Looking back at 2006

Finally, 2006 is coming to an end. What a long year this has been! As I sit here, in front of my PC on the ultimate day of the year, let me just look back at 2006 which was dominated by studies.
1. In late February, my annual exam of class 8 started. The very first exam was Physics. I made a colossal mistake in that exam. The question paper had six long questions, among which we were required to answer four. But there was a printing mistake due to which the the question number had started from 2 and ended at 7. Although I saw this, I didn't observe this and thought that there were seven questions. Immediately, I decided to leave three questions and answer the rest. In the process, I lost 15 precious marks. Besides losing all hope of staying among the first three in class and getting the beautiful present of Harry Potter 6, I learnt a very good lesson. From that onwards, I always make sure that I attempt the required number of questions in an exam.
2. Surprisingly, I stood first in my annual exam, whose results were declared in March. From my mother's words I realized that this had been the result of sheer hard work. Two of my exams( Physics and Maths) didn't go well at all, but I worked hard for the rest. And, that clicked very well. Hard work really has no other alternative.
3. Before my new session had started in April, I had always imagined that life would be difficult in class 9 with seven tuitions. There would be no fun and studies would be everything. It turned out to be something similar only. But, after giving the first term exam of class 9 for 15 days, I was quite happy to be returning to my usual routine. For the first time, I discovered that tuitions not only meant studying, but also meant a lot of fun. By then, the groups of students at the different tuitions had become good friends with one another and so, the number of jokes and the laughter increased. Studies were there too. But, it was a different kind of fun.
4. I also discovered that doing project work is the worst, boring, tedious and time-consuming thing in this world. I've had to work harder for my projects than for my actual studies at times. What's really bad about projects is that their marks(20 marks) don't influence your result in a big way. Yet, you have to apply your best capabilities to complete them perfectly. In the ned, the marks you get in your theory (80 marks) decide your fate. Sometimes, if you get a lot of marks in theory, the teachers intentionally give you less for your project.
5. The most remarkable thing that I discovered in 2006 was BLOGGING. The credit for this goes completely to my cousin,Woodsmoke who introduced me to the fascinating world of blogs in July. Right from Wednesday evening, I start waiting for Friday afternoon because that's the time when I check my own blog and other blogs. It's always a welcome change after the first four busy days of the week.
6. Many significant events took place in my life this year which were concerned with things other than studies. Like, my parents' health detiorated a bit during May-June, but they recovered again during August. There were two tragic deaths which influenced the life of some of our close people terribly. We went to Goa during the Puja. Mammam was busy as ever in the first half of the year because of the Assembly Elections of Bengal. Baba got transferred back to Kolkata in April. My grandfather went through an eye operation in October. But the big change took place in my studies. All the above mentioned events took place. They brought with them different phases. Ultimately, we were able to overcome the bad phases and usher in the good ones. Last week, I won my last battle of this year when Baba was forced to buy a new mobile handset(coloured). I kept on telling him to buy a new one because his previous mobile had become very common with drivers and rickshaw-pullers. He didn't pay any heed, but that mobile had grown old and refused to work anymore. So, it meant victory for me.
I wish all of you, who are reading this blog, a Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May all your dreams come true and may you be successful in the coming year.

11th December

Of all the days in a year, 11th December is a very special one for our family because 18 years back, this was the day when my parents had tied the knot together. So, naturally, this year also, 11th December turned out to be memorable. Woke up in the morning and gave my parents the card I had made for them. I had drawn the 'Seven Wonders of the world' and had written down that my parents are more beautiful than the Seven Wonders and certain other things. Along with this, I gave them a boquet of artificial pink and magenta flowers, which I had bought with my pocket money. They were ecstatic and seeing their happy faces, my heart brimmed over with contention. Immediately after that, I went to school with my father. Both my parents had to attend their offices though. Incidentally, it was a crucial day at work for both of them. The day went well at school and at the English tuition class. My parents returned in the early evening. Then, we all got ready and went out for dinner. In an hour, we reached the restaurant, 'Mainland China'. It is a very nice place and what the three of us like about this place is that it is very well lighted. There are some restaurants where the lighting is so bad that you feel they are serving you bad food and in order to hide that, the lighting system is bad. Anyway, we first tasted Peppery Lemon Soup which was a bit spicy and very different from the regular soups taht we take. The main course included Rice Noodles, one duck preparation and Fukein Chicken. They were all superb. I tried my hand at eating the noodles with chopsticks and I must say that I did very well. The chocolate ice-cream with a cherry on top was the icing on the cake. So, this was we spent my parents' anniversary.
Knowing that we wouldn't be able to celebrate the whole day on 11th Dec, we had partly celebrated my parents' anniversary on 10th Dec. We went to City Center( shopping mall cum multiplex) to just roam about and buy a jacket for myself. Mammam said that I would be getting the jacket on the occasion of their anniversary:) After ransacking almost the whole of City Center, I finally got a blue jacket with a hood, which all three of us liked. Then, we had some chicken at KFC(Kentucky Fresh Chicken).

Dhoom first, shock afterwards

Last Saturday, Mammam, Baba and I went to catch the evening show of Dhoom2. We enjoyed the movie very much. It is a good movie, with great locales, great action and all other technical things. But, the story is very bad. In the frist half the story is good, but in the second half, the story becomes a bit boring because Ash is not able to decide whether she should support the "Imandar chor"(Hrithik Roshan) or the "Beimaan police officer"(Abhishek Bachchan). It takes stupid twists and turns. Dhoom's ending was meaningful, but Dhoom2's ending is meaningless.
The star was definitely Hrithik Roshan. He is looking so handsome in the movie and he is at his best. He has simply bowled out Abhishek Bachchan( who, I thought, looked very stupid with his beard).He carries the film on his shoulders and if this film turns out to be a hit, it will only be because of him. What a performance! And, no one can dance like him. I don't know how he does it and it's such a delight to watch him dance to the tunes of the title track. John Abraham was very good, but Hrithik Roshan is better.
Sunehri's role is perfect for Ash. She does it quite well. Bipasha Basu is not bad either, but she doesn't have much to do. Uday Chopra is as good as he was in D1.But this film is worth a watch only to see Hrithik Roshan.
Yesterday, I had two tuition classes as I have on every Thursday. Mammam went to fetch me from my second tuition at about 7.30. We took a rickshaw and reached The Haldiram's bus stop. But before boarding the bus, we went inside Haldiram's and had Dahi Vada and coffee. Then came the most difficult task. We had to cross the road. This Haldiram's crossing is one of the most notorious places in Kolkata when it comes to traffic matters. After making sure that the coast was clear, we crossed this side of the road to reach the gap between the divider and were standing there with some other people, when suddenly people started shouting. Then, looking to my left, I caught a glimpse of a man who had just been hit while crossing the road. That one glimpse was enough to make my hairs stand on end. I immediately removed my eyes from that horrible sight. My mother clapped her hands to her mouth and told me not to look there. After that, we crossed the other side of the road with added caution and boared the first auto that came along. This was such a shocking experience. I felt weird. I agreed with my mother that it was completely that man's fault. He should not have taken the risk. People really ought to be a lot more careful while crossing the road. I began to think, why did the man not have a bit more patience? Why? If he'd had just a bit more patience, he would not have met this horrible consequence. We didn't know whether he was dead, but hopefully he was not. Hopefully, he's still alive and probably broke his hands or legs or something. Oh God, may he stay alive! The car that caused the accident was not caught, but the only thing that matters now is the life of that man and many others who use that stretch regularly.