but still made sense. Now, when 2011 awaits - with millions of possible things to do, tons of places to go - last few years just staying home & even sleeping 10:30pm on New Years Eve has become "the usual". And its a shame, coz I have'nt even hit 34 yet !! What can I do - that can be equivalent to getting excited about "Chitrahaar or Sunday evening movie on DD", going to watch Amitabh Bachchan movie in theater, eating Golgappe on street or biggest high of my life...catching a Kite running with long tree branch. Why do things stop being fun ! I remember, when getting a VCR rented and watching 3 Mithun Chakraborty movies all night used to fun. Now with 6 terra bytes of content, things still dont seem fun anymore.

So 2011..what I really really want to do is - rediscover fun ! Such a simple task & yet seems sooo difficult. Happy New Year "little boy" !