Feels Like Shedding Skin

I’ve recently finished college, attended my convocation, received my degree in a temporarily exciting but very colonial setting, and am all set to join my job at Schlumberger in Mumbai this September. With such major changes occurring in life, I went to my old blog and found that I had outgrown it. It was, for quite some time, my most beloved belonging. I would at various times of the day go to my blog and scroll up and down, reading and rereading my own writings, good or otherwise. But today, for good or for worse, I don’t feel connected to it in the same way. I feel it is time to move on and hence this blog and this post. There are quite a few new beginnings as some things come to an end.

My earlier blog, where I put my last entry today (go read), will always remain special to me for a variety of reasons, the most important being that it was my first blog. It was the first place that gracefully accepted my tentative forays into ‘writing’, and was instrumental in getting me the much needed inspiration and encouragement from friends and fellow bloggers. It provided me the anonymity of the internet yet it was a strong reflection of my identity. Both the blog and the first attempts at poetry were inspired by Akhil, and that one thing has snowballed into something so big today that it seems almost surreal that there is always a bigger picture, hidden from us, revealed piece by piece over an agonizingly long period of time.

That blog is invaluable to me for having given me some really good friends that, I hope, will last at least one lifetime, if not more. Akanksha was one of my first readers and though we generally share a mutual liking for each other’s work, it has been her world of dreams that has given me the courage to really go and do what I like rather than falling in with the herd. She’s been this ethereal angelic person always hovering somewhere in the subconscious, ever present yet not imposing. Then there was the SRCC group, Amiya, Richa, Ishani, Jayant and Vidur. There’s Rohit, and there’s Sinjini, and then there’s the indomitable Sayandi. I have been lucky to have stumbled upon so many amazing, friendly, talented people, each of whom I adore and respect for their set of qualities, and all of them have unfailingly taught me so many things about life in the course our interactions. It’s been a real pleasure.

All this wouldn’t have been possible but for Akhil. He’s one true role model that all of us should have, and it’s not just the blogging. I won’t write a testimonial for him over here, but suffice it to say that I hold him in the highest esteem. In an age and time when I have a million issues with people in our age group, he’s one who has set higher standards than I’d have thought of. It’s beyond words, so I’ll just shut up.

Welcome to the new blog everyone! :)