Musings from faraway land

Its been two months in Columbus, Ohio. Pensieve time..

High points till date:

Trip to Chicago:
Was good to go to a "home" after my present a-la-refugee abode.Sarayu's place was awesome, so was the city.Architecture tour of the city's downtown skyline , mexican and spanish cuisine, margarita episode (literally flipped out after a diluted drink...thought was stronger than this..anyhow).30 mins near the beach were the best..after 20 years was near a water body..fabulous.Looking forward to the diwali trip to the same place again..

Tornado Warning:
Dont know what to make out of it..still..are americans more paranoid or its a genuine scare.Had shopped for the first time that day after landing in US and was greeted with the scene straight out of the movie "twister". Out of yonder came these ominous black clouds ,followed by high velocity winds and splashing rain.More ominous than all this was the blaring siren that just went on and on - signalling the county had a tornado warning and one was supposed to go and wait in the basement. So we waited ..some of us with cameras in hand(Indians have such presence of mind I'd say).But anticlimax, the tornado supposedly passed through the airport and was visible from the windows, had we be standing on the other side of our apartment building.So the precious sighting was missed..concede was a lil scared..was glad to be alive honestly..next time I'll enjoy it more I guess...

First visit to the Indian grocery store:
Never have MDH masalas and parachute oil been such a pleasant sight to sore eyes. Felt like alice in wonderland..so happy with tiger biscuit and kaddo and bhindi and achar and the works... Things I never relaized were so much a part of my life..

First visit to Barnes and Noble:
Thats my mecca..my temple on earth...and on my first visit bought the last of the harry Potter series..ah..life couldnt be better..

Flip side:

Indians don't smile:
They just dont. Never realised we were such an unfriendly nation, honestly.Living right now in a suburban US city, people wish and greet you on the streets normally, if you happen to catch their eye or come face to face...just like that. My friends say these are plastic smiles and nothing beyond it..whatever..to a foreigner new to the place they seem welcoming and thats a nice feeling..
But Indians , people from my own country , dont bother. Honestly how much effort does smiling take?You come across a fellow Indian citizen in the supermarket, and the general Indian tendency is to look away. Really people... what is wrong with us?Forced me to think.Probably Indians when they are kids are taught never to trust a stranger or be friendly to starngers ..and that behaviour gets embedded in our phyche..its a sad thing..when you are with your family you dont realise it..but when u are in a faraway land..it kind of hits you..

shudder to think what foreigners visiting our country go through...

Living Alone:
Still to come across a good grp of friends so to say....its funny you have to wrk towards making frnds...have never done that in the past..it usually just happens..anyways....very slow progress so far..working on it though...


One phrase which keeps going on and on in my mind while experiencing the various sights and sounds is "its just like the movies". Thats been the jest of the whole experience so far..just that its real.Not in awe or anything but yes, its a new experience...lets see how long the novelty lasts.