Another year goes by...

2008 has whizzed past... just seems like the other day when D and I, on Jan 1 2008, were pondering over the achievements and failures of 2007 ,over cups of coffee, while nursing New Year's Eve party hangovers ...today, it’s already more than a year since then…

All said and done, by God’s grace, 2008 was a reasonably good year for both of us on the personal as well as professional fronts( touchwood)…

On the personal front, we set up our home together, had both sets of
parents and my brother visit us , reveled in the much awaited wedding of the family (D’s elder brother finally decided to take the plunge after years of self induced commitment phobia :-)), had some great times with friends and extended family…memories we’ll cherish forever…

On the professional front, both of us have progressed in our careers like we had hoped, albeit in small steps …

Not to forget, we’ve witnessed history in the making with the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the USA…not just that, it’s been a fun and enriching experience being gripped by phases of ‘Obamamania’ and witnessing a reinforcement of peoples’ belief in the enormity of the difference they can make with simple choices in a democratic nation…

As far as resolutions for the New Year go, on the personal front I never really make objective/measurable resolutions for myself…my resolutions are always hazy ,more in the likes of read more, sleep less, write more, weigh less, dump the piano, pick up the guitar, work hard, party harder…you get the gist …none of my personal resolutions are such that I can look back at the year gone by and objectively declare their fruition/failure…it’s great that I at least have ‘SMART’ (in managerial lingo, 'Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timebound') professional objectives for 2009 …that will keep my life balanced as far as resolutions are concerned, for sure…a complete dearth of objectives for a new year could potentially deem life directionless :-) whereas too many ‘SMART’ personal and professional resolutions can make a year of life end up becoming one helluva marathon with no finish line in sight …robbing life of its charm , of course, in the process … I do however hope that D manages to take his New Year resolution to fruition i.e. to quit smoking for good…we’ll see how that goes …keeping my fingers crossed…

As for what the year 2009 has in store for us…only time will tell…like D says, at the very least , all of us have a challenging year ahead ….with the uncertainties that define corporate America, the meltdown of it’s financial system and the repercussions of the same being observed in the global markets, the best we can do is hope and pray that we are able to ride out the storm and come out of the crises unscathed…or if not unscathed ,at least we have the resilience to come out of the crises stronger as individuals …we’ll see how things go…hopefully at this same time next year, I will have more good things to write about than bad ;-)

But for now…here’s a toast to the year gone by…to all the good times and beautiful memories shared with family and friends in the year 2008…no significant life events or changes, but good times nevertheless…

We ended the year 2008 vacationing in the beautiful US Virgin islands of St. Thomas and St Johns, basking in the warmth of the Caribbean sunshine…in the land of black beards ale, rum, conch fritters, rum cakes and blackened Mahi Mahi…in the land of beautiful, laid back, lively people…where lush green cliffs and hills, dotted with quaint Caribbean homes, lead on to white sands and the turquoise blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea…here are a few photographs , our amateurish attempts, to capture the pristine beauty of these islands…