24 hours, an extremely ill-organized transit, 4 heavy bags, interesting fellow travelers, fake air turbulence's and 3 movies later - my first words of wisdom - "Her tits were in my face!" I turn around to see the source of this profound wisdom. A young american woman was describing her "escapades" with a bigger entity. (no pun intended guys!) It would be an understatement if I were to say my jaw dropped. I mean come on, when was the last time you heard something like this spoken in such high resonating frequency in India? Oh wait.. I am not in India any more am I? So lets say this was my "Welcome to America!" Not exactly one of the most conventional welcomes but hey, its the land of "liberty"!
I didn't pay a lot of heed to my teachers when they said, "Look left and then look right before crossing a road". This was the day they hadn't trained me for! Where do I look? I don't wanna get run over by a super fast car but I also don't wanna look stupid waiting for a signal to light my path! I am a bangalorean and no signal can ever slow a Bangalorean down! What do I do? Well, while most of you might use your brains, I blindly follow the person who appeared from nowhere and stood in front of me!Voila! Little Shubha is on the other side of the road!
An Indian has the strongest taste buds in the world! So what do we do when we step out of India? Crib about the tasteless food around! I am, quite clearly no different! My first visit to an Indian restaurant, a near disaster if I might add, witnessed me ordering more food than my jet lagged body could digest. After finishing half a parantha I look up only to see a family stealing glances at me. What? Haven't you guys ever seen a pretty Indian girl eating by herself??? Oh hang on? Am I supposed to eat with the silver ware? I mean use a fork and knife to tear my paranthas? Are you freaken retarded?? What do I do now? Do what this place is most known for - smile at strangers!
It's surprising that an Indian is the most Indian when he's outside India. The first independence day outside India, never felt so proud singing the national anthem with a group of fellow country men and women. Who says Independence day is just a holiday? I didn't get one this time!!!
Finally I find some time in the country of work-o-holic coffee drinkers (seriously! what's with the quantity of coffee people drink here!) to do something apart from be nice to people. As I see an untouched roti and half eaten bhindi curry, knowing I am staring at something that will find itself in my plate for lunch tomorrow; as I hear the metra hoot away to glory transporting people to a place diametrically opposite to their office; as I look out of my window seeing empty streets at 8:30 pm; I know this is a new leg of my journey. A journey where I would be attempting homicide my initiating cooking (a tear just rolled down my cheek), a journey where I would be adapting to a temperature of -20, a journey where my smile takes precedence over my middle finger! Lets rock!
