*wild, new, unpredictable life*

As the sunlight floods into my room, the cool breeze blowing the curtain into my face, the scary white pigeon comes and coos near the railing and the sight of the little green plant swaying in the wind, defying everything and growing through the cracks in the concrete makes me smile.

The five-ten minute walk to college is pretty exciting itself.  My roomies talk about assignments and field work and I smile as I hear a familiar song, and see the municipal worker humming to herself as she sweeps, next to her a little boy waits for his school bus, face powdered a tiny hanky pinned to his shirt. The smell of incense overpowers me as we pass the temple, at the signal we wait to cross the road, trucks and buses stop dangerously close and their exhaust fumes travel through my respiratory tract.

A cacophony of bird calls greets me as I walk into campus every morning. I’d normally grumble if I have to wake up early and walk in the rain. But it’s beautiful, the keechad, the puddles of water, the leaf litter, the little rivulets of muddy water that crisscross and form patterns on the black tar.

As I approach the mess for breakfast I can smell the poha, and hear the chattering monkeys, the little ones playing and swinging on the rusty iron ladder, eating the fallen purple fruit on the ground. And my friend, the mynah, hops and runs, trying to outrun the worms, pecks at them and fly away to gobble it in peace.

Today I went for my first institutional visit and also travelled in the famous red BEST buses. As we crossed the Vashi creek, I could see little boats and fishing nets, my vision suddenly obscured by a train on the parallel bridge! Uncles going to work with their colourful unmbrellas,  aunties with flowers in their hair, the tinkle of the bell that signals the bus stops...

I’m learning so much both in and outside the classroom. The pink blossoms that form a beautiful bed outside the classroom window, the koel’s call, the line of ants near the window, the campus dogs PJ talks to in Tamil, they add colour to my canvas.