not again!... (2)

He opens the door and steps out into the calm of the night. He didn't think much of it before he opened that door but now.... now, it seems right.. right at home. It is 1 in the night. The roads are deserted, the wind blows unobstructed and he stands fixed to a spot... letting the solitude of the night fill him to the full

Peace!

And as always, it struck again. A sea of memories takes him from where he was... in control, sane, coherent... to where he didn't stand a chance of being so. He thinks he has seen too much. But making it all worse, he thinks he'll hate more what he's about to see. He thinks... he thinks...

I... MUSTN'T... THINK!!!

He regains control for an instant. Moves two steps to his left and tries to... shake it off

It happens

But opening that door didn't seem that great an idea any more. He thought he'd like it... but he knew he'd regret it. Five minutes in solitude had given him more agony than five days otherwise.

Some other time... maybe when the time is right

He stepped back inside, leaving the night, the calmness of it, the solitude, the peace and.... closed the door

Farewell and friends

4 years of college life have gone by. It seems like yesterday that I had my first day at NSIT (actually, to think of it, it feels more like four years back only but this is just something we say). It is farewell time again in my life. It is that time again when you look to the future in hope that you will somehow be able to take forward with you in time all that you loved here. But this time, the farewell time comes with a difference. This time it comes with the experience and knowledge of what happens to your friends’ circle after a farewell (since we’ve already had one before).

Basically, if I was to think about this after farewell period with respect to friends in the pre-farewell place, I can sub-categorize the period into 3 zones:

1. Farewell to joining: First period is the period where you have the holidays after leaving the first place but you haven’t joined the next place (which was college for me 4 years back and is my work-place for me this time around). One thing that happens in this period is that you filter out those people that you won’t be talking to much in the life to come. This is because if you don’t speak to someone too regularly in this period when everyone is free, there is a very good chance you may not communicate with that person in the life to come.

2. Joining and burn-in period: This is the period when you start getting the hang of the new place. Change is hard to take and you may start getting nostalgic easily. This period I’d say generally lasts from about 1 month to maybe even 4 months. This period involves a sudden change in frequency of communication with those you talk to. What you can gauge in this period is the amount of effort you can expect from your friends to stay in touch in the future.

3. Post burn-in settled period: Well, this period is when you have settled into the new place and have even laid the foundation for new friendships. And it goes without saying that in this period, those whom you communicate with are going to be in touch with you for a long long time as your communication with them has stood the test of busyness in yours and their lives and even the presence of other new friends too.

Well, after all writing all this self-created semi-technical stuff, I am reminded of how I would love to be in constant touch with all my friends from NSIT even years from now, just like what I wanted to after school. But I know this time round that all this depends on various factors out of which the frequency of communication is most important. Problem occurs when this factor isn’t given its due importance. But we’ll talk about that in a separate post….