Day 1: One gets a call from one’s teacher, highly recommending Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par. One watches the movie with friends and is happy to note that he is not the only one crying.

Later that day, one chews on the movie for long and is thankful for his childhood. His tinkering and doodling was tolerated.

Day 2: One makes mother and aunt watch the movie. Much to one’s relief, mother cries and they hug each other as Shankar Mahadevan sings, ‘kya itna bura hoon main ma?’

One is told that the first time his vegetarian mother actually killed a mosquito was to protect him.

One seems so focused on what he wants from the future that he forgets to be thankful to the past for allowing him the life he has had. True, there always seem to be people for whom nothing is ever good enough. But there is little we can do about them.

There have been several little joys that stick to my memory to this day and will very probably go to my funeral with me. Regardless of grander changes later in my life, these little shifts in my growth were never overshadowed. I thought I would share some of them with you, on this first day of 2008.