India - My Life within and without

The year 2008 was one of the best and one of the shoddier years of my life and as per my experience, it was pretty similar way for many in this world. The history was made when Obama got elected as the president of United States of America.

In 2008, the economy was in its worse condition which crashed many American dreams and hundreds of regular dreams. 2008 brought more violence acts in the world, including gun shots in Mumbai, bomb-blasts in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and war at its worse in Iraq. It was defiantly a harsh year, but somewhere it was a year, which taught us patience, the year for expression, and the year for something unexpected, unwanted. After living, with my full energy, parallel to the 2008, I won’t mind calling it, ‘The year of unexpected hopes and expected patience’


Personally, my year was full of trivia, full of life, which turned around as positivity and many times low self esteem. Let’s see what I achieved in 2008 and what I lost.

January 2008, that major thing happened, which affected my every single moment of 2008. I left HIS house, forever and started living alone…YES, I finally separated from HIM, his life, his family, his love and most important his violence & his drugs. Life didn’t come easy after I left him, infect it was harsh and hard on me. But, living alone taught me new things and new ways of being self again. I filed for divorce after months of confusion and tons of pressure of heart to be with him. Now soon I will be a free person, free of HIS litter and HIS love, his care and his life…his touch and his hitting, on my body, my heart & my mind.

January 2008, I got a car from HIM as a gift. May 2008 onwards, I started driving on freeways. Well, I used to be scared and worried of it for long, but I achieved it. I now drive everywhere, infect, I will be driving to SFO for New Years Eve. SFO is 6 hours drive from LA. I love driving, I enjoy it more on freeways with the speed of 65-70+ Well truthfully 80 miles per hour is the best fun ;)

July 2008, I lost one job, I was laid off. I experienced a life of a jobless person in the US. I was desperate, tired, hopeless and negative while searching for new job, but…..it took too long to find the one I can get adjusted to. Now I have a job, which I found with the help of a friend. It’s not a dream job, but it has helped me understand the career path, I want to take for future. It’s part of my last year’s plan of opening a NGO. I am working with kids, who were homeless once.

September 2008, I started school, YES, I DID IT!!!! I started studying photography, English creative writing and management. I got grade ‘A’ in my most of the classes, which has given me more confidence for starting studies after 10+ years. Now I am feeling that I’m getting ready for the education and I want to do my Masters soon.

I made tons of friends in 2008. It came as a blessing for me. My friends, my true, little, big, real friends, helped me getting over the worse situations of my lie. They gave me shoulders to cry on and smiles to share with others. They are my moral support, more than my own family back home. My friends are precious to me, more than that man, who promised to take care of me, as husband, for lifetime and I am able to accept this truth.

I wrote a lot in 2008, and I got published in 2008 as well. I wrote professionally for an Indian newspaper ‘India-West’ I was excited and happy when I was given the first job and many jobs followed up. I was not only published in newspaper but on their website as well. I wrote few short films, few stories and many blogs, many poems. I wrote to satisfy my heart, to calm my mind and/or to share my thoughts with the world.

I did a lot of photography in 2008; the visual way to express your moments and your feelings. I enjoyed learning the basic way of photography.

I also did lot of freelancer work in Hollywood. It made me feel free, and independent. I produced, directed and did cinematography for few videos. I got paid for the work I enjoy doing and for those ways, I learned while working.

I partied a lot in last few months of 2008. It was another way to run away from emotional stress, but it was a healthy way to feel stress less by dancing & spending time with friends.

I have cut down on alcohol too in 2008. I still drink wine, but not as much as I was drinking in 2007. I am trying to control many of these habits such as remembering him and his habits, just to keep him alive in my life. I am happy that I am not a failure in quitting bad things, but a success on my own.

I guess, this post will keep going on and on and on, because the year 2008 was a year full of activities, and full of achievements and full of failures too…but everything came unexpectedly, unwillingly & impatiently.

I am not sure, if I should call myself in real bad situation during the year of 2008, but I know this for sure that many people, were pressurized to leave their life, their homes, their families and much more. I think staying positive towards life has given me alot for self, especially after I left a dream of starting a family in 2008.

If in one sentence I have to say about my 2008, I would say; I gained my own self, my happiness and most important, my freedom back in my life during 2008.

I wrote about my 2008, now I tag 5 people for to write about their 2008.

1. Vinod
2. Sandeep
3. Senthilthyagarajan
4. Ipshita
5. Gurmeet