2010 the 50th Year

Folks, this was in many ways the seminal year. I got to the half century mark, something I never imagined or planned to be at when I was growing up. It was such a distant thing. I was amazed by the 'Icomomist' magazine on their feature article this December issue related to the idea that people generally get happier in their old age. Even though individual cases differ a lot on the whole I have to agree with the conclusions. I am a testament to this, I am much more mellow and relaxed over the middle aged hill so as to speak. This year though was seminal in many ways, I got closer to India, did reasonably well in getting my research funding together, and more importantly got a new groove together to follow for the final tryst with life. Most important though is the fact that I can truly claim to be happy.

This is most important thing in a persons life, believe me I have seen things from the other end of the spectrum.

November in India

Spent the thanksgiving week in India. Weather was pleasant and was good to see the parents. Delhi remains the same stink hole with a few minor changes. First is the new airport. Definitely a major improvement over the older one, however did not match the hype. If you look carefully the airport is full of warts, I saw naked wires, bad construction and poor planning. On the arrival side, baggage handling is very very slow, and the immigration hall gets packed with a lot of confused people standing around. This remains unchanged from the previous airport. Outside the parking situation is better but the touts remain. Exit roads are new but traffic is terrible. Also a new metro connection between Rajiv Chowk and Gurgaon which runs close to home (Green Park station). Once more poor construction quality all over. Management was also poor in the sense that the trains were overcrowded and slow.
One the whole the reason for this visit was the marriage of Sushant with Neeti. Very nicely planned wedding with top notch arrangements. Handsome couple and emblematic of the new India. Confident and ever hopeful of their future. Best wishes to them.
Bandana had a great reunion with her relatives 'the Khandelwal clan'. Since this is the first of the many such weddings of the next generation we hope to have more such reunions often. Getting close to 50 these reunions are great and very important.