Friday, January 28, 2011

Chapters

So much has changed, without much changing. I have moved on, with parts of me still hanging behind. Here and there. Everywhere.

You never really leave a place. You never really leave people. You never really forget anything entirely. You have left chunks of yourself all over, at different cities you lived in, with different people, that it is sometimes impossible to just be at one place, with one person, even though you actually are. Of course it is all inside the head. But isn't that enough sometimes? Because memories are flawless. Because memories don't really change, even if the people in them do. Because they remain... and sometimes they're so lucid, so alive, that they seem more real than the real, truer than the truth. And that is what sometimes makes it impossible to listen to some song without thinking of a person...without being transported to another place and time.

I meant to write about so many things during my little Australian odyssey. Not the big life-changing happenings. The little things. The ones I will forget in a few months. Never got around to it. Even though I can remember vividly even now, the lone violin player I saw seated on a bench under a tree by the road while I was riding the bus...as if it were a scene out of a movie - the music in my ears substituting for the notes I couldn't hear come out of his violin. Watching smokers outside No.12 Creek street, a work culture that seemed so different from lab research! Almost like I could feel the pressure of the people bustling to work just by watching them. So much like Tokyo was, a few days later. The joy of cooking. Walking on Park road so many times with Niv, staring at the pricey restaurants we never ended up eating at. Weekly Soccer. Endless...

So today we toast to significant and not-so-significant memories. To finished chapters of never-ending stories. To the smiles and laughter that were, and will be. To new beginnings. To change. To dilemmas, ever so puzzling. To the unknown future, and the people who have walked and are walking with us towards it.

Chapters...that's what they are.

Yours "In another life, but not really" ly
Signing off...

4 comments:

Nivetha Gunasekaran said...

Div, I am so happy to read this blog post. It's funny that we always want to remember life altering moments but forget those little details about a person or place that make them special. And you always remember them that way, the small details. There hasn't been a day when I haven't thought about you or the craziness that surrounds you. Be it our music sessions, movies or even walking to level 7 every morning for coffee. Every single day I look around to see if you'll show up and surprise me. You will always be an important part of my Australian journey.

And, we never got to eat in one of those fancy Park road restaurants :(

Div said...

Niv - Its the same here! I feel like its going to last forever, these thoughts :) Maybe i'm a bit better off because I'm not in the same place where I've been used to being around you, but still, everytime I cook, you're not with me in the kitchen, or playing music. Everytime I log onto facebook! The movies, the strawberries, the mango juice, the iced tea - its a very long list. And no, we didn't eat there :( But we're going to make sure we do it the next time we meet, wherever we are! I'll pick the fanciest place :)

Nivetha Gunasekaran said...

Decided, I am definitely going to make a trip to SFO just to meet you. Hopefully its soon :)

Div said...

Yayyy!:D