"My Home"

12^th July 2010, 10:00 PM (IST), finally the taxi arrived and it was time to move on. My sister and mummy came to the airport to drop me. My flight was scheduled to depart at 1.45 AM.

It was an hour drive to the airport, but this was one of the shortest drive I think I ever had. Not because of the time it took, but we had so much to talk in that one and half hour drive, that all three of us felt it that the time to say good bye came too quick. It was time to leave "My Home".

I know my mom was not very happy at my leaving India to such a distant place, and she tried hard to keep her tears hidden behind the smile on her face, but then at the airport, probably the weight of her tears outweighed her smile and she cried. It’s not that this was the first time I was going away from home, but this time she felt that the distance is gonna be too long for her to bridge.

After the security check and custom clearance I was sitting in the passanger’s lounge. For the next one hour, my mind was full of thoughts as weird as one can think of. Startng from a plane crash to missing my connecting flight and it went the extent of me getting lost in US. I was so tensed that live screening of world cup final was not able to bring peace to my mind.

I reaslied that there is something about this place (USA or any foreign land) which creates a magnetic pull. It drives us away from our family, friends and whatever we know as our own. We call this “pull” by different name – for some it’s a social status, for some its money, and for some it’s the sheer experience of living in a different world. I don’t know what was pulling me at that time! I was not sure if this was a right decision!!

Soon the boadring announcement was made for my flight and I stood in the queue. Once I sat on my seat, I looked around and was satisfied to see familiar Indian faces in the cabin. After sometime the captain made the final announcement for our take-off. It was time to leave and the moment the rear wheels left contact with the ground I felt what it means to leave your own land. For whatever we pretend, this is not a good feeling to have.

The LED display unit on my front seat was showing the route of my flight as well as the distance covered from origin. Slowly miles increased in a multiple of 10’s and by the time I woke up I had reached Paris airport, travelling close to 5000 miles from Bangalore. After a continous flight of 9 hours the stopover was refreshing. I was in an alien world – and it was alien in literal sense of the word – the people were different in looks and in the way of their speech. It was a different place.

The feeling of alienation deepened when I boarded my next flight for the final destination some 4000 miles away. This time there was no Indian face in the flight (As far as I could see). I was getting closer into the magnetic field, but my mind was still there – 9000 miles away in India.

It will take some time for me to settle down on this land, but I am convinced I can never call this place as “My Home”.