Lubbock stories: Prickly nostalgia

I'm now in a real small town. Or maybe it isn't all that small. Just lots of open space, and small neighbourhoods.When I look out the window, there are fields, I'm not sure which. There are neatly rolled bundles, like those flavoured jam cakes. "That's hay," said one of my newly made friends, Sara. There are trees, and lawns. The heat has yellowed the green. Sprinklers work hard at battling the heat, at restoring the colour.

So many lakes. Not really big, but sort of small, or medium sized. You can't really swim or waddle in them. These are the Playa lakes of the High Plains of Texas. Clayey, sticky, with turtles, fish, ducks, geese, and a whole lot more. The natural tall grass surrounding each of these lakes no longer exists. Atleast not within the city. Now its tall trees, and lawns. I saw squirrels. Do squirrels occur here? I thought. I thought right. Some old man from California missed his squirrels so much that he decided to bring them here. The pair thrived and populated the region.

It rains. There are hail storms. When the sky gets cloudy, I start reminiscing. The lashes of thunder and lightning, and the sudden downpour that follows. It takes me back in time to a lush beautiful place, where I spent a memorable five years of my life. Trivandrum. I see through the rain. The Pazhavangadi and East Fort Bus Stop flooding as I try hard to maneuveur my Scooty through the traffic and the invisible pot-holes.  The huge rain-drops transforming the already lush into full, ripe, and lusher, more vibrant, green. The Padmanabha thirtham, with the Padmanabha temple gopuram looming in the background.  The rain in my face, as I get drenched. The view from the window of my house, drenching the maavu and the thaali. Walking dogs in Kovalam, holding onto Misty as he bolts behind flying plastic wrappers, and stumbling behind Rocket as he speeds after the one thing he adores; auto-rickshaws. The feeling of 'I'm flying!' as I speed along the Karamana Bridge at a lowly 60km/hr, but assuming a 100. Another clap of thunder. And I'm back to the present. Looking at large spaces. And the wet artificial greens.

It isn't fair to compare. I know. But who can help but. There are other things too. The comfort. Too much of it somehow. Its hot and sunny outside from seven in the morning to eight at night. You don't have the option of 'saving' when you are forced to consume. An example: You have to use the laundry: the washing machine and the dryer. No option otherwise because you don't get laundry bars anyway, and neither can you make use of the ample sun to dry your clothes, unless you spread the clothes on the ground outside your apartment block. Noone walks. They only drive. Even if where they have to go is two blocks away. Pizzas and burgers are the staple diet. You  have essentially two types of people - the really, unbelievably, horribly, humongous people. Their underbelly reaches below their knees, and you wonder how  they walk, or sit, or anything else for that matter. The other category has slim, muscular, nicely shaped people, into sports, and look awesome as hell. But you see, no in-betweens. No plump, or rounded, or those types of people. If present, then they occur in miniscule proportions of the population.

This country is about too much comfort. That irks me a bit. To change that, and introduce an element of hardship in your life, you have to strive. In India, that's probably the other way around.

A different academic experience. That's what I came looking for. And it is truly unique, different, and worth the experience. But the lack of that subtle touch, that Indian feel. I go down the memory lane again.

Too orderly, too neat. The sameness about everything. The monotony of everyday. I miss the culture. And the festivals. The disharmony and the erraticism of everyday Indian life is something I've started yearning for. The diversity narrows down to common here. I try to explain to a fellow student about Incredible India. I knew that was true before I came here. But I realise it now in the life I'm leading, in a home away from home.

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