“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned”
Yes, i picked this up online and how ever cool it would have been, this wasn’t the thought that had come to my mind when i landed back home. India, my home country! After almost cancelling twice, missing the train to the Airport and rushing in at the last moment to find my seat occupied by a really hot British girl, i almost thought this was a sign. “Turn around and go back son”. Well then i thought i might as well go till HK now that i am on the plane (yeah she had the aisle seat next to mine while she wanted the window seat... and yeah i did let her sit at the window...). Finally after 15 hrs i landed in Mumbai (they upgraded me to business class from HK to Mumbai, so i couldn’t really say no) and after a lovely and welcoming conversation with the immigration officer about why don’t i have my visa stuck on the passport and why do they have it online and convincing him of the fact that they don’t allow you to stay in Australia for so long unless you HAVE a visa, he allowed me inside my own country. The first thing you notice is that the people here are more, well ‘people’. You see five guys in a row without a six pack and ten women in a row without the ability to carry a really small skirt off and you know you are among your kind. It is only after you get rid of this insecurity of yours and gain confidence again that you notice the other distinguishing feature that everyone is brown.
I had completely forgotten the kind of welcome you get when you travel in India and was reminded of it in a rather fancy way. At 4.30 in the morning, you walk out of the international airport on red carpet with lights focussing on you from above (whoever thought of that) and hundreds of people cheering around you, dying to reach you while behind red tape and you feel like a movie star. It’s an incredible feeling just to walk out and smell the morning air. Except, when you do smell the air, it stinks (no offence folks, i love my country a lot, but it’s a fact). And then you listen to the cheering crowd around you more carefully and realize they are travel agents and drivers looking to cash in on international customers, screaming to get you to stay in their hotel or travel in their cab. The noise, the smell, the colour of the sky, look of the streets, different as it may feel, never once deters you from feeling relieved, a strong feeling of being wanted again, of being a part of the crowd and not stand out as an outsider. A four hour drive home from the airport to Pune and it felt like i had never left.
We all want to travel and see places, go to another country, meet new people, learn new cultures etc etc. Especially in India, going abroad is the most exotic thing any young boy or a girl would like to do. Every bright kid educated enough to locate ABROAD in the map is looking for a way to go. What calls them is money, civilization, better standards of living, hot white women, or god knows what else. But sadly this only lasts for a few month after you have lived abroad. You start to think that you were better off visiting the godforsaken country as a tourist. The main reason can be explained by asking one simple question – What motivates us? You can say success, power, achievement, blah blah, only if you want to win a beauty contest. What really motivates us is friends, family, your loved ones, people you really care about. You can make friends anywhere you go in India so you don’t feel such a need here. Hell there are so many people, how difficult is to find someone who shares the same frequency as yours anywhere around here. But can you find that same comfort with a white guy? The answer is a simple NO unless you were born there and have grown up with them. The gap in the culture is too wide to fill by the being open minded and being flexible and versatile. Simply accepting change does not change you. The urge is too strong and those who don’t yield to it continue to pretend that they are happy, while not being anywhere close to it.
Well i am home and grateful that i only have another 16 months to go before i can finally be back to the people i care about.
