Monday, January 04, 2021

If ever there was a year to review...

The last time I did my annual flashback post, it was because Friend of the Blog Who Now Goes By a New Name I Cannot Remember had texted me on Jan 2 to ask me about it. 2020 was the kind of year where she texted me about it on December 12. 

In hindsight, not doing this post for 2019, which by my standards, was a very eventful year, but doing it for the batshit craziness that was 2020 seems in keeping with both the batshit craziness of 2020 and the complete erraticness of this blog in general. Ergo, drumroll...


1. What did you do in 2020 that you’d never done before?

I mean, where does one begin? Attended weddings and funerals virtually? Collected unemployment? Lived through a pandemic? Did not see anyone other than my parents for nearly two months (or was it three)? Made apple cider from scratch?


2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I honestly don't remember if I made any last year. Of the ones I make almost every year - I did cook more, and I actually did cook more Bengali food this year. Which is to say I made four Bengali dishes, one of which I was asked to make a few more times.

Technically I wrote about the same amount I did in 2019, but most of it was on yet another blog I started, meant to be more journal-ly, and which (shocker) I didn't follow through with after less then two months.


3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nope.


4. Did anyone close to you die?

Yes


5. What places did you visit?

LOL. 

An overnight work trip to NYC. Then in March, the Doha and Delhi airports, two days in Kolkata, and then ten months in Gurugram.



6. What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020?

Umm. 



7. What date from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

The week of March 7-13 March is pretty well etched in my brain, since it's when both the world and things in my life began to explode. As is May 25.

November 7 was pretty memorable too.


8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting through ten months of living with my parents without them killing me for being a brat.



9. What was your biggest failure?

Turning into a brat once it was clear I was back in my parents' home for the foreseeable future.



10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Well I had a bad fever as soon as I landed in India which led to me being quarantined for a week just in case it was anything more than just a fever. 

And then I burned my arm the day after the US elections, which was fun too.



11. What was the best thing you bought?

Listen, most of my purchases this year have been clothes so that I had things to wear beyond the ten days' worth of clothes I had brought with me.


12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

Allow me to be cheesy here and say all the frontline workers across the world who are goddamn heroes. And I absolutely include all delivery folks in that category.


13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and/or depressed?

I mean, I'm so sick of the two political parties that are currently governing the two countries I call home that my answer to this question almost never changes.


14. Where did most of your money go?

Well, I was furloughed for six months this year, so it's more a question of not having much money to begin with.


15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The original agenda for my March visit was pretty damn exciting, none of which happened obvs.



16. What song will always remind you of 2020?

I can't think of anything.



17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?

I honestly don't know. It's been a tough year, but it could have been so much worse. So neither, really, I think.

Whenever I have felt like things are getting too much, I've almost immediately also felt a tremendous amount of guilt. So many others had had it so much worse that whining about the relatively minor annoyances has made me just feel guilty.



18. Thinner or fatter?

Thinner. Turns out having ghar ka khana regularly, made from scratch instead of from canned or frozen goods, is good for you?



19. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Improved my mind. Written.



20. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Bickered. Been a brat.



21. How will you be spending Christmas?

I spent it wearing red nail polish and my Christmas earrings, sulking because I couldn't do any of my usual Christmas food and drink traditions, and drinking spiced apple cider that I made from scratch.



22. Did you fall in love in 2020?

We were in a freaking pandemic, you guys.



23. How many one-night stands?

See #22 above.



24. What was your favourite TV programme?

Technically I watched most of Schitt's Creek in 2019, but I didn't do this post last year, and I watched Season 6 in 2020, so I'm going to include this. 

Both seasons of Dead to Me were fantastic, as was Criminal (UK). I also finally got around to watching Made in Heaven, and absolutely loved it. 

Avenue 5 and Season 1 of Miracle Workers were also really funny.



25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

You know, surprisingly, I don't think so.


26. What was the best book you read?

I think I read, like, five books that weren't Nora Roberts or Lucy Parker or the Bridgerton books which were sent to me the day after Christmas and which I spent the last week of the year going through (and liked more than the show, even though the show was hilariously delicious).

AnyWAY, among those five books were the first two books by Gytha Lodge, which I raced through in less than a week, and ended up pre-ordering the third book due out this year as well.



27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Somehow, I had only ever seen one video from the A R Rahman concert that Berklee College put on in 2014. The entire playlist was discovered somewhere at the beginning of lockdown, and I spent more than a month constantly playing it on loop.



28. What did you want and get?

Usually, my mental answer to #29 is more time in India, more time with family. That certainly happened in 2020!



29. What did you want and not get?

I dunno, freedom of movement?



30. What was your favourite film of this year?

The one good thing about 2020 is that I actually watched movies that weren't MCU releases. And so there were a lot of favourites. 

Just Mercy.

Bareilly ki Barfi (I know, I know, but I just hadn't gotten around to it)

Chintu ka Birthday. Axone. House Arrest. Choked. Raat Akeli Hain. Gunjan Saxena.

Soul.

But I think Ludo and Cargo were really my top two of the year.



31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I spent it in quarantine, in my old bedroom, getting to see no one other than my poor dad who had to put up with my whininess.



32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Not getting furloughed. Being able to drive, even if I wasn't going anywhere.



33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020?

Go to myntra.com --> find cheapest items that fit my criteria and can be returned if they don't fit --> buy



34. What kept you sane?

Knowing that if anything did happen to my family through this pandemic, I was here, with them.




35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Huge crush was developed on Varun Grover in early 2020. Pretty sure some friends muted my texts because of this.



36. What political issue stirred you the most?

December 2019/Spring of 2020 was spent fuming over the CAA in India. Summer and fall were spent obsessing over the US elections.



37. Who did you miss?

I was with the people I'm usually missing =)



38. Who was the best new person you met?

Did I even meet anyone new?



39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2020.

I think this year really clarified the people who are important to me, and who I'm important to. Keeping in touch during a pandemic does that, I think

I've really, really gotten used to living alone.

All I really need in life is a couch, Wifi, and an Android device.



40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Is there a song that can sum up 2020?