Home Sweet Home

I'm back home for a holiday, after one long year. I was dreading the days that led to this holiday, simply because I've become so unfamiliar with this land I grew up and I have, unfortunately, come to resent many of its ways.

After an uneventful flight (meaning one with no food, tv or troublesome strangers) I landed. It is always such a relief when you feel the wheels of the plane hit the ground. My first impressions were very much different from what Russel Peters described in his trip to India. MY sophisticated ass turned local so fast, it's like I never missed 7 years in this country at all. Everything seemed so normal and familiar. My 3-hour drive back home - seeing the green rice fields, the stray cows and dogs, the people who work too hard to support their families, the pollution, the chaotic traffic conditions - was all it took to feel like I belonged here again.

Another thing took me by surprise. As I was driven home by my dad and asked many times if I needed to eat this or drink that on the way, I realised it's nice to be taken care of for a change. I had really forgotten that feeling. I am always on a "got to fight my own battles" mode which makes it nearly impossible for me to let go and let anyone to get close or try to help.

My parents are so sweet, specially my dad. They are so thrilled to have us and they love spending time with junior. He is winning hearts wherever he goes. And he is getting to experience so many new things here which he usually doesnt get to feel in his metropolitan home.

The rest of the days are going to be busy. A lot of relatives and old friends to meet, a lot of places to go, a lot of things to do. And if I learn to live through the bad internet connection, the dust and exhaust fumes, the mad road rules or rather the lack of them, the multitude of pests (cockroaches, leeches, ants, mosquitos and flies) and not forgeting, THE STARES, I'll be fine!

I wonder if my Jeep and violin miss me...haha...