Home is where home is :)

My summer in LA, where I was working for 9 weeks and living in a sub-let apartment, sharing the house with 3 other undergrad girls gave me first real feel of life in the US.

Both in terms of the 'real' American's life and also in terms of my real life in America if I were to work here.

Life gets pretty isolated here even if you are living with 4 other high energy 20 odd year olds. I am not very sure why..

Cars whizzing past, everything so clean and orderly, everyone following rules, everyone restpectful of each others personal space, everything so prim and proper. Maybe thats what it is. Its the chaos in my country that I miss the most here. It is that crazy noisy honking, the curious eyes of my neighbour 'aunty' watching me get off my friend's bike, it is the incessant questions from the 'aunty' sitting next to me in the city bus, it is the insane driving of the autorikshaws, it is the loud music blaring from the Ganesh pandal two blocks away (even 3 months after Ganesh Chaturthi), it is the always-in-a-hurry crowd of vehicles nudging through any little space to get ahead of the others at the signal, it is the 'madam, jeans madam; madam, imported purse madam' of the Alankar plaza vendors, it is the crowded majestic bus stand, it is the little panipuri-bhelpuri carts, it is all this and so much more that I miss so terribly in this orderly, prim and proper, organized, clean country of America!

I miss my friends, nightouts with Shu, boat rides with Chitti, Praveen's complaints about making him wait all the time, Suppu's refusals to cater to my whims any more, Madhu's silence, Sarvesh's jokes, long conversations with Archu, Kavya's 'what da, stupid', bumming around in Prav's room doing 'combined study', treks with the group, our yearly trips, long bike rides, long phone conversations with all friends and getting scolded by appaji and amma for the same, going out with cousins, Ramesh anna's double entendres, arguments with Anal, miss everything here.

More than anything else I miss coming back home and plonking on my divan, asking amma to come and sit down so that I can lie with my head on her lap and watch the TV Serial on ETV Kannada, appaji getting me a glass of water and telling amma to hurry up because putti is hungry, ajji feeding me anna mosuru saaru and uppinkai my favourite combo, dancing with appaji to a radio city number, my brother lifting a screaming me and plonking me on the sofa, appaji scolding me for coming back home later than 9.00pm, amma telling me to spend my time better by reading a good biography rather than a silly Sidney Sheldon book, gangakka pampering me with my favourite dishes and scolding me for my bad habit of staying up late into the nights, my lill sister so ready to help me with anything, but grudgingly opening a book to read and hoping akka forgets to ask for an update, dancing (jumping) around the living room for those peppy radio city songs putting up a show for the opposite-house occupants, all this and so much much more.

Home is where home is! Hope life, jobs and careers take me back to where I want to be - Home!