A skill a year, will keep you happy forever

Swarup once told me a great thing. That if we go on learning a new skill every year, we'll have 10 new skills in a decade. Now that's a pretty enlightening thought.

1 new skill in a year -- Not a very big deal! Isn't it?

There was a time when I regretted that my parents never encouraged me in my childhood to engage myself in some hobbies. Many of schoolmates were nice artists and painters. Some were great musicians trained in tabla, guitar, singing etc. Some were too-good dancers. But I was never jealous of them because I knew I could never paint, sing or dance like them.

I also rued that I couldn't swim. And this time I was really jealous. Even small children used to swim in rivers and ponds when I came to visit my village.

But hey! wait a minute!!! Why was I so complaining? That I didn't have painting, dancing, singing or swimming skills was nobody's fault except mine. It's my life and I have to take care of it. Skills don't come on their own into our lives. We have to learn them, practice them and hone them. All it needs is hope and self-belief. And it's never too late to start learning.

2008 is the year I learnt swimming. You can't imagine the joy of a person when he crosses a swimming pool for the first time. That was awesome with a capital A. In 2008 I also started reviving my quizzing interests which had faded somewhere during my software engineering (at Infosys) days. The icing on the cake was digital art and designing. I never knew there existed such an interesting world in Photoshops, flashes and powerpoints. You just need a heart (which you definitely have) and a little sprinkling of creativity to come out with a nice thought, design or video. My heartiest thanks to those people who started to call me creative. No one ever had called me so before. Circa 2008 -- People called me creative !!!

Boy! where were you for so long. You rued, cribbed and cursed for no reason. All you needed was just a start and a yearning for the change.

Life -- I promise you I'll make you better and better. I want to learn guitar, I want to make a movie, I want to do mountaineering, I want to win a B-Plan, I want to learn salsa, I want to do sooooo many more things. 2009 will see some more skills in my kitty.

2009 -- I can't wait for you :-)