Reflections on 2018 ...

Generally, one takes the review of the passing year by the end of the year. From that perspective I am at least five months late to write this. But as they say better late than never. Hence, have decided to post it (at least) today.

Year 2018 had been an action-packed year for me beyond imagination. It was a happening period on so many fronts – personal, professional, touring. The quantum of things that happened during this year cannot be compared with those for any other year in life till date. (In fact that level of busy life also has been one of the reasons for this post getting delayed.) Another unique feature of this year was there were so many ‘first times’ during this entire year!

Touring always excites me. (At times I feel I could have been in tourism industry.) Amongst all the things that happened this year I feel the touring that happened during this year had some of the unique aspects:

·        This year it was the highest touring till date. Here is the stock of the total touring during the year both for personal and professional reasons:

o   Outside state

§  In Professional Context: New Delhi (twice), Gulbarga (Karnataka), Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Nagon (Assam)

§  As personal tours: Pondicherry (Tamilnadu), Kaziranga (Assam), Kolkata (West Bengal)

o   Within state:

§  As personal tours: Pondicherry (Tamilnadu), Kaziranga (Assam), Kolkata (West Bengal): Nil

§  As personal tours: Nasik, Pune, Kaas (Satara)

Thus during this year, I could visit as many as seven states of the country, which is the

highest number for me in any year tilldate.

·        Each of the personal tours was dream tour coming into reality in some aspect or the other. In my life many-a-times I have experiences of being God’s chosen one. This belief was once again underlined through the experiences during touring this year. Here is the summary of the uniqueness and the support to what I am claiming.

o   Going for an exclusive trip with Manasi had been a dream for years. It got materialised during the trip to Pondy. The fun quotient got increased with the total two-wheeler ride throughout the city. For me this was quite adventurous as was being adopted in absence of Vivek. It was really our time together, a memorable trip! We had so much flexibility of schedule and time at hand that we could visit Matrimandir! That was an amazing place. The structural uniqueness is beyond the words to appreciate!  

o   One of the tours to N Delhi for professional work (FDP in Statistics) gave me an opportunity to meet an artist, a calligrapher and a friend – Shipra Dutta. I had been seeing her work as “Likhavat” through FaceBook. Had also got some saries calligraphed from her, but never had an opportunity to see her other work personally (yaachee dehee yaachee dolaa). This tour not only gave me that opportunity, but also got one dream calligraphy done on a sari from Shipra. (The sari is yet waiting to be wore on some equally special occasion.)

o   Trip to Kaas fulfilled two dreams together and thus the ‘dream come true’ quotient got a multiplier effect. Visiting Kaas was in the bucket list. Also similar to trip with Manasi trip with Shilpa had been a dream for years. And this trip was so much fun! We were so much close to nature! The kind of micro-photography experimented, was one of its kind and again for the first time in my life.  There were experiences to see some flowers to be visible only with lenses, some flowers with transparent petals! It was nature’s treasure opened up for us to enjoy, appreciate (and preserve). This trip changed the whole outlook towards flowers and did bring in the special affinity towards photography of flowers even during the later tours or even daily morning walks. BNHS was the right option for this trip.

o   Kaziranga was an experience by itself. Wanted to visit it even during the earlier trip to Assam. But the actual visit got materialised only during this year. The visit to Kaziranga jungle and seeing rhino in such a large number and from such a close distance was certainly overwhelming. Bu the excitation did not end here. Even the wonderful place, where I got to stay – Wildgrass - was worth the experience. Everything was so much close to nature here! No TV, minimal use of manmade things. The furniture, the room decoration, etc were all in cane, which is a unique feature of Assam. The hotel served amazing food in Assam cuisine. Thanks to Samidha for recommending this place to stay. And I was so lucky that inspite of having booking for a single day, actually I got to stay for two days at this wonderful place as someone else cancelled their booking.

I shopped cane jewellery items to my heart out. Could meet and spend some time with Dhananjay (Vivek’s nephew) at Guwahati. In fact this meeting gave birth to an interesting event for Dharankars later.

Sometimes out of nowhere one is showered with so much blessings ... one feels that one is God's chosen one ... today was that day for me. With some souls one has extremely special n soul-to-soul relation even though one has never got to meet that person or may be that person never knew that one even existed. I have an example ... Smita Patil (one day after many years of she passing away I was crying my heart out in her memory) ... similarly Reema Lagu ... n so many. I share similar relation with Dr Bhupen Hazarika, the son of Assam. At Guwahati there is Dr. Bhupen Hazarika Samadhi Kshetra Memorial. The place is very much on the way to airport and the surrounding area is just full of flyovers. Thus have always landed up going on some or the other flyover n NOT on the land. During my last visit I came to know that it is his Samadhi, but never got an opportunity to visit. Even this time there seemed no opportunity. The place is so very well maintained! I sadly remembered the pathetic condition of Kusumagraj Kavya-udyaan at Nasik (Now this place does not exist anymore. I was fortunate to visit that when it was established years ago). Dr. Bhupen Hazarika Samadhi Kshetra Memorial is a huge garden with fountains. It has a collection of all pictures right from his childhood. Cud see some with Lata, Asha, Usha, Jagjit Singh, n so many. The thematic sequence is so well ... begins with childhood n ends with his last journey. 

The experience was as it is overwhelming, but when I reached this last point of pics of his last journey, I was literally into tears.

o   I am an extremely shopaholic person and from that angle visiting Kolkata had been a dream. I had been looking for an opportunity like a conference or a seminar, etc to visit Kolkata, but was not lucky enough till date. But during this year got such an opportunity on the way back from Assam and cud spend at least a day to shop there. Kolkata was ‘shop even after u drop’ 😜😝 experience. In true sense shopper’s paradise! Thanks to Soumili (student from Dept of Educational Technology, SNDTWU), she had planned my itinerary so meticulously that I did not waste a minute and could use the time maximally! Even the places to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner were recommended. Thus I could use every minute in Kolkata to the max extent. Staying in central place like LIC guest house worked to my advantage.

Due to the shopoholic nature, the stuff collected was at least three times the baggage allowance that non-Air India flights allow (that’s why I love Indian Railway). One facility of Indian Post Office was utilised for the first time and to a great extent – speed post. As many as 22 kg stuff was sent to Mumbai in the form of two consignments of speed post. This speaks about the extent to which things were shopped. Loved the customer-friendly private services outside all post offices for people like me, who shop a lot and then have to send the stuff home using Indian Postal Services. Moreover there r full-fledged service providers outside the post-office, who pack ur stuff in completely tailor-made manner. They provide boxes, sturdy packing with excellent quality strong cello tapes, cloth, stitching, seal, markers to write names, lift the heavy pack to the weighing machine n get it ready to the counter fellow with weight written ready on it. The fellow also holds it properly for the person on counter so that he does not have to even turn his chair. U have to just bring the stuff to their shop after getting sanction from post office fellow (one needs to show post office fellow what one is sending). Rest all is this person's headache. 😃

The fellow packed the stuff with so much expertise so as to fit in the stuff in the smallest possible space. He would also bring the whole huge bag right at the counter of the counter fellow to weigh. Indian post office had been my boyfriend since many years, but during this tour I fell in love with this new boyfriend – speed post. It was indeed a boon for safe and budget (in comparison with private couriers) parcelling! Inspite of spending the whole day, the heart still wanted more.

o   Every city brings some unique experiences! City of Kolkata also was no exception to this.

§  I had heard about the services outside post offices. But, the level to which they were experienced, was something experienced for the first time.

§  I had heard of tram, had seen them in old Hindi n English movies. But here I got to witness trams yaachee dehee yaachee dola! 😇😍 Cud not enjoy riding in one though.

§  Black n yellow ambassadors r gone from Mumbai. But in Kolkata one gets to see all yellow ambassadors. 😃 They look very cute. N the matter written on them is even more interesting – “no refusal” 😇😃 (This wording reminded me of the auto trick fellows n taxi drivers in Mumbai, who don't want to come anywhere! 😰 So had thought that they will not refuse to come anywhere. But once one fellow refused to come to a place. 😅) I used these ones many times. The charge comes to almost half as compared to uber.

§  I had never sat next to the auto driver. I have always found that risky. But here the seat was so comfortable! Also big enough to accommodate a huge body like mine. There was proper handle to hold. The driver was ensuring that I am holding that handle every second. 😃 Majja aalee. (No pic of this arrangement. The journey did not give me that luxury.)

o   Trips to Nasik are not uncommon. But one such trip to Nasik this year was a unique one. It was on occasion of the Dharankars’ first ever get together. It was the first of its kind of activity. On the background of Teju’s (Vivek’s niece) wedding scheduled during May 2019 and her pre-wedding trip to India for shopping, this get together was of special importance. Also since it was going to be difficult for many of us to actually attend the wedding in US, this was an opportunity to meet the bride-to-be and that too with all Dharankars together. Not a single person was missing and everyone could make it. The thought of such an event came up during the meet with Dhananjay at Guwahati. 

Professional Front:

Even on professional front this year was unique with so many never-thought-of responsibilities and experiences! That made the life all the more roller coaster ride.

• ·        SWAYAM Coordination for the university made me think and work for the whole university. Till then the scope of my work was limited to my table, max to one department to some extent.
• ·        I had an experience of learning from Prof Vasudha Kamat in online mode. I had experienced how she makes the online environment so live and happening. Opportunity to learn from her in F2F mode was again the first time experience during this year.
• ·        University gave a different type of responsibility in context of Dept of Educational Technology at SNDTWU during this year. It was a huge responsibility and in fact very scary, especially in the beginning. Thanks to my senior colleague, Dr Jayashree Shinde, for helping me sail through this newness. The experience was in particular scary as some of the events I had never witnessed in the department in my earlier working of 2.5 years. Eg, admissions for PhD were being done for the first time after I joining this department. All earlier admissions were prior to my joining the department. Some procedures had been into operation for the first time due to new University Act. That further increased the ‘first time-ness’ for me. I had been calling myself as ‘pailatkarin’ through this year in context of handling departmental level responsibilities. It has been an enriching experience with some mistakes made, at times attempts made to bring new systems in place.

To sum up ...

All in all I cannot thank God enough for giving such a wide range of experiences to me during this year. All the personal tours were so enriching for me! They gave me an opportunity to treasure and to appreciate the things as minute as microscopic flowers to as huge as rhinos. There IS a special place for everyone in the nature. The experiences ranged from getting to learn from stalwarts like Prof Kamat, to dealing with new professional responsibilities, to a heart-touching experience of visiting Dr Bhupen Hajarika Samadhee Kshetra Memorial to seeing today’s era artist’s – Shipra’s - work. What a variety of walks of life for enriching experiences!

I do look forward to similar excitement even during the next year.