Change is the only constant

I just returned from my trip to India. It was to be a 19 day trip but got extended to 50 due to visa problems (What's new, you ask!). I was visiting home after 9 years and I was told by all and sundry, that I am not gonna be able to recognize the India (especially Chennai where I spent most of the 50 days). In fact, a friend of mine in the U.S. (a desi) wrote to me while I was in India to check in on me and find out how was doing. He also asked me, "Isn't it all so different to you??".. My short answer was "No".

The long answer went something like this, "Yeah, there are dozens of new flyovers, shopping malls, wide highways with lanes marked (which no one follows very much), Nike and Reebok showrooms, coffee shops and all that, but the essence of the city - and the people - has not changed". I meant it in the most positive way. I did not say this, knowing, especially, what he wanted me to say in response to his question.

The city, the towns and the country is pretty much exactly as I remember. The way people interact with each other, the smells (the good, the bad and everything in between), the sounds, the colours, the richness, the poverty, the traffic, sea of humanity -- All that is absolutely unchanged. This is how I remember India. This is the India I lived in. This is the India I cherished and continue to do so.

I belong there. I cannot really explain it. If you know what I am trying to say, then, you know it. There is only one place in the U.S. where I get the feeling that I get when I am in India, New York City. May be, its the cosmopolitan nature of NYC, or may be the foods, may be its the sounds, I don't know.

India never changes. That is the beauty of her. We change. We think we change. We think since we think we have changed, India would too! But India is like a parent. No matter how much we change, or think we have changed, she is always there with the same, unchanged love, affection and the open arms.