What Are You Thankful For In 2018?

What am I thankful for? There she bajao ...turra la turra about her impressions and observations and influences from that passing Knightley. Sorry ..is that Knight or a Knightly? No, it's K-N-I-G-H-T-L-E-Y.

2018 marks the centenary of suffrage. In that spirit with abundance of itinerant opportunities and enabling lifestyle for independent women (what with food ordering and travel comparing apps), though had been challenging in the past, today singlets are deferring settling down as they are blithely single to hop around and tap into the worldly enigma and cheer. Hippo Hurray! A woman with decent education and modest finances is living in the best of the times to cherish her untethered pride.

Hey yo! Dash to the nearest supermarket to familiarize with the homegrown products, order ghee rava dosa from swiggy, boogie to Nachde Ne Saare playing on FM awaiting the order, followed by a day of taps and clicks and rating and payTM from her home. It must be something to be a single woman imploring the watchman of a nearby gated community to allow her to shortcut to the thoroughfare rather than the roundabout -- 'arey, just me, what security breach, let me scuttle over to the other side.' Must have been a sight to sit cross-legged in a mall rummaging through door mats inviting sales executive glances to inquiry -- 'do you need help'. (Nah, I am fine and single and have time aplenty to scan for my powder-blue colored mat.) She can hustle around any chic restaurant during peak hours and point out -- 'but I only need one bar stool to dine, there that empty'.

She is easily amused by ragtag affection as she has no attentive prejudice but to delight in her singlehood of conversational voices. Mind you, these Emmas are guided and reproved by their Knightleys -- oh, what brazen pride! But then she basks in that reproof -- Oh! Mr Knigthley, I am just discovering what it is to be a crazy-heeled single.

She can uber, zomato, makemytrip, bazaar, netflix her way in the digital world that overwhelms yet delights her.

Fidget, upend and pick her relations with men. In the past, women with no romantic or sexual partners, whether by choice or not, felt alienated and unassured though having other other meaningful and anarchic relations with men. Today, she can deviate from the garden-variety matching algorithm to customize her suitability to build her own chemistry on how she wishes to indulge with men. She could be forthcoming or flirty or imposing or withdrawn depending on how she wishes to engage the man ...(scare him or sustain him) in that lark from consigliere to co-fellow of her devilry as she is not coerced into time-honored catchphrases restricted to "bhayya" and "friend" and "lover" for men to be self-expressed in verbosity in a meandering write-up ..needing multiple rereads ...but then ...wssst ..she's explosive single so she can write whattawah not halting two shakes whether this elastic post on an online forum would be read, or liked, or responded or will go down in censorial annals as the befitting - 'de nier ce qui est, et d'expliquer ce qui n'est pas' (ref: Dupin in 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue') as this shifting Novalis creature usually denies what has been sought in the original post and explains to her fancy what has not been.

So, what is the inquiry? Yes, 2018 was a gratifying year with supplanted choices, dizzy claims, wilful decisions, pocketed technology, with the connect and resources to stylize life that none of our solitary predecessors enjoyed. (This wide reflection of 2018 holds up to only charitable scrutiny and not critical scrutiny as no one within a social tradition speaks for everyone else but for self.) I am thankful of my reformed age with mates and colleagues and the pesky Knightleys who enliven up the singlehood wanting me to hold on to this fulfilling solitude just another year, so on every year, till the pretentious and heretic Emma in me reconciles with that pesky and sophistee Knightley.

 

The poor thing(s?) might need annotated crib-notes to understand it all when she comes around and reconciles.

 

2018 was a mixed year although very memorable because i got my first job. It was a wonderful feeling of being financially independent.

 

Emma: On Mar 24, 2017, in that Cafe Crumpet in Bolingsdale Street with you in a green crew neck T-shirt when the woody-hard waffle with caramelised fruit was served in a blue plate by a Belgium waitress with a name sounding like Griselda you used some word ... some word ... some what the hell is that word?

Knightley: fretwork?

Emma: yeaaa. I didn’t like that word back then. It sounds okay today. Fretwork, nice word, ah. (reconciling wink)

(Emma maintains the episodic crib-sheet also, Knightley is dignified only with the elusive index)

 

A better year than previous.. thankful for that...

 

Anusha, there are two dominant forms of unsettled singlets — single by immutable circumstances and by wilful choice. I am the wayward latter. Unlike commonly perceived, does not take much mettle for solitary indulgence. It’s a cherished preference for my likes who have enormous appetite for self-serving avocations. I enjoy the conversational romp and expansive mockery in Beckett-themed absurdity of life which is facilitating in my singlehood (travel, recreation, spontaneity, compact living, lowered responsibility) but could be strangled in normative couplehood. We adhere to what suits us and adapt to what challenges us. The observational indulgence of the passing spectacles and unhurried listening of keen-minded voices around me suits me in my singledom from the obscured sidelines rather than the lit centre stage till such obscured and low-featured yet high-mouthed incarnations of Emma reconcile with their Knightleys.

 

2018 the year gone by leaving me and spouse with better environment , less pollution, more oxygen, new species of birds around , enlarged friends' circle, clean water, steady power supply, more weddings attended. More togetherness and learnt some new skills including use of smart phone with 4G connection, better mango yield of two varieties in our garden, new split AC, lots of family pack ice cream, huge dividends on equities, interest income slightly more than previous year 2017, ...
Health wise steady and under control, less visits to cardiologist, less insurance spent, donations to orphanage....hmmmm
Overall the year ended with a pleasant note.
Thanks and regards.

 

Glad to have been able to push myself to do (almost) as much as I did about 10 years ago. Enjoyed my work-cum-holiday abroad, two continuing education courses, learning a new language. That was really satisfying.