It is a funny thing to be home (in the US) for the Christmas season. Funny because my body is here, in the states, but my mind is 8,000 miles away. Every person I chat with or visit during my holiday visit wants to know about India. Same stories and inquisitive minds. Some even want to tell me about it, as one local jewelry maker, world traveler, friend of mine tried to do the other day. The crippling poverty. The stray dogs. The health concerns. A lovely lady for sure but I find myself nodding and smiling while I listened to her prattle on about books she had read and what she had experienced while visiting in India. After a lengthy conversation, fairly one sided I am sorry to say, I asked how long she had been India to which she responded 1 week. I would never insult a friend or work to embarrass her so I simple made an excuse about an errand I had to run and walked away. Lucky for me she doesn't read my blog.
Others ask a ton of questions. Some can't believe they use hoses instead of toilet paper. Or that people knock on your door during Diwali and demand gifts. Friends want to know about the food. How it is to have a driver or someone who cleans your house every day. It is funny to know talk about details of life in India that are not so novel but everyday events for me.
I have realized that once I return to normal life in the US, next year most likely, I probably won't have anything to talk about. Instead I will become that person people avoid at parties who says things like, "Well, when we lived in India...." That will eventually send them running won't it. 'No more' they will say. 'I can't handle another story!!!' It is coming. Interesting stories now. Boring later.
The reality is most of what my life has been like while living in a foreign country are things I can't share, or rather don't want to. The subtle ways your thinking changes. The odd feeling of seeing Christian crosses and Christmas decorations everywhere when I come home instead of Shiva, Ganesh, Hanuman. Before moving overseas I think I was naive about how the rest of the world thought and believed. The way I cringe when someone talks about the 99 percent in this country. (Hey, don't complain. Go see how the rest of the world lives for goodness sake.) It is a strange feeling to feel like a foreigner when I come home. Somehow not fitting in now that my mind has been blown. But not being an Indian either. Yes mind blowing indeed to be so odd.
My wish for you? That you live someplace that changes you forever. Truly amazing learning experience to be in a place, part of it, even if just for a short while.
So even though I am home for Christmas my mind stays in India. Thinking, analyzing, and trying to sort it all out. Making sense of the world from one corner of it to another.
