At the risk of doing this too early and perhaps undermining the remaining part of the year, I want to review the happenings of 2016 because it has been a year that compensated for the lack of excitement of at least last 5 years! SO here goes listing the 5 most significant happenings of 2016 for me!
The first place definitely goes to the experience of living all by myself in a new country. When dreams come true, they usually don't happen to be anything like you can imagine and that was precisely the case for me. I still remember so clearly the first day I set foot in the UK- coming out of the Manchester Airport and seeing how beautiful the country was! I had no words. From the usual Delhi scene of seeing lots of people, traffic jams, road side vendors, cyclists and crowded market places to the English roads of Manchester and Leeds- considerably less population on the streets, more space everywhere, perpetual winter, more street discipline and cleaner air, it was a transformation. I do not intend to criticize Delhi, I never can. Its a wonderful city full of historical and modern surprises but this transformation was quite obvious to my senses and I was absorbing every bit of it from the moment I set foot. The days after the first one went away so quickly, I wonder if all my dreaming and wishing had served like preparatory lessons for my brain to adapt quicker than it should have! The apartment in Residence 6, Leeds city, KPMG's proud new glass building, grocery shopping at Tesco, dinners at Tharavadu, weekend trips to other parts of the country, learning and getting really good at cooking!
The second most significant event in the year was dadi's demise (who said this list will be all happy and exciting?). After living with her for twenty four long years- seeing her day in and day out, I don't reckon any of us will ever fully accept the fact that she's not around anymore. Good days and bad, she was an absolute constant through everything. I will never forget her final days. The last family dinner we had before she fell really sick, her last two weeks when she went completely silent and used to give us brief smiles occasionally when her eyes caught our shadows, her frivolous prayers to God for a quicker death and her family's well being before she stopped speaking...its all engraved in my memory for life. What I can perhaps be thankful for is that there could have been more of such happenings in the year and even Dadi's passing away could have been longer, more painful. But that's not the case and I can't not thank God for that.
Third on my list of the most significant happenings- The weekend of Coldplay and Harry Potter! Oh that goes down as probably the best weekend of 2016 or even 2015,14 and 13 combined together! The whole experience of being able to attend a Coldplay concert in reality in Manchester, it had to be nothing less than magical! From getting fantastic spots right in front of the stage, to being able to sing along with Chris Martin to each and every song... I fell in love with the feeling of enjoying music all over again. That was followed by the adventure of being stranded without a train back home, ending up sleeping at the station and waking up to catch a train to Watford for the Harry Potter tour. Again a dream for many, I was able to experience two brilliant events in a single weekend...I still wonder how I managed to come out of it without a heart burst! The magical tour was nothing less than a dream again- each and every part of the studio was a relic in itself of the brilliant imagination of JK Rowling and any HP fan would feel more than privileged to be able to walk through and touch these! I cant possibly put into words how much that weekend meant to me and always will.
The fourth significant happening of 2016 for me was being able to travel my heart out! For those 7 months of being in the UK, I remember being out in a new place every single weekend. And Im talking about approximately 25 weekends here! To be able to have the liberty of choosing a place, booking tickets to go to it and roaming the city all day without an actual plan was BLISS. I am so glad and thrilled I could see so much of England in my time there. From planning the first major vacation to Scotland to smaller and sometimes instant trips to other magnificent towns and cities in the country, every single one is engraved in my memory forever. I remember my very first solo trip to London- figuring out the modes of transportation, hopping on a bus all by myself, stepping foot in that new, vibrant city...it was every bit exciting! I got a chance to act completely touristy as I figured out how to use the maps to reach Trafalgar Sqaure and all the familiar sounding areas of the city before meeting Niyati to go home with her. That trip was followed by many more of its kind and every single one of it is a new story I can narrate a million times over.
The final thing on my list is something I have been debating on in my mind since I started the list. I had a few alternatives for this point but I guess whether I like it or not, it was a significant event of my life in 2016 and needs to be mentioned here. It was to have been hit by the feeling of love. A travel story is never complete without the mention of finding someone in your journey and God made sure my story was not lacking in any respect. The reason I was unsure of including this in my list is because I do not know if this is something I would like to come back and read after years. Because there is a fair chance that what seemed to have been a dreamy love story at some point in my life, might not end up to be the ultimate love story. So instead, I want to mention that ultimate or not, it certainly was a very happy part of my 2016 and it is afterall, the first of its sort in my life and hence, significant. Maybe check out my next year's review to find out more about this ;)
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