A fantastic journey home

It's an inexplicable feeling to be back home, meet family after spending time away - working, socializing with friends and handling the daily do's. The love of home is what makes the heart warm (it probably reaches the soul)...the beaming faces of parents and relatives who care for you, their loving enquiries and the way they go about caring for you like you are a kid...no matter how old you are, it really doesn't change...does it?

Jet-lag never sets in despite the 15 hour difference in my home country time from the US. I attribute it to the splendid way of things happening: my dad waking me up and wishing me 'Good Morning', my mom is already cooking so we can have brunch and get started on catching up. I started to relax and take in the spirit of my home...what a great way to begin a vacation. After a day or 2 of family time, relatives and friends call in to chat up. It's worth anything planning to meet up with friends from college, hang out at a shopping mall talking about memorable stories that will make better hits than Bollywood movies, get some south indian chat/dinner in one of our fave restaurants and catching on a movie if time permits. Time really flies and there's more things to do than can be done...shopping always tops my list ;) .

For the most part, visiting my native place is always on the to-do's in my trip. It's a village in Tanjore district, south of Chennai and enriches my love for nature every single time I go there. The small sit-out before entering the house is a camping place for all my cousins and me. We love playing cards, taking a walk down the street (a narrow foot path sided with shrubs and thorny bushes all the way through), investigating the cattle each home has, also manage to capture few pictures of flowers, ponds filled with lillies, some flies too, and eventually are summoned to get into bed so we can get up early for a day of temple visits. The next morning, the house is busy with elders running around preparing for the day. The smoke from the water boiler signals water being ready to shower and freshen up. Off we go and get dressed in a jiffy. It's an occasion to show off our traditional clothing which is not suitable for the metro life in Chennai. The temple visits are fervently completed by early afternoon and we are all starving to eat lunch...cooked in an earthen stove. Wow...the taste is amazing...so healthy and an aroma of freshness. A nap usually follows lunch (such good food). Then it's coffee time...the cows tied across the house in a small shelter are milked and unbelievable is the smell and richness of coffee thus made. After an evening of catching up on the local news and affairs, the day almost gets to a close with a splendid traditional south Indian dinner. After spending a few days in this fashion, we are all caught up on the idea of staying on when our parents start packing. That's the killer...we have to return to the hustle bustle of the city. The memories of each trip are good to carry on till the next one.

There is definitely something about the earth of one's homeland. You can appreciate and be astonished by the many foreign countries you live in or visit...but nothing can equal the happiness that warms the whole being when visiting one's home country.