I learned to let-go, live and love again!

Lying on a small dusty single-bed with my mother on July 29, 2005, I was trying to fight myself. My decision to join an institute situated at a far-off nondescript eastern state, was not entirely my choice. The fact that I got selected at India's best mass communication institute, IIMC, among thousands of students gave little solace. At this point of time, Dhenkanal seemed to me the best place where I can disconnect with the outer world, link with nature and in the process with myself too!

The sweet hostel warden said to me, "Are you Amrita? Some of the rooms have already been occupied. You can choose from the rest." She opened rooms after rooms, until one with a window looking out towards a tree and the hills behind caught my attention. My mother, who decided to stay back the night with me, started arranging my clothes and my bed. I kept lying there thinking why one has to go through heartbreaks. Soon, the warden came back with my 'roomie' and introduced her with me. "Hi! This is Deepshikha. I'm from Shimla. What's your name?"

Here, I decided to disconnect my thoughts and move with the flow. "Hi! Amrita here. I come from Delhi." On July 30, I forced my father, mother and my brother, who had all come to see me off, to leave the town and move ahead with their plan to visit our relatives residing in Kolkata. The very next day my new life as a journalist began. After the first session with the associate professor Mrinal Chatterjee (MC), I began to understand the ABC of being a "journalist".

In one of the sessions MC said, "You can call it 'Indian Institute of Mrinal Chatterjee' if you want, since I'm the boss here. I will be your friend, guardian, teacher, guide and even tourist guide!" The class broke into a laughter. I can safely call him the best tutor I've come across in my entire life. He had this certain charm about him, that made each student respect him a lot. The fact that he made us work like labourers on the institute lawns, did not make him even a bit less-liked.

For me it was a second life altogether. Schedules, daily news, presentations, discussions, tabloids, assignments! I busied myself. Made some great bonds and friends. Met differently-abled children up close and personal and learned how to look at life from them. Visited the 'underbelly' of the state -- beaches, temples, rivers, hills, forests, lagoons and what not!

The place taught me a million things. I understood that sometimes it becomes inescapably necessary to just let-go. What actually matters is today and the day which you haven't seen yet. What matters is what you have learned from life, and not what you endured to get that education. Today, after four years, I'm happy I took the decision to go to Dhenkanal. I'm happy I learned to let-go, live and love again!