Winter special !

It was a Saturday. I was working a 6 am shift at the computer lab; half asleep I was supposedly assisting the inane med-students in their attempt to turn paper notes into slides! Those labs in med school was built with least respect for people working with computers, or so I thought, recessed in the insides of concrete jungle after miles of corridors from the nearest exit.

Two days ago, I had just peeped out of my window to catch the first glimpse of snow. The fresh flakes that seemed to be in a hurry to reach mother earth welcomed the concept of winter in me. I was happy, I remember- all those childhood dreams of America seemed to be turning true, the land of snow and year-around Christmas! (Well, that’s what I thought after watching Home Alone as a kid) However we did not venture out and the snowfall was rather short-lived.

When my shift was over at 2pm, I was hungry and after a long walk outdoors, I found it was snowing, rather heavily. I knew the forecast had been bad and was well prepared and yet I think I did not quite expect it to be this heavy. It was not anything like what I had watched on TV or that, that was two days ago, not a pretty sight by any means, not when my tummy was growling. And I had a ten minute walk through the campus before I can reach home. Not quite sure, how to steer my route, I was walking on fresh now; deep down I was scared if I would skid and break a limb or two. I was scared more so because, I did not see anyone else out ‘walking’ in the snow and if I did fall, I was not going to be able to get up without help; I imagined that if I fell, I would slide down the MLK road, slide down all the way until MLK’s gradient leveled. That big jumbo leather jacket from India protected me and brought me home. Later I came to know that was the heaviest snow in Cincinnati in 16 years!!!!

Today, as I was walking down to work on the streets of Manhattan, braving the cold and the wind, some tiny harmless flakes of snow, for some reason, I remembered this first venture with snowfall. I smiled. Well, I have definitely begun to love winter in my brief stay in USA!