A Decade and Two tags

Come 2010, and it will be a decade since humankind last wrote a date that contained a year beginning with a 1. Funny how fast things seem to move ahead. Time, they say, flies, but flying again is pretty subjective, I mean, whoever coined that phrase, should have at least bothered to mention, how fast it exactly flies! There I was, in 1999, a microscopic entity, an insignificant conglomerate of living cells, a little kid clad in shorts and T-shirts, running about the house and ... er ... man, I do have a horrible memory!!! And here I am in end-2009, a macroscopic entity, a slightly more significant accolade of living cells, and still wondering what I was then. The interim seems to be a haze, an obscure blurred motion. Queerly, it reminds me of state-functions in thermodynamics, where the path between two states has no meaning!

Whatever, what it has all boiled down into, is ... the present scenario. Nothing more, nothing less. And as this year draws to a close, I feel like holding a mirror in my hand, a shining sheet of crystal ... and I feel like staring long and staring straight at it, staring into it, till the lost memories surrender themselves to my penetrating gaze, till the memories invade me once again and make me an object of their folly. So that I may be able to contemplate. So that I may be able to to analyse the events that have taken place, that have shaped the “microscopic entity” into what it is today.

So much for my thoughts! To quote one good blogger friend of mine ... not a penny for them! (I know you are reading this, Roshmi) What I really want to do on this auspicious occasision ... the end of the first decade of years-not-begginning-with-one, is forge a reconnection. (By the way, here's a small clarification. I refrain from using the phrase the second millenium AD, because the millenium started in 2001, and the first decade ends with the termination of 2010) So a reconnection ... of what with what, of whom with whom, you may ask. Well, frankly speaking, I miss my friends, friends bole toh my good ol' blogger friends from around this country, and ... abroad (Avada, you're still abroad right?) ... and I use this post to reconnect ... with them all.

Here are two tags for all of them:

10 things I've learnt/gained in 10 years:

The list I must confess, is pretty long, since the last ten years actually encompass the bulk of my growing-up days ... not that I am any more grown up now, but just that I should have grown up in them!

1. First, the technical knowlegde that I have gained :D ... a pretty meagre list, which includes, well ... tying my shoelaces, using day to day tools like screwdrivers and nail-cutters, and scissors and ... the sort. Playing the keyboard, a wee bit of computer programming, and ... of course, driving ... amongst other things.
2. A lot of musical knowledge, from basic chords of the piano and reading the staff notation, to the electrodynamic principles of a distortion guitar and names of every drum in a drum-kit, plus a hell lot of songs ... from Indian classical to Western death metal and everything in between!
3. A lot of bookish knowledge thanks to my school, from the entire Indian history and geography, to a lot of physics, chemistry, and mathematics ... the last three, basically owing to my preparation for the competitive examinations that I wrote. However I must confess, I remember the least of the stuff mentioned in this point!
4. A certain level of knowledge of the English language, and yet another certain level of Bengali. The latter level is ... ahem ... fathoms below the former.
5. I learnt about blogging from my wonderful father, one thing that I am glad I did learn.
6. I learnt a lot of morals from my ever enlightening family ... some of which I adhere to religiously, and the others which I wish I could. Examples of the former include a strict no-no policy to piracy, and a strict no-no to littering, amongst other things. Laugh at me, jeer me, but I give a damn. Although, following the no-piracy path is difficult in a world of DC and Bluetooth. I try my best to tread on it. Being a Microsoft hater does NOT deter me from paying for Windows. I have not yet worked on a pirated Windows machine in my house. Go ahead ... call me a fool! Now that I have the wonderful Linux in my laptop, I really don't care. Amongst things that I have not managed to learn, is ... controlling my temper, and in a heightened state of rage ... being rude to my elders. I am ashamed of that, sorry for that, and I wish I get to learn that fast!
7. I learnt the Gayatri mantra ... following my upanayan in 2003 ... the greatest bit of knowledge that I have accquired in all my life. Everyone should.
8. I got to understand a lot of human nature.
9. I learnt about people who give a damn to this world, and who blow up buildings and places and historical landmarks for no reason ... who kill other people, without a whimper ... and who aren't ashamed of it. I even had a term to describe them when I learnt about them ... circa September 2001 ... “LOSERS”
10. I also learnt about people who do not give a damn to the world, and who fight in the toughest of conditions, so that we may sleep peacefully in our beds. I had a term for them too ... “HEROES”.

The next tag ... a much lighter one ... 10 things I never had or used 10 years back, which I cannot do without/use a lot today:

1. The first one is pretty obvious ... my cell-phone. I will probably go hysterical if that ceases to exist! I have palpitions when it encounters the tiniest of problems.
2. A laptop ... my father had one since 1997 ... a black IBM thinkpad ... just couldn't call it, and the others that followed right upto 2007, mine own. Got my very own laptop recently.
3. An internet connection. We had it ten years back ... those where the days when connecting to the internet involved a set of chee-whee-crrrrk-whree noises and then five whole minutes to load a page called Google. Considered it then as something to stay away from. Quite the opposite now.
4. A pair of spectatcles ... thought that blurred distant visison was natural, till my parents forced me to an optician who said that my eyes were powerful ... with power -3.5 in one eye, and -2 in the other. Have specs ever since ... that was 2004.
5. An ATM card ... accquired that pretty recently though. Post college admission.
6. size 11 shoes ... or for that matter, the largest in the store. My feet grew a bit too fast perhaps.
7. A proper synthesizer ... the one I had then was a hilarious toy. The one now is a true blue synth. (OK, it isn't blue ... silver infact)
8. Okay ... this is an exception. I had it then, don't have it anymore ... thankfully. Still wondering what? My appendicitis ... left it in an OT in a certain Calcutta nursing home in 2002.
9. Another exception. Few (the last few) ...milk teeth! Had them then, don't have them anymore. Blimey ... I hope this doesn't become like chemistry where the exceptions outnumber the normal cases!
10. Umm ... what else ... nothing much really ... o well .. if you press ... a college life ... which I knew then that I would have in the future ... which I do have now!

Now comes the tagging part. All my wonderful blogsville friends ... Roshmi, Shilpa, Arvee, Ashwini(Avada), Amrit, Shankar, Vipul, Pawan, Miss Kido, Sugandha, theIshu, Sid and Dhiman. Anjan and Debi have stopped blogging ... poor souls, so wouldn't press on them. All of you wonderful fellas and everybody else reading this... do take up this tag, and let me know! Cheers.