Settling Down

On my last day at work in India, a friend asked me what I would miss the most about India. I didn't really know the answer then. I don't know it now. Because there isn't anything that I'm actually missing. My husband said that he generally feels homesick for a couple of days each time he comes here. His brother said that, in his case, it's generally a couple of weeks. I was prepared for that. But I guess it makes a lot of difference whether you come here all by yourself, or with your husband. I think that helped a lot, coupled with the fact that Jatin and I had already developed a pretty good rapport, even before we got married.

It's sometimes strange, adjusting to the little cultural changes. One lady here asked us if we got married here or in India. When we told her, she asked if the celebration was a month long. That's how some people perceive our culture. I guess that does still happen in some parts of the country, but certainly not in the bigger cities.

When we went to get our marriage registered in India, we had to wait a couple of hours at the court. And it seemed pretty normal. This weekend, we went to the bank here. The lady told us that they had new software which she was not familiar with, because of which things took some fifteen minutes extra. She apologised for that a number of times over.

Over here it's mandatory for manufacturers to print nutritional information about every food item on the package. I've already become accustomed to checking fat and sodium content on everything I buy, and everything I eat. It's a good thing. Okay, there are exceptions to the rule, like when I tried out my first doughnut at Dunkin' Donuts. For the uninitiated, that's a doughnut and coffee shop you find at about every half mile or so here.

There's a gym in the apartment complex where we live, and we do have a membership, but the weather is so pleasant (when it's not raining) and there's no dust and pollution, so I like walking or jogging in the courtyard. In Delhi, I could never really walk in the open because of the heat and dust, so I would stick to the gym routine. I guess I will need to revert to that when it's winter here, because then it will be too cold for me to walk out in the open.

In Delhi, I would sometimes find the drive home from work more tiring than work. Here, driving is so peaceful and a lot of the roads are so scenic that driving would actually relax me. Although I'll find that out for myself once I get my US license and start driving here.

I came home to an empty apartment, and we were sleeping on an air mattress for about a week until the bedroom stuff was delivered. It didn't really feel strange, but it feels a lot more like home now, with the bed and the couch in place.

Jatin tells me that it doesn't really seem like I've come here from a different country. It seems like I've always been living here. One of his friends, whom we met over dinner on Saturday, also said the same thing. That's how it feels.