The noise around me did not help the emptiness within. I still remember the day couple of weeks ago. The day when I left College Park. I have loved this place. Every face
around me reminded me of a story that day. It does feel good when you have about 20 people to wake up at 8 on a lazy Saturday morning just to say goodbye. Feels great to see so many people care! Precious moments; similar to the ones when I first left Mumbai to come
to US.
There were 20+ reasons around me for not living a lonely
life and a few more reasons were just a phone call away. I had come here with 3
bags and left the place with a few more, that too without much shopping.
Memories flashed by. The two times when my bank balance touched zero. My first paycheck, walking up to IHOP at 4 in the morning. Several job interviews which I screwed over, few that went well. The day we moved in and shared the apartment with hundred different cockroaches in the kitchen. The day when I went unprepared for a group presentation and ended up saying things like ‘All that shines is not gold, everything has a dark side’ and the whole economics class laughed.
I can go on. I’ve met some really good people along the
way. Sometimes, you have bad experiences, but if you look one level deeper, the
people where never bad. The circumstances were. Every Indian student in US
knows that he has spent a fortune coming here and will look out for ways to
recover it. There’s nothing wrong in that, except in the process you knowingly
or unknowingly end up hurting people who are dear.
 |
| The apartment where I first lived - Seven Springs! |
Now after 2 years, the fight was over for most around.
The waters were calm. When everything looks perfect, there comes the time to
move on. You cannot be at the training grounds forever; someday you have to
play the match for real.
I don’t know how that world would be. I do not have the
experience of swimming in corporate waters. But the days of tracking the next
bus on mobile would surely be remembered after buying the first car. Cooking
food for 8 people will be replaced by cooking food for yourself or eating
outside. Early mornings will be ‘in the office’ and not ‘in the bed’. The long
phone calls will be cut down.
The dream was cut, it was time to say good bye. The train
moved and my friend called saying ‘You have left a few things behind’. I looked
at my bags, they were all there.
‘Memories’, he said!
