Missing the Homeland
on The Ghana Experience (Ghana), 07/Aug/2010 11:10, 34 days ago
03-05 August 2010I had decided that I shall adjust to the local conditions as fast as I can and start with the routine as early as I can. I have been successful to do it to a great extent. As I have passed through the initial excitement of new people and new culture, I found that I am not successful in getting over the feeling of"I am missing my country so much." And I have spent one complete month in this country.It starts with the smallest pleasure on of having a small cup of tea at any time of the day at a nearby street side tea stall. People here do not drink tea and there are no street side tea stalls. More important than tea are the informal discussions and being friends with each other. Nobody offers tea or coffee to the guests over here and still they continue with long friendly or official talks. I amstillfinding it very strange. The other day it was raining heavily and air was very cool. In India, such situation leads to eating of piping hot freshly fried onion fritters(बाहेर मुसळधार पाऊस पडत असताना गरमागरम कांदा भजी खाण्याची मजा इंग्रजी मध्ये कितीही लिहीलं तरी समजणार नाही.ते वाक्य मला टाईप करतानाच कसंतरी वाटतंय,पण मराठी न समजणारे बरेच वाचक असल्यामुळे असं कृत्रिमपणे लिहावं लागत आहे.)I had no onions or chick pea flour tomakethemand moreover I was alone in the houseso there was no one with whom they could be shared over a chat by sitting near the window and enjoying watching the rain.I wanted to buy some thick sheet of cloth(सतरंजी)which can be used for spreading on the floor at the time of physical and yogic exercises. It is simply not there in the market because there are no cotton stuffed light mattresses used in this country so the thick cloth sheets which we put underneath those mattresses do not have any existence over here. I have been struggling to find some thing similar to it for two weeks but I have not been able to find it till date.Daily newspapers, for which we eagerly wait early in the morning even in this age of internet and television, do not reach this district place easily. In this country of 20 million people, there are only 5-6 daily newspapers and the price is just prohibitive 1 GHC (= Rs.33) per copy. All of them are printed in the small tabloid size and the content and the printing both are not good in quality. International news coverage is minimal.These are all material things but there are some of the things which are emotional and social as well.I know it is a challenge, but what I found common here is if somebody says to you, "yes, I shall meet you in the office tomorrow," one should be open for the situation where the next day you might hear, "no he is not here, I can't say when he will be back," or what you find is only the locked door and it is still the working hour of the working day. I miss the professional working environment which I used to have earlier though it was bit stressful.In India, the major plus pointwe haveis the personal relationswe develop easily.We keep many things understated, unexpressed or implicit. We do not thank a person easily for his help because I think we are all traders at heart. We know that we shall need to help somebody at some time and we want to keep those things a fair exchange. Yes this behaviour creates tensions but we like to do that. What I findherethat there isaclutter of greetings and thanks but lack of personalexpressionswhich we do it easily in India without any fuss over it.There is one thing which I am missing the most from my homeland and that is myhome. The realisation of this fact occurred to me when yesterday everybody at my home celebrated my son's second birthday and over the phone he was trying to explain me how the balloon burst but was not unable to do it over the phone. Had I been present there he could have explainediteasily and directly to me without using any medium of electrical pulses, copper wires and aerial waves in between us.