New Leaf!

The whole summer was indeed a different experience for me, new people, new experiences, new views and lots of fun!

So I lived with a different roommate for the summers and now I am friends with some interesting people. It was an adventure ride, a learning experience, overcame some of the prejudices, beliefs and no doubt some fears too! And yeah, somewhere in between, I found myself back!

So many times, you feel lost in the huge crowd and just forget to live life, try to behave what you really are not, basically, stop being true to yourself. All the while, go on living the life of which you never thought of. I remember myself telling Manjiri so many times that, this is just not me! This is someone different. I have been cloned or something! Now I get it, it was what they fondly call as “Cultural Shock”! Really, a big word, with a magnificent meaning!

I am glad that, it is over! And how! Firstly I met so many new people! More than half of them I know only by their names; having heard so much about everyone, I feel like have already met them! Nivisha, Deval, Arnav, Sahil, Abhijit, Ninad, Vallari, Deep, Nidhi, Manoj, Karuna, Vihan, Arjav, Apoorva, Aditi, Verma, Shraddha, Rahul, Brent, Ashwani, Amit, Maharshi, Pratha, Pratik, Valay. (Oh my! Did I miss anyone? I will know if Arnav remains adamant on reading this draft!) It’s so good to be around people once again!

Be it the Colorado road trip, couple of check-in’s or the numerous purposefully neglected check-in’s, the Arlington-Houston visits, Hurricane Harbour, back-to-back movies, 'chai' talks, walks or the parties, Aditya’s visit, the shopping and the dinners with the girls, I got my laughter back! (Umm, yeah, I actually never need any reason for that, still!) Now tell me, how can anyone simply not smile when you come across the words of ‘ketchup’, ‘bhavra’, ‘special app/ check-in’ or remember any other random dialogue and have a hearty laugh (inside jokes, cannot explain, sorry!). There are so many strings of memories, so many talks and so many habits, which are more than enough to know and understand the person inside out! After all, we cannot fake ourselves for a long time, right?

Well, friends here are quite disappointed with me. For –

1.  I haven’t watched enough movies and I don’t know many songs! They call me a movie illiterate! And so, I get a huge to – see list (part one) with a deadline! It is a different story that I am way past the deadline with only two movies scratched from the list!

2. I have never mentioned anyone in particular in any of the blog posts. Seriously, these guys love publicity; they have their own reasoning for that and yeah demand a blog post for every other good day! I know very well that half of the time they are pulling my leg or in other words ‘giving me a shot’, still, I end up writing about it or any other topic! So what a better opportunity to start appreciating them other than Arnav's Birthday today! Happy Birthday Arnav!

# Unplanned B'day Cake!

3.  I speak very less. No explanation, just letting some time go!

It feels like yesterday that my three month vacation had just started where I was so uncertain of what I would be doing the whole summer, and now, from tomorrow, the school re-opens and I cannot be less excited! It has been such a long weekend! Back to the same old apartment, to the same new routine and the deadlines and that rush! Looking back, it was one nice decision of not going to India for the summers, otherwise I wouldn't have met these people or wouldn't have read or wrote so much or watched so many movies! I can happily say – I have more than one home!

Note to self – it’s a high time to complete the drafts and yeah the literature work!