2010

New Year.

I know many people have keen expectancy at this point.  After all, it's the time of the year when kids and grown-ups alike make different resolutions and plans.  Some of these will forever remain as wishful thinking, while the realistic and the doable  have yet to be actualized.

I have probably heard all sorts of new year intentions, from the pure fantasies to the trivial, from the profound to the mundane.  My favorite however are the perennial ones.  A colleague has been dreaming (for six years now) to become a showbiz celebrity.   Another acquaintance has sworn (for the umpteenth time) to quit smoking.

 

Two nights ago, during one of our booze @ the bay sessions, a dear friend enumerated his goals for 2010 - trim down, look younger, upgrade his gadgets, make more travels, and buy a car. Seeing that I only smiled at his babbling, he asked me what my resolutions were, to which I replied - "only to become  a better person."   I was not actually surprised that my pageant patty answer raised eyebrows.  In fact, I suddenly got worried that I might have been misinterpreted for being moralizing (specially that he cited material longings).  After overcoming a little hesitation, I elaborated on my answer and said that I want to become a better son, a better brother, a better uncle, a better friend, and a better career person.  Very Miss India indeed, but I wasn't really trying to be cute or funny by doing a beauty contest parody.   It was a sincere answer.

Two years back, I remembered writing in my old blog some similar thoughts as I celebrated my 29th birthday.

"I have probably retired too soon those career aspirations.  I no longer benchmark my success with peers.  I don't lose sleep when I don't get a promotion while others are ascending the ladder.  I will not move mountains to buy that expensive car a friend just purchased.  I will not die if I don't get as rich."

It's not that I can't.  It's not that I don't care.

I still want to strive, but for the reasons I find right.  I strive to make myself better.  If in the process, I get lofty titles and material wealth, these things are really just perks.  

The ultimate goal is to become a better person.  The ultimate reward is genuine happiness.

If some people deem this as fake sentimentalism, it doesn't bother me.  If others see me as a coward, I will not make it my problem.

To each, his own.

This is my mine.

Good luck to myself!   Good luck to us all!

Happy New Year!