New Starts.

So I am in Mumbai. Still a few days before starting off at TIFR. Apprehensive about not knowing any biology but very excited about learning what I love and finally working.

Right now I am back in this Porcupine Tree obsession phase, and I am totally tripping on the stuff. If this sin't the most beautiful music I've ever listened to I don't know what is. Its repetitive and dark and trippy but strangely energizing. It makes you escape reality, you go into this altered state.
Dark tunnels and alternate universes. Never ending dark streets with dim orange streetlights. Ruins of ancient houses, with crumbling walls, empty except for an old piano. A walk along high cliffs at night, overlooking the sea. Music has this strange ability to construct scenes in your head, and you visualize yourself as if it were a music video in which you're there. Some are almost happy. Perfect if you want to write poetry or something. I would but I'm lazy.

For now I will continue to sink into music. Its something I haven't actually done in a while.

And this is a photo I took from the train on the way here.

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Schoolday memories.

Sometimes I miss school. I miss those uniforms we had in high school. The pleated blue skirts designed to make you look thin(someone pointed that out and I noticed she was right). The blue and white striped shirts with the pocket and the emblem. The badge we wore on our collars. Even those black shoes.
Atleast they were comfortable in summer. In winter we had those nice dark blue, not exactly navy blue cardigans. And our legs would freeze.

We got soaked in the rain a few times. One day it rained so heavily in the morning, the front entrance was blocked and we entered school from a side door, wading through water almost to our knees. We spent the day barefoot, our socks hanging on our chairs.

I miss the uncomplicated lives we had, how we were excited by little things. An outing with friends was a big deal in class 9. I was new to school and new to Calcutta so it was big thing for me. We were excited about every little event - be it a class presentation or organizing a mini-carnival.
I always enjoyed the English and history classes. History till 10(I didn't have it after that) and English always. I miss the beautiful bio lab and the slides and microscopes with beautifully stained root samples.

By the end of class 10, I had a group of great friends. We would spend our breaks singing in the shed or gobbling up orange sticks and talking about each other's crushes.

There were the fiercely competitive school fests. Maybe we didn't have huge guest performances but they had way more spirit than any college fest can ever have. They were fun, because over the course of time, we got to know our opponents. It wasn't just about us doing our best, it was about devising strategies to beat the others by anticipating what they would do. The atmosphere at every fest was electric - everyone was friendly but everyone wanted to beat everyone else.

As life began to complicate, we thought we were all grown up, though that was just the beginning. And the innocence was beginning to fade.

The journey from those day to today has changed us, but change is a part of growing. But sometimes I think the innocent,silly schoolgirls, full of ideas and full of life, still live in a small part of us we haven't totally forgotten. 

Graduating/Growing.

So I am now officially a chemistry graduate. It's pretty cool, come to think of it. I survived the three years. And now I'm leaving Calcutta in about 20 days. Now that is cool, but also pretty strange. So yes, I'm moving again. Its time too. Bangalore, Calcutta, Mumbai. I will have lived in three very different cities.
My brother says that Calcutta is like a human - imperfect, chaotic but getting along fine. Mumbai is more like a machine - smooth, efficient, never stopping. But every city has its charm.

I am getting new glasses again and I'm excited about that - I know thats a really weird thing to be excited about.

Right now I'm obsessed with swimming, food and colours. I'm trying to eat and sleep as much as I can, when I can because when July kicks in, I wont get to do much of that. I'm doing a bit of shopping too and I discovered I have a shoe fetish. I never seem to have enough shoes. I'm also reading a bit and writing a bit more. Though I don't feel much like blogging - I'm lazy.

People grow up so fast. There was this little girl who used to go to school in the same bus with me and when I saw her today I couldn't believe it was her. But then I've got to realize I've grown too in 5 years. I even got in touch with some people I had last seen about 10 years ago when we were about 10-11 years old, and all of them have just sprouted into such beauties. It's such a nice feeling when you see the metamorphosis. From chubby little kids with two ponytails and braces on their teeth - to 20 year old women -beautiful, confident, poised, with all the baby fat and awkwardness gone.

But still, I think age is just a number. I atleast don't think I will ever feel I've grown up enough. But maybe that's what life should be like.