As Facebook decides to remind you of your past year with pictures (to which frankly no one gives a damn), I thought I will take a walk down that lane, in my head…

This has been a year …

..of courageous decisions. Of quitting the corporate life of 9+ years, fat pay cheques, promotions and bonuses, to leap into a project which was confirmed for all of 5 months (and extended to 5 more later..)

…of saying no to the last minute offer at the Swiss Bank I had always thought of working for, once upon a time. And forgoing even fatter pay cheques et al

…of learning a new programming language, and traversing the world of coding, loops, number crunching, data analysis, and statistics basics (again)…

…of becoming a part  of the linguistics coterie, and trying to understand how they think, and what it means, and explaining Marathi and Sanskrit grammar in contrast to Mandarin, Japanese and Korean…

…of not being harried by work pressures, meeting deadlines, and running the rat race…

…of having a long lunch breaks, allowing you to walk back home, cook, eat, nap and walk back to work leisurely…

…of leaving work promptly at 5:50 PM, each day, and not thinking about it till 9 AM next morning…

…of playing badminton with colleagues, and bonding with them even if you don’t speak their languages…

…of allergies, losing health, and regaining it back one day at a time…

…of discovering the joys of making home baked breads, and filling the house with scents of vanilla and cinnamon…

…of cooking for random strangers, and seeing their eyes light up when you dish out the goodies..

…of learning a new language, and living the “Mind Your Language” and “Zabaan Sambhalke” scenarios, each week..

…of reading, reading, and some more reading (Kindle Unlimited, two huge libraries, blogs, and what not)…

…of experiencing earthquakes, sitting on the sixth floor of your building, and being blown away by the typhoons…

…of attending yoga classes, with Chinese instructions and teacher, and still managing to get it right…

…of giving up sugar and coffee for a while, and realising you don’t enjoy it as much as you used to…while still..

…sneaking out for a freshly brewed afternoon coffee at the Scientists’ lab, and taking walks in the winter sun with a warm cuppa…

…of eating steamed, almost raw bhindi, which the Scientist has brought home with the noodles, thinking they were french beans (eye rolling)…

…of music lessons on Skype, and getting to know my electronic Veena better..

…of endless discussions with the Scientist over politics, music, movies, cooking…

…of first movie as a couple in the theatre, complete with soda, popcorn, and the works..

…of laundry nights at the laundromat, and the feeling of clean and warm bedsheets, pillows, duvets, and blankets…

…of nightly summer strolls in the park, often accompanied by ice cream cones or french fries, and some more discussions with the Scientist…

…of plunging into the world of blogging, and opening up to a new whole world…

…of taking the right pauses in life, slowing down and stopping to smell the roses…

How’s your year been?