Limbo

Decisions have been made. Last trips, last group-treats, last walks around the campus with people who will be saying goodbye soon... the items on the list are getting checked off surprisingly fast. It is a time of nothingness. The feeling that there is a lot left to do, I'm just not ready to do them yet. For now, I want to do nothing at all for a while. Watch movies by the dozen, listen to music while not worrying about what is the next thing that I must do, not caring who shoots whom in which state or country, not caring how much the stock market has risen in the past few weeks. Blissful oblivion. Musn't get too used to it though. Might find it a tall order to come back.

The trip to Ooty was a blast- everyone had their kind of fun, and there was a general spirit of camaraderie at most times, which is probably the most you can expect in a large, motley group. The trek, not surprisingly, was my favourite part. I was acting in one of the scenes I like playing out in my head when I want to feel nice. The times when we were surrounded by tall trees jostling each other every which way we looked. We scrambled up and down the slopes of the hills and the tea plantations, feeling for firm ground. We let the sounds of the silence envelop us up on those hills. A meandering, unguided road to a green green end. A very nice end to the trip, at that.

Played basketball lots yesterday. Something good's coming out of everyone else leaving before me, I guess. Watched a terrible movie. Photoshopped some really dark photos. The photos taken at Ooty... so many of them! And I photograph terribly! :'( But there are a few classics. And a few that will remain with me for a very long time. Favourite moments on the trip:

- Driver: "And on your right.. sorry sorry.. left.. you will see the fine porest..."
- Driver: "This is the famous Hindustan Plims Ltd. All movie plims.. you know.. are made here."
- Hritik Roshan's hide 'n seek ad
- Lounging about in the cottage, watching the new Kothari female singing a song that she sounded like a buffalo in, and the manic laughing that ensued.
- Sitting the hotel's lawn with everyone in the freezing cold
- Making chai for everyone, and glowering at Su for putting in too much sugar
- Scrambling eggs away to glory for survival
- Sitting in a room with the 'manufacturers', all three of them drowsy, all three staring intently at me filing my nails.
- Watching and feeling the currents at Pykara, climbing up and down the rocks there, standing on the bridge at Mudumalai, wishing I had the time to explore the lush green banks of that narrow, muddy river more. The best I could manage is a photograph, so I can remember that place when I see another like it.
- Watching the mountains almost entirely shrouded by the clouds, like old men wrapped in warm white fleece. It was almost dark, and it was the only time that we were on the bus that late with me awake. The sky was losing its purplish hue and turning dark blue, but the clouds stood out in their mistiness, in the dark background of the hills.
- Standing under a little thatch shop and drinking chai on the first day, when the rain caused a change of plans. We couldn't see how much Sim's park resembled its namesake.
- Eating dirty, unwashed tamarind on the way to Ooty, pilfered from a lady whose shop was shielded by a huge tamarind tree. My 'Innum onnu edkelama' or something to that effect obviously worked.
- "Where's the little monkey" on me climbing the trees at Lamb's rock. :D Accompanied by the words expressing the thought "There she goes again..."
- Getting drenched by thoughtless people on the boat ride, and pedaling faster than the guys
- Watching the sky through branches and leaves, my head on a comfortable shoulder.


A very nice way to spend some of my limbo time.