Mr. Schmidt country and some lessons …

I still remember writing a blog from a small café two days after I reached Hamburg.. all excited and gaga over the trip..And a year went by as quick as...well 365 days!!!.. giving me unforgettable experiences...fulfilling many a dreams and a lot more..

I complete one year of stay abroad today. And a year has taught me some wonderful lessons. (As if am going to learn ;-P)…All the lessons learnt in the eyes of a small town boy who was exploring a new country just like a scaled down version of Vasco de Gama…


Lesson 1

For someone like me who never had to interact with a Caucasian before in life it was a new experience. When I was a kid a white man/woman were a kauthukka vasthu (can’t get the exact English translation for that. I guess it means ‘curio item’)..I used to look in awe at the phoren tourist who came to shed their clothes at our kovalam beach. They were looked at like aliens with a curiosity to touch them to see if their skin is like ours or if they had five fingers in each hand just like us.. Like we always looked down ourselves as a poor hangry people. ‘no money..poor poor..please Saar some Singapore dollars..you white fair and lovely..very rich fella..’

The whites were a people much above us...The last one year helped me shed this apprehension or stigma I attached to interacting with a Caucasian..If I say in more dramatic cinematic style I ll lift the line from a movie and say, I learnt to talk man to man.
The white skin doesn’t awe me anymore. I understand they are as human as us..and as inhuman as we are.. I might have still carried that baggage of white “the better guy” stigma back home.

P.S. My co-workers are nice folks who happen to appreciate our culture and ideas..I like my work place coz I get to work in a team of Indians..Germans..French..Spaniards..Brits..Russians..Poles and Japanese ..We have Hindus..Jains..Christians..Atheist..Muslims..Bhuddhist and Jews in our team.. Am sure this combo is a real heady mix…

Lesson 2

Had a picture that poverty existed only in Africa and Asia..Learnt that poor people exist throughout the world even in the supposedly affluent west. And sometimes I think the trauma the poor here goes through might be much more agonzing than what the poor back home face coz here they are simply alone. Completely isolated from the society in the midst of prosperous and affluent lifestyles...At least back home the poor have a network of their own...they have people amongst themselves to share their miseries and sorrow. Here the poor are folks who have succumbed to drugs or binge drinking and in the process became social discards…

Lesson 3

Faith is almost non-existent here.. Church is a place where they can get married and they can be packed in neat caskets for the delivery to hell or heaven..wherever...
Otherwise the church isn’t of much relevance…The west now suffers spiritual poverty. This country is now having an atheist population of 40-45%.I have nothing against atheists myself having harbored such sentiments in the past. But the point is atheism has indirectly resulted in an intolerant society where atheists ridicule sentiments of the believers.


Lesson 4

However communication gets better. However advanced be Gtalk..Skype..Messenger..it is just not the same as having the friends around you. Technology still doesn’t get better than bytes or pixels.. I have learnt how important is to have friends near you. I have friends out here but they wont ever be like the friends back home..

My close friends are now in different corners of the world. Wondering when we ‘ll get a chance to meet again.. There is nothing like the nostalgia of good old times that can make you crave about home.


Lesson 5

Although the foreign land has all the facilities you can think of… the majestic Alps…the charming castles…Disneyland…stylish cars…trains…it doesn’t stand up to the beauty of our country. We have more people smiling in out part of the world despite the fact that we don’t have reasons enough to smile about… We have more people sharing food from the same plate despite the looming poverty…

Our country is colorful …Almost as if we try the extra bit to literarily make our life colorful...Everything looks like shades of grey out here…

The colors…the tolerance…and the spirit of our people are simply unmatchable…You learn to appreciate how good our country is when you stay outside, even though there are thousand reasons to crib about our own country. How true when Gregory David Roberts said…” In India the heart is the king.”

Addendum

I got lucky when I was given the thinking blogger award from Mishmash who in her own rights is one of the best foodie bloggers around here having a distintive style of lacing a food blog with anedcotes of little stories back home.Thanks a lot..

I would pass on this award to my obvious choice of fantastic four who might have already got this award and a few others like ..
Shruti..who blogs quite far and in between..but I love reading her philosphical insights about life..Alex who create sparkling gems from no where..and Rupa who writes some thought provoking posts...

Dedicating this song for friends out here..