The end of his Journey...

 To see the life drain out of someones eyes, someone you love... I would say is one of the worst experiences in the world. I was too much of an child to understand the implications of what I saw then but now I understand. To see someones soul slowly leave their body. They say the eyes are the windows to ones soul, hence it is apt to say ones soul leaves through their eyes. To see that liveliness abruptly leave, to know that the person is never coming back, talking to you or smile at you, feels like the end of the world. When you think about them when they are gone, you imagine all the time you wish you had with them, you wish that all the hurt you had caused them was erased. Only if you knew it was the last time you would speak to them, you would have talked about so many things, and not just make small talk cause for you, it seems like just another day.
I wish I did a lot of things differently. I didn't think it was the last time I would see you. I didn't realise the impact on my life, that day was going to have on me. I am sorry I didn't let you do whatever you wanted to do the night before you left me forever. I wish I slept next to you I wish you held me in your arms that night. I wish for a lot of things. But all they can be are wishes. I wish I could go back in time and do everything differently. I wish I could have saved you. I saw your soul leave you. I saw that limp body with those magical blue eyes that told me you were leaving me forever. But I hoped, I hoped like I never had that they could have saved you. I saw them trying to revive you with adrenaline and shocking you. But you wouldn't get up. They made me leave and I made a promise. I told her you would be alright and you are simply just sick like always and that it would all be better by the afternoon. That we would all go home and have dinner together and fuss about you. But I broke the promise cause I didn't know you were gone by them not at least consciously. And finally when I got home I heard them. I thought they were wrong like always I thought I was right, that you wouldn't leave us and go. But you were gone. Just left us alone. You knew you would be gone hence you had your goodbye moment, but I didn't you could have told me. I would have made the most of it. I would have had my goodbyes too. I still hate you for leaving me like that. I didn't know what to do. I was just a kid... Just a kid. And you still affect my life so much that after 13 years, I cry over it.. Why did you do this to me...
You know I dreamt that you came back that night, that you were just pretending to be dead. Just that you had gone to Kashi. But when I woke up my beautiful home was destroyed, everyone was destroyed.
I still love you so much, I always feel like you are with me, looking over me and smiling and admiring whatever I do and trying to lead me on the right path. I didn't realise this then, but I did what you wanted me too, to honour you, I studied. I still wish what my life would have been like if you were there to guide me through it.. Then I am back to reality but I realise that you are always with me...
Please guide me through this treacherous journey called life and I hope someday I make you as proud as I am of you... Miss you Granddad..!! <3

My stranger Family..!! :)

 I love travelling by train... Its the journey that always is ready to teach me something or the other.
So let me begin by saying, I am back in India, studying in a different state from my own and living in a hostel. As everyone knows, living in a hostel entails travelling home every chance you get, and this story was the one of the best times I have ever had travelling alone.

 My first time travelling alone to my hostel, it was on Diwali day. I had to leave on an amazing festival day just cause my college doesn't like to give more holidays..!! (Boooo).. So moving on, my train was starting at 11.00 am!!! I mean who actually goes on a train at 11 in the morning on an festival day???? Just me and some very kind hearted people that I met on the journey. So I get into my coach and I see there are only about 20 or so people on a coach for 72.!! First sign of awesomeness is an empty train with your compartment consisting of the only passenger, i.e.. YOU..!! Free space to move around everywhere.! So, I tell my parents how happy I am of this, and suddenly pops an uncle who says don't worry we will keep bothering you.! And that's when I met my fellow passengers.! A family of 13, a grandad and his wife, with their 3 kids and their wivesand their grand kids.! I felt right at home when I knew they were such a big group. Knowing that all my family were gathered back at home (Its Diwali..!! So everyone get together with their families) and that I am missing maybe the best family get together of the year was a tad bit depressing, but still here was another family as big as ours, ready to take care of me, cause I was alone. So my dad being the social butterfly, started talking to them telling about me and where I was going and so on and the other family gets to the talking. My dad, happy because the other family said they would take care of me all through the journey was ready to say goodbye to me so easily. And as the train departed, I waved goodbye to my parents, and got settled into my coach...

 Not 5 minutes had passed, when the people from the other family started making conversations with me and I was offered Diwali sweets and savories. I ate so much that day that I dont think I would have had that much even if I had stayed home. Such was the kind-hearted nature of the family that not 1 hour would pass without another sweet coming my way or another savoury dish or someone sitting with me and asking about my life.! I enjoyed it so much that I felt at home and missed none of the silly talks and quabbles we usually have at home. I was offered lunch and dinner and I ate it too cause you can't deny such a thing as food (Hostel life ka impact - DONT DENY FOOD)! And I was so happy to see that even the food they had would have been the same thing my family would have prepared if we were travelling together. I shared many a laughs and silly moments tracking a small mice that was trapped between our compartments, moving our luggages from the ground to a higher place and seeing how the kids were jumping from seat to seat, as if the floor was lava, afraid of the mice. I remember that I got off the train at a station to buy some water, and how I was reprimanded for doing such a thing as getting out alone, and not taking their help.! How do strangers show such good will and sweetness to others? I can never know that.. I must say I was lucky to be in such a company as that family, that made my Diwali (Celebrated as awesome as christmas) turn into such sweetness that can never be found in the sweets we make for Diwali..Such was that lovely day with complete strangers who just felt like home to me. I wish all my journey from henceforth were like this and my special thanks to a lovely family that made me aspire to be like them when we travel again....... <3 

Home Sweet Home....!!

 So, here I am in my room well settled... I have often wondered if I would fit in somewhere else in the World other than the one I call home, and I finally do know the answer. It doesn't matter if you are in a different country, with a different spoken language, and different ethnicity in the end we all are the same, we are Humans, Homo sapiens.

 However different the customs are, I found out that everywhere you go, the people tend to be the same, fall into some categories or the other. You find the kind ones, who help you through the different customs, the interested ones who ask you questions about your country, and the not so good ones (don't want to describe them).

 I feel like am Home, and that for me is the most happiest realization I ever had.

 I have had the pleasure to share my home with people from different cultural backgrounds. And the conversations we have has showed me that although we had lived miles apart, we sometimes do have the same love for movies, series, and the same problems. It is so refreshing to have a discussion with a generation of people my age, who face the same problems as me in their countries and who want to change the World.

 For someone who's never had to leave her home and stay alone, this experience is new to me. But am falling in love with it. The new people I meet through my room mates, the exotic cooking and tasting sessions and exposure to their world is a new window to the world I thought I knew. And as always when you put a bunch of girls together you find some common love for things such as ice-cream, pizza's, actors, movies and so on.

 After a tiring day at the lab, and walking through the cold winds, once you enter your home and get greeted by a wave of smiles and enquiries, you know your home.. Home Sweet Home... <3 :)

Semester Abroad:The beginning..

  A journey begins...

  So as my blog name suggests, I am in Ireland, to be precise, in Cork. 2014, I had planned to be in Boston, doing my semester abroad course at Harvard in Boston, but as always fate had a different plan and I ended up in Cork (a) Corcaigh. 

 I never knew I would be in Cork until 2 weeks back, when my Visa arrived. Within a week of shopping, packing, repacking, etc, I ended up in Dublin airport with my fellow classmates for a semester abroad programme at University college Cork (UCC). 

 I left India on 29th Jan, with as much as 16 people who came to send me off. At that moment I realized how much I have been loved and how lucky I am to have so many people who cared about me. Flight journey was uneventful as I arrived at Dubai airport around mid night. 

1st Impression of Dubai airport:

AMAZING..!!

 I wondered whether the airport had a mall inside or the mall had the airport included. All night around I roamed around the airport, exploring it, and meeting so many new people. So much of cultural diversity one could see at the airport. After a short nap, I got ready to board the flight to Dublin.

 This journey of 8 hours, was purely a bliss with watching movies and flying through the clouds. You could see mountain peaks covered with snow, and oceans so calm, suddenly you fly through a pack of clouds and all you can see is white.

1st Impression of Dublin:

COLD..!! SOO COLD..!!!

 Being used to the temperates of 25 - 40oC, it came as a shock when I stepped out of Dublin airport to the cold winds and a temperature of 4oC. We rushed to zip up our jackets, wear our hoodies and put on our gloves. A new country, with some what new people and we had to figure out on how to get to Cork. Finally, after running here and there we found the non-stop bus to Cork. 

 

Sitting on the bus and looking out as we drove through Dublin to Cork was amazing. Being used to Indian roads and driving, and seeing a different country is always an exciting experience. The bulidings, the farms, the mountains, was beautiful. There would be no words to explain those. Finally as darkness fell we arrived at Cork, at Parnell place, one of the biggest bus terminals, and hailed a taxi to the Hotel we had reserved for a few days stay. 

 And the rest tomorrow..............................