It took a month for the “altruistic eyes” to consume my existence. Consequent to a rather competitive mud-slinging battle, they replaced the previous hold of “unholy cigarettes.” Ironically enough, the beedis were too addicted to me to hop on to a homeward bound flight. But their might couldn’t stand one bit in front yours truly’s new found interest in charitable flying eye hospitals. The beedis had to be thus packed away and sent to rehab (lest they fall into a familiar downward spiral of withdrawal symptoms).

Such drastic changes serve as a comfortable assurance that I can continue to equate my life with high drama. Only, no one is paying the three-figure Broadway price to experience it all. Not even if I offer premium seating.

It would be fitting to say that the lenses have changed. The scenery is different. The wardrobe has been subsumed by a full fledged revolution – the kind I like. The bank balance reflects more zeros before the decimal. To cap it all, I rest my head - in sublime surrender to Morpheus, the Greek God of sleep – on red sheets between two towering red book cases selected in complete satisfaction from many of IKEAS’s other gifts to humankind. Just 365*2 days ago, my entire subsistence could snugly fit in 2 suitcases, the only ones my family owned. Now, I can probably pack my entire family, almost equally snugly, in the nouveau habitat. Did I ever tell you that I like growing up?

With that, I announce my presence on chai-garam. Why? I need to confess because I can never tell a straight lie. And I never tell the truth.

PS: How I would love to imagine myself as a seedy ‘young’ thing hooked to domestic tobacco (very much like you are imagining right now-I know, I have x-ray vision). Unfortunately, the addiction and the love affair with beedis never went beyond a Master’s Thesis on tobacco taxation, now all bound in black with my name printed in gold letters upfront! However, if I graduated from Cornell with just that black book in hand, life wouldn’t look half as good (to me or to others is a different question altogether). So I went and got myself a job. In real time currently, I spend the majority of my waking hours trying to improve an international blindness prevention NGO’s programmatic strategies. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, eh?

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