I was cruising down a smooth road, cool wind blowing in my face... and suddenly puffs of dust and dark smoke hit me. That's when I woke up.
I was enjoying the peace and quiet, listening to chirping birds, breathing in wafts of fresh orchids filling up the air, a feeling of content filling me up... and suddenly there were horns honking loudly. That's when I woke up. :-)
I was logged on to the net on a wireless broadband network with a download speed of 2Gbps and then my browser just hanged. Reality of 27kbps dawned on me and that's when I woke up. :-)
Well, my friends I wasn't expecting a cakewalk when I returned, but I was only gone for 2 years. And its not that I'm some firang who came to India as a tourist. :-)
Even after such a short time my first few days back home were filled with pleasant surprises, countless errors and multiple situations where I had to relearn to do things the old way, like driving on the wrong side of the road again. :-)
The first thing that brought a smile was to look at the hustle and bustle of the cities, people, cars, roads, goats and cows swarming the roads and the state of general disarray everywhere you look. All that was a sweet reminder for me that India will always take pride in its "Unity in Diversity" slogan in more ways than one. :-)
The first day I was back home I saw elephants walking in the opposite direction to traffic earning livelihood for their mahouts, people not worrying about the speed of Toyotas, Hundaies and even BMWs and crossing roads at every point. A simple ride to my aunt's home took me about 1 hour, trying to negotiate turns when there were none. Back home the loudness of everything hit me hard... one whole day I had to bear the knocking of a power-drill hitting hard on the street outside to lay new underground cables. Such activities seem to continue all the time here. Its abundantly clear that India is progressing on all fronts and the pace is frantic. :-)
But as one says.. "Home is where the heart is" and my home will always be here. Jai Hind. :-)
