The more things change....

There have been numerous songs and poems on September and Autumn, as well as December and Winter. Though...when I come to think of it, December hardly comes around to me (..I mean to my inner psyche) as a winter month. Yes, even in Calcutta....it was somewhat a "feel good" month, complete with new winter foods and circus and enjoyable mellow sunshine. For me, wintry months were January, .........and now it is February. In present times, I hate and dread the snowy, the painfully cold, February. Yet, December, January and February were not perceived to be too different from the season preceding it...Fall/Sharat.

The season of "Fall" was as joyful as our good old "Sharat". "Winter" only extended it with numerous fairs, nolen gurer sondesh, joynogorer moya, several Biriyani biyebaris where you could actually wear the compact and keep the hair open and not sweat, the precious bookfair for which I saved money the year long....where you would go with friends, family (separated by different trips) and meet friends and foes and interesting strangers, get mehendi done on palms, followed by dear-to-heart Saraswati Pujo, and Valentine's Day with Holi to end the unforgettable joyride.

Now,... people who are in the same boat with me (the boat being made of self-chosen iron, formed like a cage of "foreign" material with alienation to feed on) get to experience some of these things, via staged desi flavour of things and orkut albums that give us sneek views of weekends spent in Bijoya, Diwali, and then snowing....

Of course, people who are not in the same boat are often heard to be saying "if you had to sigh...why are you even there? why did you choose to be there?"

To this....we cannot give the reason....we cannot...no....probably, couldn't show them the green money...because confess it...there isn't enough green money to flaunt actually. I'm saying this with full knowledge of the subjectivity the word "enough" entails.

The reason of ending something that was started with active agency and motivation, is hardly digested as reason enough.

The good thing is that, even then...there are some goods to flaunt. Oh yeah...you can flaunt money and milk and honey; only when you belong to Married, International Grad Students.

So what does the single grad students (and pseudo single grad student like me) can flaunt?

In this season?

SNOW.

So here you go.....flaunting you my last winter...

Now, before single students living in....Florida and Houston...come with their usual criticisms of snow being the choicest flaunting thing...I can explain............my choice and position, though....probably not my representativeness.

Being in Canada gives you with little option. Yes...it doesn't matter where you stay....as long as you don't stay near the beach....it doesn't differ and and the rest doesn't matter. You can enjoy the fire inside and listen to "let it snow...let it snow..let it snow..."

Recognizing the fact that one could flaunt whatever the other person has less of (or doesn't have), it is understandable how graduate students flaunt their snow experiences regardless of the amount they receive. That gives me some courage to join the flow and flaunt mine too. Regardless of how unappealing the images are to my own self.

Which brings me to the realization that this year would be no different. Winter/snow photos would just be the same...Hello-s would just be the same, Boxing Day wishlist (and budget) would just be the same, and the regret of not meeting some of the inward "to do-s" would also be there; along with the regret of not being able to go home in December.

In spite of so many things being there....and just being there...things that would change--and I would say, probably change--are hairstyles, number of married friends with children (with an ascending rate), weights (both gaining and pulling/pushing), music talent hunt shows, number of friends getting busiest, significance of the academic ego, Rani Mukherjee's haggard look,



and our ability to put in the ":D" smiley with the straightest face.

(I said ability...not frequency and the ultimate reality)

And then...who cares? As much as things change and remain the same or change forever....we remain as good-hearted, as optimist, as cynic, as funny, as naive, as difficult ....as we find ourselves in our daily frugal moments. Circular reasoning? ummm......is it only me who find life as a complete circle? And hope to travel "the full circle?"

Till we cover and complete that circle, let's enjoy the eggnog.