Back where I come from

I don't know if any of my American friends read this blog, but if you are reading.. just carry on..

Well, back where I come from, I find my streets crowded with people, cars and my roads are always buzzing with activity, whatever be the time of the day. Here in Buffalo- its a surprise to see ten people walking on the road at any point of time. I always find it very odd not to find too many people on the roads, because my eyes are used to it and also used to looking for known faces where ever I go.

To buy a chocolate, I needn't walk a kilometer down a so called main road. All I need to do is pop down the stairs, buy it and get back home. Cars don't stop by for pedestrians and people keep bumping into each other. Signals do change and people don't forget to break rules.

At the fag end of each month, cops stand at almost every road, waiting for unsuspecting prey to cross their path and at the end of the day, they are the rajas. Back home, I didn't think twice about spending on anything, now things are such that, the thought of spending doesn't occur that often. Back home- I agree- I didn't walk much, but here, the number eleven bus's my main mode of transport.

I hardly used to see a cop having a gun on his person, but here, there's not a single cop who doesn't have a gun. Back home, proper queues are rarely ever seen, while there's a queue for everything here.

Back home- I could watch TV, here I don't have a TV. I used to watch a movie at Satyam, almost every weekend or atleast twice a month- here, I watch a movie that I ve watched a thousand times over.

Pani puri and Bhel puri used to be an item, which I could eat at will, now- merely seeing those items at the India store, brings back memories of having those stuff at chat stalls all over the city. I used to ask dad to change the old zen for a new car, now merely seeing my old zen, would certainly make me feel happy.

I used to sympathise with many of my friends who used to stay away from home, as they miss their mother's cooking. Now I have some of my friends who sympathise with me for that. Back home, staying awake till 1 am in the night would mean that I would still mean that I wake up by 8 am in the morning, but here, I wake up only by around 12 pm.

I had everything at my disposal at home, here I have nothing at my disposal. It s a cycle of life mates, whenever you have something, you don't realise its value and when you are away from it, you realise it's value many fold. When I asked one of my friends if he had ever been tipped by a customer at the food court where he works, he sorely recollects, never having tipped any waiter at any hotel that he went to, and now he hardly gets any tips.

But really, whenever I see something written in Tamil or Hindi, really- I get so excited, because, it's not everyday that I get to see something like that here. However, living in a maximum Indian area of Buffalo, I'm happy that I atleast get to speak in Tamil and Hindi rather than ending having to learn chinese and learning to catch the American accent, which does take sometime to understand.

Its been 2 months since I landed up here, but I'm still to actually realise that I'm away from my dear old Chennai.

But one thing that I have carried from home till here is Faith and Hope, which will certainly take me through tough times.

P.S: Mum, I know you'll read this, don't worry. I'm all fine here, jus wanted to let ppl know how things are here.