A long-pending account of my preps for an intriguing odyssey

Do you know how it feels when you get a chance to live the dream of a lifetime?On the other hand,do you know, how it feels to make a compromise on the dream that meant the world to you?Do you know how it feels to shut off from a life that has been hunky dory,a life that has been filled with friends ready to give you fun company anytime,a life that has given you long-time bum chums who ease your dil-ka-bhoj at times,a life that has been filled with security,thanks to a family so close that each one forms a comfortable cushion to fall back on anytime anywhere anyhow?Do you know how it feels to enter a whole new world where the place,the people,the language,the circumstances,the food,the lifestyle - just about everything is different from what you have been used to?Well, I just got a chance to figure out how it feels when my journey to SP began.

The fortnight preceding June 5th was dotted with a helluva lot of mixed emotions.I was so happy that I was gonna sail away on a lifetime dream.At the same time, the sorrow of having to choose a steam boat instead of a luxury liner,coupled wthe anxiety about my co-passengers,the anxiety about how changed a person I would come back at the end of it all, intrigued me a lot.Do I really HAVE to come to terms with the "no-IIM,it's SP for you"?Will the new crowd be my types?What if they are all mega ultra hep?I surely will get along with any kind but I definitely will not be my true self with the mega ultra-hep kinds.What if I too get influenced by what I think are 'baddies' in the hostel and change as a person by leaps and bounds?What if the values that I so strongly cling to get eroded gradually by a continuous conditioning of my strong mind?What if the "I love myself for what Iam" no longer holds after this change that I'll experience?These gnawing thoughts began to manifest themselves in obnoxious temperaments.Yelling at the people I was sure Id miss like hell after leaving home,became a daily affair.Those last few days that I spent at Bangalore,shopping,chatting,packing,last-minute shop-ransacking,cooking etc that I did with mom,convincing a concerned dad that I was perfectly alright,bidding my farewell to my closest cronies are some indelible memories of those 15 days.One of those weekends before my departure date,I had an overnight stay at granny's place.Iam immensely attached to my maternal granny n grandpa,thanks to my spending the first three years of my life at their place.That weekend,although granny was pretty sick, she took all the trouble to make unforgettably sumptous food for me,oil-massaged my hair with those frail hands of hers and gave me a hot steam.Some things in life are truly so priceless!!The next morning,grandpa and I went for a long 3 km walk and I walked past all the places around granny's that are so nostalgic to me.....One of them was a Hanuman temple right at the top of the hillock on which granny's house is.It's a small one but a very very serene one,with no compound to block the wildly blowing wind from painting a rangoli on my face using my hair.Ive always been a big chocolate fan and a huge one at that,more so when I was a kid.Back then, grandpa used to take me there,ask me to close my eyes and ask God for Cadbury's Gems.When the innocent me did so, he would ask me to open my eyes and lo and behold I'd find Gems in front of the God's idol.The place would then resound with my ringing laughter and grandpa would be the happiest man around to see me like that.It wasn't until the age of 15 or so that I figured out that grandpa himself would transfer the gems from his pocket, while I unsuspectingly closed my eyes and prayed.We would then stand at the edge of the cliff, shout each other's names out loud and his ears would again be filled with kmy ringing laughter, this time arising out of joy of hearing our names being echoed by the far-away rocks.Alas, Bangalore's too overcrowded now and the echo has died a silent death but Iam just too nostalgic about this place.After the morning walk, I cooked breakfast for grandma and grandpa and had a jolly god time with them.

Meeting up with all my friends the week before I could leave was such awesome fun.It also brought the reality of a hyper busy life with no time to catch up on good ol times,glaring back sneeringly right into my face.Faced a severe time crunch but I wasn't ready to skip meeting any of the dudes and dudettes who meant a hell lot to me.While packing my things,I yapped with them all along and had a hilarious time when they had come home.Dosa treat at Sam's place with V,Poxy,Suz,Priy and RG was good fun too.The day just before she could leave,the last-minute-raani ran to the market to shop jeans,get them altered,shop shoes,bags and God knows what else!!!.Also met the bubbly sweetheart Sush,good ol Ranj n Sam oer lunch.I had deliberately been post-poning the last visit to granny's house and it was finally time to go.Went there at about 10:30pm an cried my heart out like a starved kid!Granny's has a fierce emotional attachment towards me too but she was such a wonderfully mature source of inspiration.

It didn't need any words to sense the heavy-heart atmosphere at home.I was at my saddest worst but tried my best not to show it,lest it make things tough for the rest of them too.Talked to my dearest friends late into the night and cried my heart out.It felt so very frightening to think of the possibility that I may come back a totally changed person and things may never be the same between us again.My bros,grandpa and BMS gang dudes were so sweet to come to the station and see me off the next day.They gifted me a soft toy,we clicked a few snaps and then I boarded the train.Just before it started moving, the tear-tank burst with me clinging on to my bros too.Didn't let go even after the train started chugging along.Poor guys must've had a sad time getting outa a moving train!My journey into an intriguing world had begun and I was choking with the heavy-heart syndrome, trying to come to terms with the initial take-off nausea on the flight of my MBA dream.

n mum,if u're reading this somewhere back home, i just luuuuuuuuuuv SP.Iam havin loadsa fun.So it ws much ado about nothing at all :) but I do miss home a lot....really really a lot