henna, icecream and casablanca. the last day

pragathi met me at her ubahn station today. she wasnt allowed to the cinema, nor downtown, so i took the innitiative visiting her. she surprized me by asking what i am doing the next two hours- and hence i visited her house for the first time. its all packed now, so we had the choice between matrasses and floor. we're already used to the floor, so we took that. 

by the way, left is the henna i have on my hand, designed and painted by pragathi. it goes up to my shoulder, almost reaching it, even though thats not conventional. i just finished painting on my leg with the leftover of the henna, and i still have a quarter left!

back to pragathis place. as soon as i arrive i already got stuffed with food. funny that, it seems to be universal that as soon as guests arrive you take out your food and hold it in front of their nose- not that they just had lunch at home. my mum is exactly the same.

even though my mum had just stuffed me an hour earlier, i gladly accepted. its indian after all, and also good manners. while munching away the essence that had kept me alive he past year or so (i pretty much always get half or pragathis lunch), we played a bord game with her sister, in other words we played a 

bord game and played for her sister. then, we watched casablanca on her laptop. i have only seen the end of it so far, and currently am obsessed with old classic movies. therefore we left current block busters in the bag.

the movie also is about departure...ironically fitting. however we never came to the parting scenes as pragathi needed another suitcase. 

i was supposed to be dropped at the train stop.  but we went to the next as it was just as close. we were at the stop too soon. i didnt feel like leaving. so i went with them to get the suitcase. black, square, just as mine is. then we got ice cream. pragathis last one, as the hygene in india isnt the best and ice creams are apparently often flavoured with cholera or typhoid. yummy.

too quickly; the train stop again. talking about trivial things. school, india, germany. a few words about leaving but not too much, as if the event were far in the future and we would see each other in history on monday morning after the break.

suddenly the train came, one last hug, where I had to supress tears. me running a few steps to jump on the train before the doors close. it departs. the express has finally pulled out of the train station.

I sit down and realise I will only be seeing pragathi through words the next couple of ... what? months? seasons? years?

i didnt cry, because that would have just been awkward in public. Id have enough time  for that later.

it was a nice last day, the first time i saw pragathi completely outside of the setting of the school. i already miss her, and cannot wait to see her again. india or germany, mun, holidays or just a short sidetrip. it will happen.