It has been more than two months since I got back from Indianapolis. Being away for four years can take its toll in more ways than one. I clearly remember the day I left India and I also remember the last few weeks before I got back. I used to day dream about how excited I was about getting back into the same environment I left behind. My life was going to go on smoothly and nothing could come in the way. Or so I thought. I don't really know if I was totally oblivious to the fact that everything changes, or was I in denial? I guess that I just did not want things to change and refused to believe that life would be different when I get back. A month into getting back, it hit me. Everything around me had changed and suddenly I began to feel like a stranger in a strange land, filled with strange people. I struggled day and night to deal with these changes and as a first step, I can say that I have now accepted that everything has changed. Have I fitted in with those changes? I don't think so, but I am working on it. I just thought I would list down a few things that caught me off guard.
* Traffic gets worse and there is no way in hell that it's going to improve. More vehicles are hitting the road and what ever said and done, we are not as organized as other countries. Chaos reigns on the roads and it wont help if I start getting pissed off at ever person that honks or cuts across the line. Having driven in Indianapolis does in no way qualify me to drive here. I have to be a part of the madness.
* Prices increase everyday and I must have been nuts to expect the prices to stay constant even after four years. I now understand that a meal at a pretty nice restaurant can cost 200 or 300 or even more. Forget the food. Anything I lay my hands on is going to cost more. There is nothing I can do about it.
* Everyone moves on. No one is going to plan his/her life around me. Friends get jobs, get married, have babies and move on. Why should they pause their life and wait for me to jump in? I probably need a reality check, just for expecting them to, even if it was not a conscious wish. Somebody slap me.
* Most people who care for you, don't care for you as much as you think they do. Most people who care for you, care for you a lot more about you than you think they do.
* Its important that you go out and make a new set of friends occasionally. Right now, I'm just so grateful that I have quite a few different set of friends.
* No matter how much time and effort you invest into your job, health, relationship and anything else, it can all come crashing down one day, in the blink of an eye, for no fault of yours. Such is life. It throws shit on your face when you are enjoying the cool breeze on your face while driving a bike down and empty highway.
* This blog has become something more than just a blog. I have got to know quite a few people who are on my blogroll. I am grateful for that and just so you know, at times its the comments that you post that keeps me going.
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