“Some kind of magic…

happens late at night.

When the moon smiles

down at me

and bathes me in its light.”

Brand New Day by Joshua Radin

—

Sam, Christina and I would benefit from some kind of magic tonight. After shuttling around from paying hospital to free hospital to breakfast and lunch, to temple, to sweets shops and bakery, various clinics and departments, we have, in front of us, piles of clothes, books and a lot of unfinished tasks.

Thank you cards have to be written.

Final emails have to sent as I prepare to go internet-less for the next two weeks.

Eight months of my worldly possessions have to be trimmed to fit my airline company’s weight restrictions.

Mental preparation for life without Sam and Christina has to commence.

Goodbyes have to be said.

Tomorrow, we’ll tie up all these loose ends and then part ways. I will go off to Trichy where I will spend some time with my family before I head home to Sri Lanka for two weeks. Christina is travelling around Mumbai and Delhi before flying home and Sam heads back to the land of “real” cheese, pizza and bagels on Sunday.

I have met and talked to inspiring people who it will be difficult to say bye to.

I have also met and talked to people who frustrate me so much, to the extent that I will be happy to say bye to them.

I have been reminded by aforementioned people that I have my own personality flaws that I should work on – being less sensitive, giving people another chance, and pushing myself to believe that a little bit more gentle persuasion will help get the work done.

Working at Aravind has been a wonderful experience. The story of Dr. V, the founder of Aravind, always moves me to think of ways in which I can stop complaining and start doing. While I have definitely decided that healthcare is not my field, and have been validated in studying Political Science, I have picked so many skills that will be very useful in what I want to do: intense commitment and a stronger appreciation hard work, humility, the importance of friends and family, and the value of down time. I would not exchange this summer experience!

I will miss a lot about Aravind, but in that typically non-exotic way, I will also miss my non-Indian peers: Sam and Christina. Between the three of us, we have psychoanalyzed a lot of things like why Sam has trouble sleeping, why Sindhu and Christina talk SO much about carbohydrates, why Christina should go to medical school and why Sindhu thinks being called ‘mainstream’ can be an insult. After spending 9 months away from Penn and the United States of America, I have been eased back into life in the “best country in the world”, reminded of what I experienced over the past three years, thanks to Christina and Sam’s outbursts of American appreciation whenever they got wistful and nostalgic about home. Now I know all about how Christina got asked out to prom, what Sam eats at his favourite Italian restaurant in Long Island, and (finally) how Greek life works (thanks to the fact that Sam is such a frat bro).

So before I go back to my magical night of packing and doing other chores, I would like to say, thank you for reading our blog posts. I should also warn you that the three of us have blog posts due consecutively, so apologies in advance for the Aravind overdose. Also, please stay tuned for our amateur but enthusiastically taken video describing our lives at Aravind for you.

Until then,

with much love,

Sindhu