The Foreigner!!

Almost everyone i know, including me, have a fancy for going 'abroad'.

It started with shopping for clothing, appropriate to the seasons and went on into buying utensils and supplies for the kitchen.

The next fancy is to set foot onto the 'airplane' and check out the air-hostess serving you 'free' food and watching the so-called 'luxury' mini-tv in front of you. But only when you end up sitting in the same position for 36 to 48 hours, in may be different flights or different airports, running with 2 or 3 baggages to terminals, it sinks into you that your actually 'travelling' and that you might not end up seeing your family for a very long time. Soon, the very thought of an airplane will give you a sickening feeling in the stomach. It could be because of the travel or the dehydration you might get or your biological clock being affected.

I miss the pleasant evenings that you dont normally cherish or appreciate in your homeland. The sun shines BRIGHT till night 10 o clock. By the time you realise it was an 'evening', its already night.

I hardly see a soul walking on the streets. Every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to have a car. If you depend on the local transport, for a 2 mile journey, you might have to change 3 buses. The actual bus travel might be 5 minutes. But the wait time during transit between buses would be even an hour. So Target and Walmart end up being your only visiting spots. Not to mention that a trip to the Indian stores might be a 'picnic'. Your bound to spend at least 7 hours (3 hours in the bus, 1 hour in the shop, 3 hours to return!) to shop for maggi noodles!

You end up paying Rs 175 ($3.25) for a samosa chat or pani puri. I remember fighting to the way-side guy selling pani puris. Some may give only 6 puris for Rs 10. I always fight for my 7th 'rightful' puri invariably. Else the 6 puris wont get to digest peacefully!

You learn the concept of 'right' while driving - to unlearn and learn driving; to follow the rules; not to mention, to learn to 'trust' another soul driving on the next lane!!

I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine sometime back. I had the habit of calling any white guy i see a 'foreigner' back in India. The habit followed. I saw a lady sip a cup of the 'Starbucks' coffee and I started the sentence with 'That foreigner', but i never got to finish that sentence. My friend corrected me immediately: 'Your the foreigner here young lady, its their homeland now'. Only then did it actually sink into me that its not 'MY' homeland anymore! Imagine living entirely in another man's house, whom you dont even know. The nauseating feeling in my stomach followed! GULP!!!

'Am a foreigner!'