Goodbye India

Not the best time to make a return to Blogosphere. Minutes before I leave home for the airport on my way to the USA for grad school.Hopefully a change in location and atmosphere will bring about a change in my attitude towards this blog too, which I confess has been one of utmost lethargy in the past 3-4 months post-VNIT.

I have been immensely lucky to have met every single dear friend of mine (insti, school and others) in this summer vacation. This post is a final goodbye  to Tyrant, Deng, Potnis, Kotecha, Sush, Nandy, Amit, Kiran, Suri, KP, Sharma etc. etc. etc. and offcourse my dear blogmates Suchi, Aggie, Sharan :).

The next time I post something, I promise it would be a well-constructed blog with the only difference being that I would be scripting it from the other side of the world 🙂 .

Cheers and \m/ forever

I, Ibn Battuta

Long Long time since I blogged- 2 whole months infact 😐 . I blame final-sem lethargy primarily for this and secondly the fact that I have been traveling way too much during this period. While the usual Chennai trips [for project wrk etc.] kept happening every 20 days, I managed to make a cursory visit back home and also a one-dayer in Hyderabad for a black metal gig [ returning hours before my GATE exam 🙂 ] . And lastly, the greatest trip ov all- GOA again with the best ov friends. In sum, I guess I have clocked a record 12300 kms by train travel. Had there been be a ‘miles’-collecting and redeeming system similar to the airlines even in our railways, I am sure I would have hit some jackpot :).

For those who don’t know, Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan traveller who travelled a staggering 75000 miles, way more than his nearest contemporary- Marco Polo. My assumption at me being a Ibn Battuta of sorts might be a little pretentious, I agree. Each of these trips have been characterised by a total carefreeness, traveling in a light and minimalistic way and absolutely no worries about anything at any place. I wonder if ever in the future, I would be able to travel in this manner because a natural fallout of added responsibilities ( in job, grad school etc. ) would be fewer holidays and loads of more work. Anyway, I have decided to put a temporary hold on my plans for other jaunts and decided to spend my last month in insti. ‘peacefully’ immersed in project work and senti-farewell parties :).

And now that I’m back , I promise I am here to stay in blogosphere for good :).

Twenty One

“Finally 21, and legally able to do everything I’ve been doing since 18 ”

I’m turning 21 and that’s a big step for me. Adulthood has now kicked in my door and its startling eyes are staring me right in the face. I can’t say exactly what it is that makes the 21^st year radically different from the 20^th year. Somehow, it just feels much older and wiser :P. I guess I have done a lot of maturing this year though, so in a way it makes some sense.

I got my first job (at Indian Oil Corp. Ltd.) in August this past year and I definitely didn’t expect it so soon. Thanks to an extended run of my very good luck , I received an admit for graduate studies from the University of Pennsylvania a week back. And though I am really not sure as to which school I would be attending post-VNIT, my dream of making it to an Ivy League school has finally come true. It is inevitable that I would be leaving my second home( VNIT ) in a few months time and bid goodbye to all that was familiar and dear to me for a long time.  So, while one part( the 20 year old :P) of me wishes not to leave the insti. and my best friends, another part( the budding 21 year  old) of me reminds me of the responsibility-ridden life in a new land ahead. A sad realization that this is the maximum carefree fun I am ever going to have in my life until probably in my old age post retirement :P.

Anyway, looking at the glass as half full rather than half empty, 21 ushers in a whole new range of things I can now enjoy. I am now ‘officially’ entitled to booze in most states of India and ( considering the party animal I am ) rock every pub in town :D. Not to forget the fact that I can now legally marry. All that’s missing however is a willing bride :P.

So, there I go. 20 turning 21. I thank my parents, God and my wonderful friends for everything I have today. Let’s hope the next 21 years are just as productive and wonderful as these 21 have been.

Cheers !!

Roots

Here I was, returning from a tight 2 day sojourn to Madras combining work and pleasure like I always do :P. But something felt different this time around.

Having been raised as a Tamil Brahmin in the grand city of Bombay with a rather infamous distinction of having visited my native state of Tamil Nadu only about thrice in my 21 years of existence and with an impaired knowledge of the Tamil language, such visits to Madras always raised the risk of arousing my curiosity in tracing back my roots. This is the dilemma I found myself in constantly this time around as I waded through a swarm of my Tamil brothers and sisters in Chennai Central station while imbuing the aroma of fresh filtered coffee and savoring the spicy Sambar rice minutes before I boarded my train back to Nagpur.

For the first time, I truly felt a lost connection with the Tamil way of life often wondering about so many things I saw around me in Madras which ideally should be very obvious to me. My good friends are aware about the special significance that Madras holds for me for it has always been the uncanny residence of my most cherished social priorities. By saying this offcourse, I am not in the slightest way undermining Bombay and all that it has given me. Bombay will always be my home but an odd feeling likened to that of a refugee (in a place that I had so long perceived as my home) has set in me which has helped me conclude that I need to trace back my roots, get in touch with my birth-culture , my true ethnicity. Especially considering my immediate future plans of pursuing higher studies abroad, I truly feel there couldn’t be a more appropriate time to reaffirm my roots before I spread my wings and fly off to a far away land.

Cheers !