One of the amazing things about working hard during a semester is the thought of the flight back home, the seemingly alternate reality of –
i. Not having to do laundry
ii. Not having to go anywhere to get food
iii. Not having to ‘buy’ lunch and dinner
iv. Not having to worry about cleaning the fan as much..
v. Not having ANY submissions..
Wow.. Home! The mere thought always excites me. As I was telling Mom the other day, this trip back will probably be the only time when I leave for home with a ‘Sigh’.. :)
3 Things that I remember..
1)Recharge!: There were a lot of times my trip back home coincided with a tough time at work. In fact, this happened almost everytime and what always ended up happening is that my performance upped right after I was back. I was more positive, more happy, taking myself less seriously and having lots of fun..
Learning: There’s something about going home that complete re-charges and as my mentors commented, it’s a great learning in itself. Next time, I find myself having a tough time and reacting badly, all I need to do is go back home!
2)Long conversations, drives, get togethers and the like: The biggest highlights about going back home are the long long conversations with Mom and a very close friend that await me. These are generally coupled with long drives down the East Coast Road i.e. by the sea late in the night. I love driving, especially late at night and there’s no better time than playing some nice music and driving down the road..
This is in addition to spending lots of time with friends just chatting, hanging around in places around the city, organizing the odd get together or reunion, visits to all my 3 schools and meeting my teachers, meeting old friends, bumping into people I know at theatres, playing some football and having 5-6 glasses of delicious juice from a local fruit shop, playing Fifa on XBOX at Blur.. Chennai is truly ‘home’ and having always been there for the ‘right’ period of time, it’s never ever gotten boring.
Mom and I also have a penchant for the unpredictable. We’ve had a few adventures – the most memorable was a drive down to the city of Bangalore (330km or 5 hours away) at 330am in the morning after watching a good movie to wish a close friend from Singapore ‘Happy birthday’. Then, there are a few others that just make the home experience complete!
Learning: Home has always been the ultimate vacation place and this is primarily again because of the people. At the end of the day, it’s family and friends that make it that way..
3)The Parent’s meet: A very memorable home outing was this December. As we generally hung out as a group of 9 here in Singapore, we thought it would be a great idea to organize a meet up of all parents. We were VERY apprehensive of how it would turn out because while a few parents did know each other, most didn’t.
Anyway, with the aide of an event manager who turned out to be an ex-classmate of my Mom’s from college, the evening was unbelievable! Thanks to Karaoke, the whole group came alive with songs in English, Hindi (i.e. old Kishore Kumar) and Tamil.. Was one of those evening we would remember for a very very very long time!
Learning: It was amazing ‘having fun’ with parents. We saw their youths and funny sides and it felt like we (i.e. the kids) got even closer than before. :)
—
Unlike a lot of other university memories, I am obviously going to continue going home from time to time. However, there will be a big difference.. A close friend mentioned above is most likely off to the states for his masters while another one will be busy at work. A lot is bound to change.. And this is a tribute to everyone at home who makes these trips special!
—
Oh, and I just realized I will also remember surprising family by sneaking in at home in the middle of the night as a surprise 3 times!! They were always expecting me a day or two late (thanks to information planted by me, of course..). Nothing like a nice surprise! :)
A Learning a Day 