2010: The year in review

As we move into 2011, I thought of sharing my key moments of the year gone by.

2010 was a special year. A lot happened in my life. I got even more comfortable working independently. I focussed a tad more on my writing and reading, thanks to the Just Books library chain and the ereader app on my phone.

In addition to the five publications I wrote before (The Man, Live IT, Windows & Aisles, Worldstart Inc, Travel & Shop), I began writing regular columns for magazines like M, Exhibit and Yuva, besides MJ Akbar’s weekend newspaper The Sunday Guardian published simultaneously in London and Delhi. My food photography shoots at five star hotels continued from last year for the inflight magazine of Paramount Airways. Similarly, my CEO interviews for various magazines continued this year, most notably S Gopalakrishnan, CEO, Infosys; scientist Pranav Mistry; MindTree co-founder Subroto Bagchi; Couchsurfing CEO Daniel Hoffer and Jean-Claude Biver, the CEO of Hublot watches.

As a result of the extra work, my blog posts came down drastically (zahidjavali.com; bollywoodviews.com and astrofreak.com). However, it led to my travelling outside Bangalore to de-stress and indulge in my other passion: photography. To places like Chitradurga, Cauvery Fishing Camp, Doddamakali, Nandi Hills and Murugmalla. To see my travel images, you could visit: www.flickr.com/photos/zhj/sets.

The year also saw the successful completion of my four-year-old energy healing course that is a cross between Reiki, Pranic and Ray of God techniques. Taught by former advertising professionals Tarun and Celia Cherian, it made me a certified healer. In addition, I also successfully completed the Past Life Healing course as well. All this means, I can heal people, plants and animals without any surgery or harmful medication. What’s more, I can do aura reading and heal long distance as well.

However, not everything can be healed with just this technique. My 74-year-old grandmother had to be hospitalised because two of her heart arteries were clogged and she needed immediate treatment. For the first time in my life, I donated blood with much trepidation and have now resolved to donate atleast once every year.

2010 also saw the arrival of two of my babies: The first was Mind Blogs 1.0, a book I co-authored with two other Bangalore writers Nirmala Govindarajan (Senior Copy Editor, the Times of India) and Christina Daniels (the author of ‘Ginger Soda Lemon Pop’). If you want to know more about the book and the reviews it received from the press and radio, you could visit mindblogs1.wordpress.com.

A week after the book launch (Oct 2, 2010) at Koshy’s ChillOut on St Mark’s Road in Bangalore, my wife gave birth to baby girl Farheen. She was born on 10/10/10 at 10.05am. Another first was driving down to Bellary all by myself, so my wife can be taken to the hospital in the car when she goes into labour. It was the longest journey (6 hours) I had undertaken in my i10.

The book also soft launched my company Write Wing Media, a custom publishing firm. It means if an individual, company or a publication wants to outsource its writing, editing or the entire publishing work to us, we will do it for them. From generating content, taking pictures, to layout and printing of coffeetable books, magazines, newsletters, journals, and so on. And these could be for in-house circulation or for the public at large. For more on it, you could visit www.writewing.in.

The book also gave me a chance to be on the other side of the table. For 14 years, I have been interviewing people. For once, I was being interviewed and photographed by the Press. Since the book is still new and many more book readings are planned for the coming days, there is no let up on this front. Our next book reading is at Edge Academy at Brigade Towers on Brigade Road, opposite All Saints. The date is January 8 from 10.30am to 12.30pm. All are invited. Please treat this as a personal invite and be there if you are free.

To sum up, it was a year that led me to frequent hospital visits with my pregnant wife; and later for my ailing grandmother. It was also a year that saw me emerge as a healer, father, author and custom publisher.

The same roles will be played out in 2011. I hope to spend this year with as much vigour and with as many travels.

What did you do in 2010? Let me know.

Wishing you a very happy and peaceful 2011. Amen!