Life and its twists and turns... especially mine !!
The changes I've gone through the past 10 years have been really dramatic, starting with my early engagement, marriage and motherhood too, with me balancing the student life with equal ease. Of course, nothing in life comes easy. It's just easier said than done.
With a 5 year stint outside India, I find myself in the country yet again in which am brought up, spelt "haven" here. Life's been really hectic for me, managing my 2 young sons, changing countries, adapting to newer environments, etc. It's been a mad rush for the past 5 years for us, trying to fit in the life abroad. I wouldn't deny that the life outside India has been good to me. But it was really time for me to decide the future for my kids. So, here I am !! Back to India....
Firstly, I have to be frank here.. I was very skeptical about getting back to the life in Swades. I wasn't totally sure about how my kids would take the extreme change in their lives, starting with the weather, people and the language ! Both my sons aren't too adept with speaking in Telugu, though they can completely understand their mother-tongue. Blame me for this! As my elder son started picking up words slowly(at 2.5 years), I was focussing more on just one language, and since we happened to be in Singapore at that time, English was the easiest medium to communicate with my little fellow. That explains my sons' semi-alienation from Telugu.
Anyway, as we were preparing to get back to India, we deliberately wanted to behave very normally, unlike the typical DESIs (also called NRIs)!! Maybe, trying that hard is in itself a way of behaving like a typical desi... as the rest of the indians wouldn't try that hard to be normal. Well, normalcy here is spelt like using napkins instead of paper towels, leaving the kids without car-seats and getting accustomed to the horrific amount of dust and pollution.
As soon as we reached India, I found the Santro car which my dad drove to be extremely miniscule, when compared to the Sienna we drove in the US. Okay, we didn't mention it in an attempt to being normal. And then, the traffic !! There's just one word to describe it... Horrific ! People's status was anyway measured with a car... but now, I realize that the bigger the car, the more you have to wait endlessly for the traffic to clear, while you can do nothing but clench your teeth when the bikes and smaller cars zoom past your bigger vehicle. So much for a big car dream!! When we were in US, we thought of buying either an Ikon or a Honda City, but now, I feel that Tata Nano is better :( The traffic is definitely rude here and everyone seem to be in an interminable rush. Rush to schools, rush to office and rush for everything. In comparison, I found the western world to be much more at peace. Or maybe wait, I was behaving like a desi !!
And then the pollution. Am I being over-critical or was it the same country I was brought up? Actually and sadly, it isn't the same India I was raised up in. It's an entirely different country, with changing culture and environment. Yeah, I do agree that India wasn't one of those top countries which scream with cleanliness, but atleast there wasn't this much pollution when we were kids. It can be just explained with the lesser number of vehicles at that time. The present India is teeming with innumerable vehicles, which just adds so much to the noise and dust pollution that it really saddens me that am constantly comparing it with the western world. Could I stop behaving like a desi?? I simply couldn't.
And what a timing !! It's the elections time baby. Get ready for the biggest reality show in India. The world's biggest democracy is getting ready for it's new leader. And as an election drill, every single car is being stopped and inspected, making the already-bad traffic even worse. I am surprised with the number of political offices which cropped up in Vizag itself. With a small city itself accommodating so many political changes, I can really imagine the plight of the rest of the metropolitan cities. As a normal Indian, not a desi, I asked my dad as to why the roads are so bad. No exaggeration, all the main roads are completely blocked due to flyover constructions... and all the in-roads are in a very bad state (due to the semi-work of the drainage management). Dad just explained that no work is to be done during the elections time. It's only the new government which decides the rest of the work to be done. So pathetic and so hypocritical !!
Maybe, it's time I stop complaining about India. I've been this spoilt brat and a typical NRI, trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. Or maybe, I was really opening my eyes for the first time now. You see, I was just busy with my life in abroad, and now I feel it's time I woke up and see what's really happening with our Swades. Is anyone imagining ShahRukh Khan now ???
It's not really bad after all. The above-mentioned complaints are just one face of the coin.
As a first positive thing about our country, I should mention the warmth exuding amongst our family and friends. People make it a point to visit me when they heard that I came all the way from America. Not to mention, the unending chocolates my kids got from the various "Uncles" and "Aunties". My kids were just bewildered with the huge amount of the sweet bribes and I was already planning as to how to avoid so much of a chocolate invasion on their tiny teeth. That being said, I really couldn't face people with the same warmth they showered on us. Maybe, it's the habit of living all by oneself in abroad, which makes one a little inaccessible. My parents got worried about me behaving like the teenager I used to be, clinging on to my computer and books. For a change, it's the computer and my kids now. Books are still waiting in the cupboard for me. But, my kids have crazily liked the number of people visiting them. Maybe, they loved the huge amount of attention they were drawing. They are just thrilled with the chocolates and toys, which were otherwise inaccessible in US. And speaking of the change, my best friend mentioned that she found my elder son even more friendly and in a very happy mood, when he animatedly spoke with her over the phone, describing how much he liked India and his granny dearest. Thank heavens for that !
Mentioning about the humid weather in Vizag, I was anyway used to it since childhood, so no more complaints. But, can anything beat a stroll down the Visakhapatnam beach having yummy raw mangoes(with salt and spice... any more explanation would lead to more salination...so here I stop !!) and even yummier hot corn?? The drive down the long beach road on any hot evening just turns down the heat and I get a feeling that I can spend the rest of my life in that cool breeze. Definitely, it's way much better than the western world snow, where it's just pretty in pictures but horrifying to actually live in.
Now, completing almost a month here in India, I have no more complaints. Am fervently hoping that India would change, with better roads and lesser pollution. Even if it doesn't, am not complaining. Just getting used to... after all, am one in a Billion. Ain't I ????
