The Exponential phase

"... with change coming slowly, if it comes at all. For things are meant to endure in the Shire. There has always been at a Baggins at Bag End ..... and there always will be ...."

The start of Fellowship of the Ring is probably one of the best movie segment I've ever seen. Bilbo's description of the Shire, the beautiful background music, the serene landscape and the simple life of the Hobbits - paints the picture of an idyllic life, untouched by the complications of modern society. It has a primitive, unsophisticated and almost childish flavor that makes it very soothing to watch, especially when I'm very tired or depressed. Those first few minutes of the movie is almost like a sweet dream - a utopia far removed from the realities of life. The picture is that of a simple, stagnant, self contained community of people not concerned with the happenings of the outer world. But the mood of the movie changes quickly with the ring taking the center stage and shattering the serene atmosphere of the simple life in Shire. The pace is the rest of the movie and the other parts of trilogy is strikingly different from that in the beginning.
The last 3 years have brought about a tremendous change in my life - the only permanent thing in my life been - change. The pace has been ever increasing and I sometimes think with sheer amazement, how 3 years had passed without me noticing it. It had not been easy all the time - as a matter of fact, for most of the time it had been quite difficult but it was the challenge that made me going and for most part I enjoyed it. It really marked my 'coming of age' and brought with it something so intoxicating that it is probably the thing I yearn for the most - freedom!
3 years back, four of us (Sumit - Chick, Partha - Bando, Tushar and myself) rolled out of Howrah station one evening on the Kamrup Express, on a trip to North Bengal and Sikkim. At that time, we were just happy and excited about the trip ahead and by the fact that we were going to someplace on our own (i.e. without out parents). Looking back I realise the enormous significance of that trip. I don't know about others but for me it was nothing short of a paradigm shift. The trip itself was a wonderful one - I have never had more fun and surprises in my life. We had set out with very modest ambitions but what we achieved was nothing short of momentous for us!
The sleepless night on the train, the almost ethereal view outside as dawn approached, the biting cold next morning, the jeep ride to Darjeeling, the first sight of Kanchenjunga, the nice and cozy guest house with the wonderful view were just the beginning. The almost empty streets in winter made me fall in love with the place and I have been to that region for 4 times in next 2.5 years - and everytime it had been a different experience. It was also my first foray into Sikkim and more importantly the high mountain country of North Sikkim. Staying in the small village called Lachung, the valley at Yumthang and the white amphitheatre and the last milestone at Donkiala. It was not just wonderful sights but also some interesting people that made the trip memorable - the caretaker of the guest house at Darjeeling, Mr Banerjee - the travel agent in Siliguri, the beautiful girl at the shop in Rangpo, Tipu Basak in Gangtok. That trip will also be memorable for certain hilarious incidents - Tushar's phone conversation with P, Bando's telephonic romance under the blanket, that morning on Tiger Hill and the coffee, Gangamaya park, the flat tyre at Rangpo and the girl at the shop, the evening by the Lachung river celebrating Bando's birthday and most importantly Chick's iconic comment - "Ekei ki mod bole?" and Bando's daring 100ml shot of Old Monk!!! (the effects were immediately apparent)
Since then I have been consumed by an almost irresistible urge to travel and in the last 2 years and 4 months, I have a travelled some 48,000 miles - twice the equatorial circumference of earth! That is almost unbelievable considering the fact that before that period in almost 20 years of my life I have never been beyond 1200 miles of my hometown - Kolkata.
These years have brought about a plethora of new experience for me and has completely transformed my life - in terms of my attitude towards life, my outlook, my eating and drinking habits, my hobbies. Every place I have been to, every person I have met has left an impact on me. It has also been amazing in terms of the range of experience I have been through - from sheer despair to the wonderful feeling of being on top of the world, from the crowded streets of Varansi to the vast wilderness to the Tibetan plateau, from talking to a simple farmer on a train to a banquet dinner with a Nobel laureate, from a terribly cold sleepless night in remote mountains to a five star experience, from terrible loneliness to the almost heavenly warmth of togetherness, from frozen yak meat at a shepard's shack to vintage champagne 40,000 ft in the sky, from the windswept plains of North Sikkim to Grand Gallery in Louvre, from the small monastery in a remote Himalayan village to the wonders of the Vatican Museum and the St Peters, from preparing for a presentation on a night train to the wonderful and relaxed view of the Austrian Alps from a train to Rome, from traveling on top of a rickety bus to flying over the Khyber Pass in business class, from the dieting spree at Kgp to the 4 days of drinking beer instead of water in Berlin, from sleeping for 14 hours to going without sleep for 5 days, from the
simple dal-roti in Billoo's to eating live octopus!
These years have been nothing short of momentous and has vastly increased my 'comfort range' in terms of food, living conditions, working style, social circle, climatic conditions and my ability to adapt. Someone once asked me that if I were allowed to go back in time and change something, what would I do. In my opinion, I won't do anything with these 3 years. I have enjoyed the triumph as much as I have learned from the tragedy. I sometimes regret the hard decisions that I have had to make at the crossroads of life but I guess that's the purpose of life - making a choice between two things equally dear to you. As someone once said that only unfulfilled love is true love - the regret of not being able to decide otherwise at the crossroads is the reality of life.
There are certain phases of life that seem to pass by too quickly. Looking back we wonder how have we come so far without ever realizing it. I have no regrets with what happened - just satisfaction. Satisfaction at the fact that I succeeded at the times that I had to, satisfaction at the fact that I failed at times that made me sometimes terribly sad but made me make the choices that I made. I don't know what future has in store for me but these 3 years of life - a phase of life that I call the exponential phase, will always be special for me. In the years to come I may sink to the deepest abyss or rise to the highest summit - but whatever it may turn out to be, I'll always be happy about what happened in these 3 years. "The Universe has a way of cause-correcting" - for the past 3 years I have realised that it could not have been more true!