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The Sentimental Post

By ⋅ July 11, 2005 ⋅ Post a comment

Kiss me out of the bearded bar­ley
Nightly, beside the green, green grass
Swing, swing, swing the spin­ning step
You wear those shoes and I will wear that dress

Oh, kiss me beneath the milky twi­light
Lead me out on the moon­lit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band and make the fire­flies dance
Sil­ver moon’s sparkling
So kiss me

Kiss me down by the bro­ken tree house
Swing me upon its hang­ing tire
Bring, bring, bring your flow­ered hat
We’ll take the trail marked on your father’s map
– Lyrics from Kiss me, Six­pence None the Richer

Swamped with work the last few days, and lis­ten­ing to one of my favourite Six­pence songs, I need to take a break and clear my senses. Some­times I get sen­ti­men­tal. Only some­times, but this is one of those times and there­fore the unchar­ac­ter­is­tic post.

It has been a while since I’ve taken a moment to think about the year gone by. Some­times, I look at life whizzing past me and I know that I should slow down and take a moment to rest. Med­i­tate. Think. Reflect. And do all those seri­ous things :)

What a year it’s been. Like a roller-coaster ride, up and down and up and down again. And yet, the downs never reached the depths it did back around Sep­tem­ber of 2003.

When I left my job. When I decided to take a break. When I decided that I’d had enough. That I’d been too patient for years and years. That I wasn’t liv­ing my life the way I wanted to. That I needed to change some things or else get swal­lowed in the depths of despair that I’d prob­a­bly never have the strength to get out of.

When, every moment, I ques­tioned what I’d done wrong.

And then one day I decided to tear away. From a city I’d spent 6 years in. From the famil­iar faces and sights. And begin life anew. A fresh lease of life as they say. I was unsure, I was a lit­tle appre­hen­sive. Despite it all, I was opti­mistic too.

And what a year it’s been. Land­ing up in a strange city where I knew just 2 peo­ple was dif­fi­cult. A city, that peo­ple scared me about say­ing, it was so dif­fer­ent from Mum­bai that I would hate it. Thank­fully, what peo­ple said didn’t apply to me.

I look around now at all the beau­ti­ful peo­ple in my life today and I know I have to thank each one of them. All you bright, tal­ented, gen­er­ous, lovely, sweet, lov­ing, adorable, inspir­ing (I could go on with the adjec­tives!) peo­ple who make me want to be bet­ter and to try harder. You know who all of you are. Blog­gers, pho­tog­ra­phers, class­mates (in French class), travel bugs (or those I’ve met on my var­i­ous escapades), bad­minton bud­dies, office mates, col­leagues and every­one else I’ve bumped into in this short span of a year.

I have to be strong, I tell myself con­stantly. But hey, once in a while, in my weaker moments I do wal­low in my sen­ti­ments. I allow myself to hope again, to feel thank­ful, to get teary-eyed, to feel loved and to feel blessed that I found life again.

And under­stand what Ala­nis Morisette was try­ing to say in her song, Thank You.

I think to the times that I despaired that I had lost it all. When I’d ques­tioned what I’d done wrong.

And then today, stand­ing at a totally dif­fer­ent cross­road in my life, I feel that I must have done some­thing right.

(Ded­i­cated to all the peo­ple I’ve had the good for­tune of meet­ing over the past year and who have [mostly unknow­ingly!] inspired me to become a stronger and hap­pier per­son. Thank you).

Discussion

33 Responses to “The Sentimental Post”

  1. >:D

    Posted by shub | July 11, 2005, 10:27 pm

  2. *hug*

    Posted by ~ Shibs. | July 11, 2005, 10:46 pm

  3. Very sen­ti­men­tal post! I am very sure you have inspired many peo­ple too. :)

    Posted by Sam | July 11, 2005, 11:09 pm

  4. Thank God for friends! And ‘Kiss Me’ is one of my favourite songs too.

    Posted by Pleomorphous | July 11, 2005, 11:46 pm

  5. Wow. A very nice post. It hap­pens.
    But great to have known you Anita. All the very best. Keep your posts com­ing. It is an inspi­ra­tion for many a people :-)

    Posted by F e r r a r i | July 12, 2005, 8:31 am

  6. :) really mushy indeed~!

    Posted by Nupur | July 12, 2005, 8:52 am

  7. shubs: thanks sweet gal :)

    shibs: *Hugs* to you too, lovely lady!

    sam: yeah, there­fore the title :)

    pleo: friends, good food, music and movies. i think that’s all i need :)

    prabhu: thanks for the nice words!

    Posted by Anita | July 12, 2005, 9:28 am

  8. Awww! what a lovely post. wish you all the best and all the hap­pi­ness your heart can hold …and a bit more!

    Posted by aqua | July 12, 2005, 9:28 am

  9. aww anita! *sniff* *sniff*

    Posted by Adel | July 12, 2005, 9:56 am

  10. Sweet post, and an *awe­some* pic­ture… its out of the world! And yeah, it was won­der­ful know­ing you..:)

    Posted by Nithya | July 12, 2005, 10:49 am

  11. About a year ago, I was pretty much in the same sit­u­a­tion. If not for some great peo­ple, I really haven’t a clue what I would have done !!!

    Lovely post and pic ! Where is that bench ?

    Posted by Vigvg | July 12, 2005, 12:01 pm

  12. Thank ‘you’. Aunty. And, Kiss me is a nice song and a great line too. You have the right to be senti. Go ahead, blow your nose (on Venky prefer­ably) and buy your­self a drink. Call me if you want to buy one for me. Hang loose baby.
    How can you tell a senti per­son from a prag­ma­tist?
    “WHO CARES?” Mu haa haa ;-)

    Posted by Suman | July 12, 2005, 12:31 pm

  13. I love you Anita,
    You were always a strong woman and you shall always be one.…
    There is really no real wrong or right… if it makes you happy it HAS to be right!

    Among all the strength a teary eyed weak day is also blessed moment… accept it…

    And you did so well… you have no idea how beau­ti­fully you’ve writ­ten… after a long long time i’ve read some­thing that is so heartfelt.

    Love you,
    A big hug!
    Take care!

    Lavan­nya

    Posted by lavannya | July 12, 2005, 3:46 pm

  14. Very very senti one.. really nice to read..

    Posted by Sudha Narayanan | July 12, 2005, 4:38 pm

  15. Yes, “thank ‘you’! Aun­tie.” Also, *hug*.
    And, Suman, if you don’t include me in that cer­e­mony to dis­pose off all the remain­ing booze, I will make sure you get a huge-ish blob of the Very Best of AB’s S on you.

    Posted by Venky | July 12, 2005, 5:29 pm

  16. Nupur: I know! What­ever came over me ;)

    Thanks Deki :) So glad I met you last year. And your beau­ti­ful fam­ily. And Tara. What a total doll! Love you, babes!

    Adel: Get ready for my tears on your sleeves the next time :)

    Thanks Nithya :) The feel­ing is mutual!

    Vig­nesh: Totally under­stand the feel­ing :) The bench is actu­ally at work but I have yet to sit on it. I’ve been mean­ing to, but strangely enough I’ve never seen any­one sit­ting on it!! I might still do it one of these days :)

    Suman: Thank you too, Uncle :) You’re such a total doll (Chittu might dis­agree ;) but I’m glad I met you and Chi­tra when I did! Love you guys! Shall look for­ward to 2, not 1, drinks!

    Lavan­nya dearie. I am quite a senti type per­son but I hide it well ;0) For social pur­poses! Hehe. But thanks for your words. One big hug and kiss for you :) Love you too! Am really really happy for you for! Despite what I tease you about ;0) You’re also the only one who calls me a B***H!!

    Thanks Sudha!

    Venx, thank you :) A big bear hug and loads of ‘louw’ back to you! For mak­ing me laugh. And for being your­self! You’re a doll! I still have to cry on your sleeves along with Suman’s.

    That’s a lot of lov­ing folks! But thanks for all your nice words. It has truly made my day :)

    Posted by Anita | July 12, 2005, 6:54 pm

  17. cross­roads
    not a nice place to be left stand­ing at…
    but life is funny road… it just leads from one to the other.…
    sit­ting on the fence … stand­ing at the cross­roads…
    thats how i have spent past few years.…
    in the words of jim moris­son… wal­low­ing in the mire.…( in my words… when will i get higher..)
    ( if i had left the job then it would have been, when will i get hired)

    any­way.. u have inspired a lot of peo­ple … and i guess time to inspire urself again..

    guess all the words from the peo­ple would have done the trick already.… here are my twopence..

    Posted by krishna | July 12, 2005, 7:25 pm

  18. Really sen­ti­men­tal… nice cap­ture… and where is this place ??

    Posted by Prashanth | July 12, 2005, 7:35 pm

  19. Hey Anita,

    Read the post a bit late. Must say beau­ti­fully writ­ten and a truly heart touch­ing emo­tions. U have really inspired many a people.

    Even I came exactly a year ago and even I came from Mum­bai. Found it a lit­tle odd that the city used to be in dark by 9:30. Some­thign very strange if u come from Mum­bai but I really love this place now. May be the peo­ple or the weather or just the green­ery has kept me here. Met friends of my life­time here, thats what counts.

    Thanks, thanks a ton for this won­der­ful piece. Keep living!!!

    Posted by Amit Sharma | July 13, 2005, 8:43 am

  20. Very well writ­ten … You’re a strong lady! All the best. :-)

    Posted by crab | July 13, 2005, 10:00 am

  21. The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach. ;)

    Thank you for all you’ve done for me.

    Posted by MadMan | July 13, 2005, 12:37 pm

  22. krishna: i think we all do at some point or another (ask all those ques­tions, i mean!). and cross­roads is not such a bad place to be. it’s rather inter­est­ing actu­ally, because the turn you take will deter­mine where you will head for the next few months or years :)

    prashanth: at work actually…

    thanks amit. that’s exactly what hap­pened to me. either you love it or you hate it! and thank­fully, i didn’t do the lat­ter! there is only one thing i truly hate here and it is the traf­fic. if that could be solved, it would be such an awe­some place!

    Posted by Anita | July 13, 2005, 12:53 pm

  23. crab: thanks so much :)

    mad­man: thanks for every­thing you’ve done! includ­ing mak­ing me gain about 10 kgs after i’ve come to ban­ga­lore :) but i think it’s bet­ter to be fat and happy than thin and para­noid, what say?!!

    Posted by Anita | July 13, 2005, 5:48 pm

  24. well, well u do write well, i must acknowl­edge ur skills there!!!…but what i really admire is that u like trav­el­ing …just as i do…and u r(which is sup­pose ur)…limited by money just the way i am .…it was gr8 read­ing ur blogs…now u have another indi­vid­ual read­ing ur blogs regularly!!!

    Posted by purush | July 14, 2005, 9:56 am

  25. that was a quite a sen­ti­men­tal post… why sud­den change of mood??

    Posted by kris | July 14, 2005, 11:58 am

  26. well nice senti post. i guess its one of those days…
    life just goes on…best of luck!!!

    Posted by nandish | July 14, 2005, 4:42 pm

  27. Anita, I hope you know that you make life a much hap­pier place for a lot of peo­ple! :)
    And I’ve always got a ready *HUG* to give you babes.…. “NEVA” ;) for­get that!

    Posted by vaish | July 14, 2005, 7:54 pm

  28. hi anita, quite a senti post..mm..since I am also in same cross­roads right now, I can relate to that uncer­tain­ity fac­tor quite well.…u r an inspir­ing and strong person..All the best!..

    cheers
    Sarva

    Posted by sarva | July 15, 2005, 9:11 pm

  29. JALS, A moment of weak­ness? I guess this is your “true self”. Cor­rect me , if I am wrong.

    Hey, you talked about badminton.But, I have never seen any post on bad­minton. Should we expect one?

    ‘njoy your stay in b’lore

    Posted by Venky Krishnamoorthy | July 16, 2005, 10:27 am

  30. Hmmm? And what about the peo­ple who have been inspired by you?
    :) It is only because of you, I have been able to meet so many blog­gers and now, with Madman’s help I have just opened my *own* blog. :)

    Thanks a lot and good luck :)

    Posted by Truman | July 17, 2005, 2:20 am

  31. hey,

    The one thing I remem­ber about you and your asso­ci­a­tion is (apart from the India Today pic on blog­gers) is the expres­sion of my friend…

    “Vow!! Machan.. you know anita bora ? She is India’s num­ber 1 blog­ger” … I just played it cool and said, “you know we are good friends”..

    senti binti sab chod­dhe re.. have fun and enzoy life…

    vasu

    Posted by vasu | July 18, 2005, 6:09 pm

  32. Hey Anita,

    Very nice read­ing ur blogs…awesome pho­tos. Always knew n said that u had that spe­cial gift when it came to putting pen to paper, thoughts to words. Keep the words flow­ing. Really admire and qui­etly take pride in all that u have achieved since good old days…take care.

    Naju

    Posted by Naju | July 28, 2005, 12:49 am

  33. purush: thanks for the nice words :)

    kris: no rea­son! just like that :)

    thanks nan­dish!

    vaish: thanks babes! you’re the best wonly. *HUGS* :)

    thanks sarva!

    venky: another side of me, i guess ;) thanks for remind­ing me. i shall write about my love for bad­minton sometime!

    aditya: good to see you get­ting your own domain and welcome!

    vaz: try­ing to do just that ya :)

    naju: where did you pop up from? thanks so much for drop­ping by. do write and let me know what’s up and what you’re upto. tried to keep in touch, but lost your trail some­where in delhi. are you there again? will email… :)

    Posted by Anita | August 1, 2005, 3:30 pm

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