Relocating & adjusting to life in India again ... PART 5

All along through my returning to India and restarting life afresh, I was trying hard to only look at the positives and not pay too much attention to the negatives. However, there comes a point when patience, & good faith lead to anger & outrage … and I had my tipping point about 2 weeks back. I was furious and royally pissed off – and sadly, a couple who had R2I’d (Returned 2 India) around the same time as I had, had to bear the brunt of my ranting.

[NOTE : If you are eating or planning to do something pleasant, reading this post now is a bad idea K … please excuse the repulsive verbiage]

Contributing factors to my rage were aplenty – however inefficiency & reckless disdain from my fellow Indians were substantial factors. Here is a sample - On the last trip to Chennai, I was travelling by an AC Volvo bus (something I totally loved till this trip) that was stinking because the a’holes that ran the travels thought that it wasn't necessary to "clean" the bus during the rainy season - gee how thoughtful. I reached Chennai, landed at the bus terminus only to find that there was stagnant rainwater everywhere. Adding to this spectacular sight, I saw people urinating in the stagnant pools at the corners of the road … which found its way to the mainstream stagnation. Adding to the delight, a couple of extremely hygiene conscious retards spit in the same (mainstream) stagnant pool that they were wading through. I was very tempted to get into the shoes of “Vallarasu Vijaykanth”(the Indian cousin of Chuck Norris / Steven Seagal) and beat the fucking crap out of the three filthy douchebags. The only place free of stagnation was the median separating the traffic on either side. So I was actually walking on a one feet wide median with huge ass Volvo buses and trucks on both sides honking with maniacal fervor. Oh and did I mention – we separated by a safe distance of less than one feet – so realistically, if I lost balance or just extended my hand – I would actually lose it. (This is a very common sight in India and I don't know what really ticked me this particular day ... the initial thrill of R2I experience had vanished perhaps??? )

One Awesome pool I managed to click

After witnessing the spectacle mentioned above, I did not get out of home the whole of next day and was bored out of brains.  Boredom got the better of me and I decided to venture out into the filthy paradise. Surprisingly, the roads were fairly dry. I was actually a bit pleased not being aware of the next surprise in store. Most of the roads were reduced to their raw materials – the thing that keeps the stones and mud and other stuff together was all gone. With the passage of every vehicle there was a huge cloud of trailing dust and a ride in a car/ bus / auto felt like a rough boat ride.

A pic from Hindu News Paper - online edition

I can think of two things – as soon as I had returned to India there was a meet of other folks who had returned to India as well. There was one experienced wise guy in the group who mentioned just this – “India during the summer and India during the rains are two different places – so wait for the rains.” I totally understand what he meant. The other thing – I grew up here and this is not new to me. I was fully mentally prepared to see the filth and dirt and nastiness that I elaborated about. But honestly experiencing it is a different league as opposed to being prepared and anticipating it. With this, I stop my rantings for the day.