Time: 10:45 a.m.
Place: Doesn't matter, really. All that matters is this: wherever I was, it wasn't in the shade and it was hot!
Temperature (importantly): 34-35 degrees Celsius.
Condition: Wet and Wild! (not exactly in the most positive sense)
I was going back to get my cycle, parked outside the library(for convenience's sake; don't think otherwise) after completing some (as usual) long-pending work in the bank and the Senate building. I had only been walking for five minutes or so, and the transition from spring to summer quickly demonstrated itself, and as I bent down to unlock my cycle, drops of sweat trickled down to the thirsty earth, which wasted no time in sipping away my salty perspiration.
Amazing how the planet (and, sometimes, even the universe) seems to echo us humans' actions. If I were given a drink then (BUT NOT salty perspiration, for sure!) , I'd have gladly lapped it up, too. The unforgiving sun was surely taking its toll, with me struggling to turn the key and push the lever and after 35 long (and sweaty) seconds of wrestling with the lock, I was on my bicycle at last, ready to rush to the room for a refreshing glass of Tang (I have the orange flavour in my room now; got to switch over to lemon soon. Useless info.). The next few seconds, as difficult as they are to describe in words, give this post its title.
There are only a few things I like in the institute.
The Senate building- that grand old lady, majestically staring at us every morning through its magnificent watch-tower, with its carefully-manicured lawns, spread lavishly across its front yard, breathing fresh air every morning.
The new Central Library- the new kid in town, with state-of-the-art centralised air-conditioning, lighting and architecture inside, but an old-world charm in its look outside, with the the glorious white dome offering an insight into the golden past.
Third on the list comes a certain stretch of tarmac, right at the heart of the campus, joining the road separating the beauties mentioned above. The slope, a stretch of road starting from the turn at NIH into the Chemical and Metallurgy departments, and culminating at the new Central Library.
Oh, wait! I got the directions wrong!
The direction I mentioned takes you uphill- not exactly one of the most pleasurable experiences, especially at this time of the year.
The blissful experience is the other way around.
Time: 10:46 a.m.
Temperature (still): 34-35 degrees Celsius (Who knows, maybe more?).
Condition: Cannot be put in words- just takes the effect away.
I forget my sweat, the sense of dehydration, that delusional feeling, the (still) pending jobs, the approaching end-sems, Orkut, Firefox, Google, my always-under-construction quiz, money, friends, family, Earth, the solar system, Milky Way and 42- just about everything, and take in the pure joy of the rushing wind caressing my perspiring face, cutting through the seams of my (favourite) shirt and cooling my insides; my legs itching to take themselves off those pedals, my body urging to just fly, float away like the wind in contact with it...
It's only five or six seconds that one goes down that slope. But for those precious seconds, everything in the universe is just blank, just a plain, white screen imposing itself subtly on everything.
It's five or six seconds of being (to go down that oft-taken path) comfortably numb.
It's five or six seconds of pure unadulterated joy...
P.S.- Upper case letters and exclamation marks (as in the title) almost make the expression vulgar, don't they? Even bold face wouldn't have got THE effect. But, the three dots? Beautiful...
P.P.S.- (For readers from the insti) Fourth on the list(after a close battle with the entity in fifth) is LitSec (TM). Fifth is Kshitij.
5 weeks ago
