A Decade Gone By...

31st December, 1999 :

I remember this day very well. It was the millennium. Probably the most exciting New Years I have ever witnessed. I had just turned 12. Back then, I was a young lad who was hell bent on spending the New Years awake all night partying at a friend’s place. A night out was a pretty exciting thing back then. Little did I know how common a thing Night-Outs would be once I'd be in college :P.

They were showing back to back shows of Titanic on Star Movies and a re-cast of a WWF Pay Per View show called Armageddon. I remember quite well what happened on that show but elucidating that here would be a waste of blog space :P.

The clock struck 12. My friends and I ran out of the house in utter glee and joy. We had no idea why we were so happy, but that's the beauty of the age I guess. The air was covered with a thick fog. A car at an arm's distance couldn't be spotted. But that was the beauty of Delhi's winter. The millennium had come. WOW ! How lucky were we to experience it. The rest of the night just flew away in playing games and eating chips. The next morning, the 1st day of the millennium was spent sleeping away the night before.

31st December, 2000:
I have bleak memories of this day. But yes I do remember a bon-fire and a me along with my friends dancing around it. Back then I was a maverick against pollution :P so I wasn't really too happy with the bon-fire ! Again the idea of a night out was exciting and we did go through with it at my neighbor's home. The six of us. WOW ! Back then it seemed like these days would last forever. It's funny how life takes turns and everything just goes away in one blink of an eye.

31st December 2001:
2001 had been a very bad year for many of us. The year that started the terrorist attacks on 9/11 as well as the parliament attack on 13th December. This day was spent quietly at home thanking God for ending the year and wishing the same would never occur. I do remember spending an hour or so outside in the cold celebrating new years. I took a small piece of a brick and wrote in bold "2002" on the road.

31st December 2002:
I remember this day ! I was at my Dad's clinic trying to learn History. My dad's a very learned man ! He knows a LOT ! But he never had any answers to my stupid questions of why it's necessity to memorize dates ! ( I have a really bad memory in such respects)

I was there at the clinic till 10 o' clock and then I came back and quietly slept.

31st December 2003:
Hmm.. This is one year I don't really remember so I can't write much on it. :P But probably the same tale of spending the new years at home with family. Oh yeah ! I remember now.. I went to sleep at 10, woke up at 12.15am and went out to wish my friends a Happy New Year and ran back inside and jumped back to sleep :P.

31st December 2004:

Oh ! I was in 12th. The year of the Rat-Race. But I guess I'll consider myself lucky enough to not have joined this Race-to-hell for IIT JEE. Probably because of my lack of interest in getting a rank and more interest in learning. I spent the night studying the Schrodinger Equation and determining the probability of the position of an electron in an Infinite Potential Well :P. I never did get any Rank anywhere :P… But I think it served me better in the long run. :)

31st December 2005:
Oh my first New Year as a college student. I had just come back home from a trip abroad to Singapore and Malaysia. But again I spent the New Years with friends sitting outside and chatting about how life has taken all of us to different places. Actually I was the one who was doing all the talking as only I had gone out while the rest were still in Delhi :P.

31st December 2006:

I was in my Second Year. Had just finished my exams 10 days before and had started work on a Project. I had kept myself busy for much of the holidays studying on the project but I had decided to give myself a break and went to an old friend's house. I went out with him to one of our favorite old hangouts and wished away the New Years in nostalgia.

31st December 2007:
In my Third Year of Engineering. Pondering over the year that had gone by. 2007 was a good year for me. It really changed me as a person, and only for the better. I was a much more confident and mature person by the time this year ended.

31st December 2008:
This was a memorable one. A house party. And I was the bar tender. The first time I got drunk in front of family. :P Well, not DRUNK drunk, but I did feel the kick :D. I guess that was the time my parents realized that I do drink (at least socially). But they didn't have any complaints. That was a very consoling moment for me because it showed how much faith and belief my parents had in me and how they now considered me an "Adult" of the family.

31st December 2009:
So here I am now. Penning down the last 10 New Year Eves. Drifting down memory lane. Images of the past flashing before my eyes. It's been a great journey- the Last 10 years. I have changed only for the better and I thank all the people who have been a part of my life in the last 10 years and who have contributed in some way or the other to make me the person I am right now !

Cheers to all of you. Thank you.. And here's to the next 10 Years !!! :)