The 'Sun-lighter' side of life.....

"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!

We are what we repeatedly do. Now really?

I heard this one recently. This is Aristotle speaking: We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. The wise guy probably meant it in the sense of developing a habit to excel or some such. But the 'We are what we repeatedly do' makes me uncomfortable (If it were in my hands, I wouldn't do anything repeatedly and try something new everyday).

Agreed, people see you (and maybe, even judge you) in as little detail as your designations. That's what they think you repeatedly do. But hey, what about the whole melodrama that goes on in the mind, which leaks in little acts and might make a grand entry once the curtain's up?!! What about the thousand and one aspirations (not shekhchalligiri, but calculated, swot analysed aspirations)which keep playing like a broken record at the back of the mind? So then, you might physically be sitting down, repeatedly striking the computer keys and be a something manager. But that ain't what you are, dear Ary. What you are probably leaks out somewhere else(like in blogs!!).

Aristotle's problem was that he wasn't born in a social network world - a world where what you are, what you do, what you want people to think you are / you do and what people actually turn out thinking what you are / you do, are all four different things. For example, you sit at the desk blogging, your mind is snow tubing down somewhere and your skype status is set to 'do not disturb' mode, making people think you are on a conference call or working on a project. If Ary was true, people would be 'whatsappers' for instance. Everyone ought to see the 'Disconnect to connect' (google it if you don't know) commercial.

I recall listening to a medical doctor telling that whatever you fill into your subconscious mind repeatedly, ultimately becomes a reality. So, for the real mixed with virtual world, you probably are what your mind is repeatedly doing. What do you think?