Review: 2008 : a year of contradictions
Posted by mansoor on 05 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: lifes anomaly's, reviews
Kinda late for it, but i’ll take my shot.
Overall, 2008 was a year of contradictions! miserable failure in some sphere’s of life…. sparkling successes in others..
started off magically, even in the midst of the bhutto incident. Above all, it started with smiles, with gestures and with promises… the very first second that the clock struck 12, i was so sure i was on the right track.
then came the convocation… and it started derailing…you know that feeling where you put in everything you’ve got and in the end lose by a just a hair’s breath? well… i got that finally. while for others it was a brilliant accomplishment, for me, it was no more than a miserable failure.. it was a fathers dream broken.
who would’ve guessed that it would lead to even more broken dreams.
i admit it now, took me 10 long months to come to terms with it, that i didn’t take the convocation day well. it showed. my relationships soured, my outlook on life dropped and above all, my self-worth, atleast the perception of it, crashed and burned.
in april, things turned fell further down the drain. the only piece of rope i had to drag myself out of the whirlpool, got strung around my neck. what i later realized as a series of misguided actions culminated into the seperation of bonds i didn’t think could have been severed. taught in chemistry by a certain bearded professor back in school, i didn’t remember that every bond has it’s limits and given enough force, all bonds seperate.
what’s worse was that they severed so cleanly… it was surgical precision almost… quick, sharp and clean… done to maybe separate the patient and the disease… only the patient didn’t really survive.
the remaining months just kind of flew by. yes, i breathed… i consumed and i excreted. and that kind of defined my existence. everything else was questionable. how do you proceed when the very foundation beneath you crumbles.
for the first time in my life, i became afraid.. seriously afraid.. of what might lie ahead. trying to condemn myself of a reality far worse than i could even imagine, thinking that maybe it was destined to be that way. afterall, looking back, it wasn’t just one.. it was a string of rejections… day after day, week after week, month after month… all i could do was question… analyze… piece together… till it all became hazy and i started all over again.
it was a different story on the home front though, even on the work front. that’s where successes lay. i grew new bonds with the parents… even after having dissapointed them on two fronts simultaneously, they stood steadfastly as supports… i was happy just being with them, because i was safe. they still accepted me, and even though i know parents stand by their children, i never imagined i would be lucky enough to get it. truly blessed i am by Gods mercy. bonds with extended family were renewed, a quick trip of the cousins and long mountain trails and visits to churches, gurdwara’s and temples made for an exciting july.
on the work front, my new assignment began in march. a new office, a new city, a new job description and above all, a new challenge. it was fun, testing unknown waters… never having actually been in a management position, i was thrust here by my boss who asked me to establish and run our islamabad office. the business side of things really sang through to me and after a long time, going to work became fun again. with business trips all through the year, i got in quite a bit of travelling, even had the completed the milestone of having breakfast, lunch and dinner of the same day in three different cities (khi, isb n lhr respectively) as well as getting challaned in these three within a week for traffic violations! fun!!!
with the prayers of my mother, one of the two most amazing people on this planet (the other being my father) and a team of two really great people at work, we pushed through barriers and boundaries, creating both a name for ourselves, and a place here in our own right. we’ve still a long way to go, but i know it will only get better. inshallah!
so 2008 was a year of contradictions… with all the crisis’s looming up ahead in the financial, real estate and security fronts.. 2009 promises to be a year of challenges.
one thing i will say though.. there are always some people who make live worth living again.. strangers at first they slowly grow on you till you realize… how the hell did i think life was gonna be that depressing! thanks jee… even though i haven’t told you in person… i owe you more than you would ever know.

