graduation and gang

Graduation is a custom one aught to get used to while at APU mainly cuz it takes place twice every year!!
But somehow, with every batch leaving for their 'better' places, I see myself getting more and more attached to the ones left behind - so much so that saying the goodbyes hit you harder than even your bad grades.
Every one of the crazy girls i knew has left for the place she’s to go to, with the exception of one who is staying with me till the end of the month till her job starts.
My homes in a mess.. mainly cuz we’ve been living like princesses and are always on the move. Our nocturnal instincts have matured to a great extent, with at least one of us keeping awake till the sun rises cuz she’s rattling her brains with the virtual world.
We’ve been pleasuring ourselves with some extraordinary meals – which surprisingly have increased the frequency of our hungry appetites. Each night we sleep with a heavy heart, and promise each other to wake up the following morning to do some 'yoga'… which, as you all are aware of is the only method one can lose weight by merely breathing!! However, the month has passed but that delightful day is yet to dawn.

somethings over the summer

I am alarmed shocked, horror-struck, appalled – call if whatever you want - I have awfully small feet!
I went to buy a pair of shoes a couple of days back and guess what, even the S-size of ‘japanese’ women (I mean, that is reallllyyy tiny) is BIG for me. There is enough room in the shoe to shove an entire finger. I mean, what’s the deal with that!!!

heneways,

With the innumerable rumors about a biiiiig typhoon blowing around us and seeing no sign of it in the air had gotten us all disheartened. But then one that struck finally was so massively-magnificent that it shook us for days. There were things flying every where, sign boards of shops came tumbling down, trees were left a branched, and the sea – even though the beach was a lil messy - was happy with high tides for days!

Now the last couple of days left for classes to start again with the lecture-fever. This time I feel pretty old on seeing the new kids on-the-block all excited. I think about the good old AP House days -which is now being constructed into a congested maze with the new buildings - and feel nostalgic *sigh*

However, I should say that the enthusiasm which the new batch gets to those living-up-the-mountain is extremely infectious, and we all see ourselves eating in the shyokudo, having fun, going for Sugar, and making the same conversations about our 'multiculturalism' yet again!

Hope - The Reason to live (06:40am)

6am. All is misty outside my windown. Not a soul on the streets even though its early September and not that cold. Buildings in the nearby areas arent in view cuz of the pouring rain that makes the huge hills behind the town invisible.

With 'Somethings in the Air' by Thunderclap Newman playing in my mind, a thin copy of The Alchemist, and a mug of coffee i feel there's nothing more i could ask for.

Yet there is something that misses or perhaps starts to take a form in its real colours as I now close my eyes to the real world and awake to a dreamland of paints and canvases.

A boy smiles at me. His heart is pure and innocence, free of all the miseries of the world. He waits to get out there to prove his worth, show that he's strong to take anything that comes his way. There is no doubt he will succeed in everything that he takes upon himself.

So I tell him to stay calm and relax, but he doesn't listen and moves forward. I take another one behind him and tell him to wait just a little bit more. But he goes faster than I can walk.

I wait for one last smile from before he goes white with the mist, and I wait...He will be back, I tell to myself, if not soon.

There is the power of hope that gives us the reason to live.

A Midsummer Night's Tale

We got out of Beppu with our minds set for scuba-diving, unlikely to have a clue of what lay ahead of us for the two days to come…

White sand, palm trees, sunbathing n surfing, blue skies and crystal clear water – that’s the kind of beach we all expect to see and want to visit. But for unknown reasons, the beach that we went to in Saiki - a lil town out in the wilderness on the state borders of Oita and Miyazaki - had black sand, clear green water and perfect blue skies.

On reaching Saiki@4in the afternoon we realized our chances of going for scuba were zilch. But our minds were set to go out in 'the wild', so we took a bus to the nearest beach - Kamae. Now, when you hear 'near' you think it would take you 15-20mins to get there. In our case, the bus drive took 45mins, taking us the farthest away from civilization.

At the black beach, we swam to the setting sun. Fisherman ankur showed off his skills by catching a one-fin fugu fish with a stick! At a shack in the corner of the beach we found a bunch of boats, oars and lifejackets, thus concluding on going dark-water-sailing around midnight.

As nightfall came, we enjoyed beer n yummy food in the resort's Beer Garden. Since we were already high *with adventure spirit* and had nothing to hold us back, we decided to spend the night jumping in and out of the premises of the resorts swimming pool side, occasionally swimming in the sea and coming back to the pool to wash away the black sand that stuck to us.
This carried on for awhile until two of us were noticed (quite audibly) by the security guards as a can of coke fell from the vending-machine to quench the thirst of a man. After that, it was bub-bye too the swimming pool and hello to the steps on the black beach.

The night was cold, dark and beautiful. We pushed one of the rowing boats to the shore and decided to go for a bit of a row. Since the boat was meant for two, the Mighties got out for their first encounter with the sea. They came back concluding that we couldn’t be out for a long time cuz there was a hole in the boat that kept filling in water. Nevertheless, we took as many as five trips!

Florescent green plankton shone every time the oars hit the water. With the dazzling sky above our head n glittering plankton surrounding us, you can imagine the kick we were getting in our minds. How much ever I hate to say this word, it suits the situation perfectly - it was all ‘mindblowing’! The boys went as far as where they were left at the mercy of the sea, which was quite alarming cuz the water was almost half way up the boat!

Tired from all the rowing and fighting against the darkwater, we put evth back in its place, and slept for a bit. The wind blew its coldest around 3am, when we were woken up with ankur n isha getting a bottle of wine from a parked caravan nearby. Its believed that the dude who owned it had left the door open as (so it seemed by the manner in which his bag was left at the door) he'd ran out after forgetting smth.

So we popped it again again, only to wake up with the morning sun on our faces, eagles soaring up above us and people around us doing their morning walks.

to be continued...