Can't fight the moonlight

I had just finished seeing the movie, Y Tu Mama Tambien when I decided to visit my erstwhile favourite spot in the hostel, the top of the mess. The moon was unusually bright today like one which can be visualized in most romantic stories, underneath which two faithful lovers propose their undying affection for each other.

From a purple haze just above the trees canopying our extensive campus, the sky changed colour rather slowly as it mellowed into a more somber blue. Blue or a bluish black. It was quite a clear night. Alas, I couldn’t see too many stars in the sky. Rather contradicts my earlier observation about it being a clear sky. In any case, there was just this ominously white lunar disk accompanied by some solitary twinkling stars.

The world is rather silent at around two in the morning. Most of the birds and animals seem to be asleep while the nocturnal ones are remaining awake albeit very quiet. A distant laugh can be heard and I presume it’s a group of students staying up to compensate for their procrastination. Apart from that very quiet indeed. Recently a friend asked me given a choice between quiet and loud, which one I would prefer. Instantaneously I went for quiet. Which is weird since I always thought I was a noise person. One who in fact finds it hard to eat, study and even sleep without some sort of sound in the background. My parents often repeat the tale of how they used to force me to sleep when I was quite young. Apparently they recorded an onomatopoeic “Tuk Tuk” sound on a cassette and played that over and over again till I went to sleep. Talk about an idiosyncrasy.

Anyways, about the movie I had just seen. Very entertaining but somehow the ending left me…umm… worried. Sad. This is going to be a spoiler for those who haven’t seen the movie, but the fact is I wasn’t that sad that the heroine died. That was rather expected. But that the two boys, such thick friends, were shown to drift away so easily. True, I might just be showing early signs of havingToLeaveHostelSoonitis. But this was one of those feelings which gave me the goosebumps…

Walking across the mess top brought back memories of last year. Last semester to be precise. And I paused to glance at the adjoining 3^rd wing. Then, a swift turn of the neck to look at the somewhat opposite 6^th wing. I imagined Sai and Pondy running around the 3^rd wing yelling something about what Balls had done and Lala’s unmistakable voice shouting at one of his wingmates after one of their diurnal quarrels, with a Pink Floyd song faintly playing in the background. I’m sure that anyone who has ever lived in a hostel will agree atleast partially to the statement that somehow we consider our seniors much cooler and better than us. And that they consider their seniors in the same way. And hopefully our juniors find us similarly. It’s a sort of inexplicable feeling probably arising from ignorance and things we just assume. Or maybe just because they are in fact cooler and better than us. Old football and quake memories flooded back. Ah, those days.

And to think that all this can be forgotten, nay, eclipsed by things to come. People who have read the entire Lord of the Rings and/or those who have unfortunately been my company for enough time now know of the impressive effect Tolkein pulls off in the very last chapter of his three story saga. In that one chapter, he races ahead by a whole generation of individuals skipping along with much velocity about the future of the original characters in a style which almost makes us forget the actual protagonists of the story. For so long we had read all their exploits and yet so quickly we forget their very existence. Or atleast I did. And I applaud the author for that, whether it was done consciously or otherwise.

So cold. So very cold. The morning air is quite nippy today. Oh how I yearn for eternal weather such as this. The icy, almost metallic, touch of the breeze definitely clears one’s mind. I take in a huge whiff of this natural intoxicant. Heavenly…

I finally feel the initial symptoms of that most enjoyable act so tersely termed sleep. That state of semi-suspended near-death abeyance which offers rest to the physical body while simultaneously providing proverbial food for thought through the delusional delights of dreams.

“Stop!” cry the grey cells. “That’s enough thinking for the day.” And worst of all, I have a morning class first up. Dejected, I decide to call it a night. But just before I leave, I take one more look at the moon and nod my head as if to say thank you.

That said, I finally sleep only much later...

Life moves on…

Spring, summer, fall, winter and spring again.