Things That I Will Miss

With just about 25 days left for me in this country I wonder on what all I would miss of this place and its people. Let me see…

Library: A huge public library near office that has every book I would want to read and every movie that I would want to watch. That too for free! I am surely going to miss the Saint Paul public library.

Sports: Be it tennis or table tennis, the court is either inside the apartment or right next to it. And again, free! I’m not too sure if it is the availability of the court, or the availability of time that is differentiates US from India. Also the availability of treadmills in the apartment itself is bliss for people like me who are lazy to visit a gym. (Though unfortunately the treadmill in my apartment stopped working in October ‘07 )

Time: As hinted early on, time is a huge factor. In India I never felt as if I had time for anything. Long hours in office regardless of the amount of work, spending time with family, and the like consume time in India. All those things are absent in the US. Get out of office at 5:30 pm and think of something to do.

Change of seasons: Having grown up in the hot-hotter-hottest Chennai, it has been a revelation watching the different seasons in the US. Enjoying the different faces of nature in the same place is marvelous.

Traveling: Not that India does not have places to visit. It is just that I become totally lazy when I am closer to home. Also the lack of company matters.

Lack of pressure: I am pretty sure that the minute I land in Chennai the usual “You are still with the same company?”, “Your friend of a cousin of a friend of relative is XYZ in company ABC after being just a BSc” will all start. If I lose hair in US due to change of water, I lose more hair in India due to pressure.

Movies: With the amazing internet speed and time at hand, I can watch so many movies online. I don’t think I ever fancied movies back home.

Concern for the physically challenged: Everything in US is made with the disabled people in mind. The pavements have small slopes for wheel chairs to get in from the road, the restrooms have lower urinals for the handicapped, buses have lifts and wheel chair restrainers, doors have a button to open them automatically so that people in wheel chairs need not struggle holding the door and the wheel-chair at the same time. If not anything else, this concern is something that I wish India could ape from the US.

So, do I like US more than India? Not at all. The above are things that I like in the US, but there is surely lots more to India than what US can offer me.