2022 - The Year That Went By

As we are gearing up to welcome 2023, many of us are eagerly making resolutions for the year that is yet to come, while some are looking back at the year that has gone by. As always, I decided to do the latter and this time, like in 2019, 2020, & 2021 (images below), I decided to record it here for me to be able to revisit it anytime in the future! 😃

We welcomed the year 2022 with my daughter making a premonition kind of statement, ‘Amma the coming year is 2022. 22 is 2 times 11. I just hope the year does not end up being 2 times the year 2011. Fingers crossed.’

My first reaction was horror because 2011 was one of the toughest until 2022 came to be. 😊That was the year when I was pregnant with my second-born son, dealing with the palliative care for my Father-in-law (FIL) in his final stages of cancer, playing the host for my sister-in-law during her laparoscopic surgery & recovery, Grihapravesam (calling it house warming kind of simplifies the concept as well the work involved in organising it), passing of my FIL, birth of my son, my post-partum, a beginning of the undoing of a marital relationship of a close family member, being a witness when the family was grieving that loss of its head (my FIL), moving into our new owned home. Did you also take a deep breath like I did when I finished typing this recap? 

Now to a rundown of the year 2022… It began with our family being affected with COVID in Jan 2022, when India was having its third wave, including my pregnant sibling who did an international travel in the hope to be with family to handle her pregnancy and delivery in India rather than staying in a foreign country, all by herself (with just her spouse for support). I joined Lurnable (a digital EdTech firm) as Operations Manager. I became a facilitator of the programme #IamRemarkable (a Google Initiative) and have also conducted two workshops this year. We had a scare in April for a really pre-mature labour that might have been critical for the child for sure, and to the mother (mentally and emotionally). We had a few hospitalisations for my Mom, Sister & her Spouse, and my Aunt. Health-related issues that come and go for our ageing parents. Loss of lives – 2 within the family and one a child (less than 15 yrs old) who was a close buddy of my son in our gated community, a beautiful soul who always stood up against playground bullies (for my son) and had deep conversations on the concepts of care, right & wrong, integrity and more. Of course, my niece was an addition to the family as a healthy child who decided to stay full term after the initial scare, sharing the same star sign as my son. They both bonded instantly and every time they are together, the mutual love and adoration is a pleasure to watch.

I became a homeowner. I wrote my first semester exams for my M.Sc Counselling Psychology (2 year Masters course) that I am currently pursuing. I published an e-book on Blogchatter and have been roped in on another authoring project by Let’s Author to collaborate with a few more authors for the book ‘How to Parent in a Crazy World – Life Lessons on New Age Parenting’ to be published sometime next year (Click the link to pre-order the book). Amidst all this, we transitioned from a pandemic lifestyle to a post-pandemic new normal (whatever that means)… and the craziness has not ended yet. 

And in all this, I also managed to hold on to my reading. Thanks to Blogchatter’s TBR Challenge, this year I tracked the books that I read (which probably only covers 50% of what I read). Another big sigh…

While this year probably looked twice the challenge of the year 2011, it has been a mixed bag, which can be said about almost any year that comes and goes. I resonate very strongly with the Yin-Yang symbolism, a philosophical concept that describes opposite but interconnected forces. While the literature on Yin-Yang philosophies & interpretations is available in abundance, my simplified explanation for this is in the lines of the dialogue from Alavandhan Movie ‘Kadavul Paadhi Mirugam Paadhi kalandhu seidha kalavai naan’ (crudely translated – I am the perfect mix of God & Animal/Devil). The deeper meaning that I infer is that there is no absolute good or absolute bad in this world. There is a little bit of good in bad and a little bit of bad in good and these two exist in perfect balance for the whole to be complete. Here the good and bad can be represented in black or white colour, and the symbolism stays intact.

In this exercise of looking back at the year gone by, which I have been doing since 2019, I have come to understand that every year brings with it a mixed bag of experiences – a few successes, a few misses/loses, loads of learnings from both to take away for the years to come, wonderful experiences that enrich our life by becoming stories & narratives to tell and take forward. I am filled with gratitude and pride. Gratitude for the learnings and achievements, pride at surviving the year. I think I am going to hold on to this practice of looking back at the year that has gone by just so that I practice self-love and self-appreciation which in turn positively impacts self-image and self-confidence by increasing self-awareness. What better way to enrich our mental wellness than this. 😊

I am not the type to make resolutions, but I guess the practice of looking back at the year that has passed, that I began in 2019, is a resolution that happened on its own accord and will probably stay for years to come. Will be happy to hear your retrospective of 2022 in the “comment” section.

Wishing you all a very happy new year 2023 to come, and along with it a lot of personal/professional growth & development also. 

 

This post also wraps up the #TBRChallenge by Blogchatter for the year 2022. I'm participating in the #TBRChallenge by Blogchatter

36 Vayathinile - Stand-up Comedy Show Review

With Praveen in traditional attire
of Veshti (not Lungi :-)

#36Vayathinile - My debut stand-up comedy show as audience and I took my Mom and Sister as well. There were loads of interesting stuff about this show, the first and foremost being that I got to see my college friend - Praveen Kumar -  after 15 years & to see him perform live, keeping us entertained for over an hour, incl. 200+ audience !

With social media (WhatsApp, FB etc.), I had watched video clips of stand-up comdy shows, I have had my own apprehensions on such shows because many of them ridicule a section of population or make fun at the cost of someone/group of people (with no understanding whatsoever about the person or the section of the society) or by tastelessly mocking the system of stereotyping.

Praveen boasts of clean comedy and claims that his career achievement as a Stand-up Comediean was his ability to entertain a whole class full of 7-year olds :-) True to his tagline - "Clean comedy" - his entire show had anecdotes from his personal experiences that each and every one of us could relate to on a daily basis. I was not sure if my family would like the show, but all three of us laughed so much that our cheeks hurt. There was not one dull moment in the entire program. I wished that the rest of my family were also present and been a part of this laughter riot.

During the course of the show, I was also reminded of our college days and all the late-night "Lachcha sessions" (BITSian slang for meaningless but entertaining discussion sessions) that we used to have while preparing for the various Cultural, Science & Management Fests.

Chennai Museum Theater: Venue of the Tamil Standup
Comedy show "36 Vayathinile"

#36Vayathinile is a Tamil comedy show that talks about the dilemmas of being stuck inbetween two generations at the age of 36, touches upon the daily mind voices that all of us can very easily relate to. Using comedy as a medium, Praveen was able to touch upon subjects relating to the state of education system, international & national political scenario, language debate and more and bring forth many valid, effective but simple suggestions to be able to bring about a positive change in at least some of the issues currently prevailing, one of which being (that we do in our family as well), to talk in one's mother tongue at least inside the house among family members instead of depending on a link language or English.

Added bonus was Mervyn Rozz opening the show, engage and interact with the audience, before calling Praveen on to the stage.

Thank you for an amazing show and an evening filled with laughter. My wishes for him to reach greater successes. Waiting for the time when I can attend his show again, and the next time with my husband and children as well !