2006 started out for me with quite a bang. One of the things I decided to do this year – something I don’t think I have ever done before – is make some new year resolutions. Why not me, I ask. It is after all the most fashionable thing to do at the turn of the new year, and what else could be more apt when I actually have some things about my life that I want to change?
Let’s see what I’ve resolved to do this year.
My first resolution is to become a more social person (again). It’s been 5 months since I moved to the DC area and I have made (outside of my colleagues at work) exactly 0 friends! You could attribute this to a number of things. One, I have been far busier at work than I was when I was with Morgan Stanley. Two, I have spent nearly half my weekends driving up and down Interstate 95 (to New York). To make friends, one needs to first be in the general area 
Three (this is the best), I have mysteriously morphed into a person completely content with spending most of my weekends by myself, within the confines of my apartment (of which I am the sole occupant). On being asked (by my numerous friends around the country) about how my social life was looking, I would usually launch into an elaborate explanation of how living the suburban life almost completely precludes you from running into people.
It must be noted, though, that there is some truth to my last sentence. When in New York, people are all around you. I would run into people everywhere – on my daily commute to work, in office building elevators, and so on. I lived in an apartment building with 33 floors and only 3 elevators servicing it – the math should tell you how likely I was to bump into the same people over and over again, in the elevators. I had a huge bunch of friends thanks to my training program at Morgan Stanley so that definitely helped. That, and running into people in the elevator. Let’s not forget, too, that the likelihood of meeting people my age was extremely high around where I lived what with most people in their twenties, all dapper Wall Street professionals. So when it comes to meeting people in suburbia, since I (naturally) don’t run into people in elevators or subway trains, I have no real way of meeting new and interesting people in my age group. That’s been my excuse.
But this year I plan to put more effort into it all – meet people from high school who live in the area, alumni from IITM, attend cultural events, etc. I have already begun so we shall see how successful my strategy is as time passes.
My second new year resolution is to resume music lessons. Back when I was in New York, I was an amateur student of drumming. I’ve been playing with the thought of resuming but two things have been coming in my way. One, sheer laziness. Two, I’m not quite sure if I want to go back to Carnatic vocal or if I am brave enough to buy myself a drum set and practise in my apartment – something that is sure to drive all my neighbours nuts. Right now, given my love of percussion, I am thinking hard about taking tabla lessons so let’s see how that pans out.
My third resolution is about bucking up on the blogging front. I have been trying hard to coax myself into getting back into it all but you can probably see that it clearly isn’t happening. Sure, I could go ahead and fashionably attribute it to writer’s block or a dearth of interesting things to write about, but I know in my head that there’s something else that’s been stopping me. This year I want to set myself reasonable targets. Like, maybe, write once a week.
It is ironic that it took me until the 4th week of January to get down to starting on resolution number 3
So there you go. My new year resolutions for 2006.
Before I go, I’d like to mention one other thing. The astute reader would have noted that I mentioned (in the first sentence of this post) 2006 beginning with a bang. Well, the bang in this case turned out to be a business junket to Las Vegas to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2006 as part of the Hillcrest Labs contingent. When you see something the size of CES (with 2500 exhibitors and 150,000 attendees), you learn a thing or two about scale.
Hillcrest Labs had one heck of a show (we even won a ‘Best Innovation – Design and Engineering’ award in the Video Accessory category) and I had a great time being essentially a marketing dude.
I would give you more details but you know what – what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!
