From flat plains to highlands

Five years, two months and four days is a long time to spend in the middle of corn fields, far far away from a big city. Every sunday morning for half a decade, I opened the window to enjoy the complete absence of sprawling traffic, busy honking, crowded traffic intersections, families rushing to find entertainment, billboards flashing or smoke from a monster truck that wades its way to feed the hungry fat kids at McDonalds.

Instead, I was treated to the sight of a lazy grad student walk slowly, burdened by the many thoughts in his mind (including the pretty new labmate thing that has become an unexpected distraction...) and the large sparrow with shining eyes, curiously tracking him after a sumptuous lunch of corn and insects. Together, grad students and sparrows have happily shared this town for a hundred years and life will move on with or without you and me...

With time, one grows to love Urbana-Champaign: a village with all the goodness of a small town, packaged with an excellent university. A few miles this way or that will invariably bring you to a mud road that stretches to eternity and remains perfectly unruffled like a calm maiden stretching her legs on a riverbank. You may even find a few bored ducks relaxing on a neighboring pond.

The scene remains the same wherever you look: greyish gravel roads lined with green grass ridden with brown patches. The lush grass is fed by modest water canals and beyond that, the land is populated by tall, green corns that stretch out until the eye can see. There is the rare farm house built just like in kindergarden books, often with a windmill nearby. The "hill" in urbana is a mound about 15 feet high. We even have a "river" that is about 5 feet wide at most places. In its own little way, its almost perfect and (although I hate to use this word) cute.

That apart, I loved both the hill and the river and spent hours sitting there fixing the confusions that rattle every brave man or on better days, watching a beautiful sunset waving goodbye to the busy world. The sunsets get especially wonderful during equinox as the fiery reddish-orange embers, exaggerated by the curvature of the earth, slowly settle down at the end of the road.

I made many friends, lost some, loved them all nevertheless, had excellent food, learnt to dance (embarrassed myself and my dear partner), travelled a lot, learnt squash, played soccer and badminton to my heart's content, had my photo on the front page of the college newspaper (along with an oscar winner, who coincidentally worked in my lab a decade back!), made money and spent it all, leant to cook, fought with people I liked, captured it all on camera, ate a guzillion varieties of ice-creams and chocolates, bought a car and learnt to fix it, built nifty electronic gadgets, made my advisor happy and most importantly, figured out that girls are human and very likeable. :-)

I hate to leave but so do all people who are born to live. For all of this, I would ever love you, Urbana. Adios!