30th December 2015
Its been quite a while I have
written a blog here. It has been six months since I have returned from UK. These
six months, I have been through so many new transformations, learnt so many new
lessons. I must ink them all here before I forget my old self and start
believing I was this new self always.
The first month after returning
was replete with reverse cultural shocks. I was aghast at the roads, the
garbage, the systematic absence of queues in public as if I had subconsciously
acquired a primed and polished Brit perspective on everything around.
I boarded a bus and asked the
driver for a ‘return ticket to Chandigarh!’ He stared at me, confused and speechless.
I walked confidently at zebra crossings without looking around, only to
discover midway that the cars showed no sign of slowing down and that I had to
run for life. I remember waking up in the Sarovar hotel at Delhi (where I was
for the JPAL Staff Meet in July) and proceeding to the washroom sink to fill
the kettle with water. It struck me after a lag of some seconds that this was India
and tap-water was different from drinking water!
‘Oh shit, this is India!’ I
had to remind myself multiple times.
***
Now that I compare myself with
friends went to college in Ludhiana and stayed close to home, I notice
such stark differences. It is as if I am learning so many things now that they had learnt
within the last five years only. Two skills that hostel made me lack were –
driving and cooking. I would cook at Oxford, but very rarely. Especially rarely
after Naima introduced me to the Cowley world of ‘home delivery’ at Oxford.
Cooking at Chandigarh has been
the baptism by fire. No more tortilla wraps, it’s a world with real rotis.
Rotis made by kneading the dough first, spherical dough balls next, rolled onto
the rolling pin and then heated on the tawa and made to inflate with a skilful
art. It’s a hell of a roller coaster ride every time. The daal. The subzi. The
Baingan Bhartha. The Aloo Gobi. Aarrgh! I have started to respect every single
dish after being through the ordeal behind it. Quite naturally, I have started
adoring my mother in a new way after being introduced to this new world.
Somehow, I always took the breakfast, the lunch and dinner at home for granted.
It was there because it was meant to be there. Now I know what it took mama to prepare
that final good from the raw material she gets from the vegetable vendor on the
roadside every time.
And then I have finally learnt
to drive. It has been two weeks and I have driven to office by my car. It has
been such an empowering feeling. Once I drove half way from Ludhiana to Delhi
on the highway. Papa sprung up with joy. I am learning to shoulder
responsibility and adoring Papa in new ways.
Mama papa say I have lived in
an idealistic world till now. I have been a revolutionary, dictating how things
should be! Papa has always encouraged and supported my passions. Now it feels
like I am making inroads into the real world. My ideals often bump into
practical constraints. My super-objective and sanitised Oxford self runs into
trouble multiple times. I have to remind myself that I am not surrounded by
economists afterall. These are lay men and women who get all astonished when I
make cursory mentions of behavioural nuances I observe at play – anchor effects
and bandwagon effects. They think I am throwing words around. Or probably think
I am mad to think of simple real world phenomenon in such complex terms. It
gets hilarious at times.
The new job at JPAL has been a
blessing. It is challenging my axiomatic notions about the world, attacking my idealistic notions and hinting the dawn of new
opportunities and responsibilities. I am right on the ground, close enough to
people I have always wanted to study, and feeling their pulse. More on my diverse
first job experiences soon.
