Simple Man !

2009 is almost over. And ts that time of the year again...
I have started asking myself the questions. "What did I learn in 2009", "Was it a good year", "did I really achieve something this year" and so on.
I wouldn't be exaggerating if I say that 2009 has been one of the best years of my life. I did a lot of stuff I intended to do this year and I did learn some great lessons of life (the hard way off course). Let's do a quick recap of 2009 and then we'll talk about the learning part.
2009 opened with a pretty gloomy art-direction. There were people getting fired, salary-cuts, no pay hikes, share markets crashing, and so on. From January till June, the most used word in the city was 'recession'. For once there was something that we all could discuss and it didn't feature Tendulkar. I was working with a start-up company which was in an expansion mode, so recession didn't bother me.
There were some good things happening in my life from April onwards. I graduated to a E series phone, I had paid off almost all my debts and I started to work-out and was feeling good about it.
Then came July a disaster of a month for me. Let's not talk about disasters here though. Lets get back to the good things. 20th August 2009, was one of the happiest day of my life. My childhood dream of riding a Royal Enfield Bullet 350 has come true. I got my girl home that day.
Since September I am on a spin. Everyday has been just awesome. Life has been simple, exciting and enriching ; just the way I always wanted it to be. I did some great trips, celebrated Diwali with family, read amazing books,experienced great cinema, gazed star studded skies, subscribed to good magazines, had great food and expensive scotch. And most importantly I have met some really amazing people this year and I did learn a lot from them.
So, now coming back to the learning part. I didn't learn something which is as complex as Nash Equilibrium or Bernoulli's principle, its not something which we don't know. We have known it from a long time, but we don't believe that 'simple is beautiful'. Yes this has been my learning from 2009 and it has added a lot of value to my life.
I wonder why simple joys of life are becoming a luxury. Simple joys like walking in moon light, sitting by a pond, admiring the star studded sky, spotting some wild life, exploring a really clean virgin beach, sipping coffee with a special friend, having hot samosa on a rainy day, taking a day off from work when you feel like it, cheering up a friend, listening to poetry or songs from 'old is gold' folder, head banging on some good rock, planning a road trip with your brother over some beer, checking out a new restaurant, watching Popeye show with your dad, laughing out loud while watching Mr. Bean with your 5 yr old niece, going for small hikes on weekends, getting inspired by great young men around and taking a break from life for sometime.
I wonder why we don't have 'simple' love stories no more. A relation where a man loves a woman and they live happily ever after. Why do we have have issues like 'space', 'harmless flirting while committed', 'rebound love', 'confused love' and 'complicated love' ? Why do we have 'communication gaps' when we can stay in touch 24x7x365 ? Come on .... they didn't have communication gaps when pigeons flew with letters !!!
I might sound like an old man here, or a man who is too content at 27 but whatever it is 'I am loving it'. This surely is adding a lot of value and clarity to my life and it makes me happy.


P.S. : The title is not original, it is from the song 'Simple Man' by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Needless to say, I am hugely influenced by this song.