The simple joy of 'coming home'

One of the primary reasons I am writing this blog is because I feel there is a large section of the readers who will relate to this  (and this is not to let u turn green with envy!!!)… and of course the other primary reason is to find an outlet to the range of emotions (mostly of joy and nostalgia) I  go thru whenever I visit home. One of the first things that is noticeably different on the day you leave for home is the sense of joy and the making up of seemingly valid reason to not work that day (and it almost always is a Friday, which simplifies things). So you tend to reach office a little later than usual and try and do a lot of things which you wouldn’t have done otherwise on a normal working day (like having lunch for 45 mins… having an extra coffee break at 3pm and howling to the whole office that you are leaving today and hence need to head for an early coffee break)

You trundle out of office, reach home and stuff two pairs of clothes for the weekend (not to forget the toothbrush… which you remember only when you ve packed your bag and reach the main door, which is quite annoying because your mission is being delayed by a further couple of minutes). Your bus or auto journey to the railway station or the bus station is spent absent-mindedly gazing out of the window thinking of all possible ways to plan the weekend (sleep first on ur bed… wake up and be pampered with home food… go back to ur playful ways with siblings… meet some friends). Different thing that none of these plans materialize. For me the best part about going home is the tryst with the Bangalore of old. The narrow, crowded lanes of majestic and gandhinagar is a different feeling altogether and is in stark contrast to the otherwise swanky commercial buildings in the new city. The best part about the old Bangalore is the food. You walk into a roadside sandarshini kind of joint and order a set dosa and that’s where the difference screams at you. You get three nicely puffed up (and well oiled!!) dosas in fine dough with a spicy curry and a tangy chutney as accompanying dishes. Its finger lickin good (now don’t file an unlawful usage of tagline lawsuit!!) all for an ‘eye-popping’ price on the 10-15 rupees band. So much for the company foodcourts.

Now comes the best part… u get on the bus (or the train!) making a mental estimate of the time its going to drop you in your hometown the next day (this is a very bad thing to do because every minute it gets delayed beyond your estimated time, you give half a dirty look to the driver and half a dirty look to the cleaner next to him!!) I wont go into what happens at home (because I do not wish to impose upon everyone what they should be doing in their visit home!!)  except the common.. mom sets all the pickles on the table, dad puts your favorite soap in ‘your’ soapbox. But one more thing that happens very often is that you are dumb-struck by how clean your room looks as soon as u reach (and u leave ur parents and siblings dumb-struck at how dirty it becomes by the time u leave!!) you get time for that little net practice in your backyard (or front-yard in my case!!) and keep resolving to yourself that u will start a fitness regime the moment u go back to ur place of work. And the other alarming aspect is the realization that time just seems to be flying double quick the moment you are at home and you are almost tempted to have a

If ever you were to plot your mood over this weekend on a two-axis graph, it will resemble the stock market crash of last week with the lowest point representing the time u settle down in the train (with a scowl on ur face which makes the passengers around u think u ve just been beaten up for stealing candy!!). You look too miserable for words and keep looking back longingly at Friday evening when u boarded ur train or bus for home… Ah! If only I had a time machine! Not for anything am I trading these two days…. Not even for a Ferrari F2008 test drive around Indianapolis