Goodbye to all that !

• When I had to leave home for the first time, to study in a College

Realizing that the inseparable life that me and my sister lead for 14 years had come to an end, I sobbed uncontrollably for hours in the car. College life was beckoning. We would no more be opening the house together after school. No more be serving each other chai and no more be watching Sabrina the teenage witch.

•  When I had to leave for University. 

The pain was much lesser this time. The excitement of being a University student buried sobs and insecurity.

• When I had to leave for Haryana. 

Waving goodbyes to the smiling faces of my parents and sister at the airport was indeed difficult. This was coupled with apprehensions about what would life have in store for me.

Keeping aside life's major goodbyes like the ones I have described, there are other goodbyes that punctuate our existence. People and places enter your life for short periods. They don't return to you or you don't return to them either. At times, you meet them at life's crossroads or on virtual spaces.
You exchange hugs and gifts; relive old memories and reminisce; shake hands and and bid good bye once again!

Amidst all these goodbyes, there exist streaks of 'newness'. Of colour and dread. Of tears and smiles.Waiting to be unwrapped and experienced.
Our nostalgia for the old shouldn't allow us to ignore the spirit of the present.

 Newness is often  like a troop of mushrooms that spring into life after a dark and scary night. Colourful, edible. bland, poisonous, bitter and sweet- they come in a big variety, which we euphemistically call ' the spice of life'.
 It could all be embraced, in different ways- for it brings something new and paint different memories. Moreover it prevents life from turning into a bland and colourless dish.