What next??

Same time last year.  I made a list of things I wanted to do in 2011 – of tasks I wanted to complete, dreams I wanted to realise and wishes I wanted to fulfil. Here they are:

• Become a writer – start a blog and pen down my thoughts. Maybe see my name in print in a leading publication?
• Travel – explore new places
• Complete Masters in Psychology
• Start an Epilepsy Support Group
• Paint our house
• Make money!!!
• Be a good President of my Rotary Club
• Join a good gym and work-out regularly
• Practise  yoga every morning

When I looked at this impossible list this morning, all I could do was smile.

Ok, the first one on the wish list was partially realised. I did start my blog Kanavu and began writing – rather, took tentative baby steps. And got enough encouragement to keep it going from indulgent well- wishers and friends cheer-leading me along the way! Much to my delight, got an article published last week in none other than ‘The Hindu’!!! I was euphoric for a couple of days....as if a new talent hitherto undiscovered was suddenly revealed for all to see! And the feedback I received was overwhelming....of course, some friends thought I could not have written it...maybe my husband ghost wrote it for me? I don’t look like the serious, intellectual type who can sit calmly and write?? Anyway, glad to know that I am not predictable...that could be boring!

As for travel, I hardly did any – apart from going to Coimbatore, Bombay and Bangalore for weddings – certainly not the kind of travel I envisaged!

The psychology course? I enrolled for M.Sc. Psychology in the Madras University distance education last year along with my closest friend. We planned to study together and write exams together. She studied and wrote. I always had other more pressings things to do when exams were scheduled! But paid exam fees thrice, that too along with late fee fines, that too after being reminded and pulled up by my dear friend!

The Epilepsy Support group has not happened either. Although it has been top on my wish list for a while....and I have been an active member of the Indian Epilepsy Association helping people with epilepsy to cope with the condition.

The house finally got painted.....after a gruelling 3 months of moving furniture,  clearing clutter, enduring 3 painters at all times of the day in every part of the house and  sneezing to the nasty smell of paint and thinner. Why is painting a house that has people living in it so complicated? Especially houses like ours that have stuff accumulated over decades in the hope that they will be used someday....I also wanted kolam on our walls and got that done by an impoverished artist who has since found more work, thanks to me.

Make money?? Joke!!

As for my tenure as President of  Rotary club, well, it has been great going so far. We did a number of meaningful projects – a health camp in a village that benefitted 200 people, a leadership seminar in a Govt girls school that inspired many young students and construction of a new building in another neglected primary school. But have another 6 months to go....and hope to keep up the tempo and enthusiasm.

Joined ‘Score’ – a high end gym in Alwarpet after much thought....but enjoying my work-outs immensely. And yoga? Not as regular as I would have liked it to be.  

So, should I say managed 30 % of what I had planned to do this year? 
But one major event in 2011 changed my life rather unexpectedly...and wiped out 6 months in planning, preparation, shopping, inviting...My daughter Tara got engaged in January and married in June- bestowing me with the status of mother-in-law!!  But I enjoy that as well......especially when people tell me  'You are a mother- in-law???!!! You have a daughter old enough to be married??!!’ What can I say...small pleasures of life!!

Now on the threshold of 2012, what should be my resolutions?? Any ideas?