Thursday, January 2, 2014

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The 2013 Closing Report

Let me start off by admitting the fact that I am a lazy blogger. Gap between posts can take ages. Today being the last day of the year, the 365th day of 2013, I had so much to write finally. Before I even realized, 2014 is here. Years come and go, leaving a truckload of memories behind. So many things have happened this in the past year, most were amazing dotted with few regrets.

The year 2013 was a wonderful year for me. It was one of the best years of my life. I was able to accomplished a ton of things, and what surprised me most is that many of those things happened were unexpected as well as spontaneous. Starting from New Year day, my share of 365 days were well spent. Here in this post, I will walk you down memory lane and have our shares of 2013. Sure there are many things I might have missed in the list, thanks to my memory.

To start with, in the first week of January, I along with some friends successfully organized a "Career Guidance" seminar back at my hometown. After a week, I attended a cousin's wedding. Believe me, it was the best wedding ever. In the future when I grow old, I know exactly how my wedding will be.

I came to Delhi for the first time on the 18th of January 2013, passing hills and mountains and rivers, a place so far away from home. The first sight of Delhi made me fall in love with it. You can read more about the epic journey by clicking here [link not active].

My coming to Delhi was the biggest surprise, not just to me but to everyone. No one believed me when I said I was in Delhi. But I really was in Delhi. Since I was here without a purpose, after the initial days, boredom came to me. The people I know here in Delhi are mostly call centre workers and they worked in night shift. They slept during the day and worked at night. The few others who were students were busy with their classes. I was all alone. Since I came from a place where Hindi language is unknown, the language was a total stranger to me. I lied. I took up Hindi till upto Class V, armoring me with the knowledge of reading the alphabet. I cannot speak the language, and because of that that I don't find comfortable to be alone in the city. Of course, I can always speak English, but for a country boy to be alone in a big city is not a kid's play.

I had a huge wish list and in the month of March, out of boredom, I was able to accomplished one, with bitter sweet memories. As long as I can remember, I had a dream of earning for myself and not always demand from parents. Though this can be done later in life, after my graduation, with a job, but I didn't want to wait that long to accomplished this simple desire. I started searching for a job and finally landed with one, at a call centre. A job at a call centre is the easiest to find for someone fresh out of school and with no prior experience, so they say. But even before the completion of a month, I quit. Go here to find out why [link not active].

June came, accompanying with the heat to Delhi's summer. Accomplishing my plan of staying in Delhi for 5 months and future plan to attend college back in Manipur, I booked my ticket back home. Two days before the journey, my parents call with a change of plan. They wanted me to do graduation in Delhi and nowhere else. My dad start his lecture of all the good things about Delhi. It is worth mentioning here that my dad had been to Delhi in early 2000s and my grandfather in the 1970s. It is always wise to obey the words of our parents and respect their decisions. I canceled my ticket. Sigh.

Very soon, the admission at the University of Delhi started. Since my parents wanted me to stay in Delhi, out of the many universities in the city, I choose DU. Though I had appeared the entrance for a language course to JNU, a dream university for every students, or so I hope, I knew what I had done and rather than having another gap year, I applied for English and Botany in DU, though the later was my optional paper in my twelfth.

Very soon, admission to DU came and the sky-high cut-offs were making headlines. Though there are many colleges in DU, there are some colleges with higher standard, if you know what I mean. I have some favorites and in the second cut-off, my percentage which was "excellent" back home and "average" in DU made it to one. Halfway in the process of admission, a problem struck resolving only at the fourth cut-off, securing the last seat. I had a narrow escape.

College starts, I moved, and life starts rolling into places. Days passed, turning into months and here we are, standing at the edge, with a new year ahead.

2013 has taught me a lot of things. First, it taught me that it is perfectly okay to live life as it comes. Not living, but seeing Delhi alone was a dream for me, a dream I hope to accomplished in the distant future, (after my retirement, maybe). Like a dream, I came to Delhi, lived for five months, booked ticket to go back home, changed plan, and now hooked to stay in Delhi for the next four years or maybe even more.

In September, when a friend of mine got sick and was admitted to hospital, and the more recent one in November when my brother got sick, I realized the importance of good health and the need to remain healthy in a land really far away from home.

Four pairs of shoes, three pants and four shirts; and a phone - pray they all landed on safe hands. I had a surprise one evening after I came back from college to find some of my clothes missing. Either someone had breached our door (which can be open easily if someone know how to even if it's locked), or had climbed the wall of our building to my apartment and then left with his find. Another time, my phone was stolen at a train station. I agreed this was due to my carelessness. The year 2013 had taught me to be more careful and to learn to adapt the life in a city.

The year also taught me the value of money; how hard it is to earn and how easy it is to spent. In the month of April, I got my scholarship for 2012 from my state, another scholarship and I also got half my paycheck from the job I did in March, the whole amount totaling to over twenty thousand i.e. ~ $350, which was, well, a big amount for me. After doing some upgrade to my laptop and buying a cheap smart phone, my pocket was soon empty. This whole time in Delhi, my pocket was always empty. My brother who worked in an MNC provide me food and bed, and some pocket money. My dad is a pastor and I don't always have the courage to asked from him seeing his meagre income. To reach my college, I take the bus as well as the metro. My typical expenditure in a day goes like this:
     Bus to metro : INR 10
     Metro : 
INR13
    Bus to college : 
INR 10 (15, if the bus is AC)
    College to metro : 
INR 10 (15, if the bus is AC
    Metro : 
INR 13
    Metro to home : 
INR 10
                               = 
INR 66 (if AC = 76)

This is only the fare; added the stationery, too often phone recharge, everyday canteen, weekend visits to Delhi's famous places, occasional auto hiring to college when I am late; I was always broke.

... and the list goes on. It will take forever to  write about everything. Thank you 2013, I had a great year.


By the way, it is always better late than never: Happy New Year

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