Beyond The Sunset

Over the course of summer as the days became longer our friendship grew stronger. While I visited my native place for a couple of weeks, Aarush stayed back and developed a new hobby – writing. A hobby that will save his life in the coming few years.

After my return, I met Aarush and we went for a walk after dinner. The sky was clear and dark. Given the absence of the moon, stars were enjoying all their glory. We were walking near the riverfront and the sound of rushing waves was like a piece of perfect background music for our kind of conversation.

It's been a while since we had our heart-to-heart conversation and since we were about to graduate, I had a question lingering around in my mind. "This is our last year and we are about to graduate, thinking of the future creeps me out. What are your plans for the future Aarush?". Aarush is a guy who usually likes to think a lot about his future but stays cool enough to go with the flow. "I want to travel and explore the world, I want to see and eat at places I've never been before, I want to talk to people who don't speak the same language as we do, I want to experience what living feels like but….". There was a long pause after his 'but'.

Cutting the silence, I asked him the reason for his half answer. After an hour of talking, it looked like Aarush was confused between choosing his path or staying back with his family. He wasn't afraid of leaving home to explore the world but he was thinking more about his parents and family. For time being, Aarush has decided to give his entrance exam to study in the UK and would take a decision after the year was over.

Leaving your family behind and starting from scratch seems like a daunting experience but it's such experiences that shape us and help us become better individuals. Such experiences shape our cognitive and emotional intelligence. We see and learn different cultures along with respecting everyone irrespective of their job title. Doing the basic household chores looks very simple but they impart patience and a whole lot of respect for our moms who have been taking care of our family for a long time. Our realization of mom's importance is directly proportional to how far away we live from her.

We headed our journey back to our building as it started getting late since we surely don't want our mom's calling us for another round of lectures. As we were heading back, I asked Aarush to share any new poetry he has written. After all, Aarush had become a writer over the course of summer.

Aarush replied with a smile, "Sure! ". I stayed at the monastery for a couple of days over the course of summer when you were gone and since then I've been trying to pin down different human emotions. Sometimes, words are all we need to know in order to know an individual. So, the poetry goes like this:

"मुकाम हासिल करने की तलाश में,

घर से निकल तोह गया है तू,

अब जब पूरी दुनिया देख ली है,

तोह लौटकर घर ही गया है तू।"

Remember I told you about how Aarush's writing would save his life? More on that as we embark on our roller-coaster journey of emotions.