"How are you settling down?" has been on the top of the list of FAQs for me in the last few months, an obvious one for someone who has shifted residence across continents. It's not yet been six months, but here are some things that struck.....
You can see the sun in here and actually feel its heat. But the heatwave can also strike with a vengeance as if saying 'Coming from the land of rain, huh?.......now take this.....'. For at least a month since we landed, my nearly six year old limited her world to the AC room with a working remote.
Practically any grocery item needed can be found out of the society gate. But the heat makes you unwilling to walk to get grocery anyway.
Point to point distance can be reached with a means cheaper than a taxi. But sometimes, you are thankful you were able to get down in one piece from that 'means'.
Envelopes, glue stick, all available at your doorstep. But postal stamps can be secured only from the post office and must be posted in the boxes outside the post office. No post boxes can be found at a walking distance and if you do find one, you're told the post is going to stay inside the box forever.
You could travel in a local train past four stations for INR10 (EUR0.14) V/s EUR5. But god save you if you don't know which side you need to alight from.
You now have someone do your dishes for you. But promotions and bonus, all expected within a month, since its Diwali!
You now know who lives next door....but the twin kids next door can ring the doorbell (and at least thrice) anytime and hop in to disturb your kid's study.
Relatives / friends are now a local phone call away, but welcome to the land of no response to professional e-mails.
The language is of course, 'aapni', but the general mind set might sometimes feel like the square peg in the round hole, whose edges are being "filed" to suit the requirements of the hole.
Contradictions aside, it probably is the destiny of the ice to melt in its own water (Swades of course) and to be "unmade" in India!
You can see the sun in here and actually feel its heat. But the heatwave can also strike with a vengeance as if saying 'Coming from the land of rain, huh?.......now take this.....'. For at least a month since we landed, my nearly six year old limited her world to the AC room with a working remote.
Practically any grocery item needed can be found out of the society gate. But the heat makes you unwilling to walk to get grocery anyway.
Point to point distance can be reached with a means cheaper than a taxi. But sometimes, you are thankful you were able to get down in one piece from that 'means'.
Envelopes, glue stick, all available at your doorstep. But postal stamps can be secured only from the post office and must be posted in the boxes outside the post office. No post boxes can be found at a walking distance and if you do find one, you're told the post is going to stay inside the box forever.
You could travel in a local train past four stations for INR10 (EUR0.14) V/s EUR5. But god save you if you don't know which side you need to alight from.
You now have someone do your dishes for you. But promotions and bonus, all expected within a month, since its Diwali!
You now know who lives next door....but the twin kids next door can ring the doorbell (and at least thrice) anytime and hop in to disturb your kid's study.
Relatives / friends are now a local phone call away, but welcome to the land of no response to professional e-mails.
The language is of course, 'aapni', but the general mind set might sometimes feel like the square peg in the round hole, whose edges are being "filed" to suit the requirements of the hole.
Contradictions aside, it probably is the destiny of the ice to melt in its own water (Swades of course) and to be "unmade" in India!
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