Happy New Year! to you all whoever is celebrating it.  2009 has been a roller coster ride in my life with some major events happening. Some good, some bad and some best! First of all a review of what I was wishing to do, I made 5 resolutions last year January 1st and its time for reviewing where I stand and set some new goals for the year.

Resolution No. 1 – To become a Guitar Rock Star (or something like a rookie star).

This has been a pretty elusive resolution and I made some significant improvement in playing guitar. This year I’m trying to work with Electric Guitar as well along with Acoustic. Last month I successfully played my first carnatic music song (geetam) called varaveena on Guitar. I’ll post the video of me playing it soon.

I didn’t achieve what I wanted to be, the reasons are many due to may personal disturbances in my life.  I can say that I score a 50% on this goal.

Resolution No.2 – Do the Mansarovar Kailash Trek (Again!)

Along with the whole world I was also in economic/personal crisis that lasted for a couple of months so this goal was completely unfeasible. Score: 0%

Resolution No.3 – My own small business.

Although it is not profitable yet, I was able to setup the base for the business, including paperwork, registration and other formalities. I don’t expect to break-even this year given my other commitments. But I’m on my way to launch the product around mid-year. I don’t want to speak too much at this point. But overall, I’d say 70% of what I wanted to achieve is done.

Resolution No.4 – Get Married

Probably you know that I got married and my long-time girlfriend is now known as my wife since April 14th, 2009, after convincing all the parties involved. This was a pretty difficult task. As with regular indian wedding everyone, except the bride and groom, had wonderful time!  Score: 100% of this goal.

Resolution No.5 – No more Mr. Civil with incompetent idiots.

I thought this resolution was surprisingly difficult to implement given the work environment I had at that point in time. But since april, I joined a new company and I didn’t have anything like that to fight for. So life was back to normal since I got rid of ‘Outlook people’. But I’m still waiting for my colleague to give me a treat whenever I break a build! Score: 100%

The overall score is 64%. Not bad for a guy who can’t plan for even 3 days in advance, In india it will be called a “First Class” in studies.

Now, onto  to this years goals and resolutions

Resolution 1. Guitar: more practice

This is a continued to goal and I want to be more consistent at practice in learning guitar.I want to play at least one of the Pancharatna Keertanas on Guitar by the end of the year, including some filmy music.

Resolution 2. Get Married … Again

In anyone’s life everything happens again and again, except of course one’s birth and death. We eat, sleep, cook, work, change jobs, goto places, play games, learn stuff multiple times. So why not marriage ? So I want to get married again this year, preferably on the same date, and preferably with the same girl

Resolution 3. First Product Release.

This one is from my own small business. Right now I’m trying to follow apple’s principle: “we talk about things when they’re ready and released, and we very very rarely talk in between.”

Resolution 4. Finish at least 3 of the National Geographic Journeys of Lifetime.

I think I already did finish a couple of them. But I’m going to complete at least 3 of them to satisfy my nomadic urge, and it will also give me some good time to finish my last resolution by clicking more photos.

Resolution 5. Learn more about photography and self-plublish a coffee table book.

I seem to be experiencing a “shooter’s block” currently after continuously clicking more than 50GB of photos. I need to ramp up and click more and learn more. This year I’m going to self-publish ( may be 2 copies, one for me and one for my wife !) a coffee table book with my photographs.

So there they are, my new resolutions. I’ll revisit them during the course of the year to see where I stand. But this year I’m targeting for a score of 90% or more. Let us see.

And as Boris would say: “I happen to hate New Years celebrations. Everybody’s desperate to have fun trying to celebrate in some pathetic little way. Celebrate what, a step closer to the grave? That’s why I can’t say enough times, whatever love you can get and give, whatever happiness you can filtch or provide, every temporary measure of grace — whatever works! Don’t kid yourself, it is by no means up to your human ingenuity, a bigger part of your existence is luck.”

Wishing everyone and myself a new year filled with stuff we deserve and lots of luck! Happy New Year!