Good Bye 2009!

This has been a very memorable year for me, it meant breaking free, and growing again.

Retirement has been a great thing to happen to me because I have now time to do what I always wanted to do. I wonder why didn’t I opt for it ten years ago, life would have been so different and wonderful.

A visit to South Africa, a chance meeting with some people of Indian origin who have come up in society the hard way, a meeting with Dr. Ali Bacher, and another with Hilton Ratcliff, an astronomer of repute [See my post] made the visit memorable. There was so much to learn from them!

Starting the second career has not been very difficult. So many well wishers and friends were calling up asking me to do something for them.

Working for underprivileged children [See my post] is gradually catching momentum, though I must confess this is a new area for me and I am literally groping and searching for ideas. Who is inspiring whom? The truth is that I feel inspired by the under-privileged children. They are fighting big odds, without complaints and have remained cheerful. The students seem to be like sponge, they absorb anything in the form of knowledge that comes their way. I am relearning this lost sensitivity from them. Enjoyable it is.

And I have had an opportunity to work with Unique Features on a Water Management project; Asian Paints and Unique Features will be distributing a booklet to students at Nagpur on Jan 7 in their effort to create awareness about water scarcity and related issues like Rain water harvesting. I feel happy that I have contributed to this effort. Working on Social Responsibility project has its pleasures, but more than that I have enjoyed my discussions with Anand Awadhani and Dhanashree Bedekar of Unique Features. It is amazing to see their social awareness, perspectives on many issues, and their work. Very inspiring.

And after a big tussle, I could buy an apartment. It is getting done up and I intend to shift there soon. I will have a small room exclusively for myself there, with a small library, table, laptop and printer. An office for myself! Feels great!! It overlooks a green field from 12th floor.

My dream is to visit Norway and travel by sea to London. Don’t ask ‘why’! These are childhood dreams, there is no reason. Hopefully I will be able to save enough for trips to fulfill those dreams and make it happen in 2011.

Quite a lot to do. I have indeed a long ‘To Do’ list and I do not want to go to the land “from where no one returns” without finishing it. That means one must live a life which is disciplined and well organized.

That’s where the problem lies!
Vivek

[Also posted at Vivek-Uvaach]