Prologue:
Gainesville, Florida.
Many miles after, a million hurdles later, a few hundred laundry cycles after and plenty of quarrels later, we'd found ourselves a home in utopia. This new apartment secluded in one corner of the community, is enclosed with trees, grass and laughter. I moved in with a couple of my old roommates. The three of us have always wanted a peaceful home. The last one was excruciatingly disturbing and painful too. So when we finally decided to move out of the house, all we did was gathered all the sorrow brick by brick, fueled it with our exasperation and threw a matchstick at it. We never did turn back. It was nice to come back to a real home every time. The sense of relief you get after your entire day and energy are spent in pursuit of something. Something that was missing in the last one. But here in this h(e)aven, everything seemed to be shaping up beautifully.
I was travelling back home from work after completing a tedious early morning shift. I got a new part-time job in an event catering company in my university. The pay is great and I get two meals a day. I thought I would use this money to feed my wanderlust or for my living expenses. There was a young couple in the bus who couldn't keep their hands and mouths to themselves and there I was thinking about the 3 dollars that I saved when I extended my shift for an hour to cover up my Uber expense that I incurred that morning. I frequently paused the world around me and I'd ask myself, "Am I doing okay here? Is life better now? Is it better than it was before?". I receive answers in return sometimes and sometimes a chilly cemetery wind embraces my face. When I'm pushed to the edge of frustration with my problems clawing my mind piece by piece, that is when I realize that I need to travel. I cannot be a 100% sure that it'll reshape reality. But I should be atleast trying, shouldn't I? The past few months passed within a blink of an eye. Nothing changed. I was chasing in circles trying to fix the aberrations that were scattered throughout my life because of the injury which initiated a series of other problems. I was in stasis having absolutely zero control over it like a log caught in a jet stream. Anyways, travel keeps these things at bay, ultimately leading my mind to stop feeding off my peace.
Fall break. 2016. Loki and I decided to visit Nive in Georgia. She has settled in Atlanta after marriage. Visiting seemed like a pretty cool thing to do considering how Florida is nearer to the place and also cos of the dirt cheap bus tickets. I was holding on to things that even remotely represented family. At the time when I was showering this unrequited love to life and life turning its face away, I felt that I needed to go. Just drop everything and go. The gamble was that we'd have to travel all the way with creepy dudes in the bus and crooks alike. Atleast they looked like one. Sorry for being judgmental but they all need to really change their attitudes and dressing.
So right after throwing the exam answer sheets back, we were on our way. I saw this young couple on the bus stop waiting for the same bus. They looked like they were eloping after a private wedding. The man all suited up with the shirt untucked yet looking razor sharp and the lady in traditional black gown with long hippie earrings and pageboy hair, looking like an astounding Half-Jewish princess. He just had a skateboard and she held her purse. He was skating away throughout the corridor while the lady admired him from afar. He stopped everytime he passed her by to make a conversation and she seemed to laugh and enjoy his words. It seemed like they were distant stars catching each other's energy and shining light on each other. An intergalactic love affair. I felt like that I could be like them someday. I've always wanted to just rip the strings on me, relinquish things that I hold dear, live off nature on the back of a van with my dog and my ladylove, wash my face everyday in river water, make conversations with the elderly mountain, study and understand the process of life, death and beyond. I would then return back to the city one day with face full of dust, bag full of sticks and stones that I found there from the very Earth that accommodated me, eyes full of passion and lips full of grin. Like a modern vagabond. I have never imagined in 25 years that I'd be one to be even able to think about living this kind of life. I have never imagined that solitude would be so comforting. Now when I think I am closer than ever to animating this way of life, I stand astonished and excited. Loki saw me smiling at the couple. I was like, "That guy!!". I dismissed all those thoughts that went astray. I couldn't wipe the smile away though.
People were getting antsy as soon as the bus arrived. Loki decided to take the seats on the upper deck. I cursed him for making me climb up the narrow stairs. I couldn't sleep as a homie boy was loudly talking on and on to his girlfriend in the seats before us. The entire bus was silent otherwise. The guy seemed like the annoying co-passenger you'd hate to ride with. He reclined his seat back so hard that it hit me badly on my right knee. Yeah, that annoying knee. My seat was broken and couldn't be adjusted. He's got girlfriend problems but I have excruciatingly painful knee problem. That was a raw deal compared to the other pointless thing. I was like, "Dude can you pull up your seat a bit? I can't seem to adjust my seat". He said with a smug face, "Actually you need to pull the lever on your right". I responded, "I did bruh. It ain't working". Then he folded his seat upright. The typical know-it-all wisecrack. "What a douche", I thought.
I was texting people at random trying to see if anyone was awake but to no avail. After a few minutes, I got a text back from one of my good friends from my class, Megh. We've both recently realized our thought processes are similar and we've been ever since making deep meaningful conversations, trying to push each other beyond our limits in terms of travel and other stuff we live and would die for. I was nudging her to take a solo trip of her own to NY after mine. She was pretty thrilled to do it too. I was complaining to her about my situation to which she said that I needed to have travel stories to tell. I told her that I got the perfect story she wanted me to have. Our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere.
We ordered waffles and hashbrowns. What? Don't judge me. We thought we might as well use the time to explore Waffle House. The spare bus was hour and a half away anyways. It was a bit freezing outside too. I was surprised to see the temperature plummet at the time of the year. The couple sneaked away to the back of a retail store for a puff of smoke. We took seats in the lower deck in the new bus and it was all the more noisy. We fell asleep anyway.
Across the bridge:
Atlanta, Georgia.
A slight hustle in the bus woke me up and I was so glad it happened. The golden glow from the sun lit up the city and the skyscrapers in orange glare. Though we were late by 3 hours, I convinced myself it was the perfect time to enter the city. Nive stayed in Dunwoody which is roughly a 20 mile drive from Atlanta.
As soon as we entered, we were greeted by an overjoyed, extremely fun and faithful pup. Enter Jon. A Labrador-chow dog named after Jon Snow, I used to FaceTime with this guy and he'd make my day just by staring at me on the screen. When Nive visited me a couple of months back, I was so bummed I couldn't meet him. One of the fun aspects of this trip was him to be honest. I never thought before I'd grow this comfortable with a dog. He started to nuzzle, jump and lick both of us when he saw us.
I got to fulfill my childhood dream of visiting the Georgia Aquarium that day. It was breathtaking with a volume of 6.3 million gallons and with over 500 rare and exotic species of fish. We were fascinated to see Whale Sharks, Beluga Whales, Manta Rays, Dolphins and other countless fishes.
Her husband, Parthee invited us for a party with his colleagues in a restaurant. Loki and I ridiculously discussed if we should try to throw résumés at the party to whoever can offer us a job. Oh the job hunt gets worse than this. As we'd look like a bunch of private party trespassers and as we had left our passports at home, we decided to go on an ice-cream hunt. It is such a pain to get alcohol here in the US without any ID. The restaurant is one of many joints at this very beautiful and scenic place of red brick architecture. Westside Provisions District consists of Atlanta's finest shopping and dining places. The two sections of the place is diagonally connected by a bridge above a railroad which overlooks Atlanta's skyline. We sat across the restaurant on the other building which had open-roof seating. It rewinded my mind to when we were all together in Mysore for the Infosys training. We had the best time of our lives. After it got over, we took separate paths and we did not realize for a moment that it would lead us all here. Not for a moment. Seemed like yesterday, Nive, I and Loki wandering the campus grounds looking for a piece of heaven. We are what's left of a bigger group. I realized how things changed so fast yet so significantly.
I decided to ruin the evening soirée. When I heard the elegant yet so slovenly beautiful blues rock live music from the restaurant, all I wanted to do was to intrude and try to get a peek. I barged into the gathering to see if there is any place I can stand and enjoy it. After becoming a sight for judging eyes and weird looks, I decided to go back to my friends on the bridge. I was so underdressed and shabby for both that place and the event. To quote Joey, "I'm not even sorry". We were eavesdropping live music. By sundown, the place became even prettier than before with all the dim evening lights.
We had a fine evening of our own in another Mexican place near Dunwoody. I was a little worried about the poor soul at home. After a couple of Lemondrop and Kamikaze shots each, Nive started to laugh to even all the dumb jokes. Loki was making his own rounds with chicken wings. I was not even a tad high. I am cursed to be sober for all the drinking I do and I envy people who get high after two rounds. Never in my life had I thought that I'd drink with this bunch. As much as it was so unreal and strangely exciting, it was also painful to think that we'd have to go back to the sick student life that's waiting for us with arms wide open.
Gainesville, Florida.
Many miles after, a million hurdles later, a few hundred laundry cycles after and plenty of quarrels later, we'd found ourselves a home in utopia. This new apartment secluded in one corner of the community, is enclosed with trees, grass and laughter. I moved in with a couple of my old roommates. The three of us have always wanted a peaceful home. The last one was excruciatingly disturbing and painful too. So when we finally decided to move out of the house, all we did was gathered all the sorrow brick by brick, fueled it with our exasperation and threw a matchstick at it. We never did turn back. It was nice to come back to a real home every time. The sense of relief you get after your entire day and energy are spent in pursuit of something. Something that was missing in the last one. But here in this h(e)aven, everything seemed to be shaping up beautifully.
I was travelling back home from work after completing a tedious early morning shift. I got a new part-time job in an event catering company in my university. The pay is great and I get two meals a day. I thought I would use this money to feed my wanderlust or for my living expenses. There was a young couple in the bus who couldn't keep their hands and mouths to themselves and there I was thinking about the 3 dollars that I saved when I extended my shift for an hour to cover up my Uber expense that I incurred that morning. I frequently paused the world around me and I'd ask myself, "Am I doing okay here? Is life better now? Is it better than it was before?". I receive answers in return sometimes and sometimes a chilly cemetery wind embraces my face. When I'm pushed to the edge of frustration with my problems clawing my mind piece by piece, that is when I realize that I need to travel. I cannot be a 100% sure that it'll reshape reality. But I should be atleast trying, shouldn't I? The past few months passed within a blink of an eye. Nothing changed. I was chasing in circles trying to fix the aberrations that were scattered throughout my life because of the injury which initiated a series of other problems. I was in stasis having absolutely zero control over it like a log caught in a jet stream. Anyways, travel keeps these things at bay, ultimately leading my mind to stop feeding off my peace.
Getaway:
Fall break. 2016. Loki and I decided to visit Nive in Georgia. She has settled in Atlanta after marriage. Visiting seemed like a pretty cool thing to do considering how Florida is nearer to the place and also cos of the dirt cheap bus tickets. I was holding on to things that even remotely represented family. At the time when I was showering this unrequited love to life and life turning its face away, I felt that I needed to go. Just drop everything and go. The gamble was that we'd have to travel all the way with creepy dudes in the bus and crooks alike. Atleast they looked like one. Sorry for being judgmental but they all need to really change their attitudes and dressing.
So right after throwing the exam answer sheets back, we were on our way. I saw this young couple on the bus stop waiting for the same bus. They looked like they were eloping after a private wedding. The man all suited up with the shirt untucked yet looking razor sharp and the lady in traditional black gown with long hippie earrings and pageboy hair, looking like an astounding Half-Jewish princess. He just had a skateboard and she held her purse. He was skating away throughout the corridor while the lady admired him from afar. He stopped everytime he passed her by to make a conversation and she seemed to laugh and enjoy his words. It seemed like they were distant stars catching each other's energy and shining light on each other. An intergalactic love affair. I felt like that I could be like them someday. I've always wanted to just rip the strings on me, relinquish things that I hold dear, live off nature on the back of a van with my dog and my ladylove, wash my face everyday in river water, make conversations with the elderly mountain, study and understand the process of life, death and beyond. I would then return back to the city one day with face full of dust, bag full of sticks and stones that I found there from the very Earth that accommodated me, eyes full of passion and lips full of grin. Like a modern vagabond. I have never imagined in 25 years that I'd be one to be even able to think about living this kind of life. I have never imagined that solitude would be so comforting. Now when I think I am closer than ever to animating this way of life, I stand astonished and excited. Loki saw me smiling at the couple. I was like, "That guy!!". I dismissed all those thoughts that went astray. I couldn't wipe the smile away though.
People were getting antsy as soon as the bus arrived. Loki decided to take the seats on the upper deck. I cursed him for making me climb up the narrow stairs. I couldn't sleep as a homie boy was loudly talking on and on to his girlfriend in the seats before us. The entire bus was silent otherwise. The guy seemed like the annoying co-passenger you'd hate to ride with. He reclined his seat back so hard that it hit me badly on my right knee. Yeah, that annoying knee. My seat was broken and couldn't be adjusted. He's got girlfriend problems but I have excruciatingly painful knee problem. That was a raw deal compared to the other pointless thing. I was like, "Dude can you pull up your seat a bit? I can't seem to adjust my seat". He said with a smug face, "Actually you need to pull the lever on your right". I responded, "I did bruh. It ain't working". Then he folded his seat upright. The typical know-it-all wisecrack. "What a douche", I thought.
I was texting people at random trying to see if anyone was awake but to no avail. After a few minutes, I got a text back from one of my good friends from my class, Megh. We've both recently realized our thought processes are similar and we've been ever since making deep meaningful conversations, trying to push each other beyond our limits in terms of travel and other stuff we live and would die for. I was nudging her to take a solo trip of her own to NY after mine. She was pretty thrilled to do it too. I was complaining to her about my situation to which she said that I needed to have travel stories to tell. I told her that I got the perfect story she wanted me to have. Our bus broke down in the middle of nowhere.
We ordered waffles and hashbrowns. What? Don't judge me. We thought we might as well use the time to explore Waffle House. The spare bus was hour and a half away anyways. It was a bit freezing outside too. I was surprised to see the temperature plummet at the time of the year. The couple sneaked away to the back of a retail store for a puff of smoke. We took seats in the lower deck in the new bus and it was all the more noisy. We fell asleep anyway.
Across the bridge:
Atlanta, Georgia.
A slight hustle in the bus woke me up and I was so glad it happened. The golden glow from the sun lit up the city and the skyscrapers in orange glare. Though we were late by 3 hours, I convinced myself it was the perfect time to enter the city. Nive stayed in Dunwoody which is roughly a 20 mile drive from Atlanta.
As soon as we entered, we were greeted by an overjoyed, extremely fun and faithful pup. Enter Jon. A Labrador-chow dog named after Jon Snow, I used to FaceTime with this guy and he'd make my day just by staring at me on the screen. When Nive visited me a couple of months back, I was so bummed I couldn't meet him. One of the fun aspects of this trip was him to be honest. I never thought before I'd grow this comfortable with a dog. He started to nuzzle, jump and lick both of us when he saw us.
I got to fulfill my childhood dream of visiting the Georgia Aquarium that day. It was breathtaking with a volume of 6.3 million gallons and with over 500 rare and exotic species of fish. We were fascinated to see Whale Sharks, Beluga Whales, Manta Rays, Dolphins and other countless fishes.
Her husband, Parthee invited us for a party with his colleagues in a restaurant. Loki and I ridiculously discussed if we should try to throw résumés at the party to whoever can offer us a job. Oh the job hunt gets worse than this. As we'd look like a bunch of private party trespassers and as we had left our passports at home, we decided to go on an ice-cream hunt. It is such a pain to get alcohol here in the US without any ID. The restaurant is one of many joints at this very beautiful and scenic place of red brick architecture. Westside Provisions District consists of Atlanta's finest shopping and dining places. The two sections of the place is diagonally connected by a bridge above a railroad which overlooks Atlanta's skyline. We sat across the restaurant on the other building which had open-roof seating. It rewinded my mind to when we were all together in Mysore for the Infosys training. We had the best time of our lives. After it got over, we took separate paths and we did not realize for a moment that it would lead us all here. Not for a moment. Seemed like yesterday, Nive, I and Loki wandering the campus grounds looking for a piece of heaven. We are what's left of a bigger group. I realized how things changed so fast yet so significantly.
I decided to ruin the evening soirée. When I heard the elegant yet so slovenly beautiful blues rock live music from the restaurant, all I wanted to do was to intrude and try to get a peek. I barged into the gathering to see if there is any place I can stand and enjoy it. After becoming a sight for judging eyes and weird looks, I decided to go back to my friends on the bridge. I was so underdressed and shabby for both that place and the event. To quote Joey, "I'm not even sorry". We were eavesdropping live music. By sundown, the place became even prettier than before with all the dim evening lights.
We had a fine evening of our own in another Mexican place near Dunwoody. I was a little worried about the poor soul at home. After a couple of Lemondrop and Kamikaze shots each, Nive started to laugh to even all the dumb jokes. Loki was making his own rounds with chicken wings. I was not even a tad high. I am cursed to be sober for all the drinking I do and I envy people who get high after two rounds. Never in my life had I thought that I'd drink with this bunch. As much as it was so unreal and strangely exciting, it was also painful to think that we'd have to go back to the sick student life that's waiting for us with arms wide open.
