The place we call 'Home'!

I can’t believe it’s already one year since we returned to India after our brief stint in the US. Though our stay in the US was only for over three years, it was long enough to change our lifestyle, our perspective towards life, our outlook towards parenting and our understanding of what’s important in life! In short, our stay in the US changed our lives and I am thankful for it! At the same time, it also made us realize that our ultimate destination was in fact India and no matter how long we stayed in the US, this realization would continue to haunt us! We also realized that the longer we stayed, the harder it would be for us to leave! So we took a call and moved back to a place that was once our home,  not sure of whether we would be able to make it our home once again, after having spent three years in a land that changes one for good! At the risk of sounding like a US returned snob, I must say that initially, we felt disoriented doing everyday things like crossing the main road, with all kinds of vehicles headed in all kinds of directions! We missed having oatmeal for breakfast (Quaker’s oatmeal just doesn’t taste the same here!) and continue to miss Netfix and Starbucks! We kept comparing Americans with Indians and complained about how Indians lacked etiquette or basic civic sense! We found ourselves constantly converting Rupees to Dollars to see if we would’ve embarked on the same expenditure had it been the US! On a personal note, I had also forgotten how to function in a joint family set up, having spent the last three years not being answerable to any in-law! J One year's up and our life in Portland seems so distant and removed from our current set-up that it almost feels like another life….or at best a dream fading away from memory! In one year, all of three of us have not only managed to comfortably settle down in our new “old home” but tried to blend in some aspects of our American life with our life in “namma Bengaluru”! So I can safely say that, in one year…it feels like we never left! J

I guess Abhay has been the happiest with our move. Except some intermittent references to his Portland friends and Portland’s freeways (which even I miss), Abhay is home! So today, celebrating one year anniversary of our change of address, I read “Sameer’s House”  by Deepa Balsavar and Deepa Hari and illustrated by Nina Sabnani. This book can also serve as an introductory lesson on geography for your little one. This is about Sameer who lives with his family in his house located on a narrow crowded street called Saraswathi street, in a busy city called Mumbai which in turn is the capital city of the State of Maharashtra that is a part of a populous country called India. India is one of the countries in the largest continent of Asia on a planet called the Earth that rotates around the sun in the solar system that is a part of the universe. The  last page carries a few names with their addresses detailed just as Sameer’s. As for Abhay, he may not realise it now, but Abhay has come a long way from Abhay Karanth, NW Overlook Drive, Hillsboro, Oregon, USA, North America, Earth, Solar System, Universe, to Abhay Karanth, Silver Oak Street, Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Asia, Solar System, Universe!