From 'Lonely' to "Home"(ly)!

I came to Texas to pursue a master’s degree and spent two and half years achieving it! In December 2008, 2 + years of my hard work will be summed up in two letters at the end of my name =>

Poorva Narsapur M.S.!

I wonder what I will feel walking down the “United Spirits Arena” wearing the black robe and cap (that symbolize a judge...God forbid... I am the most biased human being ever who can be emotionally blackmailed easily.... that will end the concept of “aandha kannon”....giggles)!

Ironically the “hindi movies” (that almost never show anything remotely “real”) too depict the graduation ceremony in a similar fashion which predictably has always caught my fancy। Hence ever since I enrolled in the graduate school I have been awaiting the graduation day! To walk the walk and throw the cap high up in the air.... watch it as it swivels and jump up to catch it in mid air!

Sadly after my graduate date was extended by 6 months... I had almost lost interest in the commencement ceremony. Thankfully a surprise visit to the Spirits Arena reminded me of what I had been waiting for.... to get photographed in the over sized gown!!

Neither had I thought that I would be sad about leaving Lubbock! I had always imagined relief to be etched on my mind when I said my final goodbyes to flat, sunny, dusty, “hard watered” and lonely Lubbock!

On Monday the 17^th of November I visited all my professors and said goodbyes! Then I spent an hour touring Texas Tech trying to fix all the wonderful images of the campus on my mind! I have grown insanely proud of Texas Tech in these 2 years. It has a wonderful campus which is almost as large as a miniature city! The Tech football team too made us Red Raiders proud and we can actually mock longhorns (after 4 long years!)। The first American football game I saw was on campus. Our band was stunning and our players well prepared! I think my proudest moment was when the “masked raider” galloped across the stadium on her horse (yep it was a “she” this time... for those who are unfamiliar with this concept... a masked raider is another mascot of Tech who wears black and rides a horse at the beginning of each home game and some others as well... they alternately chose a girl and a boy to ride the horse!)

After spending 2 and half years in Lubbock..............I now call Lubbock home! Initially when I came here, I could not wrap my head around the deserted place which was seen as a group of circular farmlands from the airplane! I was afraid of walking on the desolate streets which were the opposite of the streets in Mumbai.

Not too different was the scorching heat that tanned all of us black (IT was August!)। To make matters worse, the dry weather peeled away our skin, the hard water messed with our hair and the cuisine made my life difficult as a vegetarian। But as time passed I started appreciating the peace and quiet and the wide expanse of nothingness! The hard water began to taste like bottled water and the heat toned down as winter approached! I began cooking better and discovered restaurants serving decent vegetarian food comprising of something other than fries and salad! All these things made Lubbock tolerable but I still called Bombay home. As the year passed I began to get used to the arid Lubbock and things started getting very familiar! I knew people and the shop keepers and made more friends! I learnt to optimize on the limited resources I had and the quality of living improved. This is where I learnt to be completely independent, learnt to trust no one while being amiable to all... this is where got my first job!

I started identifying with the slow paced life of Lubbock which was very different from where I grew up ! And then one day when it was time for me to move away.... I found there were tears in my eyes... just like when I was leaving Bombay! Bombay will always remain extremely special to me and no other place can take its place.... however I have now started calling Lubbock home because this is where I learnt some of the most difficult lessons in my life... thus this too is a place where I grew up!