It’s been a while since I visited the blog site and posted anything. As I was browsing through the Web site just now, I realized that the first post was uploaded on 25 July 2008, exactly two years ago! I am a person who is easily impressed with such instances of coincidence. And as I played with dates and years, rolling them in my mind to and fro, from past to present to some unforeseen future, I figured that there remains only five more days for me to call myself an employee of Pearson Education.
I suddenly remember how often, when I was in school, I would only finish reading those books that I borrowed from libraries or from friends – those that came with deadlines. And the books I would buy would remain untouched at home, gathering dust, in piles and rows. I guess I felt a similar kind of urgency to post something on the blog, while I am still able to. So I sit in front of the computer, with nothing worthwhile in my head that I can write about.
My mind devises a silly game. It splits into two – SA and SB. SA asks SB questions, and SB answers them as truthfully as possible.
SA: So how does it feel to realize that there are only five days left?
SB: Well, it’s been three years, which is quite some time. Honestly, now that you remind me I am quitting in five days, I suddenly feel a bit emotional.
SA: Tell me about some of your experiences?
SB: I get flashes of the first day in the office, Y and I tucked away in the farthest end of the basement, the uncontrollable giggles we had to fight in our attempts to be a part of the adult world; the stay at Patparganj with four other friends; the nastiness of landladies; the initial rickshaw rides, and later the bus rides, to work; the friends I made; the trips in and around the city with them; the NSMs; the trust in machines that create books from authors fed into them (well, Amar will able to explain that better to those who are unaware of such advanced technologies); the variety of authors I got to interact with; the variety of manuscripts I had to figure out; the thrill of seeing the manuscript turn into a printed book (I still remember how I jumped around the basement in jubilation, when I saw the The Naxal Challenge as a book. It was the first ever project I had worked on, while I was still an intern. The transformation from a bunch of A4 sheets to a printed book seemed nothing less than magical!)…
SA: Ok, come on, sum this up in one line.
SB: I learnt every day, and I loved the learning.
As I am about to wrap up the game I play with myself, I realize how much I am going to miss everyone at PEI and also being a part of the organization. A friend of mine tells me I should concentrate on the adventures that lie ahead, rather than look at what I would be leaving behind, and my mind obediently wanders off to the distant land I will soon inhabit and things I might learn there.