I have spent a lot of new year eves that was very insignificant to me. Especially the ones after 2008. Nothing special happened apart from the usual "Happy New Year" mails. This time though it was different. We bought quite a few stuff and those that would be put to some use. A spacious shoe rack, an economical (in terms of price as well as space it occupies) TV stand and most of all a 32-inch LG LED TV! Though this is the first LED TV I bought (for that matter the first TV I have bought), there was a feeling of deja vu! I realized that a new TV at home now brings about the same excitement to me now as it did when I was a kid. I guess, the only difference is, now it take a LED TV while then a Onida TV without remote control did the trick!
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My brother visited me for the new year and we chatted like crazy meandering from one topic to the other. The usual guy talk. All relevant to the world and nothing that is relevant to home. But during the discussion on colonialist and imperialist past, we discovered how British imperial ruler, while being brutal, were better than the other imperialists like say, Nazi Germany or, the Spanish or the Portuguese. My brother highlighted that Gandhi's commendable strategy of non-violence, while deserves all the credit given today, worked partly because it was used against the British whose governance and judicial system were based on a more civil and democratic principles. I recalled, on the other hand, how the present day Brazil, Columbia and parts of Africa like Ivory coasts, all colonies of imperialists other than British have lost their traditional identities, for example, how they have started speaking Spanish or Portuguese as their language. On the contrary, if we take an erstwhile British Colony like India or South Africa, irrespective of how brutal the regime was, the cultural identity largely remains intact. All things considered though, there is no denying the fact that slavery and imperialism were unfortunate part of world history.
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Today was like any other day of work until as recently as noon. All of a sudden, we heard the sweet music of guitar and the familiar "Give me some sun shine, give me some rain..." from 3-idiots. All of a sudden, I saw heads popping up from the cubicles (and remembered "Angrez"). It was an invite from the event managers for the upcoming new year party. For five minutes, my heart soared with excitement as the music filled up the bay. Damn, it is awesome to hear some live music during a serious day of work!
