Home Alone

For the past 3 weeks, I have been "Home Alone" because my dad went to visit my sister in USA and my mom has already been there for the past one year. In the few days leading to my dad's departure to US, I surprisingly found myself a wee bit concerned. I use the word "surprising" because I am (atleast, I thought I was) used to living away from my parents during my days at Kentucky (though, I must add that I was always surrounded by friends who never made me feel home-sick).

I had always thought that the experience of managing all the little things/intricacies in life (like paying bills on time, being responsible, blah blah) in US would definitely prepare me for the small test that I was about to face living alone in India. This was the first time I was living alone in India, though. I soon realized that it was a totally different proposition. Even mundane things like depositing my dad's cheques in the bank, paying utility bills like telephone, electricity etc. requires a great deal of patience and effort in India. Little things, such as some relatives calling up from the rural areas for information about something in the city of Chennai, were usually handled by my dad. I found all this a little annoying, partly because of the effort it involved, the transportation, the heat and humidity of Chennai and basically it all boiled down to my laziness. As anybody would, I am missing my mom's cooking. When my dad used to stay with me, I used to atleast cook different dishes each weekend. Now that I am alone, I am not even bothering to cook much...Just picking up what is available and managing with any kind of leftovers. I am not even cooking every other weekend these days. As a result of staying alone, I have to find some motivation to cook, even if it were only on weekends. I don't enjoy cooking, when I know that there is no one to share the food with.

This is not to say that living alone in India is a nightmare. It does come with its own advantages too. I could come home in the dead of the night and I wouldn't have to keep my folks informed of my whereabouts, eating out every weekend, having friends stay over and basically the carte blanche to do what I please and whenever I feel so. I can watch any show that I would want without feeling guilty that others watching TV with me may not be interested in the same show.

Subscribing to the new Dish TV has been even more helpful because I am getting to watch the one passionate hobby that I developed during my days at Kentucky (watching basketball). If my folks were around, I wouldn't even think of spending so much time watching my favorite shows, sports (NBA finals, Wimbledon, NatWest Series and of late F-1 GP). Of late, I have been watching a lot of English movies (now that Home Box Office is available). In fact, I have watched lot of good movies that I missed out. All these positive things make me wonder how long I could live in this "Utopia". This "Utopia" is going to last only for another 5 - 6 weeks after which my folks would be back.

All-in-all, it's definitely a totally different experience living by myself in India when compared to living alone in the US.