How do you quantify a year? What made a set of 365 (or 366) consecutive days better than the previous set? Was it making more money? Was it increasing your count of material possessions? Was it traveling more? Was it being entertained more? Was it more drinks/dinners with friends/family? Was it finding/losing someone you care about?

I choose my benchmarks on what I put an effort on during the year, on the times I let the wave of events around me carry me, on when I resisted what I believed to be wrong and when I found something beautiful when I least expected to.

That way 2012 has been a landmark year for me. It was a year of rebuilding myself, understanding priorities, weighing relationships, making new friends, shedding inhibitions, earning respect and taking some leaps of faith. In 2012 I did more work(personally and professionally) than I thought I could ever manage and yet had enough time to be lazy :)

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This time for my end of the year review, I will look back at few parts of my life that were amazing in 2012 and express my gratitude to those involved in making my year wonderful

Let me start off with ‘Work’. Work for me is not only restricted to my efforts in making a living. Work is what I do professionally, semi professionally and pro-bono; Fortunately they all looked great in 2012. I have had an exhilarating year professionally, with lots of opportunities and some big choices (that have worked well so far). While I would have loved to do more work on the Theater side, I am very satisfied with what I did with the projects I did pick up. There are a couple of major(read really BIG) projects in the pipeline for 2013 already and they look very promising. Here is hoping that I see them thru to completion :)

This year has been a special year for Movies too. For the first time, I have seen artists and friends around me involved with major projects that made it to big screen. Also this year was one of the best years for a movie buff. Some of the movies that I watched this year left me completely awe struck. To name a few: Barfi!, The Dark Knight Rises, Vicky Donor, Eega(Makkhi), Life of Pi, English Vinglish, Ruby Sparks & Gangs of Wasseypur.
The inspiration was strong enough for me to start working on the screenplay of my first short film :) Hopefully 2013 is when it will be ready :)

Another big positive of 2012 was my fitness. In the mid of 2012 I made a conscious decision to join the gym and spend atleast an hour(five days a week) working out. I stuck to my resolve (special thanks to my personal trainer) and now am in possibly the best physical shape I have ever been. I ran two 10k runs in 2012, the results weren’t anything spectacular but I managed to consistently match my best times. I don’t plan to do many runs in 2013, instead I will work more on my core fitness and maybe pick up an engaging sport.

In the first 2/3rds of the year my biggest regret was my lack of travel. Then came the amazing four months that had packed in it a years worth of travel. I visited Hampi, Delhi, Agra, Fathepur-Sikri, Goa & Pondicherry all in the span of about 3 months! I watched the Indian GP live for the second time and loved every moment of it. I visited the Taj Mahal for the third time and was still awe struck by its beauty. I walked the streets of Delhi, Goa, Hampi and Pondicherry without worrying about where I was going or what time it was, ‘that’ was true freedom :)

That brings me to my highight of 2012. The biggest event of 2012 for me was my play “Conversations with Her”. I have written many plays before and watched them come alive but CWH was truly a special experience. For the first time in my life, I put all my efforts on something that I believed in & which people had dismissed, telling me it wouldn’t work. For the first time, I created something that was truly mine; Unmodified and unchanged to suit popular opinion. I remember telling myself before starting the project that I was doing this for me and that I would only truly fail if I gave into other’s perception of how it should be done.

Looking back now, I think even if the play had failed to gather the response it did I would still have loved it as much.

That being said it was possible only because of the unending support from some amazing people. I owe a big thank you to everyone that gave me their honest opinions when it mattered and gave me the strength, when I needed it the most. A special thanks to my cast that took the leap of faith on a script that had questions all over it :) And finally to the people that watched the play and encouraged us.

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To be honest 2012 wasn’t only a positive a year as I have explained above. This was also an year of lot of personal hurdles and failures. By choice I don’t dwell too much on what I failed at achieving, the point is to never give up and to keep learning. 2012 was also the year that I learnt a lot about the people around me, some of it made me exceedingly happy and some of it drove me to momentary depression. But what matters in the end is that we adapt and change ourselves to world we live in. Like the lines from the famous song “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”
“Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind… the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.”

So there you go, those were the highlights of my 2012. Another year gone and another year fast approaching…

Wish you a happy and prosperous 2013 :)