One of the previous nights, I talked to my friend who just returned back to India after an year long stint in the US of A.
His increasing weight and loss of hair on his head only start his long list of woes. He complains that it takes him a good one and half hour to travel to work in the shuttle. His pocket got picked while having a breakfast and ergo he lost his new mobile phone. Our friends are getting married - A was engaged last week; B is getting enagaged next week. C is shifting jobs. He doesn't have much company for the weekends. Work sucks. Traffic sucks. Life sucks.
I tried to forget it, rubbish it - but it stayed. It stayed like that small grain of your last sandwhich stuck in some tooth of yours. So small, so harmless but yet you cannot take it out of your mind. You keep probing it, digging at it till it is safely out.
So I sat down reflecting. All this gives me scares - for I too have to go back to India some time soon.
He did the same work here that he does in India. So basically if work sucks there so should it have here. It didn't seem to suck that much here - nah.... work is not a problem.
#He is one of those die hard vegans. So food gets a thumbs up in India.
#He feels lonely there - not that he had too many friends here!
#He doesn't have broadband internet at home there - but then why does he need it when he comes back home only to sleep.
#Friends are getting married. Umm.. He says that he hasn't thought much about it. Wait.. you need to understand the implications of that statement. He used to say "no marriage before Dec 2006". Now that's a sea of change in his eagerness to tie the knot. So that too is on track.
#No entertainment there. What did he do here. Visited just one place in a whole year. He has no right to complain.
I cannot pin point the root cause of his problem and woes. People just seem to crib.
Agreed we have huge crowds, corrupt govt officials, bad transport and roads, power cuts.... but then we have learnt to live with these for all these years.
So why crib when we know how it is over there.
Advantage India:
-- You never get to eat all the chats and pani-puris on the road side.
-- The idli-vada-sambar/dosas/upma/paratha's gets replaced by bread-butter-cereals. Give me a break!
-- Tortillas can never match the chappatis.
-- Crossing the road on foot is no longer an adventure. You need to wait for the weekend to plan for an adventure.
-- We have to drive to national park to see wildlife. There they just dwell on the roads.
-- Emergency grocery shopping is never a skip hop jump at the nearby Anna's shop.
-- Milk never gets delivered to my door.
-- Office means 9 hrs of straight work. [Back there it is 10 hrs of work and 2 hrs of gossip catching]
-- Nothing like the creamy tea - all I do here is have a black tea, for the creamer is made of soya. #^#$%#&%&
-- No longer I get to see the fresh vegetables on a cart.
-- I have forgotton what it is like to travel in a train with the wind blowing in your face.
-- I never get a chance to chase cockroaches and rats.
-- Nothing beats the pickle made by my mom.
The list goes on.................
I mean no offense to people who might think otherwise. But it is all about those people who know what it is out there; all wanting to get back home and then act like chimpanzees once they are there. [I might have acted like one had I not done some soul search on this].
It's been 2 days since this post is gestating. I read it, re-read it umpteen number of times. It looks incomplete. I cannot figure out if there can be a completion. I will leave it at this point with the thoughts still lingering in the back corridors of my mind.
I am just trying to remain optimistic for my impending return.