Feeling At Home

Process this. You have been told that in 2 weeks time you will have to go to a completely new city for some work. Questions pop into your head... You spend you fortnight wondering what the city will be like? How will the people be? How will you manage to get around the city? How will you be able to trust what a localite tells you?

India is a huge country. It has diverse cultures. It has hundreds of languages and a million dialects. Okay… tell me something new you say! Right! Right… well. Let me reboot!

I have spent majority of my life in the western part of India, save a few months in the lovely Infosys campus in Mysore where the company has provided such a cocoon that you don’t realize you are in some far away part of the country. Also thanks to my choice of profession (not my own but yes I don’t mind the perks) I have had the luxury of visiting some foreign locales. But, it’s been a while since I last went out of my comfort zone. It’s been a while since I have been to a city where I know if I am standing in the correct street, either by relying on a digital map or with the help of some family.

When we landed in the southern most part of India, southern most for me at least – I have never been so far away from home in my own country, we were if anything else a little anxious. Apart from the obvious difference in language, there is a vast difference between the societies also. We were given a map, and written description, of reaching our destination. We were told by family and friends that people will not even respond to English, let alone Hindi! We had a bunch of numbers at hand in case we get lost in this huge strange city. And of course there are the digital maps.

But as luck would have it, the moment we landed, both of our phones conked off. So the maps and the numbers go out of the window. We approach the prepaid cab stand and get our ticket to the destination. Once in the cab, a friend who said that people won’t respond to English was proved right, when the driver dint respond to a single thing we said to him. We dint even think of trying Hindi… come on who are we kidding!!

Anyway, what we dint realize was that while we were settling in the cab, the driver was making sure he knew the address to the T. He dint miss a single turn and dropped us safely to our destination in the shortest time we have spent in a cab in any metropolitan city. Also as soon as we entered the guest house, I was again pleasantly surprised when the person greeted us in perfect Hindi. He brought us prompt coffee (authentic filter coffee) and asked us about our home towns. Turned out he himself hailed from up-north!! At the dinner table we were served a lovely home cooked meal of all the things we have at our parent’s house (even we don’t ever cook such lovely meals!!). While on a walk around the neighborhood, it felt as if we were walking around our locality, such was the ease with which we were walking the streets as if we knew every nook and cranny. Well, probably I am woozy with all the good food and lovely night air, but I am feeling much at home in this strange city.

That got me wondering, isn't it wonderful what globalization has done to our huge country. When we think of globalization we only think of internationalization. But what really has happened is that India as a country also has shrunk. Who would have thought say 15 years back that two people who have no ties what so ever with a city would be so comfortable just in 2 hours. Who would have thought that you will be able to trust complete strangers just because we have faith in them?

It’s what education has done to us. We think beyond boundaries. We think beyond color. We think beyond languages. We are the new generation who is willing to leave their homes and live in a foreign land. We don’t have prejudices. We don’t judge without reason. We have an open mind. We are willing to learn, and teach.

This wasn't a vacation, but it turned into just one of the best times I have had...