Compelle Intrare: January is over!

Can you believe that? And we have just 13 more days… Actually, less than that if you don’t count the Sundays… 11 days! Ohmyword! We have just 11 days more of classes and then we’re off for two excruciatingly looong study leave months – during which period, I am going to go mad btw. Be warned. I don’t deal so well with staying cooped up in the house with nothing to do. Yes, I know… I do in fact have to STUDY during the study leave but come on… two months!? And now there’s talk going around that our exams will be in the middle of April as opposed to 4^th of April (remember? This is why I don’t take the University’s word for it!) Ew. That’s all I have to say on this matter… for now.

Anyway, today we were at a friend, Monisha’s place working on a presentation that we have to do next Thursday and well, between all the hard work (:P) we were just sharing stories from our first days of college and how we became friends and it’s just so crazy! Where did the three years go? I mean, I think we’ve done a good job of milking our college life. We’ve done a lot of crazy things but it’s hard to believe that it’s all almost… over :(

I never quite understood why people used to say, “Oh college life is so great, you’ll never forget your college days…” I mean, yeah… but I think when I came here I had the arrogant presumption that nothing could beat my years of school. I went to an awesome school and those years were just so fantabulous. But now I GET IT!! School was great – no doubt about that (and I’m super excited about the prospect of maybe going back there one day!) - but you can’t really compare college life to that. It’s been the best on a completely different level and I’ve changed… Honestly. Sometimes, I don’t even recognize myself! It’s hard to describe but I have changed and I don’t mean to be cocky, but I’ve changed for the better and that’s not at all to my credit. I know… maybe this kind of sounds like an Oscar speech but I’ve just been thinking a lot about these things as college has started winding down… Bombay has changed me. My friends have changed me. And it's all because I didn’t get what I wanted… I got what my parents wanted and I got what God wanted!

You know what I wanted? I wanted to go the US. Or Canada. Or Australia. I basically wanted to be anywhere in the world except for India. That’s what I wanted. I wanted to live in a clean, cool and organized city… I had dreams of traveling to all these exotic places… being closer to all my friends from school… ad infinitum…

BUT I got Bombay. And if you’ve been here you’ll know that Bombay is FAR from clean, cool and organized. It’s exactly the opposite. But I am actually grateful for it beyond what words can express... now! And I am so glad that I have finally reached the point where I understand this. This is why I can get on a train-full of vicious and grumpy “first-class ladies” every morning and still be smiling away to glory... for no apparent reason! Trust me it’s taken me a looong time to get here. I was pretty grumpy myself when all this began!

The point is, that even though it's been a long journey and it's not what I initially wanted for myself, I think it's been the best possible thing. I like where I am now but I'm not so presumptuous to think that I've gotten where I need to get. I'm still a work in progress! ;)

So there are some random “deep” thoughts from the recesses of my brain for you!

Now here’s a random picture… or two!

Firstly, this is my "Mama-Dadu" and me!
He's my grand-uncle and the closest thing I've ever had to a grandfather. Sweetest old man ever!

This is Gauri! She and Jo performed in a dance-drama last weekend and I was planning not to take any photos because when I'm taking photos I get so involved in that that I miss the whole performance itself but I just couldn't resist! These are just a few of the colour pics. I took most of them in B/W but I'll upload those another day...