With the first half of the flight journey being good,the wait at the London airport was when we were ready to sleep anywhere but had to remain awake to see the display infos of our next flight.The dragging second half of the flight journey was when both Manju and me kept on seeing the map whether we were landing soon,the second half was a bit too much.
On landing,we were so happy to see our parents and family members,on reaching home,the place where we grew up seemed good on the first two days,we realized that things had changed a lot,each year when we came there were tremendous changes,fast,faster lives,congestion due to population.People were busy with their daily hassles,their routines and nobody had time for you and their thoughts were very different from yours.Initial feelings were frustrating,on the positive side,there was a feast of good food everywhere,the best in the world I can say,that too for us coming from the US,we delighted at the sight of Indian Idlis,Masala Dosas,Akki rottis,Upmas,Puris,Chapatis,Pongal and other breakfast luxury we got at home mostly made by Mom,her love and hardwork we appreciated so much and even when eating outside,it felt like heaven.The lunch and dinner were also simply superb,Mom's indeed the best cook for me,her handmade food was so tasty.On the other hand,we had trouble with the wet restrooms,scary geckos(1 0r 2) but we did'nt hurt anybody's feelings and tried to adjust slowly day by day coz' the purpose of our trip was to make everyone happy,get happy and go back after one and a half months of vacation.Not able to concentrate on my daughter much,I helped Mom at the kitchen in whatever small way I could,chopped veggies,cleaned and arranged the house sometimes and supported her morally and also to prepare for my only brother's wedding.We wrote to-do lists,organized every outing and finished most of the schedules on-time.The wedding was a success due to team works and everything went smoothly.
There were a lot of observations while in India,seeing the daily hassles of the servant,milkman,etc,tensed people,hyper people,women venting on their husbands hoping they would understand,could never make anyone understand or change anyone,we would just observe and adjust and remain calm and keep cool since it was a short stay.There were modern and orthodox clashes,selfish people,money crunches,everyone being right from their own angles,most of the youth having no values,divorce being a high norm,no caring for aged parents,money ruling everywhere,fast drop or decline in our Indian culture leading to chaos and confusion among the extravagant youth.The present youth surely need guidance and counselling(a business again),just going by the outer beauty and not the inner values.Fashion consciousness,figure consciousness and health consciousness all there(business,business everywhere),people cash on it along with Religion,astrology,gemology,etc.Strenuous and stressful lives,exorbitant prices more than the dollar prices,bad customer services,unorganized lifestyles,sub-standardness and low quality of life for the common middle class,corruption reigning,inequality among people,lack of education,evergrowing population,all added to the chaos,the neverending confusion and high stress levels.Again having both positives and negatives like any other place on this world,tradeoffs in life being common,we move on....
India's trip this time made me realize and see many things,life's complications,life's uncertainties,life's difficulties,life's intricacies,pain,etc making me more wise,tolerant,knowledgeable,experiencing God's play,making me realize people's worth and value,knowing the very purpose of this everlearning lives--a true eyeopener indeed.!!
Nobody's perfect,life and time heal and teach great lessons to everyone with great big blows,big happiness,big experiences.Relationships very fragile,feelings easily hurt all making you strong,making you realize priorities and importances in life.Hypocratic ,masked,unreal faces around,you yearn to be different,the real you unable to cope with many things,left behind(as you left the counrty 10 years back) ,and you follow the motto to be yourself.This trip truly has led to a more wise me,a more courageous me,a more balanced me,ego buried,pride fallen and lessons learnt---time healed and taught!!
Materialistic temporary lives given importance than the intellectual inner beauty and values,marketing and loans are a way,exorbitant prices soared every minute,unhygienic,ignorant people lacking education were victims of pandemics like dengue,chickungunya and swine flus---again due to inequality among people,no equal education for all,the very basics lacking!!!!!But the metropolitan city grew, cutting down trees,leading to global warming,worse weathers,buildings built with substandardness,unaffordability and natural things destroyed,only to to be set up in the outskirts or villages and again cashing on that business,to pay for clean water,air and light!!.There is a link between every problem like a neverending chain----population,congestion,inequality,peak corruption,substandardness,power cuts,money crunches,worse systems,blame games,non-coperation,etc and so on and on.When do we find a solution,will we ever find it??
To see the real India,it's in the villages with the green fields,pure air,light and water.It pains to write this on the Indian Independence Day that India has lost most of it's values,most of it's culture,it's old world charm,nature and beauty.India can be a super power only if it's handles the basics,the very foundations and not build on an improper one,if this continues,it will crumble and add to the sufferings and chaos.I hope all this end soon or will there never be an end??The question troubles many who see the truth,the facts,to be branded unpatriotic,returning NRIs flee back to the rest of the world only to be more patriotic in a distant country,united with fellow country men in a different country!!Planning to make the move in another 2 years,got to see only the positive things like good food,good culture and ignoring the negatives not expecting any changes will be a way,a positive way and a new phase of life.
With Hope we move on towards Light and pray that God holds our hands throughout the roads in life.
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