You know those days when you just feel like throwing things and stamping your feet in the middle of a supermarket in a right old childlike tantrum until you get what you want? Yeah… I’m having one of those. And no, I’m not PMSing.
Adult life is NOT fun on some days. On some days, I HATE that I have to be responsible and prioritize and behave myself. I used to be impulsive. I used to be crazy and reckless too. I haven’t done stuff like that in a while. Well, I’ve been adulting away, haven’t I! There’s no time for crazy and reckless and almost always no money for impulsive. (₹6000 for shoes?! That’s a month’s grocery right there!)
I used to trek, travel and in general enjoy my life to the fullest. We had an amazing Nature Club on our campus and I did a lot of trekking before graduating. But I haven’t been on a trek in years. Now, I can’t just get up and decide to go out of town for a week. Everything needs to be planned well in advance if there is any chance of things ever happening. Save up for stuff. Book tickets twenty years in advance to get them cheap. Find a pet sitter. Arrange work schedules (being a freelancer, I need to get enough jobs to cover for my week long absence as well as pay for the vacation) so basically, there’s a lot of long term planning involved.
But here’s the thing about long term plans. THEY DON’T WORK OUT EITHER!! Life sucker punches you and gives you wedgies and bullies you into blowing your long term plans to handle the crisis at hand…
Ok now I’m generalizing a bit. All long term plans may not end up like that but my life is behaving like a particularly recalcitrant child right now… Absolutely refusing to settle down. And I desperately needed to feel that madness again. To feel like something more than just an average middle class woman with a boring life .
A few days ago I was invited to judge a screenplay writing event for the intercollegiate mass media festival that my college hosts every year. Polaris. Polaris had been our lifeblood during our time on campus and being back in the thick of things reminded me once again of how my life has changed since college. I later went to see our Head of Department, Prof. Sudhakar Solomon Raj. Along with being the head of the Bachelors of Mass Media (BMM) program, he is also the heart and soul of the Wilson College Nature Club (WCNC) So basically, the meeting point of the two things that changed my life after I came to the city; BMM and WCNC. Meeting him made me want to go back to college like never before.
But since Harry Potter and his friends smashed all the Time Turners that the Ministry of Magic had, my plans to steal one and go back to college looked bleak. So I decided to do the next best thing. I signed up for the trek that was to happen a week later. Not a long one; just a day long trek. Easy peasy… Not too expensive or time consuming and after years of sitting on my ass, not so physically taxing that I’d find it difficult.
I was excited. Oh so excited! The whole week, I looked forward to the Sunday trek. I fished out my shoes, picked out appropriate attire and made mental check lists of everything I’d need. Even when I was working, I found myself pleasantly day dreaming of the hours I’d spend in the National Park. It was to be my day. MY day… To recapture a sense of adventure, of sheer joy and excitement. To break away from the mundane. It was going to be awesome!
But Life is that bitch who came up with the idea of pouring pig’s blood on Carrie when she was expecting to have the time of her life. Yep. A real bitch!
‘Cause guess what happened just before I was to leave for the trek. Go on… You get three guesses…
Nope, my shoes didn’t fall apart.
And my only trek worthy set of clothes didn’t tear.
And I didn’t suddenly get a call for a coveted assignment.
I woke up with a crick in my neck. Yes!! A bloody CRICK IN MY F’ING NECK!!! Can you believe that?! I mean, after having looked forward to this all week, here I was, groaning in pain, typing out my message to Sudhakar Sir explaining my absence because one bone in my body decided to call in sick! Today… It was supposed to be MY day!! I was supposed to go grab life with both hands or whatever… But I can’t because of a crick in my neck..?! I mean… Seriously??? Seriously!!!!