I was standing in my kitchen admiring the lush greens that Islamabad offered me after a short spell of rain...the soothing scent of the first few water droplets hitting the dry barren earth was like magic to my nostrils.....lost in my reverie ...the rain and the weather somehow made me nostalgic, took me back to memories of 82.5.
82.5 was my room at Warwick...the one place where I want to go back to again and again..the one place that set me free from the confines of my own personality...gave me a chance to explore...to create memories that I can always look back to...I still remember my first trip to my room..one of the most hectic journeys for me. I was accompanied by my dad that day, back then we were both new to the English weather..had just left all our family exactly two weeks ago to shift to a land where it never stopped raining! (hailing from Karachi,this seemed like an abnormality to me).
The killing walks |
Anyways as you can very well imagine we both weren't in the best of our moods..my dad must be cringing inside at letting his little well nested bird fly away for one entire year...(I don't blame him now) and I was having butterflies in my stomach..I couldn't contain my excitement and nervousness at the newness that awaited me...After what seemed like eternity we reached Warwick in a National express coach which dropped us at some God Forsaken land...(we were as disoriented as anyone can possibly imagine).. dragged my suitcases along and grudgingly walked towards what the people at the reception had identified as the way to Heronbank,my home for the next 365 days..
Quack Quack March |
After an infinite number of stops to regain our breath and in numerous cursing at the man behind the ginormous design of the University we saw the redbrick building of flat 82 and so started the journey I had awaited for so long...I had a few friends back from Pakistan already in the University and having bid farewell to my dad we immediately set on the task of exploring aka more walking around the campus....
My room overlooked fields as far as I could see..ducks would come quacking early morning around the area and by the lake that stood adjacent to the dorm buildings, they would be flapping their wings in the cold water and eating away what us, students offered them...It all seemed like a scene out of an English literature book...so Shakespearean!
There was this green tree where I would go and sit under..the best meditating point in the whole wide world...i could just sit there for hours and hours looking at the beauty that surrounded me...and I thought of writing this all back then ,but I was too mesmerized by it all to put it all in words...
My 365 days at Warwick outweigh all the best moments I have ever had in my life and the journey back home was the longest journeys ever...the journey still continues..my memories come flooding back the minute I am stressed and I start yearning for that transient breath of fresh air that this place had to offer.
This place made me meet so many people who became like my family....it made me bear the hardships of living alone with a smile..it turned me into a great cook! lol...I will forever and ever remember my walks from the library to my room in the wee hours of the morning...the fun episode of playing "rung" and our cooking extravaganzas when our stomach whined for some tastefully made food...
I wish one day...I come back to you and pursue my PhD...(this time not in marketing!!) lol...
This goes to you, Warwick...
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