A year gone by

Since I havent been "quite" regular at blogging the whole of 2010, there have not been as many posts as I would've liked to post. Anyway, to compensate for that, I am going to sum it all up in one post..

If we were to give a title or caption for every year, mine would've been "Good Bye USA, Hello India" for the year 2010.

Vicky and I knew that the move was coming up... but I dont think I was quite mentally prepared for the big change. The whole thing didnt settle in for the first couple of months. It felt like I was on a vacation. For one, Nikhil and I were staying with my parents, then we headed off to visit relatives, spent another month with V's parents. So you see what I mean, I was living off of suitcases for a really long time.

It was July when we joined V at Hyderabad. The campus is awesome! It's almost like living in a hotel. They provide room keeping services, which means clean white sheets, changed every two days, sparkling bath, counter tops and mopped floors every day! To add to this we got a maid who does laundry and makes rotis. Every one has a maid, so it looks weird if we dont have one... :-)

So from having no help at all to having too much help. It is a big transition! And I tell you, keeping maids is no easy job. It's a huge project management exercise! Sometimes its more stressful to drive your maid than to a actually do the chores yourself.

There's a grocery store and a pharmacy on campus. Both does home delivery. Life is really cool. I could sit on the couch watching TV all day! Sadly because Nikhil needs attention, I cannot afford to do that. May be I should get a maid to watch him full time. ;-)

I do get my maid to watch Nikhil for about three to four hours a day, so that I can get to move my big fat butt to the gym... I admit its really good to get out and be on my own for a little bit.

As to how I feel about being back in India... my emotions are mixed. Sometimes I just love being here, I have never felt so much at ease in such a long time. I dont have an annoying tension about visa or job or anything thats bugging me, especially given that we are in a no income one kid situation right now. But then there are days that I get too frustrated with the system, people's attitude, and lot of other things. I do miss the US and our life, I miss the predictability of everything, most importantly I miss the independence I had over there... but on the other hand I do love that I have help, that my parents or in laws are a few hours flight away, Nikhil is getting to see so many people, enjoy the company of his grandparents. I love the kababs, the chaat, the biryani, the tikka masala... although I miss Chipotle, a nice juicy beef burger, but thats besides the point... In all, I think I can live with missing certain things about US.. because i feel that there's more to love here. Even though I find myself being aggressive on quite a few occasion, otherwise people take you for a ride... I feel like I am home.