Being away from my place makes me terribly home sick.And when its a different country all together, things are even worse. Though I do enjoy the new culture, people, cleanliness, good manners, I terribly miss our own "Indian-ness" which makes our India so very special. Even the so called negativeness seems so positive now. And going thru' the posts of fellow bloggers who are based in India, I can't avoid saying to myself "How lucky they are to be in their home country!".And no, this is not my first trip outside India and therefore the "first time travel abroad"syndrome does not count here ;-)
Whatever said and done its always "Sorgamae endraalum....". Initially I used to laugh at the lyrics of this song and the backdrop of this song is Singapore - one of the cleanest cities. One ofthe lines goes as "Vethalaiya madichu, maaman adhai kadichu thuppa oru vazhi illaiye" (Rough translation :There is no way you can chew betel and spit it on the roads). Hats off to Gangai Amaran / Ilayaraja for penning the song - it has almost become a trademark song for all foreign travellers.
That's the truth - so what if the city is clean? so what if the traffic is amazing? so what if the transport is fantastic? so what if people mind their own business? More importantly a city should have LIFE and I can see such "live" cities only in India! If you don't get what I mean, visualise a Ranganathan street, area surrounding Mylapore temple and compare it with a place abroad - maybe US or UK or Singapore. See the difference?
Maybe this is what many say as the "essence" of India!! JAI HIND!
26-Sep-06, As I was reading "The Hindu" online yesterday, I was surprised to see an article on similar lines. Crazy Sir, I fully agree with you. You can read the article here.
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22 comments:
Veda, romba busy pola neenga? Ennoda previous postkku neenga comment-e pannala :-(
(enakku irukaradho konjam blogger friends dhaan, avangalum ippadi panna enna solradhu huh??)
Anyway, keep visiting often. Thanks :-)
WELL SAID, but I find it hard to beleive this bit. I've generally found people talking a great deal about the western countries once they are back home. As long as they are abroad they talk about coming back to India and stuff like "i love india blah blah blah". But actually talking they donot have any such intentions. Hope you are being honest here.
oops, I got the answer from ur previous comment. sorry!
Well three tips to get rid of home sickness:
1) keep counting the number of days left to get back home.
2) Take pictures of the places you find good there and tell yourself ,ah in a few days(state the number of days left) I'll be showing this to mom or sis or whoever is at home who'll love to hear all that u've experienced with a smiling face and attentive ears (remember them saying :"and then what happened,what did you do, how did you manage" all that kinda stuff)
3) call ur loved ones at home once a while and let them know u'll be back home soon.
Hope this works.
And one more thing,
Next time you go abroad just incase nobody at home is interested please put in some pictures and tell "us" about the place.Howz that?
it's chrue... saare jahan se accha, hindustan hamara.
It's hard to define, but i like the way you've put it... Life and love are what defines our people and our cities. there's a place for everyone along with their dreams and nightmares.
Sigh. You're making me nostalgic, even though i'm siting right here.
Yours forever sthupitly.
P.S: I'm shocked and pleased to hear you keep up with my blog. thankus!
Soumya,
thanks, thanks & thanks (for those 3 comments). Well, truly, honestly I am not a hypocrite - in this matter atleast :-) As I said, its not that this is my first trip abroad and I have also had a good time in my earlier trips but nevertheless my heart still yearns for India. So the question of settling abroad, not coming is totally ruled out. But this trip is going to be one year loooong!! But thanks for your lovely tips. As you said, I'll keep troubling you guys with my insane posts and reading the comments would make me feel at home.
Preetika,
Thanks! Yes, INDIA is the best inspite of its nightmares (as you put it). Yes, I am a regular visitor to your blog (but not a regular commentor though) :-)
Ravi,
Nice to hear about you. Sad to hear that you are missing home. Well you have mentioned that it is not your first trip. Ok... getting hooked to a place is all related with mind. For example.. if you are well used with place A, getting everything you need, friends, relatives, sentiments, and happy then wherever you go you will tend to come back to place B. Again even if you like place A very much if you are forced to be in one place like you are now for a year, then get another six months, another six months, and slowly without your knowledge you get accustomed to many things. Especially if you have all those people next to you in place B then you start liking both the places. After sometime when you visit place A, you find lots of changes, and do not have the same old life, and also the nothing in near to place B, then your charm about place A keeps decreasing. Again everything depends on how you are, your company (like whether single or married) and etc., I would have been very happy to fly if somebody had given a flight ticket the very next week when I landed in abroad. At the same time, it is not the same thoughts now as we have got immuned to many things. It does not mean that we are unable to adjust when we go back. Ignoring my relatives plead I enjoy lying back on the floor when I visit India. We still relish those old flavours which we miss here. I strongly feel everything is with mind. For someone who is well settled in our place, they find it boredom after few days when they visit a different soil. I know many of my old people who come here on holidays and want to fly back ASAP. We can see their urgency in getting out of the flights even before the flight announcements about landing and safety measures. I am taking my personal experience and saying that we have a natural instinct to settle as days roll by. We may settle but still our mind may be attached to what we had liked before. The reason being some like the changes and some do not. I remember a doctor advising me within a week of my arrival, to enjoy the life here, and try to settle back in our own land quickly because he was always postponing to go back during which 35 years have rolled back. Some are able to clearly make up their mind and some cannot due to so many other reasons. Kudos to who could decide what they want.
BTW where are you now?
My previous comment
"and happy then wherever you go you will tend to come back to place B"
should be read as
"and happy....place A".
Balaji Sir,
Thanks for that long lovely comment. Yes, enakku puriyudhu ("Indian" dialogue maadhiri sollanum-na : buddhikku theriyudhu, manasukku theriyala) but still it also matters like what is important in your life?
Balaji Sir, for long, I had wanted to ask you this question. Hope you don't mind. From your posts, I can see that you are a person who values and treasures tradition, old culture and family values. So how did you make up your mind to settle in a foreign country?
I can see that many people stay abroad for betterment of their families, some for them for the luxury which many foreign lifestyles offer and some for many other reasons.
Ravi,
One year is too long...
Come back home safely. Take care.
However one more doubt ....are you ravilochan?
It's Deepavali and you are abroad. Your mom is gonna miss you a lot.
eeks..you are also missing on all the fun. However HAPPY DIWALI TO YOU
Soumya, where had you been? Thanks for your wishes. Yes, I know one year is looong and with Diwali round the corner, I am missing India so much... waaaaaa :(
Thanks for your wishes. Happy Diwali to you too.
Wake up!!!wake up!!!
Blog world is missing u-- come back.... :)
Veda,
Nandri! Ungalukkum, ungal veetel anaivarukkum (esp the kutti vaandu) en iniya Deepavali na vaazhthukkal!
Marutham,
Thanks, enga romba naala pudhu post-e kaanom? Happy Diwali to you too.
hi ravi
that's India i think, even with all its drawbacks, it attracts people!or maybe since we are feeling homesick, everything over there looks soo good! I too love listening to that ramarajan song'sorgamé endrallum', though my family just can't understand why i like it so much!!
paati of en veetu samayal
Hi paati,
Am honoured by your visit here. Thanks! India definitely does have setbacks but which country doesn't? But we have so much to be proud of more than the negatives, just that the positives get overshawdowed by the negatives.
So what was special for Diwali?
Working here in a dessert-like barren place at Muscat, Oman, I too get very often nostalgic. I miss everything that we get from a typical Indian village more than buzz-y cities.
Btw, I invite you to participate at VCC Q3 2006; the deadline has been extended to Oct 31. Cheers!
vkn
My Dhaba
vkn sir, thanks for the invite. I will definitely try to make it this time :)
Ravi
Time for new post,
Soumya
update, already!
yours forever sthupitly.
Yeah lets spit all over the damn place claiming indian ness. Spreding TB other diseases. While the middle class after spitting has money for their doctor visit, let the poor guy die coughing in your spit.
Hey anon, cool... that was just meant to be a joke... There is no second opinion about cleanliness, be it in India or anywhere.
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