Page 104 - You Only Live Once [BooksLD]

I have moved to Goa for December. My semester exams are around the
corner and so are the preparations for New Year’s Eve in Goa. But I am
more excited about being with Alara and preparing for my performance on

New Year’s Eve.
Although the unseasonal rains have turned monotonous, they feel special
on this day. I am lying down in my bed and have passed five hours tossing
from one corner to the other. I have pampered myself with dozens of cups
of coffee and music.

At my hometown, Indore, it is quite different. Whenever it would rain,
my mom would fry onion pakoda s for me and serve it with hot ginger tea. I
have rejoiced most rains in my life with these utilities. But I have mostly

been away these last six months. I am alone. I have not made new friends,
except Alara. I stay in touch with the old ones though, but only
telephonically. The memories with Tara have not yet faded away. Whenever
the wind gets cooler and the weather gets windier, the clouds get darker
more within than without.

But they say that having memories is like coming home to something!
Surprisingly, they never mention whether they’re good or bad memories.
I want to travel the whole world, perform in many more places, yet I

don’t wish to be known! It is crazy as to why someone would want to live a
life where nobody really knows them. After all, after so much fame, money
would follow, and isn’t that what each one of us wants in life?
It is getting dark outside. It has been raining constantly since morning.
But now it has got abrupt. It has taken its ferocious side and has bewildered

people with thunder. The lightening got intense and could be heard as if
every nanosecond. The mercury has also fallen by 10 degrees now. I feel
cold as I move towards the window to bolt the shutters. I have moved into
one of the huts at Ricky’s.

It is small but exceptionally equipped to accommodate me. I repress my
urge to shut the window, and instead sit beside it to enjoy the wonderful
rains. As I wait for the clock to strike 11, it comes as a shock to me how
unbearably slow each moment passes.

It’s a quick boat ride that Alara and I would be taking to the nearby
Canacona island. I wish to share the bliss of this rainfall with her. As the
roads are packed and the frogs are back, everything seems to say it out loud