Where did she go?

Where did she go? The innocent, cheerful girl, who started this blog seven years ago. Who thought that nothing was impossible in this world. Who was too romantic to believe in practicality. Who wanted to travel the world, travel to a new country and make a mark there. Who was little enough to not really understand what responsibility means but old enough to think she was responsible. Who was truly happy, without thinking too much about what happiness really means, where it really stems from. Whose world was wrapped up in her friends.

Where did she go?

I wish she had stayed. I wish she had never left. But no matter how deep I search within myself, I cannot find her. Worse, I can't even find a way to bring her back. Everyone says, life keeps moving forward. I'm not sure if that's necessarily a good thing. I want my life to move backwards, to a simpler time, a simpler life.

4 weeks ago, on a Sunday my mom told me, she had been seeing my father's heart doctor and is going to have to have a heart procedure urgently. That Thursday, when she told me it was scheduled for Saturday, I was sitting on the plane that afternoon, on my way. I have never felt so scared, so lonely in my life. The roles reversed. Suddenly, I had to grow up and be what my mom is always to me. A rock, a support, the grown up. The girl, seven years ago would have spilled out all her fears and the thoughts that went through her mind here. Me, I am too scared to even think them again.

Ever since I came back to the US, I have been waiting to feel normal again. Even though things went fine, and my mother is better now, I can't seem to get back on track. Nothing helps. I feel disinterested in any and everything. Mostly, I feel angry. If I am not angry, I feel depressed. I don't feel like doing anything. I don't even know why. I guess I do know why. Such vulnerability in life has left me shaken, and I can't seem to get out of it.

Please bear with me, as I try to steer my life, my mind and my heart to a regular rhythm. Please keep my mom in your thoughts and prayers.

Fighting with yourself...

Isn't that something, that all of us do, or are made to do, at one point or another. I have seen it closely, a little too closely. Day in and day out, living with yourself, and hating yourself. It's not nice. So many people, so many relationships, so many conflicts and so many milestones. Some good. Some bad. Some trivial. Some crucial. Some not given so much as a thought even. And some, pondered, wondered, churned over till your insides felt they would bleed. So many thoughts, so many doubts. So many opinions, and so many judgments to face. In the end, all you can do is buckle up good, believe in yourself, and love yourself, just like you loved that beautiful pair of shoes, which gives you the worst of sores but the best of compliments? After all, who knows whether what happened was good or bad? After all, isn't all we do, is only obey a command from up, up above? Then why hate yourself. Then why fight yourself. And why believe what people think of you? Why not believe what you want to, and move on to new horizons? Why not make new memories and erase the bad ones? Why not just stop fighting with fate, life and most importantly yourself? Why not just enjoy the here and now? Why not?

Will you be free for dinner tonight?

The SMS said. From him. I waited 6 years for it before I stopped waiting. Another 3 have passed since then. I moved on. Long back. Don't believe me? Well you have no choice..do you? Anyway...we are friends. Always have been. Except for that brief period that I thought we were something more than friends. And upon asking I was bluntly told it wasn't so. "I never thought that way about you." Okay. Fair enough. Then why the fuck were we acting/talking/behaving the way two people do only when they fancy each other? For more than a month? Talking everyday and every night till very late. Till I tried to confirm things were what I thought they were. Or god knows how long that might have gone on. I don't feel anything for him. But I still feel very much cheated. Even today. Still feel angry at myself and him. As angry as I felt then. As humiliated. Even after these many years. But I still am going to take up this invitation. The hurt & innocent teenager inside me is very much tempted to stand him up. Make him feel at least fraction of the pain that I felt. But I know I couldn't do this to him or to anybody for that matter.

So. I'm going to say yes to an invitation I longed to receive years ago and which now, doesn't have any more effect on me than watching an ant crawl. And try to purge my heart of the anger, not cos I forgive him but only cos any of my emotions are not worth that ass of a guy whom I still consider a friend.

PS: I still think of him as a friend. Just wanted to get this off my chest. I didn't think it would come out so strongly when I started writing. Thought I was just documenting the odd ironies of life. Oh well! :)

Lost innocence or changed for better?

Recently one of my close friends came to US, just like I had only a year back. She and I similar in more than one ways, to the extent that, sometimes I see my thoughts being spoken by her, without me having to say them. So when I was talking to her when she had just arrived, I found myself saying - yea I used to think the same way or yea I used to say that too more times than I would have liked. Many times when I found her thinking in a particular way which was naive and emotional, I immediately gave her harsh dose of reality which nobody had given me. I realized I was as innocent then. And I learned things the harder way. I didn't even notice I was doing that untill she pointed out after a month or so, that yea some things happened, and I thought of you like how you had warned me against it. I realized then I need to stop. i need to stop this subconscious effort of warning her that what she sees now is completely different from what it will be a year from now. And although it is a hard and staggering reality to digest, it is still better to deal with such shocks as they come, than being warned about them a year in advance...

But in the light of all this I can't ignore the fact that i have evidently changed so much. And when I see me now, a completely different me compared to only year back, I can't help but wonder - along the way did I lose my innocence or did I change for better?

Random thought....

Sometimes, a simple thing like reading a newspaper can make you realize how deeply connected you are to your roots, to the place where you grew up and spend more than 2 decades of your life.

I was reading news - New York Times. And then I opened the ePaper version of The Times of India. And then I read the entire paper for an hour. I went through every article, every small news about India. I suddenly realized, I don't even care what I read in New York Times sometimes, but I was actually reacting to the news here. I was feeling happy, sad, irritated, relieved and many other emotions sitting so far away from India. I felt nostalgic, sad and longed to be back. Its' not perfect - what with Amitabh Bachchan visiting Tirupati making a breaking news for a week - its definitely far from perfect.

It's....well it's just home....and is beyond adjectives like these!!

The Break-up

Yesterday, I got to thinking about relationships, any kind of relationship, and how there's always a break-up involved. If not anything else, it’s the "till death do us part" and the death does do people apart, and hence my point - There is always a break-up involved.

It’s sad and difficult and mind-crunching and stomach-twisting. And more so, if the break-up is the kind which we generally take it to be. A "break-up" break-up is without a doubt the most difficult phase of the relationship. And yes, most definitely it is as much the part of the relationship as the “flirting”, “going-out” or “being-there” is. As long as there's an emotion connecting two people, I believe, there's still a relationship, a thin string attached. And break-up is the last, the longest and the most painful emotion that two people share. And probably that is why it is so long and painful, because it is the tribute to everything shared before, a silent and sad eulogy, because this is where you can remember everything except the reason why you broke up. And yet somewhere deep down you just know you have to keep going, because there's no turning back after this.

I heard somewhere that it takes half the time of the duration of the relationship, to completely get over it. I don't know if it’s true. But this, I know - It may be possible to get over a relationship but it is next to impossible to get over a person. How do you just forget the one person, who was so important once, that you gave him all the right and the power to hurt you and make you happy or sad by his mere words? You may take him out of your life, but you cannot take him out of your heart, your mind. There will be a place in your heart reserved only for him, forever. There will always be a part of your heart, a small corner, where his memories will be locked up. That place in your mind, where you can happily remember him, and someday accept him to be as a painful, yet an exquisitely beautiful past, something that you will cherish for the rest of your life, something that nobody can take away, not even his own self if at all your paths happen to cross again.

And all there is, is the hope to reach there someday, that place, that state of mind, where one can happily think of the past as something worthwhile, something that gave a chance to give as much as receive, something that will always be enlaced in heart's deepest corners as a delicate memory to be treasured till the end of the eternity.

A hope for the end that is not bitter. Anymore.

Ghosts from the past still haunt me sometimes!

Has it ever happened to you, that there was something/somebody that you felt very strongly about in the past, and suddenly something/somebody else comes up, who reminds you of them so very badly, that all the feelings come rushing back and almost torment you?!

This happened to me very recently. I spoke to somebody concerning some work, and his voice was so much alike to certain somebody in my past, that I have to control myself from blurting out anything stupid! After I start talking to him, I have to make conscious efforts to remember that he's not the one he sounds like! And after I've hung up, I feel so so sad, remembering my past....

Has this ever happened to you?

Hostel Account: Part 1

Living in a hostel for past 5 years, I myself find it quite strange that I have never really posted anything about my hostel. But come to think of it, I'm sure I can never put down in words the magic of my hostel days. I am not saying it was perfect like a fairy tale...living in a hostel had its own pitfalls, and some which can never really be apparent on the surface! But just recently I realised that what happened then, helped me a great deal in handling a particular incident now. I now know, had it not been for the experience of my hostel, I would have reacted in a completely different manner.

Anyways, I drifted away from my point. Today, I am venturing to write about a part of hostel, and a very important one - roommates. We were 3 of us in one room. Let me just take a moment here to state that if I were to go back in time and choose roommates again, I would still choose the same roommates again, knowing all the downfalls that are to come...but also knowing, that they were and still are so very precious to me! Not just because they form almost half of my memories of hostel, but also that they were the most honest & genuine friends, who were there for me when I needed it the most and deserved it the least!

There's this special closeness & bonding I felt with them every time I entered the room. I felt like talking to them. Anything, any crap, any damn thing. But I just wanted to speak to them something. I guess it happens, when you are with somebody a lot of the time. I controlled it often, because I could see them studying, doing work, etc. And yet I grabbed the first moment that I could to chat with them. And they did the same :)

I basically like to chatter a lot (which does not necessarily make me an extrovert as some people like to think!). And I have spent some amazing time chattering with them. We shared a lot with each other, from thoughts to clothes, from books to food, from jewellery to computers. From laughing-till-your-stomach-aches to getting-bored-and-talking-any-crap. From complimenting to bitching. From coffee to water. From maggi to chinese. From happiness to distress. Almost everything. And when we parted, it was like an end of an era. No. It was an end of an era! And I miss those days a lot!! :(

And I will cherish them for the rest of my life!!
God bless them. V & M-If you guys read this, Love you both!

Sayonara!