Two Years Ago

Picture Credits : Sheetanshu Agarwal & Krishna Kumar

I am coming from a far off place. A place called ‘Two Years Ago’ that I no longer recognize because it was so hideously expensive that I incurred a ginormous debt while in there. 
A debt, I had no idea, would cost me lakhs of heartbeats and millions of feelings. 
A debt where the currency was people and the interest went up with the rise in the moments we shared. 
I am coming from Two Years Ago, but at a very slow pace. 
A pace that is slower than time itself, because two years have happened and ended, and I am still there, making my sluggish way forward, trying to reach The Present.

Picture credits: Agrani Punj

Of course, once I do, I will earn all that stuff back, and try to repay the bankers who keep the memories locked in a special account of nostalgia and hurt and all things bittersweet.

Once I reach The Present, I will empty my life of all those events and conversations that make the walk to it so hard.

Once I reach The Present …

I will not spend my nights awake in the classrooms with a motley assortment of people, who came together purely on a stroke of fate, like a package of assorted biscuits on Diwali.

I will not give in to midnight cravings that strike me like thunder and lose a major part of my savings in the night canteen or on sudden trips to Murthal/ India Gate/ Bangla Saheb.

I will not pretend to listen to lectures in class while doing what I do best in life (read daydreaming).

Picture credits: Pixcell, IIFT

I will not celebrate midnight birthdays on campus or spend sleepy-wakeful nights trying to mug up for exams.

I will not watch those puppies grow into mischievous dogs.

I will not click photographs every second day or dance unabashedly at atrium parties.

I will strip my life of all those things and rush to The Present.

Picture credits: Pixcell, IIFT

However…

On second thoughts…

Let me arrive late as usual.

And take my own sweet time to reach. For surely it hasn’t been so long since we were at Two Years Ago, has it?