2011: The year of revelations

I know 2011 has been a big year for me. Over the days stumbling one after another, I acquired a husband, a nephew. And of course the joys of these changes in my life introduced me to nuances of love and basic human existence that is both expected but also eye-opening. But 2011 has also been a pivotal year in my life in another way.

I spent my childhood, loving stories and loving movies. Though there are moments of dramatic emotional peaks in my childhood unlike any other, as time went on, I sometimes wish real life could be as I imagined it, or even as Hollywood Studio imagined it, where everything is manufacted, beautiful and perfect, the swells of inspiration naturally augmented with a crescendo of orchestral chords. You know how it goes.

And then I forgot about how I used to think: that real life, as it pans out, will never be that movie, the feeling one gets reading a perfect passage of literature, such as the last page of the Great Gatsby, or any length of Shakespeare. This year, it returned to me, how I used to think like that, and it was apparent to me: that these manufactured manifestations of emotion, these conjured images can't compare to the real thing. And this was the year, more than any, where I had a multitude of absolutely perfect moments.

It's like that film Afterlife. Which I happened to watch late at night in Bombay the night before I left for Rajhisthan to get married. The people in this film live in limbo where a crew of people recreate a perfect moment in their life, their last flicker of life and memory, that resonates in a deep part of their soul, and single second in the time continuum, where they can reside in forever before embracing an unknown oblivion. And 2011 had many such moments for me. Moments that could never be captured with a picture, a song, a poem, a film recreation with a bombastic soundtrack but yet could linger perfectly as memory. Even while it happened, one second leading to another, fleeting before my eyes, I felt this transience and learned to relish that brief glimpse of pure happiness.

So I've decided to devote the rest of this magical year, 2011, to recalling these perfect moments. Here's a list.

1. My wedding

2. Alinea

3. Recreating Ferris Bueller's Day Off with my husband

4. Kiran and the book I made for Kiran

5. Cultural experiences: a. Frankenstein b. Queen at Play c. Hedgehog d.Lucky Star e. Midnight in Paris f. Jerusalum g. Alexander Mcqueen h. Sleep No More i. Fallen Idol

6. Acquisition of an Onyx Ring with Aditi

7. Hanging out with Lisa and Izzy and Cara in the antiques store.

8. Listening to Beirut's new album late at night in the laboratory

9. Listening to M83's new album late at night in the laboratory

10. Reading Just Kids in an airplane. Twice.

11. Discovering watching old Hindi films with my mother, while in bed, is a wonderful conversational experience

12. Discovering all the tedious work involved in research can reap real revelations

13. Denver, all of it. Teaching Juli how to say hard words, scaring Bola with grasshoppers, and snatching stars from the sky.

14. The Ren Fair!

15. Sitting with my husband, drinking down a fair share of Ramos Gin Fizz

16. My husband handing me a St. Germain spritzer and feeling I've tasted an enchanted garden

I've got my work cut out for me.

dm