well, it took me more than 50 days to write something new over here. This long hiatus was due to the fact that I was at home with my parents, and it is but natural to get carried away with that life and you don't get time to reflect on things and issues as one would do in an otherwise normal life. I had visited home after a long gap, so to be honest it was kind of a pilgrimage through a variety of emotions. Life in India is very different, its very colorful, noisy, emotional, and just about everything apart from a quite sedate life in Europe. While going home, I had braced myself for this reverse-cultural shock.
The first major shock was the food. My constitution had got used to the Italian food and my own cooking which was sans any of the hot spices which folks use back home in India. So the first few days was a tough time getting adjusted to the "hot" food. One day while shopping I found my dear old pastas and pesto sauces in a supermarket - the same Barilla brand which one finds in Italy. My joy knew no bounds, I immediately bought a bunch of them and thanks to them I was having some proper food for a few days, until my taste buds got used to the regular spicy Indian food. Once adjusted, I would love nothing else other than what my mom cooked. Since I was visiting after a long while, there were plenty of re-unions with old school mates and graduation pals. Hyderabad in particular and India in general has changed a lot since the last time I had been there. One can see a whole bunch of changes all over the city and the changes are for good. There is a big boom in malls, eateries, shopping stores, places to hang out - one cannot feel bored as long as you have the right company to hang out with. There was this Italian restaurant which served real genuine Italian food. I tried it once for a dinner along with a close friend, who had come visiting from US. So we had some good Italian food there while hearing to some good jingles being played by a live band. The chef there had spent some years in Verona, a city close to Trento and was overjoyed to talk to me in Italian. The Gnocchi and Tiramisu indeed tasted good. Thanks to globalisation, now folks in far away Hyderabad can have access to some good Venetian Tiramisu. Talking about globalisation, there is a large change in demographics in India itself. The population of Hyderabad has grown astronomically, naturally its all owing to the large number of MNCs functioning in the Hitec city, which attract a huge number of qualified personal from other cities and states to Hyderabad, making it a truly metropolitan city now. Well this large influx of people adds to problems of maintaining the city as well. The traffic for instance is an absolute chaos. I had some bad experiences myself while driving, so decided to stay away from the wheel and instead watch the circus-acts being played out on the roads. Honestly, driving on crowded Indian roads is a big skill which needs a lot of practice.
I had planned to do some travelling while in India, but unfortunately my family commitments could give me no time and opportunity at all. I took some occasional snaps here and there, which I uploaded on my Flickr page. I had planned to cover the Republic Day parade in Delhi, but ill-health became an obstacle in my travel.
Personally this trip was a very memorable one. Most of my friends from Germany and US had planned our holidays such that we all travelled together and were together in Hyderabad, so we had a great time hanging out together in our own backyard. As it happens usually after having spent a great time with family and friends, it becomes difficult to part from them and come back to your work. But each of us staying away from family, has to go through this ordeal sometime or the other, and you wish them au revoir with a promise of returning back soon to those smiling faces, who embrace you with all their love.
