New beginnings

I was having a look at my earlier posts here today. The last time I wrote here, Pratibha Patil was still the Indian President. Ajmal Kasab was still alive. Shah Rukh Khan’s KKR were still the crappiest team in the IPL. Rahul Dravid was still playing regularly. I was still studying. Dinosaurs still roamed this planet. Oh wait, hang on. Got carried away there for a moment. Though it has been, to put it in a word, AGES!

Every year, I make resolutions for the new year. I solemnly swear to follow each and every one of them until my last breath. And then they are broken faster than you can say January! One I made this year is to get this blog running again. Clear out the cobwebs, dust it down and hope that it doesn’t lie discarded like some grand old haveli.

But blogs don’t write themselves. After all, I am not in the possession of Barack Obama’s autopen. Over the past year, I have used several excuses for not maintaining the blog. Being a lazy ass is what people called it. Having been sensitized to the American culture over the past couple of years, of having a politically correct name for everything, I called it writer’s block. And anyway the Mayans had done us a massive favor. I mean what was the point in doing anything if the world was about to end on December 21 right? In terms of a letdown, it was probably right up there with Bejan Daruwalla’s “India will win the World Cup in 2007 with Munaf Patel being Player of the Tournament”. Heck this time even Sachin Tendulkar was disappointed to the point of retirement.

And so 2013 rolled in. On a somber note for India. For once, protests moved out of Facebook and spilled out onto the streets, as we finally woke up to the fact that even though we might have been among the first countries in the world to have a woman head of state, we are still pretty much near the bottom of the barrel when it comes to dishing out respect to women in our capital. As disgusted as I am by the incident, I am proud of the response it has generated in the nation. It doesn't happen in every country. A similar incident would have almost gone unreported in the US, but for the efforts of the hacker group Anonymous. Sometimes we have to bring the problems of our society out in the public domain, for them to be recognized and rectified. And for that reason, I am proud. We probably need a change in mentality more than stricter laws, but at least we recognize the need for it.

2013 also came in on a somber note in the US. As the hours clicked by to December 31, US lawmakers quibbled among themselves as they pushed the country closer to the so called fiscal cliff and the world closer to another economic depression. Almost like giving a child a crystal ball to play with and asking him not to drop it. But then, probably we engineers aren't the only procrastinators in the world. With a year to work something out, a deal was finally reached at 2 am, a couple of hours past the deadline. That is probably when the magnitude of the influx of Indian engineers here really starts to hit you. We really are taking over the world aren't we?

Well this is only the beginning of the year and so many more positive things to look forward to in the coming months as I look to keep this going. It promises to be an exciting 2013! Now if only I can get my hands on that darned autopen..