A new year. A new term. Two "old" greeting cards

It felt good to be back on the road and with the air cool and damp.

A quiet drive it was, which is increasingly how I seem to prefer it.  Not even NPR.  As I get older, the more I believe that silence is under-appreciated.  Or, perhaps I enjoyed the silence that much more because of the near-constant over-stimulation of the senses during the break in India?

As I drove up to campus, I wondered whether I will find any gifts waiting for me in my mailbox on campus.

It is all the students' fault--an odd student or two leaves something for me and I become Pavlovian!  "A man of small pleasures" I told a friend once, but these small pleasures make that big difference between a regular, dull, boring day and an awesome one.

There was a card in the box right outside my office.

With my computer bag hanging from my shoulder, I read that standing up in my office--I couldn't even wait to put the bag down.

If only people knew how much I take pleasures in acts that are genuine and sincere!


Like Holden Caulfield, I too, despite my teenager years well behind me, walk around thinking that people are often fakes.  Against a backdrop of fakes, cheats, and thieves, every genuine act becomes that much more valuable, however small that is.

It was a card from a student who wrapped up all the degree requirements last term.  It was, therefore, more than a mere greeting card.  The handwritten sentences there reflected her quiet and reflective personality.

After booting up the laptop, I walked over to check my mailbox.

Yes!

There was a card from another student, who graduated a couple of years ago.

I now have enough and more to get going this term.

Happy new year!