Homecoming part 2

Well well well. If you guys are wondering what took me so long to write home coming part 2- well I ve been busy and the real reason is that I was waiting for the second India going season- Dec- Jan. If you are that big a fan of my blog, u ll remember the first part was during summer.

Once the pampering , feeling on top of the world , limelight and the first week's excitement fades, the second week is the transition week. It s a luke warm week. Now these experiences may not be universal.. but you can kinda relate to it.Everyone wud ve had different versions of the same experience.You ll know what i mean.

You feel people are giving you a little more space. You get to go meet not so important friends who you didnt meet the first week. People start doing things other than just asking you about life in the U.S. . You feel weird but nice being vetti at home. Parents start going for work and you ll be left at home all by yourself not knowing what to do. So you end up gtalking till parents come back from work. Afternoons will be spent relishing the joy of dozing off watching Ktv movies and Sun tv serials and the paridhaabamana Raj tv, because the jetlag really hits only after 4 or 5 days. Once you get up at an odd 7 pm and have nice coffee in ever silver tumbler, you watch tv. You feel nice watching news and how they make even stupid things so sensational. But these are the precious times you missed here. The bliss of being vetti at home.

Then comes the third week . Now is when you get really bored . Bored enough to miss this hellhole.Its almost like Stockholm syndrome. This place actually grows on you!You are slightly looking forward to go back. This is the week where most of your meals are eaten outside home , with random uncles and aunties ( "family friends"- btw what does the word mean? are all the members in the familes friends with each other?) .You get sick of eating a full meal every meal. Pakkathu veetu aunties uncles invite u home and ask u for grad school advice fr their children. Im especially sorry for all u guys who went to India now- you would ve had the added trouble of people asking about the economy. One of my friends got continuously asked "Inime anga enna irku, vandhuda vendiyadhudhane" lol. lemme not digress.
And towards the end of the week people start asking you when you are leaving . Parents start asking what all you need to buy.Podis will be made. (Notice you would ve come with ipods - u ll leave with podi s . :) )random people will start asking you if you have space in your suitcase to take stuff for their sons/daughters/relatives/friends in "the U.S". They do not realise the country is freaking hugggggggge . But you still do it cos you don wanna say no.
The final week is when you are busy as hell. Shopping, packing, scheduling lunch times, dinenr times to say bye to people. I hate the airport. Its gloomy and depressing. When you disappear behind the security check walls, you take a look at your family and friends for the last time- the sad, gloomy faces in the depressing airport- you know that s the image thats going to linger on your mind until you coem back the next time. Its a disturbing image.
Its true you miss US but you also know you are going to miss India no matter which one you call as home. The grass is always greener on the other side.
You many notice that this post is nto as emphatic and fun to read as the Homecoming part I. I think thats because its been 6 months since I came back from India and I m missin the place already. I wrote this post because I had promised to do soand it was incomplete. I m definitely not in the mood to not miss home. Ooops! I called India as home this time! It is. Isnt it? I think , at this stage, my definition of home is - the place I miss. :)