Straussi – II - Sweet Home – II

22 Months at Straußäcker – II!!! Damn the 2-year contract by the Studentenwerk... Triggering many including me to leave out of this newly found home...

Truly memorable times here in the past months since I came to Stuttgart... Was simply pondering what made life so sweet over the past two years..!!

Was it the comfort of going every day by walk from room to class?

Was it the wonderful facilities at the Studenten Wohnheim?

Was it the independence of doing whatever we want inside our rooms?

Was it the chance to experiment with our own cooking skills?

These actually were also a few reasons . . . !!! But the actual reason is something else. . .

Just could not imagine the life here if ever I was alone all the time . . . !!! Wherever we are, it is the presence of the right people around that always makes a difference...!! Well, thats precisely the main reason which made my life so eventful here...!!

So many memories still oozing through the mind . . .

How often can birthdays be memorable when celebrated alone? When there are friends who offer the warmest of wishes with some ultra-heavy-massage-birthday-bumps, the cake-smashing-sessions after the pleasant cake cut, the generosity of washing us with Rasagulla syrup, the weird-commented T-shirt gifts, the innumerable chocolate presents, specially made sweets by friends – how special can a birthday be . . . ?? Thats how my birthdays have turned out to be, here . . . !!!!!

To celebrate birthdays of friends for more than 2 hours and a dinner specially organized by the ‘Geburtstag Kind’ – the birthday baby (:P) – and the Antakshari and game sessions afterwards – these can be possible only at places like ours...!

How often can we think of having a walk inside a forest whenever we want it?? Not in many places can you witness this happening whenever we wish – but not here...!! With cool forest stretches just behind our dormitories, any period of boredom turns automatically into a fun walk into the forest. And, when you have enough friends to arrange a barbeque in the mid of a forest, what limits of fun can that take us into?? 

  

When you find no reason to have a get-together, but still wish to have a get-together amongst friends, where else in the world can it be so easily done!!!!! Just walk into someone’s dormitory and start picking up people – forming a group on the way and knocking and grabbing people into the ever-growing queue – and then assembling at a particular kitchen – only for the owner of the kitchen to prepare food for the whole queue....

How often can you wake people up at 4 am in the morning and ask them to prepare Dosa...? 

The list simply goes on . . .

Can all these ever happen again so easily...?? 

A friend of mine rightly said last week, “It is not the place alone that makes a difference, but it is also the PEOPLE around us in the place that makes a difference...”