Travel
I was different too. My difference stung me when I held my toddler, standing amidst two long aisles of milk in a supermarket in Switzerland. Alone and speechless! My language, color, confidences, everything was different. I stood there statued with helpless yet angry tears rolling down my cold face. This difference gnawed me. I wanted to integrate by being myself and yet spreading among them. Perhaps this was integration in its true sense and it was the little town of Baden that pushed my seventh sense. One loses the true meaning of integration in the vastness of America if one wishes to. It isn’t necessary. It’s easy to find places of your own worship, own language, festivals and food and be completely content. Fun and friendliness have created a new kind of freedom here. The protectors of this freedom hide around unexpected corners to swoop down at their preys. If rules don’t make you give them the right of way during a chase their ear piercing sirens and their eye blinding flashy lights will. The police -they protect the 3000 miles spread over inhabited coastal areas along with the deserted midst from various storms to uphold their national bird. Not only from Katrina, Sandy and Nemo that mothers the 5 feet icicles hanging from my windows and ruthlessly tears out houses and the homeless, but also from those storms that weather machines don’t read. “Guns and Goons”- They come unwarned every now and then at nooks and corners, aiming at young and old. When I see a uniformed trooper walking around my school or just munching Chinese at the table next to mine in their Hollywood style my heart cries out for the Tollywood Home guards I left back home! I haven’t had many encounters with the Swiss police though. One doesn’t hear or see them as often as in America. They are the quiet cruising kinds compared to the fast fiery ones here but you wouldn’t want to meet either! However it’s impossible to pen down my story of a country which can be covered by my little finger on the world map to a country that even my hand cannot hide. There are striking differences because of the size but while soaring high if you occasionally stop to dive deep down, you’ll see the difference in energies.
SWISSPUJA PATRIKA 2014
Snow from window The unambiguous Alps portray the strict limits that Switzerland has with its precision, punctuality and uncompromising chocolates. From the disciplined lines children learn to make at kindergarten to the most expensive fines, wines and dines -the country stands unblemished to the common eye. America breathes the birth of Earth through the Grand Canyon and Old Faithful. The country is protected by its freedom, incomparable National parks, innumerable flying flags, extraordinary customer care, competitive markets, complicated immigration laws, paper work and signatures. Whether I would fly out of the towering, amplified America with moist eyes and a heavier heart than when I flew out of pricey, precious Switzerland or my inborn incredible India isn’t important anymore. I am humbled to be tutored to enjoy a plate of steak and cheese with violet onion rings dipped in chat masala and lemon juice!
New York trip
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