Summing Up 2011

It’s said that if you can’t say something briefly while retaining its purport and significance to your audience then either you have nothing to say or it isn’t worth saying; either way it would be better to maintain silence and lead your audience to believe in your wisdom; why open your mouth and confirm their suspicions – that you indeed are a fool. Among my friends, fans and followers the opinion is divided in equal measure: I speak too much and I don’t speak at all, and they are united in their opinion that I am indeed the only self-proclaimed foolproof guru who is capable of fooling everyone all the time. I take this as a compliment so I either speak or stay mute depending upon the conditions of my vocal chords and never have any consideration for  my audience; what about their choice, do they want to hear me utter my wisecracks or not but I will deliver nevertheless. It’s like on a hot day you may prefer to stay indoors and not expose yourself to the sun burning in the sky, but the sun still shines heedless. It doesn’t bother whether he is desired or not, it shines since that is its nature… so I follow. Now enough rambling, which actually has no purpose at all except to add a bit of my fusion into the cauldron of world confusion. I am absolutely certain that not even a rat gives a damn or s… about what I have done or not done during the year gone by, but so what, I want to record it for my sake. You may or may not choose to read it but if your mood is dropping faster than the stock market and if you have either rolled off your bed on the wrong side or had a war with your significant other and right now just tearing your hair or scratching your bald head or vowing never to visit a beauty parlor ever again then this post will give you enough reason to laugh and forget the rest of the world till you have reached the end. After all I am a quack and I offer only fleeing solutions and not forever ones. So here goes…

We love figures and like to be caught in the labyrinths of conundrums so a rapid fire statistics (and like all statistical figures comes with embedded errors of unpredictable proportions):

2011 (like any other normal year) had 31536000 seconds and this is how I managed or squandered them: -

At my postal address (home in normal parlance): 7948800

At my true home (mountainous regions of the world): 13478400

In between places (cities, villages, sea level regions, in transit, etc): 10108800

Countries traveled to: 12 (4 for the first time: Latvia, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Afghanistan)

Distance covered (by all means of transport): 100,340 Km (nearly 8 times Earth’s diameter)

One thing I had hoped to do but didn’t: finish writing a book

One thing that I hadn’t thought I would ever do but I did: stay at home for an entire month at a stretch (this may sound unbelievable, but I did)

One thing I wish I had done but didn’t: walk the entire length of the Great Wall of China

One thing I attempted but couldn’t: influence a world leader to take steps to curb climate change

My most memorable moment of the year: stepping on Afghan soil

My least memorable moment of the year: of course I don’t remember it (LOL)

My most precious gains of the year: wonderful friends, mesmerizing memories, new homes in many more parts of the world

And most significantly now I am nearer to the age of 50 by a year than I previously was and while this could either mean I am growing older and wiser, or younger and wiser or neither. The year of 2011 has been in no way different than the ones already gone by or the ones that are yet to arrive since my years as now, and tomorrow and forever would always be full of voyages, adding smiles, meeting people, sharing journeys, climbs, adventures, wild life and people, silent soliloquy as well as redolent conversations, meanings and nonsense, a horizon reached and another receding, meeting and parting, hellos and goodbyes, ups and downs, summits and valleys, ice and water, fire and earth. What would essentially not change would be my own essence and my reason to be. Life is a highway I am a traveler and I shall be walking all night long and in the break of a new dawn you would find be beneath a tree nursing a cup of tea, my eyes and dreams full of another uncharted vista and my legs restless to begin…