This year has been a year of change. It kicked off with changing cities, of being away from a city that has been my home for 26 years right since the day I was born. Each city is known to lend you it’s unique color, but Mumbai is known to color you in indistinguishable shades like water in the palette that’s colored by the dip of the artist’s brushes. Everyone is mad about their cities. In Mumbai you are simply in love with it. Moving away from this love was more than just physical distancing. It was also emotional. But when you cross a quarter of a century in age and in experiences, you begin to come to terms with life and its ways. It almost spiritual - this realization of finally known to have grown up to shoulder new responsibilities although deep within you are still a pampered princess. This year has again proved that love is all you need to survive, not just of others but also of your own. Finding time for yourself to do things that make you happy is probably one of the toughest things. It’s so easy to settle into a mundane routine and let all the good things in life take a back seat under the pretext of lack of time. The key is to get up and act. The more you are in possession of your own interests and actions, the lesser are your chances of holding someone else responsible for your disappointments. There is no wisdom in letting inhibitions rule your actions. There is a fine line between fear and respect but when you substitute one with the other it makes a world of a difference. Sometimes you should just let things fall in place on their own. The harder you try to mend them the longer they seem to take. Nothing is more promising than knowing that you have a listening ear, a helping hand, and a strong shoulder to come home to. It’s good to live in an age where technology has shrunk the world. It’s fortunate to be nestled in the presence of sane people in a world that’s increasingly losing it all. Hope continues to show the way, even if sometimes it is just about those little things you look forward to do over the weekend. There’s so much that’s behind us and so much more yet to arrive. The new year promises a new start and fresh aspirations, even as it safely shelters the past in the shape of memories of days well spent.