This has to be the longest hiatus I've taken from blogging. A more than ample and free access to the internet notwithstanding. Somewhere buried under a plethora of reasons (not the least of which was plain old laziness :P) there was some connection to the fact that this was the longest stint I'd spent around campus since graduating. Confirmation yet again that I'd done a good thing by starting off with my blog after leaving college :). I shall not go hunting for that connection here.
I had been worried, to be honest, going in. Well, maybe worried is a strong word. There were, shall we say, doubts in my mind. In the course of the last few weeks most of those have been happily alleviated :). Some questions I'd been asking for a long time, I found answers to. Not all in the most favourable way possible, but answers nonetheless. And some precious insights. (Okay, I just read this paragraph, and find it more than ordinarily vague. So here on, I shall stick to more sane stuff :P.)
Let's just say meeting up with old friends helps you in a whole bunch of ways you couldn't even imagine. And I did a whole lot of that :). Of course, the duration of the stay helped a lot with that. The timing could scarcely have been better. The thing to see of course, would be if (and if yes, then how long) I can actually keep the many promises of 'we'll keep in touch' and 'see you sometime, somewhere' and so on and so forth. Again, true to form, I was as vague as possible with said promises :-<. I hate breaking promises. I do! Honestly.I even managed to make some new friends actually. Well, acquaintances more like. But then I also managed to make good friends of some previous acquaintances. I can somehow never tell when a friendship jumped that line between just another one to a really close one... Well, barring some glaringly obvious instances of course.
It felt like a rather extended walk through a bit of the past. And I felt like I'd dressed up as someone I once knew, and was thrilled when some of those around me saw through the camouflage. Most didn't, and I didn't particularly mind that either.At the end of a few cycles of days of intense activity followed by those of the other extreme, the much awaited and anticipated wedding was at hand! I'd hashed together an extremely ramshackle 'plan' in an attempt to meet as many people as was possible in a very short period of time :). Headed off for Pune on the 9th. A bus ride that was altogether too short for the many many photographs of the near and distant past. A hilarious hunt for an elusive diner. Snores in the dead of the night :|. A simple and lovely wedding ceremony. A vegetarian lunch over discussions on life from perspectives split wide open by long distances and varying circumstances.
Then it was off to Bangalore. My first visit in about 15 years I think :P. A delayed flight, a trademark thump on the back of another old friend after sneaking up on him from behind at the airport :). A hurried meeting to avoid parking. Crazy traffic, crazier driving. A surprisingly clean flat, and finally the somewhat delayed bear hug :D. A hazy night under a starry sky. More meetings. And surprises. Yet another crazy and hilarious hunt for a restaurant. Lingering goodbyes again. More discussions on life and other more tangible things, this time on the flight back to Bombay.
The flight was on time, only, it ended with the longest ever wait on the tarmac off the aircraft. And then the longest ever ride on a bus back to the terminal. Back at the place I'd been calling 'home' for a while, I had to start packing to finally head home. A mistimed pang of hunger led to a wild goose chase of sorts in search for some food. And ended up at the midnight buffet in a once oft-frequented restaurant near the airport :D.A rather dazed flight after 3 hours of sleep followed immediately by an emergency trip to get the car fixed saw me finally get home in the proper sense only at 6 in the evening. No wonder I was out like a light for the better part of 12 hours. And then in the evening it was time again to attend the other leg of the Pune wedding! Awesome food. Coincidences galore with acquaintances through the wildest of connections. An emotional farewell that left a mark on my white shirt that might have left a girlfriend fuming :P. (Oh yes, I was all dressed up this time, having attended the actual wedding in a kurta and a pair of jeans :D. What can I say, none of my friends seem to get married in Kolkata!)
I could not have envisioned a better start to the year. Or a better end to my vacation. Well, technically, there's another 4-5 days to go. And I shall make the most of it by attempting an express trip to Shantiniketan and Asansol within the next 3 days...Currently: home :)
Listening to: Frou Frou - Must be dreaming
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