What would be running in the mind of a 22 year old guy when he is leaving the home for the first time and won’t be back for the next 3 months at least?
The same thing was running in my mind too when I left Trichy for training after I got my first job in Mphasis.
The journey started at around 5 pm to Erode. My parents were there with me to give a send off at the railway station. When the train started slowly moving, I could feel my heart gaining weight due to loneliness. None of my friends are family members are going to be with me, I need to establish myself at a new base, I neither know Kannad or Hindi to survive in that new-land, people from different parts of the country are gonna come and I'm not used to much of North Indians before. For some time I was sad about being left alone and after that started my own way of passing time-Music. I reached Erode at around 7.30pm where I had to wait for next 3 hrs for the connecting train to come. I had my dinner there and sat in the platform quietly recalling all my college days. Many trains passed by and I could see lots of students having fun with their friends. I was depressed and jealous about them, when everyone is getting placed in groups, why am I left all alone??
I was aboard in the Mangalore express and continued my journey. I had made some chat friends who got placed along with me. I met them one by one before reaching Mangalore. Thank god for me not being left isolated, at least.
Then came the most beautiful days of my life... 81 days. June 20th to September 8th of 2010. The amount of fun and pleasure which we had together was immense. Rarely I was alone, and that too would happen only during my afternoon sleep. The very first day in Mphasis hostel got me around 20 friends, The count later multiplied. Got friends from almost all the parts of the country, different states, different languages, different caste and religion, so on... within a couple of days I came to know everyone from my class. We had some exciting class hours together, some exciting outing's together, some exciting picnic's together and if I write all those days memories, I would need space of one full blog.
We had a really funny Soft skills trainer and a good technical trainer. The training got over in 2 months and we were asked to do a project. As usual, I was scoring wonderful in the tests and I was constantly among the black listed VIP's. But I never cared about it as I know that I'll somehow creep through. Everything went fine and only thing that worried us always was the deployment, which could be anywhere across India. We South Indians never wanted Pune or Noida and the Northies never wanted Chennai. But everything is in their hands to decide our respective locations. Finally on that day-Sep 3rd, there came the final results. I was very happy to see my name in white list for the first time ever in the M'lore history. I was jumping and screaming in joy. Additionally we got a news that within minutes we would get our deployment. Everyone became tensed. We all prayed to all the god's name that we knew. My prayers didn’t go in vain. I got Chennai. I started screaming again. I could see mixed emotions among all the fellow mates. Some got their desired location and some didn’t. Few were partying and few were weeping. I then looked into my friends results. Many of them got the same location as mine, but few best buddies were missed out. We hardly had 4 or 5 days and then it’s time to depart.
I realized that there is nowhere in the future I could see everyone together anywhere. I might never ever see some faces in my life time. But everything is a part of the life. Those who are there for us, will always be there, no matter what the distance in-between is and those who wish to be in touch with us, will always do, no matter whatever may be their situation. These are the two things I was keep on telling within me.
There, on that day, everyone is gonna leave at 4 O'clock train and I planned to leave the next day early morning. Some of us went to a nearby temple that afternoon. Everyone were packing their things and entire hostel slowly started losing its color. The rooms vacant and corridors empty. There were many gathering among friends to congratulate themselves and give a warm send-off's. Around 3 pm everyone started leaving to the railway station. Some of us went along with the guys who are leaving. There we had a great time at the station. We took photographs, was kidding each other, Gave Bum's to all the fellow mates, shouting and celebrating the occasion. As the clocked ticked, everyone started occupying their seats. I went and spoke to all my guys. Everyone had a feeling of missing something while leaving M'lore. I could see the clock nearing the mark and only a couple of minutes left for the train to start. Those 2 minutes were breathe taking and I had an immense pressure inside. It’s a quite simple fact that just in the next 2 mins the myself, the station and M'lore is gonna be empty and quiet. Finally, the train started moving and everyone waved hands for few of us who are left behind. Moments later when I saw a couple of my best buddies there, I dunno why but I busted out in tears. I had shed tears in several occasions but never cried like this since I became an adult. But it’s never a strange fact, we are after all humans. They have never gone from my life, It’s just they have headed towards their goal. The drama was finally over and that night in the hostel was like sleeping in a cemetery for me.
Early morning next day, before dawn I started back to Trichy after almost 3 months in M'lore. Same station, Same platform, but for a different cause. I started my 17 hrs journey back. Just like the forward trip, the memories played the trip once again, but the content was quite different. The journey was fully in the day time, I had no room to sleep, even if I had, I wouldn’t have slept. Recollecting this is one of the best healers. I was recollecting all the things that happened in the last 3 months. It was quite awesome. Again, in a intermediate station I saw some students getting in and having fun. Now I'm matured enough to accept the fact that departure is a part of life. Those guys, sooner are later going to split to several places for their future, but still it never means that they are gonna miss each other. I just came across a wonderful phrase, we meet people to create memories and depart to recollect them. To meet and depart is way of life, but to depart and meet is the hope of life.
Am I left alone- Was running in mind while coming, but actually I’m not. This displacement from one place to another fetched me some valuable new relations in my life. One lesson I learnt from this is that, people may suffer leaving their home, but actually we are never left alone. The gap will surely be filled unless until we have the mindset to accept new people. I got and I ever get quick friends is why because of my attitude towards people. Do everything with a smile in your face and pleasure in your heart, and at the end of the day you would have got some new experience and new relations as well. Not necessarily we need be Socrates to spread out our own philosophy nor we need to be Chaplin to spread smiles across. Each and everyone have their own element of attraction to others and it would be better if we make best use of it to keep the environment alive, and what I found out from my friends was my sense of humor and easy going attitude would help me where ever I go.
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(Blog Dated- 21/03/11).
