During one of my visits back home(I don’t bother keeping
count…..I just jump onto a train whenever I feel like it and the 12 hour
journey hardly deters me….)I was all alone at home and I was BORED………And I
thought why not put this time to good use and clean the room(I’m not going to
mention how many lectures my mom gave me till I finally decided to do the
deed).
You all know cleaning a room is a day-long endeavour, so I
had to prepare myself. I first went to the kitchen and made myself couple of
nutella and honey sandwiches with lindt milk chocolates shredded over them (this
recipe is pretty tame when considering my other weird recipes and I DON’T
cook…only improvise), created a cleanup playlist on my laptop….(No work can be
done without music in the background….)and I was all set to go.
I started off with my dressing table. It’s amazing how many beauty
products and cosmetics two teenage girls can accumulate over a span of two
years….and half of them being way past their expiry date. Having a number of
aunts who get you perfumes and other beauty products whenever they come down
from the States doesn’t help either. While clearing out the drawers, one of the
drawers got stuck.
Fitting in my hand through the gap between the two drawers I
found the culprit. It was my long lost copy of Pride and Prejudice. This took
me right back to my 12th standard days when I used to, very
surreptitiously, sneak in novels and read them without my mom or dad knowing.
If there is one period of my life I wouldn’t want to go back to, it would be my
11th and 12th standard and I guess anybody who prepared
for their engineering entrances would agree with me.
However it would be unfair if I don’t mention that I made
some great friends in these two years who were the reason I got through the
years of extreme pressure and low self esteem with my sanity. Not to mention
they definitely brought out my inner fun-loving person (OK…. I know that’s
enough self-praise for the day ;)).The supposed group STUDY sessions where all
of us would be cooped up in a tiny classroom laughing our heads off and fooling
around (One of these ended with us throwing dusters and markers at each other
till the manager finally came and separated all of us) ,the chemistry lab
sessions where we would run around the lab and finally copy the readings from
some poor chap who actually performed the experiments…..I can go on and on…..
The reminiscing took almost half an hour of my clean-up time
and I knew if I didn’t hurry I would terribly fail in Project Clutter
Annihilation. Moving to my ex-study table, (my brat of a sister has taken over
it) I stood on my revolving chair and started cleaning the upper shelf. I was
under the illusion that more than two years of sleeping on the upper bunk bed
in the hostel means that I’ve become some ninja woman who can easily navigate
her way around high fixtures….unfortunately it was precisely this delusion that
brought about my fall……… literally.
I remember falling down and a bunch of whole other stuff
falling on me. If I was a cartoon you would definitely see birds flying around
my head. For a few moments I could see stars and hear, ”Main pareshan pareshan
pareshan pareshan…..”.What can I say my clean-up playlist knows me…….
The fall had probably saved me the time of taking each thing
out of its place…now all I had to do was reorganize the things back on the
shelf. I picked up the pieces of my broken body (Thankfully there was no one at
home to witness my moment of shame so atleast my pride was intact.)One by one I
started looking at the debris that was on the floor.
Lying on one corner was an old dusty photograph-a class
photograph which was taken, back in 2004 when I was a little thing in the 5th
standard. It instantly took me back to the good old days when I was a very shy
and sincere little teacher’s pet. So much so that even in the photo I’m seated
beside the class teacher. It reminded me of how the smallest things made me
happy back then; like the day mom allowed me to have my lunch from the canteen
I would be so excited that I’d wake up at the first call of____________I am not
crazy enough to disclose my pet name here-let’s just say she calls me
Srutiiiiiii…….. I miss running after the school bus every single day, the mass
P.T sessions on Wednesday mornings which were the bane of my existence, being
class monitor… (I know, what a nerd…)
I miss the school-time rivalries, how losing one or two
marks in the paper would make me so sad (now-a-days it’s all about passing….:P).I
miss the annual day/sports day preparations. I miss prefect duties ( the day
they made me prefect was the day I started letting my hair down and having
fun…figuratively of course….)I miss those days when the concept of boyfriend
and girlfriend used to seem scandalous…(its true…).I could go on and on…..The
number of sentences starting with the words “I miss” could fill up pages and I
have already exceeded the permissible limit, so let’s move forward…….
Every nook or corner that I cleaned brought its own
onslaught of memories. It made me realise that time passes, but it leaves you
with an assortment of memories both good and bad (It also made me realise
cleaning your room can be fun… :P). As time passes we get more desperate to
hold on to those fond memories and revisit them.But since that is virtually
impossible considering that we don’t have a time machine neither do we have a
pensieve(Harry Potter geeks will empathise) I think each of us should decide to
live our lives in such a way that every day should remain a memory that is to
be cherished. Dream big, you may have moments of self doubt as to how
ridiculous your dreams seem…(believe me I have my share of such days)but stop
being afraid; rebel if you want to, scream, shout but let your voice be heard.
I am petrified of what
the future holds……I’m going to turn 20 in a few months and its like there’s a
board that says-“YOU ARE AT THE END OF YOUR TEENAGE LIFE” that’s dangling over
my head and making me wish I had a remote which could help me pause time. But then
the overtly optimistic creature that lays dormant inside of me awakens and
reminds me that whatever happens, is for the best (it’s a cliché that’s been
used beyond the point of being vomit inducing) and reminds me that every day I
wake up I’m doing something that’s lifting the fog off the road, that is my
life, and is giving me the confidence to drive ahead slowly and steadily(the
fact that I have recently received my driver’s license is strangely ironic…..).
Of course I’m going to meet up with a lot of speed-breakers,
potholes and minor accidents….but there is always the hope of finding smooth
Pune expressway like roads, roadside McDonald’s and the occasional handsome
hitchhiker(:’D)………….
So yeah, I’m turning twenty this January 25th (I
expect each one of you to wish me….) and I have embarked on a journey to find
myself…….hopefully the coming year will bring a lot of surprises and will be on
the whole a very fruitful year for each of you and I wish each one of you a Happy new year in advance.
Signing off......
Sruti.....
(I'm going to make sure that by the end of the coming year people learn to spell my name correctly)
P.S.Expecting birthday gifts is something I'm not going to do but I demand you to leave a comment as an advanced birthday gift......(I know I'm a lost cause... :D)
Ciao......
