Another farewell.

Memory is a strange and wonderful thing.

I am sitting in my room. For the last night. I leave tomorrow for a different place - in a way, a better place - just up the block. We can see the park from the living room windows, and Sears Tower (Willis Tower?) from the bedroom. No more brick walls! I'm moving with my littlest roommate - it is just the two of us, without the additional stress of others we don't know. I had wanted to move there from the moment I knew it was to let. I love the thought of living there; however, tonight, as I clean up the mess of upto five years ago, as I pack parts of my life away into little boxes too small to hold the thoughts associated with each item, as I listen to music that has sustained me here for the last five years, I've been letting my mind wander the hallways of memory. Incredible as it probably sounds, after my home in Bombay, I've spent the largest time here! I've seen the worst days of my life here - literally. I've debated questions of life and death more seriously here than anywhere else. I've learned here, I've studied here, I've made my mistakes here and have mended them here. I've eventually made this little room my home.

And now I have to leave. I guess I'm looking forward to the new place in the hope that its energy will help me finish what I started here five years ago. But I'll always remember the most beautiful canvas in this room, the skylight. I'll always remember the porch at the back, where we sat with ice candies and iced tea on warm summer evenings and discussed - well, life, love and the meaning of it all, I guess. I'll remember the people I lived with here, people I may not have always agreed with but each one of whom taught me lessons for my life. I'll remember the things that happened to me here as one remembers precious guides one has learned important precepts from. And I hope I'll leave behind warm and happy vibrations with the hope that the person who lives here after me finds life as rich and rewarding, all considered, as I have found it here.

Enough of the rant. Back to packing. And surreptitiously wiping back the tears that will come in spite of it all!

P.S. Pardon this post, I haven't been able to proofread due to lack of time - and even if I did, tears make i's look like t's, so it wouldn't matter!