Sunday, November 27, 2011

India as a I know it...

So, it's 8 AM here on a sunday morning here in Vancouver. I am getting this sudden pang of being in India. I would never think that my five years in India would change me so much. There's something about India, that 17 years in Abu Dhabi will never give me, or any part of Canada for that matter. Frustration sets in when I think about indian tax system, the corruption and all the other innumerable things we think about when we live outside India. However, since I am not doing anything about it (neither are all the remaining NRIs) I would not have the right to grumble about it. Hopefully, one day all this change and India will be the destination everyone will come to.
But this post is about all the good things that I miss when I think of India. This is to enlighten my non-Indian friends that India is not all that Russel Peters talks about :-). Ofourse, there's some truth in it as in all other cases.
I can close my eyes and feel I am in India when I get ...
The sweet smell of the earth when it rains in Kerala, the bus drivers who stop wherever you want, running behind buses, getting stuck in Bangalore traffic jams and looking at the other drivers who take it as it comes, speaking in non-grammatical hindi to Mumbai cab drivers, bargaining at road side shops when both the shopkeeper and customer knows that the price is high, the MG Road in each city, the countless train journeys each having its own story, the spices which makes each curry unique, the sweet coconut water directly from the coconut vendor on the roadside everyday on the way to Yahoo, the filtered coffee and cone shaped dosas at the restaurant opposite Besant Nagar beach in Chennai, the frenzied craze when there's a(ny) cricket match going on, the greenery which I cannot see anywhere else, the riverside adventures, the view of Trichy and Coimbatore at night from a flight at 30k feet, the misty mornings at hills in Kodaikanal and Munnar, the hair pin bends and waterfalls on the way to my paternal home at Wayanad, the customs and traditions that are unique to each place and ... the freedom which I cannot explain.

I have not been north of Mumbai, so I cannot do justice to the beautiful places of Himachal, Kashmir, the north east. Having heard a lot about the beautiful hill stations I hope one day I can see all these places too.

Looking forward to July... India 2012 :)

Ending with this song... makes me emotional whenever I hear this: http://www.saavn.com/popup/psong-EOlLqXyD.html?q=chak+de

Ciao