The blog without a name! : September 2016

It’s really surprising that even though day by day nothing changes, when you stop at times and look back, a lot of difference is found.

This happened to me when today’s date made me realize that I had set my foot in this state exactly one month ago to spend away 40% of 2016. It really feels like I have been living here since God knows when. It was a remarkable experience living here where they have completely different ways, food (Sigh), people and routine. Also I had to live with someone I had not talked much with during college. But fortunately, we clicked and it has been good ever since.

They say those who both laugh together and cry together share great bonds. Same has been the case with us. We have survived together a drastic change in our routine: Having meals we never imagined having, having dinner when it’s still daylight outside, not allowed to have anything after that, starving most of the times because not able to find the food that we liked, living in an office room, trying to talk to most people in sign language, witness the worst driving skills we had seen ever, being stared at all the time like aliens, finding NO mobile network in the jungle we live so being able to get only 30% of what everyone tells us on the phone, eating paani puri in dinner :O incessant rains the entire time, also witnessed getting back to our room after a long, tiring day and on opening it, seeing people happily sleeping on our beds :O and also people who always talk and never eat, people being interested in the minute-by-minute activities we do, where we go, with whom and why and when and yada yada yada yada :D :O

So we have cried a lot together and at the same time tried to laugh it off, mock on our misery.
There is a separate list of ordeals we face happily in our company.
To be honest, internship like it’s going is nothing like what I had imagined, or wanted.

Having said all that, I would call off this month. It was a good one.

It was only due to the internship that I could have a father-daughter long train ride trip. Plus we saw a new town together. I really cannot remember if there was ever such a time before. Just the two of us.

It was quite scary when he left me there and went away. I was scared. Very nervous. But that had to end soon. With the passage of time, I started liking the place. I always loathed life in big cities and preferred less crowded places having beauty in its pristine form. This is a beautiful place to live in.

Over time as we tried to understand the ways and system of this place, we have also transformed the office room into our ‘home’, started illegally keeping equipment that would prevent starvation, made few ‘addas’ - places to go in accordance with different moods and wants, learned few Garba moves as well :P There’s a lot of greenery, a lot less pollution. Beautiful singing by roommate at night makes me sleep good (and jealous)

We are learning to manage things on our own as we are completely alien to this place and it is pretty exciting that right now, we are neither at home, nor at college.
Thankfully, we have also been successful in finding the EXACT location where we get the blessing called ‘mobile network’. Moving even a centimeter from this spot makes it vanish away. It’s sad to tell those of you who have ever called me in this last month that I really understood just half of what you said :D
We have made friends with pretty interesting people and so we are getting fluent in Gujarati. We are even thinking we could get our own secret language to talk to each other in once we get back to college. :D
We have discussed a variety of interesting topics at night and also had interesting pieces of conversations with our third colleague who, by the way lives in his own magnificent room and gets shahi paneer in his hostel which has no restrictions of any kind and has his fan-following of ‘dedicated lovers’ in the plant.

Getting friends over, going there, getting here, we have also had our share of 2 small trips till now. They have been such a relief from routine. I hate routine.

But most of all
The last month has been special because I got above these (trivial, but true and haunting) fears I always had

· The fear of getting into water.

Being born at the coastal region and seeing the sea since I was born I shouldn’t have had it. But I had it anyway. It was when we got to Diu and my friends took each of my hand and we rode the waves together, that the ‘water monster’ shrunk.

· The fear of touching a scooty

I can ride the bicycle well. But there was a big phobia of driving. But then one of them made me drive one which was so scary in the beginning that I had my heart in my mouth. The level of trust was dangerous – with him risking his life and sitting behind me while I was learning. Dangerous because it was almost certain that I would fly our vehicle straight into the water along which we were driving. Luckily it glided gracefully (and very slowly :P ) on the empty road.

I DROVE A HONDA ACTIVA. YAYY!

Sir ghooming gol gol

· The fear of crowded places

This does not mean I would want to go to a crowded location anyway. Recently I had to face a very crowded situation which tickles every time I think of it. People from all directions and half a foot window – what they all want. It was something I was saved from till now by the grace of my lovely friends and family. It was terrifying and hilarious at the same time that I made my way through that like nemo, and successfully did my job and that too- in record time (exceeding my partner’s expectations)
In the end I thought .. Hmmm.. Crowd doesn’t eat you. So I can think of going again if need comes. I’m not saying I’ll go. But I can think of going :P

· The fear of dogs

Well this is not entirely eliminated. But having lots of biodiversity living in my hostel, I at least don’t freak out completely but calmly move along (With heart beat reaching 200)

· In lesser detail, the fear of losing (not 'winning and losing’ losing but ‘letting go’ losing) and the fear of baring the emotions out to anyone.

Dear Internship Devta, keep blessing us with such nice days all throughout our stay here and remove the next set of fears please.
Staying so far away from everyone also made me appreciate my friends even more. I really miss them at times, and every day different situations remind me of each one of them. Really looking forward for 6 more months together.
Will come back with next monthly report of the project ‘Ek semester toh guzaariye Gujarat mein’
Jai Shri Krishna