I was talking with one of my friends, he is among one of those friends,
Who remind you of home, almost like a guardian,
You know like my annoying kiddo brothers, yes quite close to that,
And we sat down to have lunch, and I had this weird feeling,
Why are we talking in English again?
I felt so much like speaking in Hindi, you know, my native language,
Because this was someone just like quite near my home,
Yeah soon I realized, English was the only language we shared, and
Yes his home was far away from mine,

I bought a cake for the lady I volunteer for, and they were having dinner,
I just dropped the cake, and was like yes yes I will just go back home, and
Finish my dinner at my dorm, and the lady there,
Living there, always being there for the lady I volunteer for,
Stopped me, and was like, hey, I cooked fresh food,
Sit here, and have it all, do you want this, and this and also that,
Yeah sure go ahead, and I felt my eyes warming up a bit, no not tears yet,
But I hugged her before I left, and she said, just drop by,
Whenever you feel like having good food,

I went to see the US Open, and one of my friends, so patiently,
Sat their explaining me, all of the rules without judgment of course,

Once I was returning from Vermont, yes I had not yet learnt to pack light,
There was a guy, sitting just right in front of me, he was also from New York,
He helped me place the bag up in the storage, and
I talked with him, until I felt sleepy, and after finishing a black cup of coffee,
I fell asleep, feeling safe, among these strangers, in this new place,
And the guy, waited for the train to be less filled up,
Brought my bag down, and then we bid goodbye to never see each other again,
But I get out of the train station, and I saw one of the accelerators, not moving at all,
And I look around,
I saw the same guy, of course, he helped me carry my bag up to the subway station,

The last day I was to return from Maryland back to New York,
I sat there, the entire day, with the banana bread breakfast we had just made,
My roommate just stopped me and said,
Here, let me make chai for you, and we talked about something, I don’t know what,
But I had to go meet a friend, and say few goodbyes,
But I could not yet, I wanted to stay there, stay there around with her,
With the doggo occasionally moving a bit, my roommate’s daughter visiting us to share a souvenir,
I think we did not do much, just calmly sitting around there,
Looking at the grass being, the fresh smell, the sun, kinder today,
And it all felt okay, yes there was train at 3 am,
But my roommate made sure to be awake until midnight,
Just to bid me goodbye, and so that the cab person knows,
In her words, “she is not alone, that you have a home”,
And yes, for a change, for the first time, in so much time,
In this new place, her place felt like a home,
Someone to tell all the stories, with her telling me,
I should maybe stop making everyone friends and brothers, and
Just date, to walking together our doggo,
To her telling me how everything works, to her realizing,
My crazy, appreciating it, and accepting it,
And now I love mint chocolate ice-cream, because of her,
It was our evening dessert, and so much advice,
How to be, how to be in the workspace,
What to wear, what not to wear, how to behave,
A good person, more importantly, a guardian,
And of course, I will visit her, also maybe as I told her one day,
With my kids, as she said, it would be good to meet the grandkids,
Yes she is family now :)

I have some news friends now, one of them has the kindness in her eyes,
The one which I could relate to, she could laugh unconstrained,
Closer to my crazy, that’s why we are friends maybe,
One of them has this miserable club, once I was so sad, and talking to him,
Felt it all to be alright, you know this is wrong, and that is wrong,
Yeah okay, let’s make a potluck, and just laugh over it,
Of course another friends pitch in, with all their worries,
Laugh about it, and yeah going back to study,
You can go on evening walks with them, and they like stars,
I have another friends, who loves hikes, and has a good sense of direction,
Oh yeah, and I know someone who has another sad club, you know,
Just to let it all out, yeah we are a bunch of too naively positive people,
I have some people, who point out the weird in me, and
Accept it yet, and it has been over a year since I moved to New York,
But I kind of finally, starting to feel it to be like a home,

I signed up to volunteer for, a lady who is blind, a school teacher,
A columbia grad and going back to school to learn poetry,
And I feel for a change, for the first time,
I can see myself growing old around here, in this city,
Let’s see where life takes me next, but one thing I am sure of,
Yes let’s keep it manifested :), I will be happy, and fulfilled,
In whichever place, whatever space I chose to be in,
Because with the idealistic naive positivity I have, as I told one of my friends,
I like, no actually, I love what universe has, in store for me,
Because it my share of this universe, and it is actually mine,
It has chosen me, and I know one thing I am sure of,
I know how to love unconditionally, and I will,
I will love that bit of life, offered to me, because it is mine,
And If I don’t, who else will, this is my bit, my share,
And Oh, don’t love it all unconditionally,
And if I don’t, who else will!