The first homecoming

When I moved to Budapest, I wrote an article on a few things I noticed in the early stages of my time in the city. Now that my first semester has finished, I'm back in New Delhi for a month. There were a number of lifestyle changes I had to make in order to adjust to life in Budapest. I never thought I would have to make a similar number of adjustments when I would return to Delhi for vacations. In the last 1 week, I have had to make a bunch of adjustments all over again. So I thought I should write about them too.

If you've ever studied away from home, you might connect with some of them. There might be some that are exclusive to me only. Do feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

So this is the list of things that you have to get used to all over again once you've been abroad and you come back to Delhi. Some of them are good, some of them are bad.

10 things you realise once you're back in Delhi after a significant time abroad:

1. The cars won't stop for you when you need to cross the road. You need to wait for the car to pass and then cross the road. Over the last few months I got used to cars stopping on the street for me to cross if there wasn't a signal for pedestrians to cross. Signals to cross the road and the culture of automobile drivers stopping for pedestrians are extremely rare instances in Delhi.
2. When you go for any administrative work, you need to take copies of relevant documents with you. The place will not make the copies for you if you have the original. This also means that you need to carry your passport sized photograph for everything. Even when you're getting yourself a gym membership! 
3. You have a car. You don't have to look for public transport. This also means that you need to remember how to drive in Delhi which includes remembering that lane driving and following the traffic rules are myths at worst and mere suggestions at best. 
4. When people make a plan to meet at 8 pm, it means 9 pm and not 8! Maybe 8:30 but it's still a dicey call. Most likely it's 9 only. Thanks to my Dutch and German friends I got used to being on time for meetings. At times my Portuguese friends did remind me of home though. They have a tendency of being late like us as well. Nevertheless, it took getting stood up for a substantial amount of time on a couple of occasions to realise this was India and not Europe. 
5. Midnight is when you stop partying. It is NOT the time when you start. 
6. You have a TV with Cable!!!! And it has CRICKET on it!!! Cricket is definitely something I've missed a lot during the semester. The best part is, India Vs Australia ODI series (please google Cricket if you're from the non-cricketing part of earth) has just started as well. So I'm going to sit in my couch, munch on a bunch of spicy chips and watch cricket all day long!!! And another thing I love about India, Lay's has a flavour called Magic Masala. Trust me when I say this: Magic Masala might be one of the major reasons for me to come back and settle in India (if and when I do). 
7. Liquor is expensive. Drink wisely. This strikes you when you go out to drink with your friends for the first time and you pay €3 (225 INR) for a pint of Millers and when the bill comes your friends go like "Wow!! Not bad. Pretty cheap". Deep inside, you're like "I could've had 2 large Soproni for this!!"
8. You don't have to tell the waiter to make your food spicy. This is India. If you say that, you'll be sitting on the water closet for the next 2 days!! This also includes the realisation that you have so much variety of food that you don't know where to start and where to finish. The number of dishes and delicacies are sooo huge that you have to make a list and prioritise and get on them right away. 
9. You don't have temperature control indoors. In Budapest, I got used to taking off my jacket once I got indoors. Budapest boasts of temperatures on the negative side of the celsius scale around this time of the year. Fortunately, this is not the case in Delhi but you've got to keep your sweatshirt on since there's no temperature difference as you go indoors. Although the happy part of this realisation is that all you need is a sweatshirt. The temperature is 20°C and above during the day and drops down to around 10-11 °C at night. So it's pretty manageable. 
10. You have an amazing bunch of family and friends that love you a lot. Your mom wakes you up with a bunch of kisses and hugs. Your dad keeps asking you if you need money for shopping and going out. Your elder sister buys you expensive clothes. Your friends give you loads of attention when you meet them. It's the first time that I've been away from my people for a long time and even though I've never really shown it and acted really cool about it, I have missed all of them a lot. 

The last 6 months of my life have been the most interesting times of my life. One of the most important realisations for me over the past few months have been this: As I open myself and take a new path in life, not knowing where it will lead, I must always remember where I came from. I'm blessed to have a beautiful past and as my past shapes my future, I can only hope for an equally beautiful time ahead.