Twenty Ten !

Here comes the last day. I have a stupid habit of getting emotionally attached with present things. I am still much into with this year of 2010. I feel sort of unhappy to say Goodbye to 2010, then cherish up for coming 2011. Even 2010 look far better in eyes than 2011. Anyway, things come and go and this is life. 2010 was sort of wonderful experience for me. It was incredibly by far best year of my life. I am in habit of putting up all nuisances that comes to my mind in this space. Just of a note of caution: Reader may sacrifice their wonderful time over this post and may miss once Sheila ki Javani on their Tele-Set. Choice is yours - Go Ahead or Jump Backward.

Well, I begin now. The introduction was intended to move non-enthu Juntu out of my wonderful space-time of bytes of memories. It’s not every day Gaurav exercise his keyboard for blogger space, so I promise you will find something interesting here.

This year, 2010 started with a night out at Marine Drive and Juhu Beach (yeah, New Year 2010 celebration). Not much to say about it, but it was just an experience of crowded Mumbai. New Year eve is damn crowded all around in Mumbai. January was awesome, full of surprisingly good unexpected news. Amazing was techfest time and then some quiz hassle.

February: Midterm time. 6th semester had just started, but semester soon caught momentum. Just after midterms, I decided to go home. Well, reached home without any prior notice and left everyone to surprise. But it was only 1 day trip; I had to soon leave back for college.

Then came March, CFD assignments was all I did. I will never forget those frustrating coding stuff that took weeks to debug. But really its joy and fun, once code works. Yeah, we did succeed in solving all problems. Later, I had a wonderful trip to Kapshi village. Bit traveled this month.

April fool time - I am already a fool, so no point fooling me. It was final semester exam time. But visa stuff was all in my eyes. I just wanted time to flee up. It was most hectic time ever. After exams, I had just 3 days to pack up for a new adventure - Miles away! I did a lot of shopping in these 3 days. Travelling bags, utensils, food for 3 months, clothes etc. Perhaps, in haste purchased half the clothes of wrong size. It’s difficult to get packing done for a long journey without parents help.

May 1st - All set to fly for Canada. I was going for a 10 week summer internship at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Yay!. My first flight in life, that too international. Mumbai chhatrapati shivaji airport trilled my eyes. Jesus! What all awesome stuff mankind has created on this planet? Anyway, I said goodbye to my motherland, India. I had some connecting flight from Frankfurt. Finally I reached Vancouver. Travelling by air is very comforting and peaceful. It’s more difficult to travel 20 km in crowded Mumbai local trains, then 20 thousand miles by air. Frankfurt and Vancouver Airports were utterly awesome.

I was there in a completely new continent. Bit scared at first, but soon got used to the new place. Jetlag for few initial days. A big new country to explore. We utilized every weekend to reach every possible corner of this new land. I had a feeling - It’s time to explore now or never. So I did, travelling around Canada. Discovered places like Victoria, Tofino, Whistler, Vancouver, Toronto, Niagara. Also, I learned to cook. I used to make very delicious Dal. But, always followed wrong procedure to cook rice. Fired microwave once. Anyway, cooking was fun. Also, had a lot of pizzas and bread. Sometimes, laziness won over my empty stomach. Maggie helped to substitute for meals, many a time.

Adventures of Ziplining at Whister, Jetlag at St Andrews, Lunch at Sushi, walks of Stanley park, Ultimate Wave Tahiti at Omnimax Theater, Free Strawberry at McDonald, Illegal fire at Wreck Beach, Waitress of Sandman Hotel, Iron Man-2 at Scotia Bank Theater, Canoeing at Jericho Beach, fishes of Stanley Park Aquarium, Evening with a Canadian family, tales of a Canadian Soldier who had been to Afghanistan, 16km walk in the shades of lynn Valley, hiking Grouse mountain - highest point in Vancouver, Jug Island, 19 presentations in 10hrs, airG tour, EA games industrial tour, Gondola Ride, Ferry Joy Ride, Camping near tofino beach on a rainy night, iphone, ATM delivering only coke, CN Tower, amazing Niagara Falls, relaxing Toronto Island, downtown Toronto, MITACS workshops and Lab Simulations running for days. What a time that was!

After these 85 days package, I had to leave for India. It was ending of July, 2010. Back to Mumbai. At once, I just wanted to go home. Udaipur for just 2 days and back Mumbai. Time went on. 7th Semester seemed somewhat peaceful then other semesters. But in the end, it doesn't matter. August, September were just another months. Midterms and busy life of IIT seemed to have taken me back. Mid-Sept: travelled to Matheran, a hill station near Mumbai for a weekend. Soon some unexpected set of events and got a bit disturbed ~ family stuff.

October Sky: nothing much; traveled to a village called Vihigaon. This time DG cam helped me taking a lot of pictures and store in my memory drive. All through the year, I had a major responsibility of running NS 101 and NS 102, which I loved to do.. just had to compromise a few grades. This stuff really fascinated me and kept me busy like hell. But, yeah I loved what I did. I did re-structured the entire course. Thanks to support of a dozen people in my team. Home Documentary session in IRCC, Campus School Volunteering Programme, Interactive Session with Madam Vidya, NSVK volunteering Program, Salvation Campaign, Trip to Vihigaon, music session by madam Vidya at Dhrupad Sansar, Soft Skills Training by Madam Shyama, many meetings, infi mails: slowly all these are helping me in improving my managerial skills. It really takes a lot of dedication to make every event a success. Yeah, we failed many times..But there is always some hope.

November was yet another month. Busy with exams, projects and assignments. At last semester ended. I was so exhausted and went straight home then.

December: Chilled at home. Did some cool stuff? Painted rooms, Enjoyed ghar ka khana ... I could not even realise how fast 25 days at home had gone. Was not much willing, but came back Mumbai to spend last few days of this year. Recently I traveled miles in Arabian Sea - to the caves of Elephanta.

This Year was very happening. I found very wonderful friends who supported me every times. Loneliness kills me .. but few kept me alive, even when I was miles away from home. They will hopefully my friends forever. It takes a lot of experience to care for people. I also realized there is always hope and one should not lose faith easily. Many say I have changed a bit - I still wonder of them. Anyway, thanks all for being part of my life in 2010. Life to chalti rahti hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham !

A little smile, a word of cheer, a bit of love from someone far, a little gift from one held dear, best wishes for the coming year... Happy New Year 2011