My first re-encounter with India

Should I start by saying that I am dazed and do not have a clue to what we are doing here. Things did look beautiful when we were 2 continents away in US, and the power of dream was fuelling us to return back to our home country. We thought we had figured out everything, and if we had, why would there be the word "destiny" in the dictionaries. Almost nothing went as per our plans.

Going back to the moment when the plane took off at Newark airport, than did I realize that I was leaving this place, leaving back my tiny brother (he doesn't think so), leaving all the friends we made in the last 6-7 years. I cried..and cried..and the Jet Airways air-host came with food and juices, individual TV with lots of Hindi and English programming....after that I remember landing in Mumbai, India. The night was dull with the yellow lights, the airfield was filled with planes, looking outside there was no square or rectangle layouts of houses....everything seemed like a maze, and I had the first feeling of being lost in my own country.

All the gates at the airport still do not have aerobridge, which means walking down the stairs with your overstuffed strollers and backpacks. Wait at the foot of the stairs for the bus with blasting ac to take you to the terminal. Amazingly, once inside, immigration took us literally 2 minutes. Waiting for our luggage to clear customs took us almost 25-30 minutes, compared to the Philadelphia US airways baggage handling, India wins hands down. When shoving our luggage through green channel, we were stopped as I was carrying a Nikon DSLR with me, which falls under the expensive criterion..we were called to another booth..I had to convince the lady that we were carrying used clothes and nothing else, she checked one of our suitcases...and let us go. I should appreciate the fact that there was no bribery up to this point.

We changed airports, international to domestic, and the airport takes care of the transportation.

Than we climb into this tiny propeller plane to go from Mumbai to Bangalore, out final destination. This tiny plane was noisy, and took us forever to reach Bangalore, the journey was taking its toll, jet lagged and irritated. Bangalore should be given the award for being a city bursting at its seams and at the same time possesses the tiniest airport to support its people and business. By the end of the trip, I had been in more buses in between airports and terminals than we had been in planes in India...this is sheer waste of time and energy for passengers, at the same time, a tiny airport can support much higher volume of airplanes, as they are not blocking gates.

Nandan's brother, Phani came to pick us up from the airport. My company was providing relocation to some extent, so we stayed at Hotel Chevron, Infantry road, Bangalore for the first week. The hotel was good, inside seemed like US.. air conditioned, Internet, good clean bed, shower cubicles and toilet paper. When we went down to the restaurant for breakfast, did we realize we were in India, they had idli sambar, dosa, besibilibath..and also the American style eggs, toast, juice and fruits. We thought this is why we are here...and were happy.

We hired a car for the day, with driver, they charge Rs.950 first 8 hours, and additional hour is Rs.80. Checked Nandan's workplace, not overly impressed. In the meanwhile, I faced my first problem in India, finding public restrooms, and once you spot one, the guarantee that they would be clean, almost never. Still when you have to go, you go and give a blind eye towards cleanliness. Phani accompanied us the whole day, so we were buffered from the real world, anyways, what we saw and formed opinions was real and unreal at the same time.

Checked my workplace, Jawahar Lal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research, in Jakuur, which is in extreme north of Bangalore, outside of Outer Ring Road. The drive to this place was long, the approach road was bad, but than then you enter the campus...so serene and beautiful..you forget your travel and pollution. I was impressed, lets see how it holds up after a few visits.

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We went back straight to the hotel, and slept at 6 in the evening...jet lag was catching up with us.

Tiredness is the best solution, we slept and forgot the eternal quest of "is India better or America?"

Emotional Roller Coaster: US to India

As the final day comes closer by the minute, hours and days....emotions are running in abundance. We are so charged up with emotions, needs only a spark to send us all in a fighting, arguing, feeling sad, crying, hoping spree. Change is a turmoil in itself, bringing and waiting out the change is a roller coaster ride. Now the question is do I love roller coaster? Answer is simple: I hate roller coasters. Than why are we on this ride, same as always you cannot watch and find out if you have or love roller coasters, you have to ride it to get an answer.

We are high on adrenaline, doing this emotional journey back to India. In the same breath, we are scared to death thinking of what awaits us at the other end....the system has changed , people have changed, the culture has changed, the roads have changed, everything to speak of has changed except history. It is this change which is pulling us back to our country, and surprisingly it is also our history with India, our home, which is pulling on our heartstrings.

This side of the globe, where we still live for the next 2 days and 14 hours, is rich with its offerings of love and comfort. We have called it home for the last 6.7 years. My friends, my colleagues and to top it all, my brother is here, which saddens us to leave this place. Like everybody knows, a place is made by the people you know and care for. We love this place, we love our friends/family..and the good it has done to our lives.

This place has enriched our lives in ways we did not think possible, it has given us US...me met here, got married here..and lived as a family. This place has given me the confidence of standing tall in our carrer, dreaming and achieving. This place is inspirational, has given me the liberty to appreciate foreign. This place and the travel to this place has shown me the world in a nutshell, all across the globe. This place has shown me the strength of a country, in good or bad, needs to be debated. This place has shown me the power of American dream, and living your dream. This place still holds my friends and family, above all. So, although I am leaving this country to return to my country, my home....this has been a great home for the last so many years, months, weeks, days, hours and countless seconds.

I thank this place from the bottom of my heart for shaping our lives.

I write this post with a heavy heart, tears in my eyes, love for all I call my friends and family, and finally hope for us, to start a new life in an old country.