PERCEPTION on LIFE

After Ten day struggle with one 4000 word essay *thanks to the anti-plagarism software*, and two back-to-back Departmental Parties with two Different Departments, with snow covered garden ahead, and a long vacation with festivals in your calendar, the mind does play weird game. With a huge mug of steaming tea in hand, I sat beside the window reviewing the events of my existence since birth.

Until 2004, I lived in Guwahati – woke up, went to school/college, went for tution, came back home, called up friends, picked up the book, pretended to read, ate, slept and continued.
Then I left home for the first time, went to Gujarat – woke up, rushed to university, went to computer lab, came back, went to the mess, had dinner with Bitadru and Rajat, walked around catching up with people, came back to my room, slept off. Thereafter, I went to Hyderabad – woke up from sleep, went to office, came back home, ate, slept off. The repetitiveness of my life seemed, prima facie, quite boring to me. And then I looked at it from far away. And I realised, it is not as monotonous as I always thought it was.

Rewinding my life to 2004,did I even know that Gujarat would be such an integral part of my life and that it would be the place shaping the person I would be for the rest of my life? Did I know that I would be a lawyer?

I remember, I was in Delhi in July 2004 and I had taken admission in Satyavati College for B.Sc. in Economics when I got a call from my university asking me to report for interview asap. We cancelled our trip to Kashmir – the place we chose to take shelter to beat the summer in Guwahati, and ironically, landed in Gujarat – shelter from summer indeed. That one single decision of ours, changed my permanent residence to Gujarat for next five years. Our acquaintances and family friends made faces at our decision? GUJARAT? What was wrong with Hajra or J B Law College? My grandmother was furious. "You send your only daughter 60 hours away?" My parents continued with their explanation while I chose the easy way out – Ignored!

But did I ever want to do Law?
When I was ten years old, I had a friend in my neighbourhood whose father was an advocate. One day she had confided in me very proudly that her father bullied his landlord by not paying rent and the landlord was too scared to do anything because he was an advocate. For a ten year old child who was bullied around everywhere, I kinda thought it was cool and that year, in Christmas eve, I wrote a letter to Santa Claus which read:
“Dear Santa Claus, I want to become a lawyer when I grow up. Please fulfil my dreams for me. Love, Priyangee.”

I hid the letter under the pillow believing Santa would come and take the letter away. The letter was taken away – not by Santa but by my elder brother who ran around with it making it a family joke. We all forgot about it. I grew up and I changed my focus to Economics.

Why then did I do Law? I am still unaware of it. It seems Santa has his own way of fulfilling potentially dangerous wishes. Till date, I regret giving up Economics for Law. But I am glad I chose Gujarat over Delhi for every possible reason. And I could go on and on about it. But for a place of such importance in my life, I would prefer to dedicate another article to it.

While I was in Gujarat, I had always imagined myself, like all others, working in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Calcutta. The city Hyderabad came to my mind only when I had Biryani cravings - which is very common for non vegetarians struggling to find a proper eat-out joint in that place (sorry Krishna. but I am sure you would understand! :P). (I vehemently deny to accept the concept of veg biryani). Could I have possibly imagined living in that city for a year? NEVER! And this time, my parents made faces, whom I couldn’t possible ignore. Thanks to 1p/sec call rates !!!!!

And all of a sudden, now, I am in London! LONDON? Really? I still remember those mild-winter-November-evenings when Rajat had visited Hyderabad, both of us spend hours in the staircase of one of the least visited shopping mall ever; discussing about our philosophies of life. We both were clueless and lost in our own path and were unsure of what we actually wanted. We both wanted to help each other. We both told each other what we wished- and strangely, neither of us actually followed what we had in mind then. But it was November 2009 and I was yet to decide on what I wanted to do henceforth. And suddenly in June 2010, I was all set to come to London.

On my first day out venture in the city, I took a double decker bus, took a seat in the upper deck in order to have a better view of the city. And every second seemed like a dream. I stared outside but actually saw nothing. I kept on reassuring myself that it is LIFE and not a DREAM. It was the fag end of Autumn and the city looked beautiful – colourful. I stared at the road like an artist who had freshly painted a picture and was proudly admiring his creation. I was sleep walking through Bollywood. My London dreams since 1997 had finally come true. Did I know that I had London written in my life?

From Guwahati – Gujarat – Hyderabad – London, did I ever know what my next city of residence would be? Do I know what my next city of residence would be? With all the shifting and shuffling that I have done in past Six years, calling any place my city of residence sounds too heavy. I would rather call them My current Location.

I wake up every morning and follow the same schedule without even realising how much impact I am creating on my life in future. I have always looked at my life on a daily basis and when all of a sudden I get a aerial view of the graphwith long term analysis, it looks so dramatic.

From a developing city of a developing country to the developed city in the developed country, I thank the super natural power to have blessed with everything and everyone I have and for everything and everyone I have had in my life. Every single moment, every single day does make difference, if one has his/her senses open to welcome them in their life.

Live Live Queen Size ……