Today was the vote of thanks of the first project I had been a part of my career. I am at the bottom of the hierarchy. But I wish more people at the bottom spoke out better. I could've, but like always I didn't. This post is to make up for that. There is no editing that has gone into this. This is just the flow of words I had when I was there.
The day I turned 21 I got my first contract for a job. I was finishing up my sixth semester that year. People I had started college were finishing up their undergrad. Some had even got contracts to work, other had received offer letters from around the world.
I started working on the second edition of an exhibition, the first meeting I sat in, a member told us of an exhibition whose curation team has to imperatively get therapy after every edition. I think he even mentioned a couple of guys committing suicide after an edition was done.
It's been 6 months, and most of us have become dangerously close to breaking down. Whatever has happened inside our mind, when we will break down, we are yet to figure out. People have grown apart and close during the period, people have quit their jobs and people have rendered unaccounted service for the thing to happen.
For the people who stayed up through the nights to make this happen, thank you. It would not have happened if it were not for you. We are sure of that. I do not know your names. Raghav does know each one of you, and he is grateful to each one of you.
A lot of things went wrong. To an extent that we knew something was wrong if things didn't go wrong regularly. It was bad, many a time. But it's over. Now we can rest. Perhaps.
For me, it is a physical win. I put myself through rather testing circumstances for the last few weeks and some months before it. I am happy to announce that the physiotherapy has been working, however mundane it is. Surgery was successful. Physio is successful.
On a different note,
It is rather heartbreaking that the project has now come to a close, not because of the project, but because of the people whom I've worked with during the project. The few consultants and the research assistants did make life a lot easier during this solitary semester.
I shall miss the conversations we had, the decisions we helped each other make and the times we just spent working in silence around a table. I shall miss the realizations we've had in our rather early careers, the lessons we taught each other. I shall miss the coffee you smuggled for me, the company you gave me, and the few Saturdays we spent together. I’ll miss the time we spent in the dark Seminar Halls talking about being silent.
It is rather selfish of me to hope that you guys would stay along for a couple more months, or be benevolent enough to complete the year with me. Yet I understand how important it is for you to leave, just like it is for me to continue here.
I never thought I would write this, but it feels that I cannot move ahead with my life as a student, without writing this. In some ways, this is the closure for the last 6 months we've been together.
I hope that next time we meet we are better off, doing things we love, with the people we love, in the places we love.
Thanks for being there, Farewell.
The 6th floor will be incomplete without you.
Darshini will miss us, the coffee room will miss us.