The long last day !

One thing that I have always felt about the social circle I move in, is that it consists of almost everybody with similar backgrounds and similar career paths, more or less. Most of my friends have taken a engineering degree and most are working in a software company. The scarier thing is that a large percentage of them have MBA as the next goal in life. Even at home, between my and my brother-in-law's family , all 5 of us are in software industry.

Perhaps that is the price one pays for studying in a engineering institute in the time of a booming software industry. While the elements of humanity subjects in the IIT curriculum try to mitigate the problem to some extent on an individual basis, it helps little in correcting the social situation.

But the times are changing :). Not for the world but for me. As the time goes by, people around me have started to find life partners. And this is where things get interesting.

On my last day in India, I get to meet baba and his fience, longtime friends, they got engagged just one day before. Me,Chandel and gsharma formed the crowd next day. While baba is one of the few whose company I cherish no matter what they are doing, she also comes from the interesting background of social work. Now I cannot claim to have done anything sincere in that area but I had some occasional brushes during 1 year I spent at IIT as an RA. And it was really nice to talk to her and listen to her experiences in the tribal areas where she worked. Of course time ran out pretty soon and we had to break. But I really enjoyed it and hope that not only I will get a chance to talk more with her but may be even to get my hands wet at somepoint in life.

And I think the last day would remain incomplete without the mention of gsharma's new car. It was a ulti cool swift. It is apparent that gsharma really loves his car and likes to give rides to people. I also think it is very cool to be able to go to airport/train station to pick somebody up in a car. I don't know why but this is one use of car that I find really enticing :). So thanks to gsharma, we had a lovely ride from Noida to Delhi.

And the finshing touches had to come from the master blaster Chandel ! Since I was getting late, we decide to ride to Ghaziabad on his bike. Now as the name suggests, Chandel likes to ride his bike fast and steady. So while slow and steady wins the race, fast and steady just kills the competition :P. Anyway, on the way, came the God's blessings in the form of rain and we both got drenched. If anybody noticed Chandel walking around in my cloths that day, please rest assured that he didn't run away with them :).

And after that it was the trip to airport and flight to US. The next day proved to be the longest day of my life, almost literally, running for 28 hours due to the west bound travelling. And at the end of it, I, for the first time, set foot on a soil completely disconnected from my own. On the way, I managed to catch a view below the clouds when the plane crossed the eastern coast line of USA. Someday I would like to fly really low on atlantic and cross that shoreline. But till then, this will remain as a consolation.

And so has started this new life. I know not what all it will offer me, who all it will introduce me to and what all it will have me do. And this time things are also different. There are things to hold on to amidst all the changes and turbulations, there are promises and commitments to keep among all the activity and there is a vision, however vague, to realize.

Good Luck abhaga !