The Decade Hopper #DecadeHop #RRxMM

Is it only me or does anyone else also get that feel that the 90s was just a decade back. Sometimes I feel I am still in the early twenties (i.e. year wise not age wise  😀 )

For this generation (from the perspective of a 30-something) the last decade was the most important one. Many of us finished our studies and got our first jobs, some of us got married and became parents. Together we witnessed our dreams come true.

I want to start by mentioning the most important fact that remained constant all throughout the decade for me. Stepped into the decade after my first breakup in 2009, so officially single and I must pat myself on the back that I am exiting the decade practically in the same condition. (I said single not miserable 😀 )

From being with a fireball from Uttarakhand to tasting ‘Bati Chokha’ from UP, from savoring the Malabar curry to trying the spicy biryani, from enjoying the Bengali ‘roshogulla’ to feasting on international cuisines – still nobody wanted to displace me off my bachelorhood. And I remained single throughout.   

The biggest change that (I think) I have undergone in this decade is the substantial hair loss (head) which has been ably supported (read recovered) in other (mostly) unmentionable places.

The most significant thing that I realized after my breakup was that I had a lot of ‘time’ at my hand. And credit to a proper scolding by my father in front of all the students of my class at a parent-teacher-answer-sheet-showing meeting, I discovered or I should say stumbled upon my writing talent. The other thing constant, along with my singlehood, all throughout this decade was my writing. I started to scribble…write or blog or whatever you may term, in 2010.

But after a long decade later, I can proudly say I haven’t yet converted it into a financially viable option (reached anywhere…in blogging…). But that wasn’t good enough to deter me off. I went self-hosted last Sept (2019) only. Can you believe that. And it is in my tenth year that I decided to give it my best shot.

Somewhere my sister would be reading this and would be cursing, that I told this dumb-head long back. And provided he has a decent internet connectivity up there, my father would be cursing both of us. She would be on the receiving end for not getting this egg-head to make up his mind…and my reason remains the same.

Well, for many, being successful at a work is directly proportional to the amount of money you make. I consider myself, the ‘Premchand’ type – where my work will reach its audience after I depart (marne ke bad hi famous honge). 

The only person who feels that I am doing wonderfully well, if you consider counting all the chapatis properly that I keep hogging on all through the day, is my mom. Like every mom she doesn’t see a flaw in her son. If I ask her right now, ‘Mom have I gone bald’…she would definitely, in a positive tone, find a strand here or there to motivate me.

Still she isn’t proud of one fact that, I drifted towards liquor in the middle of the decade. From a seedha-sadha-sadhu (teetotaler) types to a connoisseur of alcoholic beverages. Had to take up endurance sports like running long distance marathons just to curb this habit but I still remember gulping about 30 liters of freshly brewed fruity refreshing ones just a month leading to my first half marathon. 😀  

At the beginning of the last decade, I was already in my first job in IT sector. Quit it in 2011 on the pretense of higher studies. Pursued a good-for-nothing marketing post-grad degree and to my success…again landed up in a corporate job in IT sector. The only difference was that earlier I was in IT sector performing IT related activities, now I was in IT sector doing a call center job (Business Development people would sympathize with me).

Quit that job too in 2014 this time for growth and better work environment with supposedly better growth opportunities. Yeah! You guessed it right. Just to put icing on the cake to the feel of a call center job, this time I landed up doing night shifts too in a huge IT MNC. Though for some people it seemed I was doing a great sales job, I felt I was getting strangulated in corporate slavery culture (of lick-o-logy). After enthusiastically giving three stretches at it, I finally realized it’s not my ‘kullhad’ (earthen cup) of ‘Chai’.

The decade was ingrained with a lot of positive memories as well. I stepped outside the country for the first time and it felt as if I had tasted blood – making it a point to travel to an international location at least twice a year. Now in a virtual competition with my sister, I would try to at least visit 35 destinations before I turn 35 and give a close fight to her.

The best part about traveling, living and witnessing various cultures is that it gives you an opportunity to explore lives, which invariably turns you into a storyteller. You might be good or bad at the art, but it certainly awakens something inside you. My writing has certainly been helped by the frequent unpredictable travel plans. Though writing doesn’t help much in paying off for those travels, and I am scared to go back to the strangulation once again.

The decade also blessed me with an opportunity to make my grandfather proud, by losing my virginity to a Russian. Nobody ever would have dreamt of achieving this feet in my entire ‘khandaan’ (clan or family).

**The writer has taken due liberty in creating and stating the above fictional fact**

Just when things were picking up, whether it was at writing or personal or professional front I suffered my biggest heartbreak not only of this decade but of my entire life. I lost my bestest buddy, my first coach, my mentor and my biggest critic – My father. Of all the things that I am proud of, I am equally ashamed of the fact that I couldn’t achieve anything to make him a proud father before he left.

Standing at a confectionery shop, you hear an urchin calling Uncle! Uncle! Without paying any heed to it, suddenly, you realize that those cries of the kid are for you, and that is when (every time) it strikes you that a decade has gone by. I am so pissed off by these nomenclatures, that I have made it a rule that till the time I don’t get married I can only be referred to as ‘Bhaiya’, (elder brother) even if the age difference is almost thirty years. 

Everybody’s journey is a like a roller-coaster ride but we eventually end up remembering the ones that really impacted our lives in a positive manner. Hoping this coming decade will be the most fruitful one for you all and some of us would literally start acting our age (well not me 😉 ) All the best to your year and decade.

Hopefully the Univerrse will conspire and guide me towards my goals.

For all those who survived the last decade,

For all those who became successful,

For all those who aspire to scale new heights,

For all those who did so many things for the first time in the last decade,

And

For all those who will continue to rock as always…

It’s not a goodbye,

But it’s a GOOD BYE.

See you on the other side of the Decade.

Manas ‘Sameer’ Mukul

“This post is a part of ‘DECADE Blog Hop’ #DecadeHop organised by #RRxMM Rashi Roy and Manas Mukul. The Event is sponsored by Glo and co-sponsored by Beyond The Box, Wedding Clap, The Colaba Store and Sanity Daily in association with authors Piyusha Vir and Richa S Mukherjee”