January 2014 – Kapil's Take

Makar Sankranti 2014

Although there is much of this planet I have yet to explore, I doubt that there is any other place in the world where festivals are celebrated at such a grand scale. I have spent 8 out of the last 12 months in this strange, peculiar, impressively beautiful land of India. In these past 8 months I have celebrated Holi, Diwali and Makar Sankranti. Out of all celebrations I find Makar Sankranti – the festival of kites the most dear to my heart. I remember when I was a kid I together with my family would come visit India and travel of to places all over India, however when January 14 approaches no matter what part of India we are at, I would force my parents to come back to my home town in Gujarat just so that I could fly kites.

Here is a video compiled from the kite flying event of the year. I had very limited photo and video footage to work with. I tried what I could to combine some fun moments together for people to see. Song is Phir Se Ud Chala from the bollywood Movie Rockstar(2011) , sung by Mohit Chauhan, music by A.R Rahman and lyrics by Irshad Kamil.

Video and photos mostly taken by me on Makar Sanranti 2014 and the day before. Final video edited and compiled by me.

As I reflect on the year 2013 I realize that it was an amazing year! Good Bye 2013 and Hello 2014! Happy New Year!

Every year people who want to make ‘improvements’ in their lives set New Year’s resolutions. Most people fail, few succeed. Those who fail, try again the following year or become non-believers. I wrote an article in 2010 about Why not to Set a new Year’s resolution! (Don’t judge the article by it’s title. It’s not what you would expect)

This year I have really not set a New Year’s resolution, in fact I don’t even have expectations on what I would like to accomplish in 2014. I have no goals, no plans. I’m just going to live 2014 as each day comes – let’s experiment.

I came across a link posted by a friend on Facebook which I think is the best advice I’ve gotten on the topic of “New Year’s Resolution”. All the lessons in this article are pure gold! I had to learn it the hard way by experience and by learning from mistakes, but is that not he best way to learn.

I hope you get something out of it. I must say, not all of you will ‘get it’. In fact I would not have gotten all of it if I had come across this article last year.

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