Messenger of Peace

I hate the Newark weather! Its like this indecisive kid who does not know what he wants and so, gets a bit of each? It was perspiring hot when I started, and all of a sudden, it was drizzling when I finished! Really? Everyday when I don't have an umbrella? On top of that, the perfectly fine Campus Center is being renovated, and all the food shops are closed. Do you know how much will power it takes to convince yourself to have a healthy, tasteless, salad, that makes your teeth ache with all the crunching? Then you walk all the way in the rain to find the shops unavailable and you realize the universe wants you to eat junk! So be it!

But then, Durga Pujo is just around the corner. And everybody has their own agenda :) Sugata da wants an excuse to take more photos, Atreyee wants everything, IB wants bhog, I, want to look thin in the pictures :) or, well, as thin as I can look, okay? Junk the, is out of the plate. Bacha kya? Subway.

Now, if you have ever been to subway, you will know what a pain in the wrong place it is! I have found a solution to the extreme choices laid out there. Just fixate on one sandwich, order it whenever you are there. A time will come when you will be a known face, and all you have to really do, is smile and say "Oh hello Jim, how are you today? I want the usual, thank you!" Heeehaaa!!! Anyway, I notice this hijab clad, beautiful, a little subdued girl standing right behind me. As she fumbled with Italian and Honey Grain and Oats and Wheat and Garlic Bread, I was sure this was her first trip to Subway!

A queue can be a great conversation spot. A little over three minutes, and I knew she is a freshman, here with her brother, who has a class later in the day, and hence she is all by herself, hunting for food before class. She likes a lot of mayo and a little oil in her sub, and has a strong weakness for tuna! I forget her name, but it was beautiful, starting with a Z, with a R and a B thrown in! I asked her what it meant, and she said "living together in peace". Kudos to the parents! I even cracked a little joke saying how she should be the brand ambassador for world peace.

And then she asked me where I was from.

Me: "India"

Z : "You like it there better? Or here?"

Me: "There, of course there"

Z : " I know the feeling! Ghar aakhir ghar hota hai!"

Me: "Oh damn, you speak Hindi! Are you from India too? "

Z :"Oh I am from Pakistan."

All I remember is how her eyes lit up when she mentioned home, how scared and lost she looked in that unknown Subway line, how she is also majoring in Biology, how i had a wonderful conversation with a total stranger, and how i felt she should promote world peace.

Trust me, that's all I am going to remember!