Lists and things

i love to make lists. i usually make tons of lists, i follow some of them. i always pack from a list. except when its a day trip for work, when i just tick the few items (laptop! powercord! mouse! book!) off in my head. i even grocery shop with a list. my cook knows better than to fling item names at me. she makes me write them down and pin them on the fridge. and then when i leave, i forget the list. then i come back for it. sometimes i wing it. i forget half the things when i wing it. i like lists, all of it - making, ticking items off, losing, re-making, looking for the exact right pen for it, using the back of bills and other things (recycle! reuse! not so much reduce!), passing it on to the monster and making her read them out to me (this is tough, my writing is not exactly legible, its like here, how incoherent)....

when i was in germany i decided to start a list. now this is a fun list. things i want to do. sort of like things i want to do before i turn forty. but at work. i am on the cusp of a change. i should make such a list. i need to also make some resolutions. this whole move ought to feel like a big fucking challenge. being the spin-doctor and eternal optimist that i am, it feels to me like an opportunity. people are warning me. don't be too excited! don't think that you will have such a good batch of students every year! but, i am not stupid you know, appearances notwithstanding! i expect no such thing!! don't think this don't think that, they say. it doesn't faze me. i am not thinking those things. i am thinking of what i have done over the past year. if i was to summarise, here it is:

(1) Coffee Breaks

(2) Friday Lunches

(3) Weekday Lunches

(4) Family Parties

(5) Basketball Games

(6) Running

of course none of these were done alone, so imagine how many wonderful people i have met over coffee and lunch. these are the people i will work with. how cool! and when it comes to non-working hours, even if i set aside the bunch of my old friends that i have re-discovered in and around our alma matter, there are the kids! i really did not have so many kids as friends, the past six years as i grappled with everything. i have a long-standing due of a soccer game with two of the boys. i have spent hours over jigsaw puzzles with her. i miss the crazy running around the track with that brother and sister duo, have not done that the past month. although they are so very small (like five), the conversations we have had!

yes, its supposed to be all very challenging for me the next few years. but heck! bring it on! yes, you are welcome to question me on my achievements and stuff. sure! if i had stuck with the momentum i had in mumbai things would have been different. also true that that campus is ahead in terms of changes and new programs (that are relevant to me) in certain ways. i could have ridden that wave. of course. but it doesn't matter! i am here. we have a warm home. monster is happy. i miss my mumbai friends a lot, i miss certain aspects of mumbai a lot, but its okay! overall, i am a happy happy middle-aged aunty with 11 boxes in her office (my office stuff from there).

[also, the coffee is SO MUCH better here. my two favourites: Special Coffee (Rs.5) at Campus Cafe & Cappuccino with double shot of coffee (Rs. 30 at CCD, both with no sugar, of course. so give me a shout out y'all, when you want to drink coffee in chennai.... i have not had to drink tea since i came here thank heavens!]