What is so magical about the rain? Why do you feel like sitting and staring at it for hours? Why do all life reflections strike us when it rains? Why do raindrops sound so comforting?

Seated on the steps of my school, gazing at the rain, my mind drifts back in time...I see everything, times I won, times I lost...I see all my dreams. Dimensions change and I escape this moment and all the thoughts, worries accompanying it. I look at life as a whole, realizing something at once-life sure is exciting...! It's the best journey one can ever be a part of. Suddenly I'm filled with the urge to know what future holds, where I'm meant to be...

Quite lately I've started practising total surrender. Well, at least to every possible extent. I believe in the divine plan and I know that my fate has been written. I know that whatever happens, happens for the best. So if I lose I know I was meant to lose and something good is certainly associated with it. The best part--sooner or later, my belief in this theory is reinforced.

Life seems so vulnerable sometimes, like when you're aware of what you've lost, something that you'd thought was here to stay...like this rain...

Okay people. Another incident. Another major life-lesson.

But first, define "cool" for me?

Those of you who watch the "big-bang theory", might as well tell me that cool is something Sheldon, Leonard, Raj and Howard are sooo not. Point duly noted.

Yesterday was my first day back at the university after a 4-month long hiatus. It was an easy ride till Singapore. I had a batch-mate and a senior to accompany me, and they were both nice! Remember I told you guys about the major struggle I had to undertake in order to find myself an off-campus accommodation? Well, that's not totally true, I mean, heck! it's the tech-age! I had to write a few mails, click a few buttons and bang! I had a room booked for myself at a youth-hostel two stops away from my uni. Easy.

What was difficult was what hit me when I reached the airport! Damn! I was all on my own. Usually it's something I enjoy. Really. While some people would kill for company, I've spent a major part of my life alone at home and I'm pretty good at keeping myself engaged. So yeah, managing things on my own is never an issue for me, but still, all through my previous semesters, I was spoilt to the T by my now-no-longer-in-existence friends. So, my arrival at the Singapore airport with me having nil expectations of coming across a single face awaiting my arrival, it was a major heads-up on what I was supposed to get used to.

Though a lot happened between my leaving the airport in a cab with the senior, and my arrival at the youth hostel, I'll skip that lot. What matters lies ahead. So at 10 am in the morning, I find myself at the general office of yo:HA (short for "your habitat"), the youth hostel I had booked myself a triple-sharing room in. Another 1.5 hours and I'm looking for my room on the 8th floor of the same block. I open the door. Lo! and behold..! The place was not even close to the pictures they'd put up on the internet. There was a living room, 2 bedrooms (3 girls in each), an OTS and attached bath. Squeeze everything to half the size you're imagining right now and that's yo:HA for you! There was only one other girl when I moved in, she belonged to the other bedroom, so she was a "housemate", there wasn't a word, no friendly hi! nothing! But, nothing felt awkward. You know when everything starts happening the wrong way, things actually seem like making sense. So something good happening thereafter takes you by surprise. And that's what was about to happen.

I entered my mouse-hole sized room to find a bunk bed and a separate single bed along with 2 tables and 3 cupboards. There was already some luggage there, and adding my own to that, it took up the whole space. Brilliant. My own little pigpen!

Okay so settling, changing, settling, and heading for college. What did I have in mind...? Simple! Go there, pay the 4-month overdue phone bill, withraw cash from the atm, attend the internship fair and collect all of my luggage from various places and bring it back to yo:HA. Task 1,2,3 check! Now I was at the internship fair, lost in the crowd, looking for one friendly face that may have a "hey-sure-i'll-help-you-with-the-luggage" look about him. Mission impossible.

So okay, everyone I used to be so close to, now felt worse than strangers. Sad. Yeah. I gave up. Heading for the exit, trying to zeal myself upto believing that I could manage transfering the luggage on my own (who was i kidding?), i heard someone..."hey priyanka!" I knew that voice...Hmm...I'd say this was the 3rd or the 4th time perhaps we'd met at a public occasion and exchanged these hi's. He always seemed like a nice genuine fellow, but no, not cool. He was the exact replica of Sheldon on the big-bang theory. So I never really took the conversation any further. But this time, I was desperate, it didn't make much difference either so I took a shot, "hey! if you're free, could help me out with my luggage?"

The job at hand was tedious, there was a suitcase, a handbag, a guitar, to be collected from one room, carried all the way to another place, from where i had to collect two large cartons, each weighing a ton, and finally puttin it all in a cab and to my place off campus, straight to the 8th floor and into my appartment. But an hour or so later, it was all done and the guy was drenched in sweat. I duly thanked him and treated him with dinner later.

So, what was the lesson?

Never go for looks. What's the point in being all cool and ultra-popular when you can't even help out someone in need? It's what inside that counts. Don't ever undermine or snub someone just because he's not cool. He may turn out to be your only saviour sometime! ;)