The train slowly leaves the station. The final horn had signaled the end of my stint at IIT-Bombay. It was only a fitting end to a journey which started two years back on the same train. The faces of people who have touched my life over this period flashed before my eyes. I just embraced the feeling without caring for the type. How does one prepare for moments like these?? You don’t. It just happens.

   A window looks upon my table.. It had been pouring for the last few hours. It is August. I am trying to remember the so called “800 essential GRE words”. GRE is essential to going abroad. At the same time, Cartan’s Uniqueness Theorem is going on at the back of my mind, which I have to present the next day, as a part of my weekly Project meetings. I am going mad. .

The train arrives. I look up at the cloudy night sky. Rain welcomes me into the city of Dreams, Mumbai. IIT-Bombay will be my place of worship for the next two years.

The last three semesters have passed rather quickly. I am preparing for the last exam today. The last three weeks have been very hectic. It rains again tonight. I am trying to find answers to numerous questions that have popped up in my mind. Will I be able to uphold the values , I have been taught here?? Have I lost sight of the land, in relentless pursuit of “absolute truth”??

I have never been so busy before. I waited for holidays and weekends alike so that I can solve more problems than what I used to do during the weekdays. Mumbai is in rains. So am I. Not a trace of sun for three months.

I walk out of the classroom for one last time. Walter Whitman comes alive in “That you are here: That life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.” I don’t turn back. I am headed out.

The train comes to a halt. I have reached Bhubaneswar. “How will I matter out here”? Out there I was something. Perhaps I don’t need to. I smile to myself.  When someone remembers me in “Band of Brothers” or while solving “assignments”, I shall smile knowing that I have made my mark. Either way it doesn’t matter now.

A window looks upon the table. Someone is gearing up to appear a test. He looks out the window and hears a whisper. . smiles to himself and goes on about his work. The train awaits again at the station to carry someone’s dream. In two months time, I shall find myself looking out the glasses of a plane. Strange?? I don’t think so!!