Since getting the US visa, I had become lazy and procrastination had set in. Before I knew it, almost an entire precious month had gone by and I hadn’t really done much to further my travelling cause.

The only thing that had been decided was my first flight out of India. I would be flying from Mumbai to Bangkok on the 6th of February with three of my friends from the Breakdown Gang - Kini, VMK & OJ. If I had to be in Mumbai on the 6th, then I would probably need to leave Bangalore on the 3rd or 4th. But then I also wanted to go to Varanasi to meet Jana, and had to go to New Delhi to try and arrange for a few visas at some of the embassies there.

Moreover, I also wanted to throw a big farewell party before leaving, meet close friends and relatives, do some last minute shopping and sell/give away/put into storage everything I owned.

I was telling all this to my flatmates and to our guest Graeme from Canada over some amazing coffee that Anne had made for us. As I was putting my thoughts into words and as I was watching the incredulous faces of my listeners, it became painfully obvious what a fool I had been to waste the previous few weeks sitting around doing nothing. I no longer had the time to take it easy, calmly sauntering into the airport to board my flight, having already taken care of everything that needed taking care of. Instead, this was going to be touch-and-go. It made absolutely no sense going all the way north to Varanasi & New Delhi, then flying back down south to Bangalore and then flying once again to Mumbai to meet my friends. So we decided, right then and there, that I would try and take care of as many things as I could over the next two days; and then leave Bangalore - the city I had called home for more than five and half years now - for good on the 20th of January 2010.