The Ripple Effect

04/08/2015

Life is an amazing thing. People give different definitions to it, give it metaphors and compare it to many things; but for me Life is simply amazing. We start life with a cry trying to fill in our lungs with the first breath of oxygen. The life so started goes on until we let out our last breaths.  For some life is short for others it’s long, the end of life is as uncertain as it’s start. Some end it deliberately, for others it comes untimely, some live to embrace the end at the right time. 

So from our first cry to the last breath, we go on experiencing what life has in store for us. The first lessons of life are taught to us by our parents, then we learn things naturally playing with our siblings and listening to narrations and stories of adults and interacting with the environment around us. Next big life teacher is school. There is so much we learn in school. The friends we make in school sometimes remain with us for the rest of our life. They share our joys and tears. Teachers become second parents. Overall school life leaves with us so many happy memories and sad ones too. But later in life u can smile remembering your memories and relive them.

Having set the entrance to this essay with the above 2 paragraphs, now I am going to tell what learning a college student receives during his/her bachelor life. Believe me it is not all fun as many say. During college years we learn the bitter truths of life, all through experiences and most of the time the learning comes the hard way. It is not about attending lectures on time, getting good marks, completing your assignments on time or, bunking lectures, hanging out with friends till late night, partying all day and etc.  But it’s all about "surviving".

Now there is nothing to panic when I say it’s ‘surviving’. But living in a foreign country away from home depending on the monthly allowance given to you by a scholarship fund makes you a more responsible person.

I arrived in Pune India in July 2014 along with 35 other Srilankans as recipients of the Nehru Memorial Scholarship scheme awarded by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). This is a fully funded scholarship. So I am really happy to have received this. Not simply because I am going to get a degree at no financial cost but also because this means that I am going to go out of home, live in a foreign land all on my own and be more independent. So the news that I’ve been awarded the scholarship made me dream of a new life.

I started my new life in India along with my brother and fellow Srilankans with dreams stacked up to the nose. We knew we are going to be paid a monthly living allowance of INR 10,000 which is actually quite a sum for a single undergraduate considering the generally accepted fact that cost of living in India is less. So my thoughts ran all over. I started to think of all the fun stuff I could do with my savings.

But life is full of mysteries, dreams aren’t always reality. My first few days in India were like hell on Earth. We were literary stranded on a foreign land with only a few seniors to look up to.  India is not much different from Srilanka but the system is different, people are different and the language is different. Instantly I realized there is so much we have to learn and that we have to tend to ourselves. One self is ones’ own protector. My school motto.

After staying for 5 days in a hotel with the help of our seniors we found a flat. So now I share this flat with my brother and 5 others. I am the only girl living here.  Another big experience. Living alone with 6 guys might sound a bit awkward. Well it did sound the same for me at first and there were times when I thought do I have to live this way? Will I be comfortable? Will I have my privacy? And so on but now I know I picked the right choice in deciding to live with guys instead of girls. I am more comfortable and I can always be myself with guys than with girls. I do not have to be extra tidy and neat cause the guys are always less neat than me. I don’t have to pretend. I can speak out what’s in my mind. If I want to shout at someone I can do it at any time and we can be friends again a moment later. This is not always possible when living with girls unless you are living with your best of best friends who are just like you and understand each other without having to speak words. So if I chose to live with girls here I would have been pretending most of the time, still I would have managed to live without anyone disliking me but I am not sure whether I would have been at ease. Surviving with SL guys in Pune is easier than surviving with SL girls in Pune.

As I said earlier a student learn many things in life the hard way. The best of it is the value of money. You never know how much money means to you until when a time comes where you don’t have money. Right now I am understanding this bitter truth. My bank a/c balance as for today is INR 26.00/-. We haven’t received our living allowance for the months of July and August yet. All my savings were spent when I went for summer vacations back to Srilanka. The rest was spent on paying house rent, electricity bills, Internet bills and etc. Even if the a/c balance is zero, the bills have no mercy.  So now my main concern is nothing else but surviving.

 A few weeks ago I saw a beggar boy gleaming with delight when he received a Rs. 10/- note from a vehicle stopped in the traffic. I could see the happiness in his face when he waved the Rs. 10/- note to his fellow friends who were also begging. For a person with no money at all even a Rs. 10/- note appears like a Rs. 1000/- note. I felt the same when I picked a Rs. 10/- note lying on the ground right in front of the college gate a few days back. I felt no shame to pick it and I didn’t mind who was looking at me I simply felt happy cause I knew that money can help me survive.  These days I am doing treasure hunts at home trying to find forgotten coins and change money left in pockets and windowsills once upon a time when we had money. Finding at least a Rs 1.00/- coin means a lot now. Suddenly even change money has become of great value.

 So during these times when a friend offers to buy you lunch, the feeling cannot be expressed in words.  These few days we had been living only on 2 meals. We don’t cook breakfast. It’s only dinner we prepare at home. Breakfast and lunch we are supposed to have from outside. But now it is not possible with no money. We are lucky if something remains from last night’s dinner to eat in the morning. If nothing remains then it means you have to leave home empty stomach and stay till lunch time at college. At lunch you can have something to gobble since friends are always willing to share. So even though it fills only half the stomach still we are happy because it’s better than starving. Little things like a Rs. 10/- milk packet, a Balaji potato crakers  packet and a Maza has suddenly become unaffordable luxuries. Things like beautiful dresses hanging on shop windows, shoes on the pavement vendors tiny space has all become things beyond imagination. I have never wasted money or spent unnecessarily. I’ve always known that money is scarce and valuable but I never ‘felt’ the scarcity as now. Right now Money = Food + Bus tickets only. I cannot even dream of anything beyond that.

 But the good thing about this is now I can step into any big shopping mall in town, spend as much time as I want to, visit all the designer wear stores and if I really want to I can try on a few designer dresses too, take selfies inside the fit-on room (I am not much of a selfie fan) and simply walk out thanking the sales assistants while telling them the dress doesn’t fit me. When you have no money at all you don’t have to be cautious about spending money or impulse buying, but still you can enjoy the luxury shopping experience without spending a penny.

This has taught me to appreciate the little things in life. Things that seemed to be absent has now become meaningful just like the forgotten Rs.1.00/- coin left on the windowsill some time back when my pockets were full and a free meal by a friend. This has also shown how important it is to save and spend wisely. No book can teach you these better than bitter experiences of life itself. The present desperate situation of mine is very temporary in a few days I will have enough money again to pay off my debt and live on, so until then I am not sad but glad that I am learning to be a careful and wise customer with a heart for the needy who cannot even afford the very basics in life like the beggar boy at the traffic who lacks food, shelter, clothing, love, and education.

These are a few of my 'Life' experiences.

More to come :)