Procrastination, thy name is Amrita

Sharp at ten, between books
and dreams, it looks
like Coffee comes to our rescue everyday.
Our ritualistic Coffee walks
and Coffee talks
are in the third year now (like us!)
It’s a New Year every night
Resolutions, like stars, light
up our eyes, and quickly fizzle out
like yesterday’s cola.
But in all our earnest faith
in ourselves and in promises
we say we’ll put time
to better use than rhyme
and here I am
breaking our little pact.

–

I originally wrote this bit of doggerel verse on 16/09/2004, in the week of mid-terms back in IIT-B. Sam and I would take a coffee break every night before an exam. We would pick up our free cup of coffee (courtesy Hostel 10) and head out, talking about everything under the stars. A recurring theme in these peripatetic conversations was how time flew and how we found ourselves at the same juncture semester after semester – one night before an exam with tons of work still left. And we resolved to procrastinate less and plan more. A pact that was (thankfully) broken week after week, year after year.

Almost exactly a year ago, on 31 January 2007, I had a strange awakening in my train ride back home from a particularly unsatisfactory day at work. Options that I had dismissed in the past suddenly lined up in my head and seemed to fit together. I saw the Path. I knew it that a year from then, I could be much much closer to what I really wanted.

3 1 January 2008 was last week. What was I doing then? I was listening to a bunch of drunk friends confessing their.. umm.. deepest darkest secrets. The day came and went. And so did another 6 days after that. It struck me today that I had missed my personal deadline. However, there are some other deadlines that cannot be missed. Putting this here as a reminder to self: write woman write.