To new beginnings

2006 – What a year it was. Fast-paced – ironical – eventful – shocking –expected. Team India created records – for better in West Indies and for worse In South Africa. The reservation debate saw no conclusion coming up. Only the divide between the "forward" and "backward" classes became all the more obvious. The 250th anniversary of Mozart was celebrated all across the world. Italy won the world cup. U2 were the big winners on the Grammy night. The third death anniversary of Satyendra Dubey. Cheney "accidentally" shot his friend in the face. Chile got it’s first female president. Agassi retired from the international tennis circuit at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Bird flu spread waves of fear across Europe, Africa and Asia. Continuous bomb blasts rocked the local trains – the lifeline of Mumbai. Santosh Kumar Singh was awarded capital punishment for the murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo. Warren Buffett performed an unimaginable act of magnanimity – donated a huge part of his assets to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Aussies regained the Ashes. Gandhigiri was the buzzword after Lage raho Munnabhai released. North Korea conducted it’s first nuclear test. The Nathula Pass opened for trade after 44 years. Gangster and Fanaa were the summer hits in India. Edvard Munch’s "The Scream" and "Madonna" were recovered. . Bangalore virtually came to a halt for a day due to the death of the Kannada superstar, Rajkumar. Crash shocked everyone by winning the academy award for the Best Picture. Micheal Schumacher retired from Formula-1. Umrao Jaan and Don were remade - they received mixed reactions. The first death anniversary of Shanmughan Manjunath. A quote by the Pope about Islam faith sparked mass protests. UN got it’s next Secretary General - Ban-Ki-Moon. IE7 came into picture. Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death. President Bush visited India. Manu Sharma was awarded life sentence for murdering Jessica Lall. Shane Warne announced his retirement from international cricket. The Discovery Space Shuttle mission was successful. Saddam Hussein was executed.

Personally, it was a year of mixed experiences. Discovered Bangalore. Made loads of new friends. Some friendships fell apart – some stood the test of time. Read up quite a few books. Shashi Tharoor managed to impress me immensely. My list of must-read books continued to increase. Learnt up quite a bit about astronomy. Plan to buy a telescope sometime next year. Wipro continues to be a learning experience – workwise and otherwise. Hrithik – my crush of 2006. Might carry over the crush to 2007 :) Found another "to-do thing in life" this year – have coffee in Huesca. It was good – all of it – the tears, the laughs, the lessons, the people, the places.

Yesterday was a good day – at work and at home. Things happened at work. The code was working just fine. Got quite a few words of appreciation. Got to eat chocolate cake after quite some time. Got into a course at Microsoft, which I am sure, will be a good learning experience, if nothing else. Discovered a Levi’s store near my house yesterday. More shopping – am not complaining – no sir :)

One day away from 2007 – things seem set for a change –for better or worse, I don’t know, but I cant wait to find out. Happy new year to you all. Hope it turns out to be a mixed bag, just like the year gone by. To new beginnings.