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Chapter 2: Plant response to elevated CO2 - DRUM - University of ...

Chapter 2: Plant response to elevated CO2 - DRUM - University of ...

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Outside, the whole scene looks different and new, as if a giant brush has<br />

applied white strokes <strong>to</strong> everything around me.<br />

“I had only seen pictures <strong>of</strong> this you know in foreign calendars and<br />

postcards,” Varun says. The snow crumbles s<strong>of</strong>tly under my feet and I love the<br />

s<strong>of</strong>t crunching sound. Varun and me leave a trail <strong>of</strong> Reebok prints on the snow.<br />

We make for the lake. The whole street looks so different now and it is a white,<br />

bright almost surreal with the sunlight reflecting and bouncing <strong>of</strong>f trees and<br />

homes. Far <strong>of</strong>f, we see a snow mobile clearing up the street. Children in their<br />

furry winter clothes and thick s<strong>of</strong>t caps throw snowballs at the snow mobile<br />

man. He drives on by, unaffected. The kids retaliate with a heavier arsenal <strong>of</strong><br />

snow balls. Varun and me laugh. The lake’s level has risen and the ducks still<br />

swim on it though near the banks water is frozen and the pattern <strong>of</strong> ripples is<br />

firmly captured in thin ice. The bare branches <strong>of</strong> the trees are highlighted with<br />

the white settled on it.<br />

“So what do you think?” I ask him proudly, pleased <strong>to</strong> see him happy.<br />

“Looks great, wonderful!”<br />

“Aren’t you going <strong>to</strong> settle down here, like everyone else?” He asks then<br />

catches a few snowflakes on his <strong>to</strong>ngue.<br />

“I don’t know.”<br />

125

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