A Reason to Celebrate : A Memoir of a Quarter Century

10.9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1...and the clock strucks 12। Bang!!!! and i feel someone has just kicked my butt. As i turn around, I see my roomie gathering all his strength and again charging towards me as Roberto Carlos does when he takes those fatal free kicks..I somehow dodged him like a professional matador quite pleased with myself, but i wonder what drove this guy crazy and blood thirsty. Aha!!!! its 14th May 2008 and i have just completed 26 years of my life.

Yes, its my birthday today and a time to celebrate. "Have a Blast" thats what most of my friends coined in their wishes in my scrapbook. Thats what i will try to do, but then being the biggest pessimist in the Roy khandan, before celebrating i will try to reason that out, should i really have a blast. But how do i find out the reasons? The best approach would be to walk down the memory lane to find an answer to this perennial question.

Being born in a middle class family in India and for that matter in a small town like Shillong and that too in a bengali family, one has only one thing to excel in, ie, Studies. The showcases are filled with school books and notebooks with brown covers and a sticker on the corner. The only time you have the liberty to set aside the books and spend an hour before the television, is when the hugely popular teleseries Mahabharat is being aired. So as a result one ends up spending 6/7 hours of a day in school 5 days a week and the weekends attending the tuitions trying to learn some new tips and tricks just to stay "a step ahead of the herd". But then even after mugging the stuffs for an entire year you dont end up among the toppers , why? coz...there are some world class muggers in the herd and a few real geniuses.

And if that wasnt enough you have another thing to learn!!! Presenting the speciality of a Bong family,The Tabla. I thank GOD, that i didnt know the term "WTF" at that time. Its the perfect situation for the expression "WTF". What was i supposed to achieve by learning this, was i supposed to emulate the Great Zakir Hussein and endorse a major tea brand. May be seeing my performance in school, the folks back home thought i could earn a living out of it, as my father used to state, "tabla bajiye Jatra dole 5 taka pai" (earning Rs 5 in a Drama company by playing the tabla).

So the years passed by and soon reached the time for the milestones of my life*. The time for my board exams. As the people stated "just this last time and then you will have no troubles and tensions in life". So i laboured for that "last time", what i didnt realise at that time was that the real troubles and tensions are about to start.

The time came to select my degree course, I thought why dont i pursue an engineering course, it sounds great to be called an Engineer, a facinating thought indeed. Me fixing up troubled electronic items, having my own visiting card..Wow. But ALAS !!!! within the first month i realised that engineering was a big mirage, at the end of the course i wont distribute a visiting card but a memorial card. So i started labouring again just to keep myself afloat, trying to find the practical implementations of a cos/tan/sin or trying to imagine how the electro magnetic waves look like or travel and also wearing the silliest of attires to polish some chunk of wood. The most dreaded part were the Profs, who had an air about themselves as if they had discovered "the theory of relativity". Finally at the end of 4 years, the time had come to say goodbye to the world of studies and enter the "big bad world".

So for the last four years i am in this "big bad world" of the IT industry, sitting in front of one the greatest inventions of the last century, trying to make things Easier for people all around the world but ending up by making my own life Tougher.

So Do i Celebrate at the end of it all? Have the last quarter century given me enough reasons to celebrate. I dont think they have.. so i have decided that i wont "have a blast".
But wait a sec ...hold on . Why am i smiling all the way for the past few hours while i am preparing this draft? Why am i happy while penning the torrid days of my life? Have i missed anything here?

And the answer is yes!!! The reason is still i long to go back to the classroom and study the ABC s of life. Among the herds of muggers were many life long friends with whom i have grown up with and shared the best days of my life. How did i miss the smaller moments or spurts of fun that we shared in those lunch breaks and winter vacations.

Why do i try to remember only the 6/7 of the 24 hours of a day. How can i forget the remaining time spent with my family.A great time spent indeed, the bitter sweet memories, travelling to various places during vacations , the family functions, the preparations for the Pujas, savoring the ripe and sweet oranges in the Shillong winter sun.

The college days also had numerous occasions to bring a smile to my visage. The Hostel was a Heaven for me. Those late night discussions, crazy and "Psycho" inmates,maggi parties, movie sessions, group fights, the late night horror stories, the never ending bakars, and finally the girls!!!!!.

And why should i crib about my job when at the end, my wallet is heavier and i dont think twice when ordering for a JD on the rocks or an iPOD touch.

Are these occasions not worthy enough to be celebrated? Yes they are!!! after all the last 26 years havent been bad, in fact it has been great . And yes i will celebrate and blast myself into the outerspace tonight.

One Jack Daniels on the Rocks for me please!!!!!


* I have divided my life in a few milestones