Pages from Summer-1

A while ago,Say,Rach,and me decided to do some serious blogging regarding our favourite cities-ones we've been to and loved,and ones we'd love to be in someday.I'd planned to write an unofficial tourists' guide to Singapore,where I spent summer vacation this year,but I'm not Taurean by zodiac alone.A little on the lazy side,I think cataloging my experiences and making chronological posts about what I did there might require some nice thinking,a little free time and some spirited enthusiasm,luxuries I cannot afford right now.

What I'm going to do instead,is upload this diary entry I made at the airport,just minutes before leaving Singapore.

I'll leave you with the first post under Pages from Summer.This is my first attempt at writing a series,so wish me luck :) .And yes,also,read . :D

Warning : Goodbyes are very hard for me.There might be bits of unnecessary melodrama here and there,which you are advised to ignore.

27 June,2010

8.00 A.M

I am homeward bound,after a long vacation in Singapore.The past five weeks have been too good to be true-and now I simply cannot believe that this holiday has come to an end.

However I know that we are not to cry that it's over;instead,we must smile that it happened.

So,I shall revel in the last few minutes in this strange and wonderful land.

Changi is a starry oasis-glitzy,imposing,beckoning.

My flight has been delayed,giving me a few minutes to reflect on my trip,(something I admit I have done only fleetingly this past one month,as I was busy being thrilled to the very core)

and so...here we are.

Green.That is the first impression I had of this city.Not the verdant dark green that we see back home,but a very tropical shade of shiny,healthy,sparkly(that's not a word???What gives,Blogger?),pale green.The green stays with me,from my first view of this island town nine years ago and from ten thousand kilometres above,to my rushed cab ride to the airport this morning watching fields,lawns and road signs shoot past while devouring last midnight's blueberry muffins and today's peanut butter and toast.My last indulgence this summer.

The morning is perfect,as mornings ought to be.Grey skies.Just the way I like them.The infamous noiseless Singapore drizzles descending gently-I've become rather fond of them-besides,Bangalore's sudden storybook thunderstorms are only three hours and a few oceans away.

The airport terminals are decked with white (I think they must be) orchids..Splendid.

I'm wearing midnight blue. :)
And,I wasn't charged for the excess baggage!

The only thing that seems wrong is that I have to leave this place.Bummer.

We are well matched,this dear city and me,for what could be as perfect together as bread and cheese,

as a tropical island set in the sea and a shutterbug?

As a country of living miracles and the eternal romantic?

As a shoppers' paradise and a closet shopaholic waiting to be awakened?

Amma says,and so does Dumbledore,that it does not do good to dwell in dreams and forget to live,but here's a pickle.

What if one month of somebody else's life is your dream come true?

How do you return to living yours-cast the memories aside like a magical midsummer dream?

The guard's asking us to move to the gate.

More later.

Bye!

*************************************************************************************

It ends there.

I was thinking of maybe doing a post or two on all the blatant gluttony I engaged in ,or the nice nature trails I spotted there.Let's see how it goes.

Cheers everyone :)

Unfinished sometimes=complete

Everyday at 1 p.m. ,this past one week,I've been doing something soul-stirring.I've been having lunch up on the third floor of an unfinished building on the college campus.

Not what you expected is it?

No scintillating conversation,no beautiful music.Well,unless you count the sound of the wind blowing in your ears, at once fierce and frenzied,at once soft and soothing.That ,and the heartbreakingly beautiful silence that resonates within that unfinished space.



I love this building.It's like the agony aunt I never had,the shoulder that never was.This is where I pour it all out,not the usual hair tug-teeth gnash inducing stuff,but also some anguished wondering.It's not a place to vent frustration or something though.Sometimes I also unwind,listen to something Coldplay,and write a bit,like I am now.


What makes it a good retreat is that everything-every emotion that you throw at the stone walls rebounds and returns to you.You would think that this kind of a boomerang sounds plain awful,but it isn't like that.You just have to sit there and drown in the thought that's plaguing you till it engulfs you and you finally learn to accept it.Then,then, the pain,the resentment or whatever it is that's bothering you,ceases.
Quiet.
Eternal,evasive,unattainable quiet.


People aren't usually crazy about a landscape of stone.Not me though.Spare me your rolling hills and your bloody bloomin' flowers.

Give me some raw wet cement,some bare stone, swirls of dust clouds flying about the place and a patch of endless sky to watch.All of it.
Give me a place that's comforting in its constancy,etched irremovably on my course, as if in stone.
Give me a place that is as soulful as it is simple.
Give me a world with no mirrors,save the ones you find in other people.
Give me a world with music everywhere,like an orchestra on autopilot.

And that's why,everyday,at 1 p.m,I have my lunch up on the third floor of an unfinished building.

Familiarity breeds...

If you guys don't know I love being in Hyderabad already,well you know it now!:D
I don't know what it is,but seeing familiar faces all day does wonders for one's mood.
(Don't put nazar yaar....itne dinon ke baad mein ITNI khush hoon :D )

I find I'm able to handle minor disappointments (I still sulk for the big ones) and changes relatively well.I'm smiling at random strangers,and I'm singing out loud.I'm also writing,blogging and talking to people a lot more actively.After quite some time,I'm feeling a different sort of happiness-not the rush you get when you see Robert Pattinson or SRK posters,not the relief that floods you when you're done with a nasty assignment,but the sort of happiness that doesn't ebb in a few moments,but emulsifies into a comforting satisfaction that stays with you for a while.

Treaded on the old lanes,
Went to the forgotten balcony to watch 'em planes.
Fed on the deliciously oily chaat,
Revisited things close to the heart.

Cracked old jokes ,
chatted up many an old friend,
Hummed those forgotten tunes,
Finally,the scars did mend.

Some buildings waited in welcome,
some had already gone to their grave.
Some people didn't (thankfully) change,
And that helped me face the ones that did,it made me brave.

If people need holidays,
don't souls need one too?
If you knew your brew of life was available at that one place,
Wouldn't you visit often too?



I know people say that familiarity breeds contempt.But y'know what?
Sometimes familiarity just breeds smiles.All day long. :) :) :)

Enough said.