Sunday, January 17, 2010

Back from a trip to heaven

I am back to Houston, back from a trip to heaven called .. India. One of the dictionary meanings of heaven is "a place or state of supreme happiness" and that's what it was like during my short stay in India.

The trip had everything I could have asked for; hangouts with friends, long drives with someone I love, bike rides - getting reckless sometimes on the busy roads of Pune, visiting relatives with my family, mom-made food (need not say delicious .. when I say mom-made it means the same thing) and some Pune-special fast food, going around shopping for myself and my family, playing baddy, konkan trips, my birthday celebrations, even the small things like watching movies, watching cricket matches on TV, reading newspaper in the morning with a cup of tea and simply the feeling of being at home (my mom might not agree as I hardly spent time at home :-( ). Well the list goes on and those are precisely some of the things I want from life. I am a simple man you know .. some times I do feel that way. I do have my own ambitions but even such small things can bring joy in my life.

The feeling and buildup of leaving Houston and Pune and coming back was way too contrasting. When I left Houston, I was all alone in my apartment packing my bags since other people were busy in their schedule. When I left Pune my house was full of people who came to see me off and giving out some goodies I can carry here to Houston. In dec, when I reached Mumbai airport, I had a "bus-full" of people waiting with excitement to see me. On the other hand, in Houston there was no excitement as I was about to come out of the airport. I booked a shuttle for me and reached my apartment. There I had a couple of friends who came to see me and helped me with the luggage. But barring that, in my apartment I had only this piece of paper to welcome me back as all my roomies were back in Pune. It was so grim.



I will be back in August this year. And when I say that to my friends here, that raises more than a few eyebrows. That happened when I talked to some people when I was in India too. I have started to get fed up of convincing people why I want to go back. And yet when I do that I am not able to manage that. Then I pretend saying that I will think about it to end the topic. Come on folks .. I mean this is just another country. You don't have to be so keen to convince me to stay here. I do come across some people who have exactly opposite feelings of this blog and they might laugh at it. People complain about roads, traffic, pollution, corruption, politics when they say why they like to stay here than back home. They don't talk about people . That makes me wonder how can someone put living conditions ahead of living beings. Is it getting too emotional? Well that's what blogs are meant for :P

A month had never flown so fast. I just didn't want to come back; after all I was on a trip to heaven!